Column: Lessons from the Wise Men for then and now

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

They have very little in common. There is only one of him, and we suppose three of them. Their story is very old. Most of it is legend. His story is current, being in the news all month. They apparently were men of some means. He on the other hand, is out of work, and very poor. They do not have much in common.
However, they do share one thing. They were all foreigners, aliens.
We call the three of them kings because their gifts were expensive. We say there were three of them because they brought three gifts. The Bible calls them magi, a word from which we take our word magician. They were astrologers, soothsayers, and scholars. We prefer to call them wise men because the word magician bothers some of us. Yet, these men came from a different time, when truth was recognized and celebrated whether people found it in a holy book or in the stars.
These men also came from a different place. The Bible simply says the East. The Latin word is Orient. Legends claim that one was from India, another Persia, and the third Africa. The fact is that they were not Jewish and were not local. They were aliens who found a child for whom no one else was looking. They found Jesus.
Manuel Cordova Soberanes is from the state of Sonora, Mexico. He came from the South into what he hoped would be a promise land, The United States. He did not follow a star, but for two nights, he walked by star light, hoping to cross the border unseen. He did not seek a child but he found one.
9-year-old Christopher Buchleitner survived the crash that took his mother’s life. Their van had landed 300 feet from the road. The scraped-up child was dazed and wounded. He wandered from the van, looking for help. He did not find help, but help found him. Manuel Cordova gave the boy his sweater and built a fire to warm him and to alert help. He stayed with Christopher all night until hunters spotted the pair and alerted the authorities.
Medical personnel took Christopher to the hospital and the Border Patrol took Manuel into custody, sending him back to Mexico. He was an alien, an illegal alien.
Later in a ceremony at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona promised to introduce legislation that will permit Manuel Cordova to have a special visa. That is a smart move. Actually, he should become a U.S. citizen; alien or not we could use more like him.
The account of the magi is more than a nice story. Matthew placed it in his Gospel to remind his readers that aliens may know more than we know and may bring gifts that we cannot or will not. We have still not learned the lesson. Standing on the border looking to the South, we call them, “aliens.” Standing at the coast looking to the East, we call them, “aliens.”
What we call people matters. Words and names count. I think it is nothing short of divine humor that the name of the child rescued is Christopher, and the middle name of the alien who helped him is Jesus. Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes; Jesus the alien, what a hoot.
Dr. Mark Ross is pastor of Marion Baptist Church.