NOTES for Mat 2:1-12

How many creative people—writers, poets, artists—have been inspired by this short account. Why? Outwardly it is a perfectly ordinary event, the birth of a Child, yet an extraordinary star lights up in the sky in His honour, and this star leads three Magi to Bethlehem. And there they are: three elders bowing before the Child, three pagans before the King of the Jews, three learned sages before the One on whom the Lord’s Spirit of wisdom and understanding secretly rests (Isa 11:2). All human wisdom and all human knowledge can do only this: lead us to God for true knowledge and suggest what gifts we can bring with us.