Mathew 2 1-12

Intro: Reading this old familiar story,I am surprised by how little information we are actually given- Matthew provides us bare details without embellishment• we are not the first to recognize its streamlined quality• over time, various storytellers added their own finishing touch◦ it’s like an undecorated Christmas tree that looks too plain◦ so tradition has added lots of ornaments- for instance, we’ve been told there were three magi (the Bible does not say how many)• some storytellers went so far as to give them names◦ we imagine the magi came with a caravan of camels, voila! we have camels◦ the magi are pictured in nativity scenes, though they arrived much later• these decorations do not change the story,◦ they are a poetic attempt to make it more visual