Series B
The Three Wisemen: A Traditional Play 
Epiphany Sunday Matthew 2:1-12
(STAGE DIRECTION: The three wisemen enter from the narthex – walking down the center aisle. Gaspar and Melchoir are arguing with each other about the price of camels and Balthalzar is walking along more slowly behind them. They keep bantering with each other until all three arrive in the chancel area and Balthalzar, says, “Come now, quit arguing about these things.” The remainder of the play is acted out in the chancel. Traditionally, Gaspar is twenty, Melchoir is forty, and Balthalzar is sixty and it may be beneficial to dress the wisemen to reflect their ages.)
GASPAR
Melchior, I tell you, every time I go to Beersheba and visit the camel market, they rip me off! Every time! Fifty sheckles of silver for a bent up old camel and half its teeth are gone.
MELCHIOR
Gaspar, Gaspar, you are always too concerned about money, including the price of camels.
GASPAR
But he just ripped me off, I tell you. He knew I wasn’t from Beersheba so he decided he was going to take a few more sheckles from me. About twenty-five more than he should.
MELCHOIR
Why do you always worry about people cheating you?
GASPAR
Because it’s not right! It’s not right to cheat me. I just didn’t want to buy this flea bitten animal.
MELCHOIR
Gaspar, your basic problem is that you’re cheap…..
BALTHALZAR
Melchoir, Gaspar, come now, quit arguing about these things. How can you talk about camels when we have witnessed an event that has changed all of our lives?
MELCHOIR
That’s true, Balthalzar. It’s foolish for us to argue about money and camels after what happened to us the past few days. I mean, who would have expected that He was going to be born in a barn? As we followed that star I though there would be a mansion or castle or palace. I never expected to see Him surrounded by sheep and goats, cows and horses in a barn.
GASPAR
I could have accepted the barn, but his parents, the mother and father! My! I mean, the star we followed was a royal star and I expected royalty. We came to the barn and there was a servant girl and a carpenter. Just poor, ordinary folk. No jewels, no riches, no nothing. Just common, ordinary peasants.
BALTHALZAR
What almost fooled me was this Herod, this so-called king. Did he take us in . When he asked us to come back and tell him where the child was born so he could worship him, I almost fell for that. If God hadn’t given me that dream to warn us about Herod, and to go back this longer way, we would have delivered the child into his very hands.
GASPAR
That would have been terrible. I’m certain he would have killed us, too, if he could have.
MELCHOIR
That Herod was insanely cruel. I suspect that he may arrange for all the babies in the land of Israel to be killed. That he may slaughter thousands of innocent children in order to kill that one. … now where are we –
BALTHALZAR
You know, we’re standing at the crossroads here. I think we’re all aware of it. This is the place where we all go different ways to our homelands.
MELCHOIR
Where are you going, Gaspar?
GASPAR
Oh, I imagine that I will head on back to Persia. To the King of Persia. You remember, I’m the court astrologer and physician there. It’s a very lucrative job, with prestige and power, but after this trip, it will seem a bit empty. And you, Melchior, you’re a learned man. What are you going to do?
MELCHIOR
I’m going home, back to Egypt, back to Alexandria to the library where I teach. As you realize, it’s the finest institution of learning in the whole world. People from all ends of the earth come to study the science of stars. I’ll go back and teach just as my father and grandfather did before me. And Balthalzar, how about you? Where will you be going?
BALTHALZAR
Well, back that way. Back to Asia, to my homeland where I will continue to be an itinerant philosopher and teacher. Except now, as I wander through the villages, I will teach something different than before. I’m going to teach what I’ve learned from following the star, what I’ve learned from discovering the Christ-child, the One who is going to change the whole course of human history.
MELCHIOR
Yes, likewise with me. I can hardly wait to get back to the library in Alexandria. I’m going to write about that star, Saturn, which is the guardian star of Israel. Jupiter is the largest star in the sky, symbolic of the birth of kings. And if you bring those two stars together into perfect conjunction with each other, it must mean that a magnificent king was born in the land of Israel. That must be the conclusion. I will write this knowledge into the manuscripts so scholars of the world will understand the true meaning of this unusual conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.
BALTHALZAR
How lucky we were that that sign was a star and not a comet.
MELCHIOR
Yes, of course!
BALTHALZAR
A comet would have meant an evil omen. All of my studies have told me that a comet foretells something terrible will happen! The death of a king or a great famine or a war that kills thousands of people! But instead of a comet, we saw a star.
MELCHIOR
A large star, the largest star in the sky.
GASPAR
A sign of goodness. I understand Jupiter and Saturn. I understand a king being born in Israel. And I understand about the star, the goodness of the star. I, too, am glad it was not comet, Balthalzar. But one thing that baffles me is that it happened in the constellation Pisces. I mean, there has never been anything great that has happened in the constellation Pisces. I don’t understand it. The Sign of the fish? This great King was born with a sign of a fish? It seems peculiar.
MELCHIOR
The sign of a fish? I, too, don’t understand that. Who knows, perhaps someday His followers will take the sign of a fish, the sign of Pisces to identify themselves with one another. Who knows? It all seems so strange.
BALTHALZAR
Perhaps one day God will give me another dream and explain the meaning of Pisces and why the great King was born under the sign of a fish. But, let’s talk of what we do know, of what we have learned. What have you learned from this adventure we’ve shared together?
MELCHIOR
Yes, Gaspar, you are the youngest, twenty years old, a court philosopher and scientist. What has this journey meant to you?
GASPAR
Well, as you both know, I’m quite a materialist and I can argue the price of camels with anybody. I own a great palace in Persia. I have an abundance of money which I inherited from my parents who died when I was very young. I was brought up in good schools. I have a job that’s lucrative, that gives me power, prestige. But somehow this journey has taught me the truth about success and money. They are rather empty. In spite of what the world things, they don’t bring happiness. We each gave gifts to this Christ- child. You, Melchior, you gave gold to this new King, gold, the sign of rulers. And you, Balthalzar, you gave myrrh, the sign and ointment of those who die but who live forever.
BALTHALZAR
As God told me to do in the dream.
GASPAR
And I gave frankincense. You can tell how much of a materialist I am, I kept a piece of it for myself. Here, smell it (the wisemen smell a piece of frankincense). It has a beautiful scent. Incense shows that the Christ-child is going to be a spiritual leader, for frankincense belongs to priests. It’s a sign of priests. But in spite of all these gifts and their symbolism, I feel that the baby in the manger was the greatest gift, far greater than the gifts we offered.
MELCHOIR
Gaspar, it sounds to me as if you have found a new jewel more precious than the gold and perfumes we brought.
GASPAR
Indeed! The gold, the jewels, the perfumes: you desire some of these in this world, but they are no comparison to the Christ-child given to us from God.
BALTHALZAR
You sound like a man who is no longer twenty, but is now older and wiser.
GASPAR
Melchior, what have you learned?
MELCHOIR
In the past, when people came to the University in Alexandria, I would teach them about the stars, that the stars guided not only the ships of the Mediterranean Sea, but the stars guided their destinies. These stars guided nations and armies and the lives of individuals. But now I have found a new star. That star is no longer in the heavens but is here on earth. That star is the baby born to be King, Jesus of Nazareth. In the future, He will become a great teacher and person of deep knowledge about God. His love, His compassion, His teachings will be my new guide. His way of knowing God will become my star. And so when people come to the University looking for ways to guide their lives, I will no longer tell them about the heavens, but about that one man Jesus of Nazareth, who is heaven on earth. That is what I have learned.
GASPAR
You have changed stars as I have changed jewels.
MELCHIOR
That’s correct. And Balthalzar, you who are sixty years old, the wisest of us, the oldest of us, a man of great and profound wisdom, what have you learned from this unusual event?
BALTHALZAR
I think I have learned to look for truth in a new place. As I grew up I read the ancient manuscripts, I talked to the wisemen, I listened to the heavens. I studied the stars. I thought the truth came from study. And then in this dream God asked me to do something instead of study. He asked me to go off on this long and dangerous journey. And the journey has changed me. During this journey I have come to know that the three of us are very much alike. We are cut form the same cloth. All of us have pursued the truth our entire lives. It’s like we have been willing to give up everything to find out the meaning of life, the “why” of life. And, I think God has taught me through this journey that I can only find that meaning by taking a great risk, by being willing to give up my old life and doing something. God, Himself, took a journey to earth and did the truth; and so also, I took this journey and am learning to do the truth. In the baby, God was doing the truth, not merely searching for the truth.
MELCHIOR
Balthalzar, I am surprised that you now say that one discovers the truth of life by doing. I would expect you to say that a person discovers the truth in studying or meditating or thinking, but you said that one discovers the truth by doing the truth. I’m not sure if I really understand what you are saying, Balthalzar.
BALTHALZAR
Well, I was thinking the other day: a thief does not become a thief only by thinking about stealing. A thief becomes a thief by stealing once, then a second time and a third time and so on and on until it has become a way of living. And a thief then by his very character has become a thief. So, likewise, a kind man becomes a kind man by an ongoing repeated act and another act until he has become a person who lives a life full of good, loving deeds. Truth comes by doing, Melchior. I’ve learned that by the risk and the walking of this journey.
GASPAR
We have all seen Truth of God in the Christ-child.
BALTHALZAR
That’s what draws us together. I think all of us are men of the truth and we have found that the Truth is in this Christ. The knowledge of Christ is the answer that we have been looking for, the key to all knowledge, to all truth.
MELCHOIR
Balthalzar, I’m going to miss your wisdom. You have taught both of us so much. We are going to miss your wisdom. But the hour is getting late, and the day is almost over. We must be on our separate ways.
BALTHALZAR
It is time for us to go. Gaspar, I will miss you. Peace be with you.
GASPAR
Peace and prosperity, Balthalzar. (Balthalzar and Gaspar embrace.)
BALTHALZAR
Melchior, may your journey be a safe one. (Balthalzar and Melchior embrace.)
MELCHIOR
And may the peace of God go with you, my friend.
BALTHALZAR
And with you, Melchior.
GASPAR
Peace. Peace and prosperity, Melchior. (Melchior and Gaspar embrace.)
MELCHIOR
Farewell.
GASPAR
Farewell.
BALTHALZAR
May the Truth of the new King be in us.
(All exit separate ways)
Edward F. Markquar
David E. Cox
Douglas A. Anderson
Grace Lutheran Church
Des Moines WA
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