What would compel a king to leave his kingdom; to leave his leadership in other hands while he followed a star? And what is the probability that three different kings ruling different kingdoms each saw a star and were called to follow it at the same time in history?
There was something mysterious happening and we learn during their journey that God was the source of that mystery. Their call was an adventure that involved great difficulty and danger. In many ways mirroring the experience of the Holy Family.
The immediate realization of the Magi was that with the birth of this special child in a manger the world had changed. Their wisdom allowed them to intuitively know God had now entered their world.
It was clear their physical difficulty was overshadowed by their spiritual difficulty, their old way of seeing the world had died. It would be their role as leaders of their kingdoms to explain that death and illuminate the new life that was born with Jesus.
Difficult as it was, there was happiness in the death of the old way and great joy in the birth of the new world God had entered.
Nearly a century ago T.S. Eliot wrote the poem, “The Journey of the Magi” from the point of one of the magi. The closing stanza synthesizes the epiphany.
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.
Their God found, but danger still present, all three Magi had been sent a dream by God to ignore Herod’s deceptive request and return to their kingdoms by a new route.
The Magi who went back to their lands were different kings than those who had left to follow the star. And our world, the world that God entered with Jesus’ birth has been different ever since. Again, this Christmas season we celebrate the joy of that first Epiphany, of God entering our world.