Matthew’s account of the three wise men arriving at the stable to worship the baby Jesus is one of the most touching scenes in the Bible and one of the most important.
That’s because these travelers — these migrants, if you will — are stand-ins for all of people. Jesus was a Jewish boy born of Jewish parents, but he was born for everyone. As Paul notes in his letter to the Ephesians, the Gentiles are “coheirs” in the faith of Jesus.
The wise men, also called kings, are searchers, as we are all called to be — searchers for what is right and true and beautiful in life.
As James Taylor advises in “Home by Another Way,” his song about the magi, “Keep a weather eye to the chart on high,” a reference to the star the wise men followed, just as Christians follow the star of Jesus’s own life and teachings.
The title and key line echo Matthew:
“Then warned in a dream of King Herod’s scheme, they went home by another way.”
There is a beautiful depiction of this in the Cathedral of Saint Lazare at Autun, France, sculpted by the 12th-century artist Gislebertus.
It shows the three men, each wearing a crown, in bed together under a richly evoked bedspread. An angel has appeared and, reaching out a right index finger, has gently touched the hand of one king, whose eyes are now wide open, alerted to wake the other two.
Think of this angel as the Holy Spirit who not only warns the magi but also alerts each of us with the gentlest of touches to signal the right road to follow. As Taylor sings:
“Maybe me and you can be wise guys too.”
Patrick T. Reardon
12.19.25
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.