Astronomer friends in our neighborhood told me not long ago where to look in the sunset sky for something phenomenal: two planets converging night after night, coming closer together, forming one brilliant light above the crescent moon in the sunset. It formed and forms an unforgettable sight, one bound to become even more remarkable as the winter solstice approaches. It is called the great conjunction, as the light of two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, is superimposed.
2000 years ago magi (Wise Men) may have looked upon a similar sight: two planets growing closer together, forming a brilliant spot in the sky.
Why for them was this a birth announcement? Why did it tell them to pack up and go to Jerusalem? When before had far away nations paid homage to a son of David?
A child who is born became king of the Jews yet Solomon in all his wisdom never saw stars like this and never was so arrayed — and Jesus was and is so arrayed, but in the glory that came to him on the cross. It is not far from Jerusalem to Bethlehem; it is not far again from the Church of the Nativity to the Church of the Resurrection.
The wise men Herod sent on their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem went bearing gifts for a king.
The king they sought later bore a cross through the marketplace streets of Jerusalem— buying and selling shouting in bargaining going on around him, soldiers driving him from the pavement below Herod’s Palace to the rocky prominence of Golgotha, to place him on the cross.
And yet this was the fulfillment; the fulfillment of the sign in the sky that drew the wise to Jerusalem to pay homage to the child who would become king.
And what was an earthly pilgrimage had as pilgrimages do portents beyond our planet. For the child born to reign was not to have a kingdom of this world as Herod held but one whose realm was cosmic. This child would set the world free; invite all people to come into the right relationship with each other, with creation, with all things. As the psalmist sings,
“He shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress, and the oppressed who has no helper. He shall have pity on the lonely and poor; he shall preserve the lives of the needy. He shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence, and dear shall their blood be in his sight.” (Psalm 72:10-14)
What makes this king worth celebrating, warming hearts of children and all who look to the stars in the sky is not his majesty but his service, and the liberation from sorrow, the release into joy, that his coming calls forth from us, cause for wonder, love and praise.
“They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.” (Isaiah 60:6)
Written for the Arizona Daily Star, in anticipation of the Epiphany.
(https://tucson.com/the-
https://lowell.edu/the-great-conjunction/
Henry van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man (Harper & Row, 1895)
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