Wise men

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2:1-3)

Once we start our new year, in Church, we remember the coming of the wise men, the Magi, or star gazers who saw a change in the heavens and understood it to have spiritual meaning. They set off on a long journey to discover what it meant. It is the first time non-Jewish people come into the Christian story. I like seeing the bumper sticker in cars “Wise men still seek Jesus”

However the story of the wise men has a villain – King Herod the Great. Whose character is shaped by stronger forces around him. Emperor Augustus ruled the Roman Empire and God caused him to want to tax everyone in order to move the insignificant Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to the prophesied town of Bethlehem, Herod was merely one of Augustus’ “puppet” rulers who was useful in the Empire as a buffer for the Emperor dealing with the detail of ruling his smaller part, but totally dependent on Augustus for his power.

Herod was half Jewish and half Arabian, being made governor of Galilee aged 16, and Mark Anthony made Herod “Tetrarch of Galilee” after he proved able to pick his way through the minefield of imperial politics after the assassination of Julius Ceasar. So Herod ruled because the Roman Army backed him, and Herod tried to prove himself to the Jewish people by grandiose building projects. His ten marriages didn’t help with how the Jews saw him (interestingly his first wife was named “Doris”. Make a note for next year’s nativity play!)

Towards the end of his life, he had an extremely unpleasant gangrenous disease and became paranoid – trying to influence the future succession he had two of his sons executed.

It was into this unstable situation that the wise men blundered with their request to find the “King of the Jews”. We know the story – how the wise men found Jesus, and how Herod had all the little boys of Bethlehem murdered in his attempt to stop the future King from coming to the throne. There is a dangerous side to the Christmas story. Not the expected nativity scene, but a violent destruction as the world fights against the arrival of the Saviour. Perhaps a healthy reality check as we realise our Saviour was born into the real world of politics and violence, as well as children suffering from poverty and abuse.

Jesus came to save the world from all the ills we see in the news each day. God is deeply affected by human pain and inhumanity; He feels injustice much more than we do. And He did something, He came to earth to bear our suffering, to win a way through. In sharing our suffering, and dying for us, He began an intervention that leads, slowly and inexorably to the promised time where there will be no more tears or death.

There were tears because of that first Christmas, all those babies murdered by Herod, as some kind of evil response to God’s act of love. It should reinforce in us all our efforts to safeguard the vulnerable of our society. Christmas is not supposed to be a time when we pretend that all is well with the world for a few days. We should never let the celebration drown the sound of the mothers crying for their children. Christmas has a purpose – the arrival of a much-needed Saviour of the world.

21 Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Revelation 21:1-4)

Brian Leathers December 2025