MCLEODS, New Brunswick, December 31, 2023 – You would have thought that Herod and the chief priests would have been overjoyed to hear about the star. You would have thought they’d have been eager to tag along with the wise men and outdo even the magi in the pomp and splendour of their gifts. You would have thought nothing would have stopped them from shouting the good news from the rooftops all across Jerusalem and beyond.

You would have thought.

But scripture relays an entirely different response to the revelation of the King’s birth. Instead of inspiring joy, the news “troubled” the political and religious elite. Instead of a giddy and mad rush to prepare a celebration, Herod huddled with his advisors, plotting what to do with the child. Surely the magi must have wondered at Herod’s strained inquiries and tight-lipped smile. Surely his odd behavior and that of the temple elders must have dominated discussion during the final leg of the wise men’s journey. A subdued reception to the wondrous news was the last thing the magi had expected, considering that they themselves had dropped everything to follow the star.

So when God warned them in a dream not to let Herod know they’d found Jesus and to return home another way, the magi were likely only too happy to give Herod the slip.

Jerusalem at the time of the star was under Roman occupation. The majority of the people in Israel and Judea languished under military rule, but the powers-that-be flourished. They had found it to their advantage to forge both official and unofficial alliances with the Romans, and a prophesied King thrown into the mix would have threatened their dealmaking. Herod had no qualms about killing the King of the Jews, if by killing him the status quo could be maintained.

Recall that the second temple had been lavishly expanded under the direction of Herod and even dubbed “Herod’s temple”, his input was so extensive. Yet the same man who had funnelled immense resources into the glorification of the temple was hellbent on destroying the very King that gave the temple its glory.

How could this be?

The cornerstone for the second temple had been laid around 500 B.C. under humbling circumstances. Only the faithful were permitted to return to Jerusalem after its near total destruction by the Babylonians 70 years earlier. Only the faithful were permitted to work on the construction of the temple, and only by free will, not by coercion or obligation. The second temple, at its inception, was a far cry in splendor from Solomon’s temple, but it rose from the ashes as a labour of love and penitence. All those who worked on it did so with God’s Spirit burning in their hearts and guiding their hands. They would have swiftly dealt with anyone who dared think of killing God’s prophesied Messiah.

What happened in those intervening 500 years to create such a sea-change in the children of Israel? What spiritual evolutionary process turned the godly builders of the second temple into the unholy forgers of a Judeo-Roman alliance? Is it perhaps the same evolutionary process that turned the early Protestant martyrs into today’s neo-Sodomites?

The heavenly light that guided the magi has since become known as the Star of Bethlehem. It has never been definitively identified and never will be, as it was a one-off phenomenon, a supernatural event. Its coming mirrored the supernatural coming of God’s Messiah, also a one-off supernatural event. These were miracles that will find no explanation in scientific inquiry, just as the parting of the Red Sea will find no explanation or the manna that appeared in the wilderness will find no explanation. Miracles are beyond human understanding for a reason.

The workings of evil in an individual soul or across an entire nation are not a miracle. Supernatural, yes; miraculous, no. There is no light in these dark workings, only a step-by-step descent into the lake of fire. When you ask how the saintly and the godly can become the evil and the depraved, the answer is the spiritual evolutionary process. It unfolds over generations as a matter of course, and the only way to stop it is divine intervention.

The Star of Bethlehem and the Messiah it heralded were divine intervention. Spiritual rebirth is also divine intervention. None of these phenomena can be explained by scientific inquiry. We who are genuinely reborn are like the Star of Bethlehem or the coming of the Messiah. And like them, we too need to shine in the darkness to guide whomsoever will to the Light.

Scripture tells us that Jesus’ second coming will be like lightning flashing from horizon to horizon. Not a supernatural star this time, but supernatural lightning. This is how we’ll know it’s Jesus returning in glory, when the miraculous light penetrates and exposes everything and everyone simultaneously. Like the Star and our rebirth, the lightning that appears at Jesus’ return will be beyond scientific explanation. It will illuminate everyone in every conceivable way, giving them instantaneous and certain knowledge of the state of their soul. No-one will be able to hide from its divine brilliance. It will find them out, no matter where they are.

The magi dropped everything to follow the Star and it led them to Jesus. Our rebirth likewise led us to Jesus and keeps us following him day by day. In so doing, we deepen our commitment day by day and avoid the spiritual evolutionary process that turned humble and godly temple builders into Herods and Judases. We dare not even for a second turn our back on the Light. We dare not make any deals with devils. We know our God and are known of him, and our labours in the name of Jesus are free-willing and without charge.

The Star was both a herald of the One True Light and a guide to it.

May we reborn believers be the same.