Perhaps not so wise after all...
I always used to believe that the wise men in the Bible story were very wise.
In fact I really loved the Wise Men, as I love this Mandala: as beings imbued with sacred wisdom…
But in fact what the story tells us is that they were very stupid.
Here they are, blundering about, in a delicate and dangerous political situation about which they obviously know nothing.
They ask around about the birth of a new king of the Jews without any understanding of how this is going to upset people.
No understanding of how it’ll make them paranoid, or fill them with fear.
All of which their questions quite obviously do.
And the scholars who answer Herod’s question make it very clear why.
Because Micah, the very obscure prophet to which the storyteller has the scholars refer, is plainly talking about a revolutionary leader who will assume military leadership of the Jewish people and bring them back to a place of military power.
And, as we shall see, this is a prophecy that has disastrous consequences…
But these serene, aged, supremely wise beings bowing to the Infant Jesus have been precious inhabitants of my imagination all my life…
What does it mean if they were based on a falsehood?
What does it mean if they are gone….