Why did pagan sorcerers get to witness the incarnation?

I was recently flipping through Bible Society’s new carol booklet, Come and Sing the Christmas Story, and found ‘We Three Kings’, a well-known carol by John H Hopkins Jr. The first thing I realised is that I’ve been getting some of the words wrong for years.

After that, I started to think about how we, as people who love Jesus, tend to like the picture this song paints: three majestic kings travelling for months to mark the occasion of our saviour’s birth. We know from reading this story in Matthew 2, however, that these ‘kings’ weren’t necessarily three or from the Orient. Were they even actual kings?

Matthew (the only Gospel writer to tell this story) calls them ‘Magi’, meaning sorcerers or astrologers. So, instead of being kings themselves, they were probably consultants to kings. Magi (like the ones we read about in Daniel) would study the stars and then advise rulers based on what they had seen.

It’s not offensive to think about royalty visiting the newly born Messiah, but why should sorcerers have been given the privilege? Divination is strictly prohibited in Jewish law (see Deuteronomy 18.10). Wouldn’t the presence of these diviners have cast a shadow over the greatest moment in history?

But Matthew had a good idea. By including this story in his Gospel, he relayed Mary’s memory of Jesus’ birth in a way that drew attention to one of Isaiah’s messianic prophecies:

‘Then you will look and be radiant,
       your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
       to you the riches of the nations will come.
Herds of camels will cover your land,
       young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
       bearing gold and incense
       and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you,
       the rams of Nebaioth will serve you;
they will be accepted as offerings on my altar,
       and I will adorn my glorious temple.’

(Isaiah 60.5–7, NIV)

By noting that the Magi gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, Matthew points his readers back to this prophecy saying, ‘Look, it’s happened!’ The riches of the nations, gold and incense, were brought to Jesus, the ‘glorious temple’ (verse 7). Jesus is the heavenly temple because when he came in human form, he became the place where heaven and earth meet, the mediator between God and man. In him, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled.

The story of the Magi is also an epic foreshadowing because Jesus’ ministry, while first to Israel, would ultimately be to all nations. From the moment of his birth, he drew all kinds of people to himself, and they were responding to the call. The Magi had the privilege of witnessing the incarnation, not because they loved God or obeyed the Torah, but because they said ‘yes’ to Jesus.

Matthew’s Magi story should remind us of the inclusive nature of the Kingdom. God’s family isn’t made up of people from a certain geographical area or family lineage, but anyone who says yes to the will of God, which has been revealed in his son, Jesus.

You can sing about the Magi’s joyful response to Jesus (and get the words right) using Bible Society’s brand-new carol booklet, Come and Sing the Christmas Story.

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