The Three Highly Underappreciated Wisemen

As I started reading Matthew something stuck out at me that never had before. The role of the three wise men/magi seems minor, especially once compared to other characters in the story. Yet, it becomes apparent to me that these 3 men were incredible figures. They left their home which was a great distance away just to follow a star because they believed it was a symbol of their coming king. Just convincing yourself to go on such a trip must be impossibly hard, but actually fulfilling the trip is even harder. Especially since you must consider that the star didn’t stay in one place… it kept moving. So there had to be a large period of time when they were making no ground up or even possibly losing ground which we would consider unbearable. Working so hard all day just because you believe in something but for a long time it looks like you are just standing still or falling farther and farther behind. It is also important to remember that they weren’t just like walking down a street as we know it today or even just going for a stroll through the woods. Instead they had dirt paths at best and most likely a lot of, for lack of a better word, luggage that they and their servants carried. So with all these things in mind it is easy to understand why the author says in Matt. 2.10 “When they saw that the star had stopped , they were overwhelmed with joy.” I would be pretty excited too after traveling for months or years towards a target that never gets any closer with very heavy equipment and probably not always the best place to stay and walking shoes that are far from our modern day Nike and Reebok and all of a sudden your faith gets rewarded by the star finally resting in one position. I would probably break down and cry just because I’d be so excited. Once there, all these three men did was give gifts to a baby who probably couldn’t have even realized what they were or were used for and then they got on their way back. Oh but there’s a catch it’s not like they can take some magic portal and he back in their beds at home…. They have to walk all that way back. But even more than that they can’t even go home the way that they came, instead they have to take some random and obscure road because they had this weird dream that told them not to go back to Herod. So what’s the point in this story. Well it’s the seemingly immeasurable lengths these three men were willing to go just to get a glimpse of the Messiah, even in infant form, and to lay a gift at his feet. It seems kind of funny that they can walk for miles and miles, days and days, to give their offering and they do it happily and we many times write a check or take a twenty out of our wallet as the collection plate passes just so the people next to us don’t look at us funny. So even when it’s not Christmas and I am giving tithes and offerings I will try to think of these three wise men and their generosity and there incredible faith.