Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-243 (Topical Sermon)

OF STARS AND STABLES Matthew 2:1-12

by Rod Benson

Christmas is traditionally a festive time of year, with parties and family gatherings, gift-giving, and even sentimental connections made with friends.

Yet mental health experts tell us that it is also among the saddest times of the year. Separation, loneliness, the memory of past trauma, and loss of loved ones are pointed reminders that everyone does not enjoy the holiday spirit.

This year some will celebrate Christmas with extended family, roast dinner and gifts. For others, it will be celebrated privately in the believer’s heart in the solitude of a prison cell.

Christians in China, Saudi Arabia, … and other hostile regions will meet in underground fellowships, risking harassment, beatings, honour killings and imprisonment.

Christians in war-torn regions will celebrate Christmas grieving for lost loved ones. The majority of believers will celebrate Christmas in abject poverty.

In Bethlehem, the centre of the nativity events some 2000 years ago, Christmas is on-again off-again as Israeli and Palestinian forces clash over disputed territories in the West Bank and Gaza [Dec 2000].

LET’S GO ON A JOURNEY

This morning, come with me away from the glaring television lights in Manger Square, away from the madding tourist crowds, and away from the sharp crack of snipers and mortar fire, to the quiet, provincial Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

Matthew records that, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Magi (wise men) from the east came to King Herod asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him” (Mt 2:1-2).

Herod was terrified at this potential claimant to his throne, and interviewed the Magi, discovering from them “the exact time the star had appeared” (v 7) – in order to ascertain how old the child was so he could eliminate him.

Matthew further notes that “after they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route” (vv 9-12).

MAKING SENSE OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY

Now people who don’t want to believe the Bible often look for assumed fabrications and apparent falsehoods, and the more sophisticated sceptics particularly attack the Gospel narratives to undermine the details of Jesus’ life.

The birth narrative is a favourite for such people. How could God become a man? How could Mary conceive without sexual intercourse?

Why should Persian astrologers receive prior notice of the Jewish Messiah’s birth? What Persian wise men would come to honour the birth of a Jewish peasant unknown to the local king? How could a star guide them to Israel, and then to a particular house in the inconspicuous village of Bethlehem?

It is even argued that the story told in Mt 2:1-12 was composed by Matthew out of such Old Testament texts as Ps 72:10-11, Isa 60:1-11 and the visit of the Queen of Sheba bearing gifts from Arabia for Solomon (1 Kg 10).

Christian tradition – especially art – tends to locate the visit of the shepherds and the Magi on the same night (presumably the actual night of Jesus’ birth). But Matthew says nothing about shepherds, and Luke nothing about wise men.

Only the shepherds are linked with the manger (Lk 2:15f). The traditional “inn” probably referred to the guest room of a house in Bethlehem. The notion of Mary and Joseph being excluded from civilized accommodation and taking up residence in a stable or cave outside Bethlehem is probably based on a misunderstanding of the text.

In modest abodes, people and animals slept in the same large room, with the people on a raised dais. Mary and Joseph probably stayed with family. Due to the census the guest room may already have been occupied, so they used the main room, laying the baby Jesus in the stone manger near the animals.

The Magi could have arrived any time during Jesus’ first two years, but probably visited within two months of his birth, as we shall see.

The tradition that the Magi were kings did not arise until the sixth century AD, but Magi were known in Persia from at least the sixth century BC. They were priests who specialised in interpreting astronomical and other signs.

After Alexander the Great exported Greek culture throughout the known world (in a process known as Hellenisation) some Magi left Babylon and travelled to neighbouring countries to teach and practise their craft. In those days astronomy and astrology were one core educational and cultural subject.

It was not uncommon for such Magi to visit kings and emperors. For example, Tridates, King of Armenia, led a procession of Magi to pay homage to Nero at Rome in AD 66. Therefore Matthew’s readers would probably not have thought it strange for Magi to come to Jerusalem seeking the King of the Jews.

But what about the star that guided the Magi? Matthew notes that it was newly appeared (v 7), that it travelled slowly through the sky against the star background (vv 2, 9), and that it stood or stopped over Bethlehem (v 9).

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

The most popular theory is that the star of Bethlehem refers to a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC (the first six planets were known in antiquity).

This theory dates to the eighth century astronomer/astrologer Masha’allah, but fails to account for Matthew’s description of a single star, at a specific time, that “stopped over” Bethlehem.

A second theory, proposed in 1729 by Foucquet, is that the star was a nova or supernova (an exploding star). This accounts for everything except the movement across the star background mentioned by Matthew.

So – what resembles a star but moves across the sky? A comet. These can be extremely bright and visible to the naked eye for weeks or even months. Visible comets usually move across the star background at about one or two degrees per day relative to the earth.

Depending on their orbit relative to the Earth, they may be seen twice, once on their way to perihelion (the point in their orbit closest to the sun), and again on their way out.

One of my highlights of 1986 was viewing Halley’s comet. Do you remember seeing it? When describing this comet’s fly-past in 12 BC, Dio Cassius wrote, “the star called comet stood for several days over [Rome].” Josephus, the great Jewish historian, writes that “a star, resembling a sword, stood over [Jerusalem],” probably referring to the comet of AD 64 mentioned by Tacitus.

Comets were frequently described in ancient literature as swords because of their upward tails (gas blown from the comet’s icy core away from the sun by solar winds).

When Matthew says, “the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was” (v 9), we can imagine a large bright comet in front of the Magi as they travelled the ten kilometres from Jerusalem south to Bethlehem, with its tail nearly vertical, and its head appearing to stand over Bethlehem, indicating by divine orchestration exactly where the one born king of the Jews was to be found.

In Ad 1303, two years after Halley’s comet made it regular visit to our part of the solar system, Giotto painted a nativity scene in a fresco in the Arena Chapel in Padua. Above the head of the infant Jesus you can clearly see a comet.

Which comet was the star of Bethlehem? We cannot be absolutely certain, but ancient Chinese astronomical records note three possible comets arriving in 12 BC, 5 BC and 4 BC.

Historical and biblical evidence rule out the first and last of these, leaving the comet referred to in the Chinese Han shu (the official history of the Han dynasty), which appeared in the sky for more than 70 days – sufficient time for Magi on camels to travel from Persia to Jerusalem.

If this is correct, and the Magi came to Bethlehem within two months of Jesus’ birth, he was probably born between March 9 and April 6, 5 BC.

SEEKING JESUS

Why did Matthew include the story of the Magi? Ben Witherington III suggests the story was probably written “to show how wise men, even Gentile wise men, sought Jesus out, while a Jewish king who should have known the OT prophecies neither personally sought out nor properly honoured the new son of David.”

At the recent Aria awards [Australia, 2000], multi-award winner Kasey Chambers performed her new song, which has a clear Christian message: “I still cry for baby Jesus because he died to save my soul.”

Why did her song not jar the postmodern ambience of the Arias – a distinctly anti-Christian environment? Because it reflected personal experience. To make the changes we need to make in life, we accept the truth, and we make it personal. One or the other alone is insufficient.

History, astronomy and logic all affirm the biblical testimony of the birth of Jesus Christ. But until you make it personal, the name of Jesus is just one name among thousands in history.

When you ask, “Would it matter to my life if he had not been born?” or “How does my destiny relate to his birth?” or “What has Jesus done for me?” the story of Christmas assumes personal proportions.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem to bring spiritual light to our darkness (Jn 8:12), “to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Lk 1:79b), and to save us from our sins (Mt 1:21; cf Jn 3:17). Does it all matter? Yes, it does.

Say “Yes” to God this Christmas Eve, and celebrate the birth of his Son tomorrow with new life. Recommit your life to Jesus right now, and wake tomorrow with special gratitude in your heart for God’s greatest gift.

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E109 Copyright (c) 2002 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).

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