The Thirteenth Person of Christmas is Caspar

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  Matthew 2:1-2

Yesterday I shared that there is some thought that the three wisemen were named Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar.  Please remember that I have no idea if this is true - we are using a lot of imagination during these three days as we think about these three kings.

It is said that Caspar came from India, which is over 2,400 miles from Bethlehem.  It's interesting to imagine that the three kings came from different parts of the east, meaning that at some point, following the star, they came to the same point at the same time and continued on their journey together.  That would truly be just like God - to bring these three like-minded men, who would have all been wealthy, learned, and powerful - to a place where they would want to humble themselves to worship this tiny King, together.

However, most believe that they were Babylonians, Persians, or Jews from Yemen, as the kings of Yemen then were Jews.  Most likely, they were from Babylon, which was the center of  Zurvanism (see yesterday's post), which would also mean the center of astrology.  They may have retained their knowledge fromt he time of their Jewish leadership by Daniel.  [Information in this paragraph was obtained from wikipedia.com.]  If they were together, traveling from Yemen, they still had to span a distance of over 1,200 miles!

Whether the kings were from the same place, or all different places, do you see what a miracle it was for them to come together, to risk hardship, death and more, to see this child?  They knew for sure they were coming to see a baby, or very small child, because they asked King Herod, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?

Kings don't often humble themselves.  They don't often take great risks.  Kings don't often seek to worship another king.  To do so would be to admit that they themselves weren't the center of the universe.  In most royal societies, it was assumed that the king was on the throne because either a) he was god or b) God himself put him there.

So to see these three kings travel so far, for so long, taking so many risks, is truly amazing.  It can only be a God-ordained event. 

The wisemen are important to the Christmas story because they show us the importance of humility, from the foot of the manger to the foot of the cross.  Paul wrote to the Galatian church about how we are all the same - "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28" 

This baby, born to poor parents, born in a barn, born with no dignity, no grandeur - He was born so that kingly men could bow down and worship.  He was born so that homeless men could bow down and worship. 

He was born so that I could bow down and worship.