The wise men didn’t make it to the manger, they weren’t kings, and we don’t know how many there were.
Tracking a star on a camel doesn’t make for quick work. The wise men probably showed up when Jesus was around two years old. They were “magi”—wise mystics—but not royalty. And since the Bible said they brought three gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—a tradition arose that there were three of them. What the Bible doesn’t say is that Mary and Joseph spent three days trying to get frankincense and myrrh out of the carpet. Apparently, the wise men weren’t wise enough to know better than to give spice and perfume to a toddler.
That’s a sample of common Christmas myths. Now here’s what the Bible does tell us: that God chose to come to earth in the form of a vulnerable, impoverished baby. His mother wasn’t married when she became pregnant, and it was such a scandal that an angel had to give Joseph a verbal beat down so he wouldn’t dump her. The couple was so poor that they couldn’t find a place to stay, and Jesus’ first crib was a feeding trough.
“Manger” is just a cute word that hides the fact that the Son of God spent his first night in a place where sheep ate. Jesus was born poor, against the backdrop of impropriety.
He could have done it another way. He could have descended from heaven in a flaming chariot. He could have emerged from the ocean, bellowing with righteous rage as he struck down evildoers. Or he could have not come at all, leaving us to worship a distant God who has no idea what it’s like to be human.
Clearing the record about things like donkeys and wise men doesn’t show us the real truth of Christmas. The power of the Christmas story has little to do with who did what and when. It doesn’t matter if Jesus was born on December 25 or on Flag Day. What matters is that he came into the world as a fragile human being, a baby boy in the care of a teenage girl with a skittish husband. God showed us that humility and grace mean so much more than power and glory. Once we clear away the decorations and the subterfuge, we see God revealed in an impoverished infant. I don’t know the mind of God, but it seems like he was making a point.
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