Preacher: Revd. Stanley Price
Readings:
Isaiah 60, 1-6
Matthew
2, 1-12
The account of the visit of the wise men to the birth of
Jesus, neatly fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah ‘nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.’
It may be thought to be too neat and an invention of
Matthew. Last week Nikki helped us understand how Matthew’s Gospel portrayed
Jesus as the new Moses with parallels to the events in OT. However, recent
scholarship, investigating more deeply the Star of Bethlehem, suggests that
there is indeed truth in the account of Matthew.
Colin Humphreys writing in a Tyndale Bulletin 43.1 of May 1992,
concluded that God had used astrology to reveal the birth of his son to the
Gentiles. Astrology was commonly used
2000 years ago, to interpret events and predict future events, and there were men
who studied the stars in great detail.
Not only that they studied ancient texts of mysterious or miraculous
events connected with astrological events. They also poured over prophesies of
future happenings in many countries.
It is generally agreed by scholars that there were triple
conjunctions of the planets Saturn and Jupiter in 7 BC. during the months of
May, October and December that year.
These were of special significance as they were followed by the massing
of three planets, Saturn and Jupiter with Mars the next year, in 6 BC. These significant events alerted astrologers
to an imminent event of great importance. This unusual massing of the planets,
which occurred in the constellation of Capricorn, when taken together with
their studies of ancient prophesies, led them to believe that the birth of an
important ruler was imminent in Israel. The only question to be answered was
when?
The answer came almost immediately with the appearance of a
comet early in 5 BC, which became visible in the morning sun to the east. Comets were of
tremendous importance in astrology, because history had
shown them to be connected with important events on the earth - births or
deaths of rulers, victories or defeats for national armies. Events of
significant importance seemed always to be accompanied by the appearance of a
comet.
Closer to or own time, the writer Mark Twain was born at the
appearing of Halley’s Comet in 1835 and died at its next appearing 75 years
later in 1910. Co-incidental or portentous, or maybe a self-fulfilling prophesy,
as he had said earlier that the comet which came at his birth would ‘take him
away’?
The comet of 5 BC confirmed for our ‘wise men’ (Matthew
doesn't give a number) that the birth of a King had taken place in Israel, and
they set out immediately for Jerusalem.
It took them about two months to travel the distance to Jerusalem from
their home in the east, possibly Babylon or somewhere in Persia.
The comet gradually made its way across the sky from east to
west. At its midpoint (the perihelion) it passed in front of the Sun when it
couldn't be seen. After the wise men’s interview
with Herod, which probably took some days, they started out for Bethlehem. The star was visible again, but now in the
south, and again in the morning and appearing to stop or ‘hang over’ the town.
The description ‘hang over’ was probably used to describe a
bright comet and its long tail vertically above it and appearing stationary. It was a term used by observers of comets,
as recorded in ancient documents around that time. They appeared to ‘hang over’
places when close to the horizon.
We needn't assume that the star stood over the actual place
where Jesus was but over the town of Bethlehem. The testimony of the shepherds as recorded by Luke, meant that everyone
in the small town of Bethlehem would know where the child was.
The Gospel narrative tells us that Herod questioned the wise
men closely, to ascertain when the star had appeared. The wise men no doubt told him that their observations had
commenced with the conjunctions of the planets in 7 BC. Herod, in his
thoroughness, took steps to kill all the male children born within the two-year
period of the astrological events.
Although this slaughter of the innocents is not recorded outside the
Bible, It is the kind of thing Herod would have done. It is well attested that
he murdered his favourite wife and two of his sons a short time before. His
paranoia was such that he would ruthlessly exterminate any perceived threat to
his throne, even in a child. Herod himself died in 4 BC.
Colin Humphreys’ researches led him to the catalogue of
comets compiled in 1962 by Ho Peng-Yoke. He had listed the records of Chinese
astrologers of comet appearances over many hundreds of years. The dates of the ancient
comets were carefully catalogued and dated.
Comet number 63, a tailed comet, appeared in 5 BC between
9th of March and 6th of April that year and was visible for over 70
days. This approximates to the two
months it would have taken the wise men to travel to Jerusalem after it
appeared.
Note the time of year: Spring, not the winter. If Jesus'
birth took place at the time of the appearance of the comet, then it would be
between the 13th and 27th of April, 5 BC - at Passover time, a much more
significant time than Christmas.
Some scholars are sceptical that Christ's birth took place
in December. They point out that the sheep would not have been out in the field
at that time, it being too cold and wet.
(If this is right then bang goes one of my favourite carols: ‘In the
bleak mid winter’!)
It is much more likely that Christ's birth was in the
spring, at which time the shepherds would have been out in the fields, at night
as well as day, taking care of the lambing sheep. The ‘Lamb of God’ was being
born at the same time. (34 Years later, as the lambs were being slaughtered for
Passover, the ‘Lamb of God’ was dying on the cross’!). It all seems to fit.
Matthew’s account of the visit of Gentile, wise men,
contrasts sharply with the disbelief and indifference of the Pharisees and
Sadducees, the priests and lawyers - the leaders of the nation of Israel. Even though they themselves identified
Bethlehem as the place where a significant event in the nation's history was
prophesied to take place, they took no action to accompany the wise men and see
whether it was true.
At the end of Matthew's gospel is the irony that simple,
ordinary men, who became the Messiah's disciples, are the ones given the great
commission: ‘Go and make disciples of
all nations’. The fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy was placed in the hands
of ordinary people like you and me.
Isaiah's prophecy: ‘Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’
is ours. We now have the light and nations will come to our light, as promised through Isaiah. We have to let it shine, in
order to attract others to our great and mighty Saviour.
In Britain we have a great opportunity with the huge number
of people from all over the world coming in, to preach the gospel to all
nations - on our doorstep! Her Christian majesty the Queen is leading the way with
Kings and rulers, we have the task of witnessing to everyone else.