A Mystifying Message Of Christmas.

A Mystifying Message Of Christmas - 

Why didn't the Scribes and Chief priests not understand the prophecy or reveal it until the king Herod enquired?

Jesus said, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you don't go in, and you don't allow those entering to go in" (Matt.23:13).

Even if the Pharisees and the Scribes knew, they won't let it reveal it out. But when the Wise men asked they had to reveal about the birth and the place of Jesus. Prophecies sometimes may be ambiguous and hold a secret inherently.

Of course there is an interesting wordplay in the prophecies of the Prophets -

For example, Isaiah 11:1 reads, "Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit." Here, the word "Branch" "נֵצֶר" (netser), is the Promised King, who shoots out as a new branch. The same word, "נֵצֶר" has the same root for "Nazareth". After the king Herod's death, as said by the angel, "..he went and settled in a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, that He would be called a Nazarene" (Matt 2:23).

In another example of wordplay, "This is what the Lord of the Arimes says: Here is a man whose name is Branch; he will branch out from his place and build the Lord's temple" (Zech 6:12). In the Septuagint Version, the word, "Branch", was translated as, "East". Now this becomes interesting - the Magi comes from the east (Matt 2:1) to king Herod saying that, "we saw His star at its rising and have come to worship Him" (Matt 2:2). "The East, on the one hand , generally held the Magi to be kings... Now, the Magi themselves, on recognising Him (Jesus), honoured Him with gifts, and adored Him on bended knee as Lord and King" writes Tertullian in AD 197 (160-230 AD) (ANF 3.162). Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) writes, "Those who composed the Persics related that in the highlands, in the country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended plain. Those who travel through the locality, on coming to the first mountain, hear a confused sound as if of several legions shouting in the battle array" (AD 195) (ANF 2.488).

What is this unusual sound that the Magi heard as they came across the first mountain when they started to follow the Star in the East? Can this might be as Luke recorded "..a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests'" (Lk 2:13,14). The multitude of heavenly host in other words is the heavenly army. Why would a heavenly host glorify Jesus? As said by an angel to Mary, "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end" (Lk 1:31-33).

To summarise the Scribes and Chief priests though having the knowledge of Jesus' birth and his place of birth didn't reveal about this to the  king Herod until the Magi who started from the East guided by the Star who on their way witnessed the unusual sounds which might be the praises of angelic host that Shepherds witnessed until they reached Jerusalem. On reaching Bethlehem as said by the Scribes and Chief priests, the sorcerer magi came with gifts like gold, frankincense, and myrrh which were the standard way of honouring a king or god [King Seleucus II Callinicus offered to God Apollo at the temple in Miletus in 243 BC].

Sometimes, we too may be too stubborn as Chief priests and Scribes to recognize and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior or might postpone which might cost our life. So, "..now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!" (2Cor 6:2).

Merry Christmas.

* ANF - Ante Nicene Fathers.