In another time, this would be the place where the Unsolved Mysteries music would start playing in the background, and Robert Stack's voice describing what was going on. It would have been all about men from unknown places coming and giving wildly extravagant gifts to a child with questionable parentage.
This would have worked because we don't know much about the Wise Men who came to see Jesus. Their story takes place in Matthew 2. We're never told their names, how many of them there were, what country their from, or what they believe. We are given very little information about them.
The thing about the Wise Men, or Magi (which is a better term for them), is that they aren't an important part of the story. They help to move the story forward, but the details of their story are all that important. They serve a function much like the innkeeper did in Luke's Gospel. The Wise Men are a place where we can come into the story and experience what God is doing.
We really don't know to much about them, most of what we think we know is supposition. We've given them names
And you can find backstories for them in lots of different places. We've made assumptions about them, which is how they got to be kings, and we've thought about what countries we think they're from. None of that is in scripture. We don't know any of that for sure. And that is really okay so long as we don't try to make more of it than is there.
What's important is how all of that lets us put ourselves in the story. When we stop to look at their story, we realize that we have more in common with them than we do with many of the other characters from the Christmas Story.
The Magi were gentiles or pagans. They followed their own religious beliefs, but they were also well educated and probably fairly wealthy. They would have been considered the scientists of their time.
So when they see a star that they've never seen before, they pat attention. They do what they do. They study, they consult books and charts. They talk to each other and they finally come up what they think is going on, that an important person has been born to the Jewish people, possibly a new king.
Because of who they are, they wan to pay their respects to this new king. So they take off, following the star, but when they get to Israel they stop to see its current King, Herod. In that they are following the right protocols, but with the flawed assumption that Herod would know about this king. This sets off a flurry of people to figure out what is going on, and Herod sends them out to find this child and report back to him about it.
The Magi take off to Bethlehem, find the child and offer their gifts to the family. At this point, protocol would dictate that they go back to Herod. I would imagine that they would already be somewhat uncomfortable with that, so when they receive a dream that says go back by another way...they do.
The rest of the story goes that Joseph is warned to take his family away to Egypt, Herod goes on a rampage, and then after he dies Joseph is told that it's safe to bring his family back home. We never hear from the Wise Men again.
What's important about their role in the story is that they aren't believers, they aren't Jewish, yet God is drawing them into what is going on. This is why we look a lot like them. We aren't Jewish, and yet Jesus worked to draw us into the story that he is telling. He made sure we knew there is a place for us in it. This is something that he continues to do to this day.
Anyone that tries to limit how Jesus is drawing people into his story is missing the point. It doesn't matter who we are, God looks at us as is already drawing us into the story he is telling.
As we go into this new year, let God draw you into his story, and look for the place that he has made for you in it.
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