TS Eliot wrote one of my favorite Christmas poems many years ago entitled, ‘Journey of the Magi.’ Written from the perspective of one of the Magi, it contains a very reflective perspective on the travels to find the Christ child and the results of that meeting.
A cold coming we had of it.
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
The Magi’s perspective is one of years and probably decades looking back at their hard journey, full of doubt and uncertainty and wondering if their journey was worth all the trouble. Their encounter with the Christ Child raises questions about the meaning of birth, death, and life. They find themselves changed by the experience and they realize it when they return to their own nation, their own homes, their own people and it is no longer the same as it once was.
Now this poem is not the Gospel, I make that clear this morning. Yet, as I remember, Christianity was an influence on Eliot, although I do not recall to what extent. But as I reflect on both the poem and our main text for this morning, it leads me to ask the question, ‘Why did the Magi seek out Jesus?’
Matthew is the only gospel writer to write of their long journey from the east and their story is interesting. In fact, I find it to be one of the more interesting parts of the Christmas story for one reason: They are like so many of us. They are on a search for what is true and what is real. They are seeking a new experience that might satisfy their need for new knowledge. Or love, or truth, or who knows what else.
Their connection to the Christmas story is their passion, the pursuit of a new King, a new leader, because they have ‘seen his star in the east and they have come to worship Him.’ Therefore, because they are wise men, and they have this passion, this passion for expanding their base of knowledge and experience, they go off in pursuit of this new Jewish King.
Another translation of their identity in verse 1 is ‘astrologers.’ For many of us today, that term conjures up images of horoscopes, palm readers, Tarot cards, and other such things. And this could be true.
However, let us think for a moment about Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abenigo. From their story, we learn that ‘astrologers’ were not necessarily people like ‘Madam So and So’ who has a place down on ‘Such and Such Street’ who for a price will tell your future by reading your palm or using Tarot cards. They were learned men. They were scholars. They were the ‘intelligentsia’ (the brains) of their day.
Most likely, they studied other cultures and were acquainted with Jewish traditions and faith. They also represent us because they represent all of the people who had yet to hear of the Good News that would come from the life and death and resurrection of the Baby Jesus.
Over the years, we have believed only three who came to see and worship Jesus due to the mention of the three gifts. But we do not know how many were present.
Yet here they are, pulling up to where the baby Jesus was living at that point, in all of their royalty and splendor. They are on a search for another king, this one ‘The King of the Jews.’
I wish the Bible had told us more about them so that we could have understood what made them travel probably a thousand miles over perhaps a year. But, the Bible is not about them, it is about the one they came to see – Jesus.
They found Him and they worshipped Him. What, however, did they think about Him? What did they believe about Him? Did they believe that He was the Messiah, the chosen one?
As we continue to read their story into chapter 2, we notice that they are warned in a dream from God to return by another route because their honor and their protocol would have required them to speak with Herod on the return trip home. So perhaps, they were convinced that they had encountered the Messiah and now they were in a dangerous spot. And they were in a dangerous spot because they knew just enough about where Jesus was to put Jesus in danger. (As we read about later in chapter 2)
Truth puts us in a dangerous spot sometimes. It reveals the ‘dark side’ (to quote a memorable movie phrase) of our existence and forces us to make a choice between continuing in that place and coming into the light.
The other thing about the Magi that intrigues me is that their encounter with the Christ child left them joyful and excited. But, what else did it do to them? Did it make them, in Eliot’s words, “no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,/With an alien people clutching their gods?” In other words, did their own lives change to such an extent that their old beliefs no longer held any hope or satisfaction to them?
This again brings me back to us. For like the Wise Men, we have encountered Jesus through church, through Sunday School, through conversations with others, through other sources. However, were the expectations we brought to those encounters, met or not?
The Magi were on a search for more knowledge as they sought to find the ‘King of the Jews.’ But, the joy and excitement that we read of in their encounter leads me to wonder if they got more than they bargained for.
How has your encounters with Jesus left you?
This past week I read from the pen of Debra Grant a wonderful insight into Isaiah 11:1-2 that speaks of a new shoot, a new branch coming out of the dead wood of Israel. She spoke about the power she felt when pruning her trees and bushes. There is something about the power of those razor-edged jaws… Something about taking out what does not belong, what is interfering with proper growth, what is dead, so the tree can thrive on the life juices flowing through it.’
She also admitted that she had lost two bushes and a tree in her pruning endeavors! Yet then she says this, ‘But more than once I have been awed by green shoots reaching up from long-dead stumps that had been the victims of my pruning shears.’
The gifts that the Magi gave Jesus were expensive gifts worthy of royalty. They cost the giver something.
The greatest Christmas gift is the gift of forgiveness because it cost the life of the Christ child to make forgiveness and therefore salvation possible. Christmas is more than good gifts. It is more than holiday celebrations. It is more than shopping in crowded stores.
Christmas is about new life. A new life that springs out of the dead wood of broken dreams, bitterness and resentment. New life that comes streaming into the light of love, the love of God, and out of the disappointments and sorrows that sin creates in our lives.
That’s why we are so much like the Magi. We are in search of truth and love and life. But it is only found in the Child, the ‘word made flesh,’ Jesus Christ.
This puts us in a dangerous spot between belief and unbelief, commitment and rejection, and forgiveness and unforgiveness. Where do you find yourself in relation to the Christ child this holiday season?
In a moment, we are going to have communion. And communion gives me perspective on Christmas and the love of a Father for His best creation.
We remember God’s love and forgiveness when we have communion. But we also make this a time to experience God’s forgiveness as we confess our sins and shortcomings to the Lord and commit (or re-commit) our way to Him.
My prayer and hope for this morning is that either today or some time this Christmas season, all of us will have moments of either renewal of or initial commitment to the Lord. Why? Because that is why Jesus came to earth as a baby – to give us the gift of forgiveness, the gift of a second chance. Amen.
Sources: ‘Journey of the Magi,’ by TS Eliot. from The Complete Poems and Plays – 1909-1950. © 1971
‘New Shoots’ in The Jesse Tree by Debra Grant. © Creative Communications for the Parish, 2002.
