Is it The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
Again and again the singers croon it until it’s lost in the shuffle of hurrying feet and trivial conversation. Wonder is reduced to the prices available on “Black Friday” and the surprise discovery of a highly coveted toy. Still, despite the rise of the trivial, there’s a festive feel in the air. The lights; the colorful displays; parties; celebrations of all kinds. People are acting as if something exciting is about to happen. It’s Christmas!
“Christ” “birth” is what that means; the birth of the consummate man; the birth of the hope of all mankind. And the devout, those who believe the “chosen” was born on this “day of all days,” see wonder everywhere. Other worldly beings, formidable in their appearance; magnificently splendid; terrifyingly radiant; have visited ordinary everyday people. Several times a solitary celestial messenger appeared. Another time more than could be counted filled the heavens. A woman who’d never been with a man became pregnant just as the angel predicted. Another woman, well past her child-bearing years, bore a child. The messenger said she would and she did. A heartsick man married his fiancée even though she was pregnant despite his faithfulness to their covenant of celibacy. He married her because an angel told him to. He remained celibate because the angel told him the child was, actually, the Son of the Divine. Prophets broke into song when they saw the baby newly born. The heavens seemed to erupt at his birth. That first Christmas really was he “most wonderful time of ALL years!” This Christmas, hundreds of centuries later is “the most wonderful time of the year." The baby born on this day is worshipped by more people than can be counted dead and alive. His name is today and forever the “name above all names.”
Among the very first people to worship Him were Magi. Magician astrologers, they came from a long line of court advisers sought by Kings and potentates, great and small, for their wizardry. They came to “worship” this Child, they said, because they’d seen “His star;” the star of the “King of the Jews. They came with certainty. They came with costly gifts. They came to “worship” Him.
What was going on in the heavens that convinced these Mesopotamian sages the “King of the Jews” had been born? The answer is in a closer look at where they came from and what their ancestry was.
The Magi were descendants of prominent figures in the courts of Chaldean and Perian Kings whose Empires flourished in the early 5th Century BC. These “wise men” practiced their wizardry in the shadows of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and counseled Babylon’s Persian conquerors. At the height of the Chaldean ascendancy Nebuchadnezzar brought Jewish exiles to the capital of his Empire. Among them were four distinguished young men Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Men of extraordinary character the four quickly gained prominence in the nation of their captors. They were given Babylonian names. Daniel became Belteshazzar. Hananiah was named Shadrrach. Mishael became Meshach. And Azariah was named Abednego. Belteshazzar, in particular, rose to renown among the wise men of the nation. He was catapulted to the highest position in the land next to the King when he accomplished the impossible, saving the lives of all the King’s advisers including his own and those of his Friends. The King had dreamed a dream so terrifying that the trauma of it left him with no memory of what he had dreamed. He called his “wise men” and asked them to not only interpret the dream but tell him what he had dreamed. They could not. The King was furious and commanded that all of them be killed and their homes be reduced to rubble. When Belteshazzar and his friends learned of their fate they prayed to their God; the God of Israel, petitioning their deliverance. Belteshazzar was certain that his God would reveal the dream and its meaning to him and asked the King for an audience with him. The King granted his request. In the meeting Belteshazzar told the King his dream and interpreted it to him. The King, Supreme ruler of arguably the greatest power of that time, fell on his face at Belteshazzar’s feet. He designated him his Chief Vice-regent and the Master of his advisers. More importantly he decreed that the God of Israel was the “one true God.” From that day until his death Belteshazzar became the most influential sage in the region. Three other Kings rose to power during his career. Two of them had dramatic encounters with Belteshazzar’s God and declared his supremacy over all rulers and their own gods. The Ancestors of the Christmas Magi were astounded as they observed this great man who had saved their lives and brought Kings and Princes to their knees before himself and his God. Never, during his years of prominence and influence, did he resort to the astrology and wizardry that they practiced. The secret of his power was found to lie in his God. With rigorous regularity and diligent devotion he maintained a deep intimacy with the God of Israel and received from Him power and prestige unknown to any even Kings. These early Magi knew that Belteshazzar’s God was, truly, the only true God. And they worshipped Him. They listened as Belteshazzar spoke of his God. They heard him tell of an ancient prophecy concerning a “Star” that would rise up out of Israel. He spoke of “Messiah the Prince.” He himself prophesied of a time when Israel would become a world power; when the God, who empowered him, would forever change the destiny of the world. These accounts and the great feats of Belteshazzar and his friends became a part of the folklore of the sages of Mesopotamia and were written into the annals of their history and magic arts. The Magi who came to worship the “Christ child” knew of these feats and were familiar with the annals of their ancestors. But “old habits die hard,” and they returned to the former ways of their fathers and looked to the skies for the “deeper magic” by which to direct the powerful of their day. It was, while looking to the skies that they saw his “star.”
What was it that so convinced the Magi that Israel’s King had been born that they came so far; so determinedly to worship him and lavish rich gifts on him?
Craig Chester, co-founder, and former President, of the Monterey (California) Institute for Research in Astronomy, spoke of the “Star of Bethlehem,” in a lecture during Hillsdale College’s Center for Constructive Alternatives seminar “Man and Creation: Perspectives on Science and Religion.” Chester’s lecture … focused on planetary conjunctions and the unusual occurrence of such interplanetary activity at the time of the Magi’s visit to Jerusalem and, later, Bethlehem. He observed that, “In 3 B.C. and 2 B.C., there was a series of close conjunctions involving Jupiter, the planet that represented kingship, coronations, and the birth of kings. In Hebrew, Jupiter was known as 'Sedeq' or 'Righteousness', a term also used for the Messiah. In September of 3 B.C., Jupiter came into conjunction with Regulus, the star of kingship, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo. Leo was the constellation of kings, and it was associated with the Lion of Judah – a name given to Jesus in the Revelation, and the figure that inspired the lion Aslan in Lewis’ 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.' The royal planet approached the royal star in the royal constellation representing Israel. Just a month earlier, Jupiter and Venus, the Mother planet, had almost seemed to touch each other in another close conjunction, also in Leo. Then the conjunction between Jupiter and Regulus was repeated, not once but twice, in February and May of 2 B.C. Finally, in June of 2 B.C., Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest objects in the sky save the sun and the moon, experienced an even closer encounter when their disks appeared to touch; to the naked eye they became a single object above the setting sun. This exceptionally rare spectacle could not have been missed by the Magi.
In fact, we have seen here only the highlights of an impressive series of planetary motions and conjunctions fraught with a variety of astrological meanings, involving all the other known planets of the period, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. The astrological significance of these impressive events must surely have been seen by the Magi as the announcement of the impending birth of a great king of Israel.
September 11, 3 B.C., is perhaps the most interesting date of all. Not only was Jupiter very close to Regulus in the first of their conjunctions, but the sun was in the constellation of Virgo (of obvious symbolism), together with the new moon, in a configuration that fits a plausible interpretation of a passage in the Book of Revelation describing the birth of a male child who is to be the ruler of the universe.” … Chester continues. “But if the planet Jupiter was the Star of Bethlehem, or was a component of the events that triggered the visit by the Magi, … could it have stopped over Bethlehem?
The answer is yes. The word 'stop' was used for what we now call a planet's 'stationary point.' A planet normally moves eastward through the stars from night to night and month to month, but regularly exhibits a 'retrograde loop.' As it approaches the opposite point in the sky from the sun, it appears to slow, come to a full stop, and move backward (westward) through the sky for some weeks. Again it slows, stops, and resumes its eastward course. It seems plausible that the Magi were 'overjoyed' at again seeing before them, as they traveled southward, the star, Jupiter, which at its stationary point was standing still over Bethlehem. We do know for certain that Jupiter performed a retrograde loop in 2 B.C. and that it was stationary on December 25, interestingly enough, during Hanukkah, the season for giving presents.”
The Magi did not hesitate. They came with complete certainty. These phenomena, which they undoubtedly saw and trembled at the sight of, were the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Great Belteshazzar. The “Star” had come out of Jacob. “Messiah the Prince” had been born. They came to worship Him. They brought him gifts; gifts suitable for the Supreme Sovereign; the Prince of the Universe.
This is “the most wonderful time of the year”! The most wonderful time of all years! The events we commemorate are of cosmic proportion. Creator and creation have collaborated in the commencement of mankind’s redemption. “Unto us is born, in the City of David, a Savior who is, at one and the same time, the consummate man – the Chosen (move over Keanu Reeves) – and the Lord – God himself in human form.” “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name, which is above all names – Jesus – a name at which every knee shall bow; every knee both in Heaven and on earth.” And on this Christmas, as at every Christmas, “we have come to worship him.”
