Three kings feature in the traditional Christmas story as told in legend and carol. The Bible itself does not specify either the rank or number of these visitors to the newborn Jesus; it describes them as "wise men from the east"Matt. 2:1; and records that they brought gifts of high worth and significance. All we really know is that these most enlightened representatives of the wisdom of their day came to do homage to a greater wisdom and enlightenment than their own.
One king there was who certainly participated in that first Christmas, was central to it—the babe Christ Jesus, whom the Bible designates as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords."I Tim. 6:15; Jesus fully merited this description; in his short earthly life he exercised spiritual power and authority beyond anything seen on earth before, and he identified the source of this power as the divine All-power that creates and governs the universe.
In addition to the three kings of tradition and in addition to Christ Jesus, "King of kings, and Lord of lords," around whom the whole Christmas story revolved, a fifth king stood in the shadows, desperately attempting in fear and jealousy to negate the whole event. This was Herod of Judea, antithesis of all true kingship, a cruel and selfish tyrant.
At Christmas we celebrate a great historical occasion that took place some two thousand years ago at a specific date in a specific locality, even if we cannot precisely identify either. Of this historical celebration John Greenleaf Whittier writes in a familiar hymn:
Keep while ye need it, brothers mine,
With honest zeal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born.as adapted in the Christian Science Hymnal, No. 170;
A deeper, more spiritual perception of Christmas sees beyond the historical celebration at a single season of the year to a fuller, clearer understanding of the Christ and to a more effective exercise of Christly authority appearing daily in our lives.
This ever-clearer perception of all that Christ is, bringing with it a more consistent exercise of Christliness in daily living, results from a growing understanding of God both as loving Father-Mother and as unfailing divine Principle of all that truly exists. As we understand more of the divine nature, we see more of the activity of the Christ all around us, healing, redeeming, blessing ourselves and others. Praying scientifically as one learns to do in Christian Science, studying to know better the nature of God, living as best we can whatever we learn and know, we each of us feel "the Lord Christ born" daily in our hearts.
But as the infant Jesus needed protection against Herod and all that Herod stood for, so the daily appearing of Christ, Truth, in our hearts needs protection against the King Herods of today, against the assertion of power and authority other than the divine All-power.
Most Christian Scientists set aside a period early each day for prayer and study. In this period they look for new perceptions of God and His beneficent government of the universe. They feel that in the power of this fresh inspiration they will be able to meet the day's demands. Yet too often, as the hours pass, inspiration dims and confidence wanes; too often it seems that the claims of a power apart from God, Spirit, of materiality and limitation, are snuffing out the illumination of the Christ.
So it is not enough to open our hearts to new inspiration. At the same time we must identify and reject whatever would stifle this new growth. Essentially the hostile claim is what in Christian Science is called animal magnetism; it is the downward, retarding drag of animality, of the belief that life is expressed through the medium of matter instead of as the immediate expression of divine Spirit. This belief was what Herod represented at the first Christmas; and this belief is what would kill our Christly inspiration today.
A notable aspect of the first Christmas is God's thorough preparation for and protection of the infant Jesus. An angel, or divine message, came to Mary, explaining to her her high destiny. An angel came to Joseph explaining the event and his important part in it. Inspiration led the wise men to the child, yet warned them not to divulge to Herod that they had found him. Again an angel warned Joseph to take Mary and the child to safety in Egypt.
If we listen with the same careful attention for God's messages, we too will be guided and strengthened how best to protect and develop our new perceptions of the Christ against the destructiveness of today's Herod. Then each day we will see them grow to full stature and full healing effectiveness.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes of the divine Principle that Jesus' works so fully expressed, "Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty."Science and Health, p. 141. Divine All-power knows no other power, no other sovereignty. As we grasp this spiritual fact, we see the daily appearing of the Christ in our lives cannot be interfered with by any claims of aggressive material power, devising destruction. The only power, the only kingship, is the "immortal sovereignty" derived from divine Principle. This immortal sovereignty is the sovereignty of the Christ and expresses the one kingship, the divine all-power of God, good.
Our spiritual understanding of this only true kingship can make every morning a Christmas morning and every day a Christmas Day. It can help us daily, in the words of the Christmas hymn already quoted, to
... know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from things of time and space.
Christmas in not just something that happened two thousand years ago or that happens once a year. Christmas with its unchallenged and immortal sovereignty of God, good, is today, and it is every day.
