Rich guys, all — Herod, the half-blood king of Judea enjoying extravagances still evident today; and those magi, bearing gifts of rare value. Today is epiphany, in western Christian tradition, remembered as the moment when Jesus’ importance became evident to the greater world.
Setting aside belief about Jesus’ divinity and all that for a moment simply to look at the stories themselves, which appear only in the gospel of Matthew, and setting aside the question of how many magi there were (traditionally three because Matthew tells of three gifts) and whether or not they were kings (Matthew does not identify them as such), Herod and the magi are a study in contrast.
It’s easy to think that only the poor and humble could understand and appreciate, even see, the infant God (think shepherds, the parents themselves). Not so. The magi witnessed and recognized with deference and adoration what Christians would come to call God. Besides being “from the East,” their principle designation is “magi.” In other words, they were reverently studious, diligent in a learning that humbles even as it enriches mind and spirit. They, then, were able to see what is sacred and promising in the rude stuff of earth. And out of that difference, they give. While Herod seeks to take — life itself — the magi give.
There’s something in this that makes sense to me, a debatable Christian. Not only that wealth and power don’t preclude recognizing the sacred on earth but also and especially the qualities of learning, of knowledge that allows for mystery and the wisdom to give.
