We always hear the story of Mary and Joseph and how they traveled to Bethlehem. And of course we see the Nativity scenes with the manger and Mary and Joseph and the wise men. True or False—the “wise men” were there at the manger when Jesus was born. False. But we just assume they were there because they’re in all the Nativity scenes, right? BUT!! If we look at the timeline in the gospel according to Matthew, we see that the wise men didn’t come along for quite some time after. Matthew 2:1-2, 7, 12, 16—Now after Jesus was born—OK, so after Jesus has already been born—after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him”…Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared… Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way…Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. So, Jesus was probably about 2 years old or a little less when the wise men came, but no, they were not there the night He was born.

But there were three of them, right? We don’t know. The only thing we know is they were wise men from the east. But they were kings, right? No. They were sorcerers, pagan priests, but no they were not kings. The word “Magi” literally referred to a worshiper of fire. So “We 3 kings from Orient are”—eh, not so much. But were there shepherds at the manger that night? Yes. And we’re gonna look at the Nativity story from their perspective. Think about the words to “The First Noël”:

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