The Journey of the Wise Men
This is a story suggested by reading Matthew 2:1-12. I learned the
other day that this way of exploring the Bible, of telling a story
about it to help us use our imaginations to
feel our
way into a passage, is a very old method for understanding God's Word
better.
How to imagine a story around this
passage? I was talking to a friend of mine at work about the story of
the Wise Men. He told me of the city SAVEH in Iran which, some people
say, was the city where the wise men lived. Iran is the name we now
give to the country which in Bible times was called Persia. How to
imagine a story around this passage and the city Saveh? I started by
re-reading a wonderful poem by T.S.Eliot, called "
The
Journey of the Magi", and by looking at a website
http://www.farsinet.com/ (now
sadly off-line) of a Christian community whose history stretches
right back to the days when Christians first came to Saveh.
In fact a great traveller called Marco
Polo visited Saveh about 700 years ago, and saw the tombs where the
wise men were buried (an account is given in William Dalrymple’s
book "
In
Xanadu: a quest"). Saveh lies about 50 miles south of
Teheran the capital of Iran. Today it is famous for the manufacture
of a certain kind of Persian rug. At the time of the birth of Jesus
it was famous as a city of ASTRONOMERS, wise men who studied the stars. Our story will be
about
Melchior, whom we imagine to be one of the wise men
living in Saveh at the time of Jesus.
ACT 1
Melchior is a
Magus, one
of the Magi. What is a
magus? He is a wise man, of course, an astronomer who studies the
stars in the night sky. He also gives advice to people; in those days
they thought that the patterns of the stars in the skies were somehow
connected to what happened down here on earth. And the Magi were
religious men, priests of the Zoroastrian religion. They believed
that one day there would come a prince from God who would change
everything.
As Melchior studied the night sky with other Magi, they became
more and more excited. They saw patterns in the night sky which
seemed to say, the prince from God has been born very recently, far
off in the west lands. They decided they would have to make an
expedition to find out what was going on. Magi were not just priests
and astronomers; they were also explorers, who would take risks to
check things out for themselves. They were like journalists, or
travel-writers, or space scientists sending out Mars probes.
But, in our story, Melchior is an old man and he is not very well.
He is absolutely determined to lead the expedition, and this upsets
his friends very much, because they are afraid he is not strong
enough. His closest friend is
Kourosh, his captain of guards,
and Kourosh is very worried. Kourosh has served Melchior for a long
time, and loves his master and knows him well. He doesn't think
Melchior will survive this journey without a lot of care; and yet
Kourosh will be far too busy organizing the expedition and so not
able to take proper care of Melchior.
Kourosh shares his troubles over breakfast with his wife Zenobia,
and his youngest son Dariush. Dariush is about 10 years old, and has
a much older brother serving in the Persian Emperor's personal guard,
and an older sister who is now married and has a baby son of her own.
"What am I to do?" asks Kourosh, "I can't be
everywhere! I have to keep watching the camel drivers in case they
get drunk or run away, I have to make sure that a proper guard is set
up, I have to arrange for people to be sent ahead to buy food; there
are a thousand things to look after. I simply won't have time to look
after Melchior. If only he hadn't decided to go! But he has set his
mind to do it, and there is no changing it."
Zenobia can tell her husband is very worried. She answers Kourosh
calmly, "You can take Dariush. He can ride with Melchior and
talk to him, and make sure to fetch him what he needs."
Dariush listens as quietly as he could, trying not to be noticed
so he would not be sent away from this grown-up conversation. He
wants so much to go. What an adventure!
"Dariush is far too young to go on such a long journey!"
cries Kourosh. "It is out of the question!"
"No younger than you were when your father took you on your
first journey."
Dariush looks hopefully at his father, who seems to be half ready
to agree.
"But we'd be gone half a year or more! You'd miss him
terribly!"
Zenobia looks sad and wise. "It's time for the boy to become
whom he is meant to be. I must let him go, even though I will think
of him with every breath I draw!"
Dariush looks at his mother gratefully. Her eyes seem very large
and shiny. She gazes at him and smiles with pride.
ACT 2
Three months later, the band of Magi, and guards, and camel
drivers, and servants, and Dariush, are climbing up the steep road to
Jerusalem, the largest city of the west lands. It has been a long and
hard trip. The camels have been behaving like miserable old men,
grouchy, slow, always sorry for themselves, ready at the slightest
excuse to lie down and refuse to go further.
The camel drivers are rude and unkind to Dariush, always telling
jokes against him that he doesn't understand and doesn't want to
understand. At the start of the journey the guards and Dariush would
be sent to sleep in lodgings on the way, while the Magi slept in
their special travelling tents. But the lodgings were filthy and full
of fleas: when Kourosh saw Dariush scratching himself, he arranged
for Dariush to sleep across the door of Melchior's tent. It was much
colder out in the open like that, but at least there were no fleas.
Melchior did not travel well. Dariush tried to be helpful, but
Melchior was silent and stern, turned in on himself. Dariush was only
able to keep going because his father kept telling him how proud he
was of him, and what a help and support Dariush was.
It is a long climb up to Jerusalem, but at last they see the city,
set on its hill like a beautiful jewel.
Once the party enters Jerusalem, they visit the court of the great
king Herod, who is the man the Romans have put in charge of this part
of the Roman Empire. Herod is surrounded by his courtiers, many men
all of whom spend most of their time carefully watching Herod to see
whether he is pleased or angry. Dariush thinks Herod looks cheerful
and jolly, but the courtiers all seem very frightened. It feels
strange and rather horrible – as if, although everything appears
quiet, something terrible might happen without any warning.
As the chief of the Magi, Melchior speaks for them all. "O
King!" he says, "We have come to pay our respects to the
new prince."
There is an embarrassing silence. At once, all the courtiers stop
looking at the Magi, and keep their eyes firmly on their feet,
clearly terrified. Herod's face grows bright red, but a counsellor
whispers to him. "Your question deserves a thoughtful answer"
replies the king. "Come back privately tomorrow, and we will
have more to say."
The next day the Magi are called to see the king on their own.
Kourosh accompanies Melchior, but Dariush is strictly forbidden to
come along, and spends the time waiting anxiously. When Kourosh
finally returned, Dariush thought he had never seen his father so
angry. "Herod treated my master like some kind of paid servant!
He said, the new prince was likely to be in Bethlehem, and when we
had found him we should come back and report to Herod what we had
discovered."
ACT 3
It is just a few more miles to Bethlehem. The party travels there
that very night, and the Magi stop several times to study the stars
and to calculate where to go. When they arrive, Dariush expects them
to go to one of the big houses in the centre, to visit the Mayor or
some other important person. But instead Melchior and the other Magi
go directly to a small house on the edge of town. Melchior seems to
have regained some energy after the long journey, but still is
strangely quiet and grim. Kourosh and Dariush stay close beside him,
ready to help if he falters, but Melchior leads the way firmly, and
in a tense silence.
They come to the house, and the Magi crowd in to a small front
room. There is a young mother, about the age of Dariush's sister; a
young boy child less than one year old, not yet walking; and an older
man, the father, who has the practical look of someone who makes and
repairs things. It all seems very ordinary to Dariush, not at all
what he had been expecting after so much travelling. But Melchior
suddenly relaxes, as if he had finally found what he had been looking
for, and kneels before the boy, who stares at the strange Magus with
wide-open eyes. Melchior beckons to one of the other Magi, who brings
forward some gifts. Dariush recognizes the gifts from temple
ceremonies; gold, incense, a medicine called myrrh; gifts of honour
to be given to kings or to gods.
The child reaches out and touches the gold, wrinkles his nose and
sneezes at the strong scent of the incense, looks in puzzlement at
the myrrh. Dariush notices the young mother, sitting very still,
taking everything in. Something in her face reminds Dariush of his
own mother, saying "
I must let
him go, even though I will think of him with every breath I draw!"
And then the boy turns and looks directly at Dariush. He looks just
like Dariush's sister's son, and yet, as Dariush stares into the
boy's wide brown eyes, it is as if Dariush hears a voice saying in
his head "This is all about you".
END
And that was the end of the journey. As soon as they left the
house, the Magi set off immediately on the long road back to Saveh,
taking the long way back so as to avoid that frightening king Herod.
Nothing seemed to have changed ... except ... Dariush found Melchior
much more ready to talk.
"What was it all about?" Dariush would ask, "was
that little boy really the prince who will change everything?"
"Yes indeed," Melchior would reply, "He wasn't at
all what I expected. But the great God of all things always surprises
us. My life is drawing quickly to its end, Dariush, but you will live
to see how that young boy breaks open the gates of heaven."
Dariush never forgot his great journey, and the voice in his head
when he looked into the eyes of the young prince, and those long
conversations with Melchior on the way home. And about thirty years
later, when the first Christians reached Saveh, Dariush finally was
able to understand how it really was
all about him.
You may want to read the Bible passage yourself later today, to
decide what it says to you.
Melchior, Dariush, Kourosh, and Zenobia are of course all
characters invented for this story; you won't find them in the Bible!
However it is likely that there would have people just like them,
involved in the story of the Wise Men, who really would have met the
first Christians to come to Saveh, and who in their turn would have
believed the Good News about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our God is a great big God, and his plan is a great big plan which
stretches the whole wide world over, and yet is still all about you,
all about me.
