If you are following along “day by day” you probably realized that I skipped this passage yesterday. What good does it do to read the Bible chronologically when you skip passages? Oh well. Let’s take a look…
What image comes to mind when we think of the wise men? Three guys on camels, each one holding a small gift in their hand? Even though I know better, that’s still my mental image. You probably know that we aren’t sure how many wise men there were. All we know is that there were three gifts, and we aren’t sure of the quantities, either. Or the camels. We are sure that they never went to the manger…in fact Jesus probably only spent one night there himself, two at the most. By the time the wise men show up in Bethlehem Mary and Joseph are living in a house.
But we know all that already. We read yesterday the few paragraphs that tell us about the circumstances of His birth…(there isn’t even a whole chapter dedicated to the subject). In fact, there are few details of the days surrounding the birth and adolescence of Christ, even in today’s reading we are taken from birth to age 12. We don’t know anything about Jesus after the manger scene except that the couple showed up in Jerusalem 8 days later to have him circumcised and have his name recorded. The next thing we know, it’s about two years later and they are leaving for Egypt. We don’t know how they got to Egypt, where they stayed, or a single detail about what happened while they were there. In fact we aren’t sure of the year they left or how long they were there.
I did some quick research (read a paper on Google) and discovered that we aren’t sure what year Christ was born. It was somewhere between 2 and 6 B.C. Herod the great died somewhere around A.D. 2-4, and Jesus was already in Egypt by then, so if you assume that Herod didn’t die immediately after the wise men left..say, add a year or two (another unknown variable)…that could place the birth around B.C.2 or 3. Depending on how you interpret the key events (none of which have specific dates) you come up with a B.C. date of birth for Christ. Almost all the early Christian fathers believed in a B.C. 2-3 birthdate. I guess the point is: it really doesn’t matter. It must not, because Jesus never shared it with His disciples, and Luke didn’t think to ask Mary about it, or record anything else about it. At the time, no one thought is was that important.
What else don’t we know?
We don’t know where in Nazareth Jesus lived. We don’t know how he grew up…did he have a lot of playmates, or was he more of a “stay at home” kid? Did Jesus hang out with mom and learn to cook, or did he hang out with dad and learn to build things? Did His friends ever do something bad and blame it on Him? Did He ever cry? Was He a happy kid, or was he more like a “Vulcan” (no emotional expression). We have no idea.
Did Jesus sleep in bed with his mom and dad? Did he share a bed with his brothers? Was he afraid of the dark as a child, or did he cry when he was left alone? Hmmm. They aren’t important questions, and I only ask them to underscore the fact that we really know very little about Jesus. In fact, almost everything we know about him comes from what he did in 2 or 3 years of ministry when He was around 29-32 years old. That’s right….we don’t know for sure how old he was, or even when his birthday was. Why didn’t someone write down his birthday? It just seems odd to me that no one would mention it….by the time they penned the Gospels that sort of date would clearly be worth remembering.
Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature” I understand how he grew in stature…he got bigger. How did he grow in wisdom? He must not have known everything when he was born. Did Mary have to teach Jesus how to eat solid food? Before Mary put Jesus in his cradle and left the room, he had never been alone before. What must that have been like? I wonder at what point He realized his divinity, but still had to listen to what Joseph told him to do? I’m willing to bet there were times when Joseph wanted him to do something, and Jesus knew a better way, or a higher priority…but he did what his father told him. That’s how you “grow in wisdom” you do what you are told. Before the manger, no one “told” Jesus to do anything. The whole experience must have been very strange for Him.
The wise men dedicate themselves to searching for the child. They sacrifice and risk…and so must you and I. The wise men truly were wise, in that they didn’t reveal to Herod where the child was. And the gifts they brought no doubt enabled the family to live in Egypt for quite some time. Some say that the gifts of the wise men were substantial enough to support Mary for her entire life. Again…we don’t know. Maybe there were three gifts and they all fit into a shoebox. But it seems odd to travel all that way to offer such a small token.
Can you imagine what something that was made by Joseph would sell for today? What would a single piece of clothing worn by Mary be worth? And they lived as relatively poor people all their lives. In fact, you and I are far more wealthy in worldly possessions that the holy family could ever hope to be. And, they were more wealthy in spirit and significance than any other family that has ever lived. What a contrast! Poor and yet wealthy and powerful. Wealthy, yet poor and weak. It stands to reason that many of the people we know as “poor” today are actually far beyond us in spiritual wealth and significance. I think it would be wise for us to remember that in humility when we pray, and as we give.
The few events we have recorded here are offered with a single purpose: to help us understand that the prophecies regarding the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Micah, Hosea and Jeremiah all predicted that a child would be born who would deliver the people. The child would be born in Bethlehem, would live in Nazareth, and then there’s the passage about “weeping in Ramah”….
Ramah was small town about 5 miles from Bethlehem, and 7 miles from Jerusalem. Rachael was Jacob’s wife (three of the tribes are descended from her) and she was buried in Ramah, while traveling with Jacob to Bethlehem. (she died along the way). Hannah, the mother of the great prophet Samuel, lived in Ramah. She gave birth to Samuel there. Many years after Samuel, and long before the birth of Christ….the captives from Jerusalem and the surrounding area were assembled in Ramah before making the long journey to Babylon during the exile. Thus, the prophecy has a dual fulfillment: Rachel’s children could be men and women, young and old who were in Ramah preparing for exile, and grieving the loss of family….and it could be the parents of the children who were murdered by Herod the Great while he was attempting to kill Jesus.
I’ve heard others say that these children killed by Herod were the first martyrs for Christ. What a thought.
Faithfully,
PR