by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
On Christmas Day, the Gospel Reading acknowledges the Magi—wise men—who followed a star in the East to find and worship the newborn Jesus. For some reason, these Magi seem to know the importance of this new child…that He is worthy of their worship. Since they were from Babylon (what we now know as Iraq), and thus, probably belonged to the Zoroastrian religion, how would they know about the King of kings? Why would they believe He was deserving of their worship? It very likely all goes back to the story of Daniel & the Three Holy Youths (Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego).
The Three Holy Youths and Daniel lived about 600 years before Christ. They lived during a time when Israel had become particularly disobedient to God… and so, God allowed Jerusalem to be overtaken in battle by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Some of the Jews were captured (as prisoners-of-war) and were made into slaves at the hands of the Babylonians. When prisoners were from a noble pedigree and had education, character and refinement, they were always taken to the royal court and trained as royal servants for the king. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego had just such a background, and so, were put into this setting, where they would be tested many times and given the opportunity to stand as living testimony to God’s faithfulness and power.
One such testing was when King Nebuchadnezzar built a ninety-foot-tall golden statue of himself, depicting himself as a god. Nebuchadnezzar demanded that all of his subjects must bow down in worship to the golden statue. He decreed that if anyone refused to bow to his image, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. The bible tells us that while everyone bowed down low out of fear for their lives, only Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego stood tall, saying that they had confidence that their God could deliver them from the fire if He so wished. This impertinence sent such a rage through Nebuchadnezzar, that he commanded that the fire of the furnace be heated seven times hotter that it was usually heated. The king then ordered that Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego should be bound by his royal guards and cast into the furnace. When the king’s royal thugs pushed the Three Holy Youths into the flames, the furnace was so hot that it immediately killed the king’s mighty who pushed them in. But, as the three bound men, Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, stumbled forth into the furnace, they remained miraculously unharmed. As the king rubbed his eyes in astonishment, he also saw a fourth angelic looking Man among them and these four remained together in the furnace, unbound, walking around in it as if it were merely a cool, dewy breeze. So, King Nebuchadnezzar called for them to come out of the fire to be examined by the people of the royal court. As all of these aristocrats gathered around the Three Holy Youths, they noticed that not only were their bodies unharmed, but their hair was unsinged, their clothing was kept safe and there wasn’t even the smell of smoke upon them. So, the King declared that theirs was truly the God of gods, because no other god could do such a thing. Then Nebuchadnezzar promoted the three into higher positions of trust, among his Magi—his advisors. The Church’s hymnology suggests that in that fire, they foreshadowed the Virgin Theotokos’ giving of birth to Christ…where she received the Fire of God’s Son within her womb, and yet she was not burned. These Three Holy Youths also prefigure each of us, every time we come to the chalice to partake of the holy fire of Christ’s Body and Blood and every time we bear Him forth into the world with our actions of mercy and words of His Good News.
Daniel the Prophet also stands forth as living testimony to God’s faithfulness and power. But, here’s how he connects to our Christmas story. Most have heard of the story of “Daniel in the Lion’s Den.” That’s the very same Daniel we’re talking about here. After correctly interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, the king then regarded Daniel as wiser than any of his wise men…promoting Daniel to have authority over all his royal Magi—Wise Men.
The Magi were a line of political strategists who studied wisdom, prophecies and the stars in the sky. They were both feared and respected for their insights as very high-ranking royal advisors. Eventually, through history, the Magi came to be regarded most famously in politics as kingmakers.
So, it’s logical to conclude that since Nebuchadnezzar put Daniel and his friends in positions of authority over the Magi, Daniel lost no time at all in utilizing their considerable influence upon the rest of the wise men. Consequently, Daniel must have filled the Royal Babylonian Library with a generous collection of all of his beloved Hebrew Scriptures. As head of the Magi, he would have insured that the rest of the Babylonian Magi were educated in the Jewish prophesies regarding the King-to-come—the most important King who would ever live—the coming Messiah. The Old Testament scriptures are full of prophecies about the birth and life and death of Christ who would follow some 600 years later. Thus, beginning 600 years before Jesus was born, the Magi were made intimately aware of God’s prophetic plan for the coming King of kings.
So, when the time was right, 600 years later, the descendants of Daniel’s Magi followed a certain prophesied star…a star that they knew would lead them to the greatest King of all time. “And a Star shall rise out of Jacob, and a Man shall rise out of Israel. He shall smash the head of Moab (who enticed Israel into sin), and lay waste all the children of agitation” (Numbers 24:17). When these Magi—Wise Men—got to that place in Bethlehem, the Bible says they worshipped our Lord. They knew from the prophesies left to them by Daniel that this was more than just an earthly king. They saw the Messiah (God’s Anointed), who had been predicted and taught-about from the days of Daniel. These Magi were God-seeking non-Jews who discovered the great Truth which Daniel had trained his wise men to recognize 600 years earlier.
Imagine how far ahead God set this plan in place, to arrange for non-Jews to eventually be among the first people in the world to recognize the arrival of the King of kings. It’s truly awe-inspiring to realize how God manages history, and even at times utilizes our disobedience to fulfill His will. History is God’s story…a story of how He continually works to bring His people to salvation in Him. Two thousand, six hundred years ago our Lord saw a faithful young man named Daniel, and by allowing the holy city of Jerusalem to become defeated in war, He set things in motion for Daniel to be captured as a prisoner of war. In this way, God thoughtfully put Daniel into a place (as a slave) to influence some men who would, six hundred years later arrive in perfect timing to offer worship to a young Christ-child. And just to make sure that nobody missed the point that Christ is the King of kings, God had the most famous kingmakers in the world come and bow down at His feet. These Magi (now saints, mentioned by name in our Church’s Tradition—Melchior, Gaspar, & Balthasar) were there to worship Christ as the King of kings. And if Israel would not acknowledge Christ as King, then God would send a bunch of non-Jewish kingmakers all the way from Persia to acknowledge that He is truly THE King. God Master planned history for these Magi to follow a star for thousands of miles to worship The King…because the people who should have known who our Lord was, refused to acknowledge Him.
Today, God is still impressing His loving influence upon our continually unfolding story, doing things that are thoughtful and profound and life-giving to our world…and He urgently wants to do so in and through your life. The questions to us, as we celebrate Christmas, remembering God’s providence through those prisoners-of-war so many years ago are: Will your life offer such a testimony? —and— Will you also be among the company of those Magi who will go anywhere and do anything to offer your worship to Jesus Christ as King of everything your life?