Second Sunday after Christmas
Year C
Matt. 2:1-12
Our story today is woven into the season of Christmas, but in our tradition it also marks the Epiphany, the end of the celebration of the Incarnation and the beginning of the revelation of Christ to the world. Made famous by Shakespeare, it is also called the Twelfth Night. Epiphany itself means “manifestation” or a “sudden insight.” Sort of like an “aha!” moment only on a grander scale. We celebrate the Epiphany in the church as Christ the Messiah was made manifest to the world first through the testimony of these Magi.
Who are these Magi? The famous hymn “We Three Kings” written by John Henry Hopkins in 1857 has sort of taken over the biblical account. First off, the bible never mentions how many kings there were nor does it mention at all that they were kings. So “magi from the east” needs some unpacking.
The word for “magi” really does mean sage or wise ones, and it is plural so we at least know there were more than one. But it also means “astrologer, interpreter of dreams, or a kind of magician.” Since they came from the East it is likely that they were Persian, some scholars claim quite possibly Zoroastrian priests, but again, we don’t know. They could have come from several areas in the “east.” But the word translated into “east” really means “the rising,” like the rising of the sun or star (which happens in the east.)
For the first Greek-speaking, Jewish-Christian hearers of Matthew’s Gospel, this would have had a number of resonances. First, the rising of the star in the east suggests an image of light. In the prophecies of Isaiah, he repeatedly refers to the Light that is to come. In 2 Samuel we read, “And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises…” In Revelation, Jesus is clearly referred to as the Bright Morning Star.
In ancient Near Eastern cultures, the morning star was associated with the promise of a new day, hope, and renewal. Many also had prophecies of a Messiah born miraculously of a virgin. They, like the Jewish priests, were also looking for a savior. Magi, astronomers, from that part of the world would have surely noticed a star or light like this and its meaning. In Luke, Chapter 1, he speaks of “the dawn from on high” that “will break upon us.” to give light (epihinanai) to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. So, what they saw coming together in the skies had to be pretty powerful because they must have traveled weeks, if not months, to make it to Bethlehem.
This past week I spent a few days on silent retreat. I was far away from city light pollution and was eager to see what stars I could find in the night sky. It was magnificent! I have an app on my phone that tells me the stars and planets when I point it at the sky and even shows the constellations. I could see the Milky Way, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. They were super bright! But there was one star in the sky that really stood out. I thought it had to also be a planet since they tend to shine brighter and I knew it wasn’t the North star. My app told me it was Capella. I had not heard of that star before, but it was bright and stood alone as a star one could not help but notice. It’s also known as the She-Goat star. There I was standing in a field in between the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the Magi, looking up at the sky and marveling at how much more the Magi knew about the stars and how it led them to the Christ Child in Bethlehem.
It is important to note that the magi did not go to Rome. Peculiar since the world already knew that Caesar was the Son of God, even if self-proclaimed. Wouldn’t you start at the top? But that’s not where the light led them. The light did not lead them to the ruling powers, although they did start in Jerusalem. It makes sense that they went to Jerusalem instead of Rome, because they would have heard that Herod was building this magnificent Temple, so of course these sages went to a holy place. It doesn’t really say that they asked Herod directly, either. It sounds like they were going through Jerusalem, probably the marketplaces, asking folks where the baby was, the new king of the Jews? So the buzz eventually made it to Herod’s palace. Not only Herod heard the gossip, but all of Jerusalem was talking. Were they excited and happy? No! Matthew tells us they were all frightened. Herod because he thought his power was threatened, the people because what kind of chaos was this going to cause?
Now, Herod had been trying to convince the Jewish people that he was truly a religious Jew, one of them by rebuilding the temple (even though he had sold himself out to Roman authority.) But he clearly wasn’t very observant because he had to call all the priests and scribes of the people to find out what the prophecies said about the Messiah. Where was this new king to be born? In Bethlehem, they tell him, and they cite him the scripture from the prophets Micah and Samuel:
`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’
It’s not until Herod hears that the ancient prophecies of Israel aligned with the rumors of what these sages were saying they saw from signs in the sky that he calls for them. They told him exactly when the light appeared. They had chronicled the details. “Go find this baby!” he cajoles them. “Let me know so I can go find him, too.”
So off they went, the rising of this star still beckoning to them until it stopped its movement in the skies. They were so convinced of what this light meant that they were overwhelmed with joy before they ever went in the house, before they ever laid eyes on Mary and her son. Before they even saw Jesus with their very own eyes, they knew. And suddenly Mary had more things to ponder in her heart! Can you imagine how flummoxed Joseph and Mary must have been? We don’t yet know how old Jesus was but by some accounts he might have been around 2 years old because soon after the magi left and tipped off Herod by not returning to tell him where Jesus was, they had to flee as asylum seekers to another country to keep their child safe.
And the gifts. Granted, the more practically minded think they could have at least brought a casserole or two. But gifts of meaning, of symbolism, were important in those days, especially to intentionally mark something holy and sacred. Maybe Mary was expecting food and blankets, but among the things she continued to ponder in her heart were the strange and mysterious events surrounding her son’s birth and she would have taken note of the gifts, gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.
There are signs and wonders for us, as well, if we just pay attention. It’s really easy to keep our focus on what is going wrong, on what is happening in the shadows all around us. We have to intentionally look for the Light, just as the magi did. Things weren’t great under the forced peace of the Roman Empire, unless you were privileged or elite. But these magi had spent their entire lives training, studying, praying, looking, and paying attention. They saw the light. They knew what it meant. They left their own country to find it. They dodged being used by the evil that was so pervasive. They knew. Everything they had spent their entire lives trying to understand, keeping the discipline of their practice, led them to the truth. And Matthew’s point here is that already Jesus had come for the whole world. These were not Judean magi, nor were they even Roman astrologers. They were foreigners.
There’s a lesson for us here. Paying attention, as I am always saying, is so important to our spiritual lives, but in order to pay attention one has to know what it is they are noticing. Sometimes our lessons are brought to us by people we would least expect to learn anything from. These strangers in a strange land teach us that when we take what we say we believe seriously, then we buckle down and make the intention to know what it is our scriptures are telling us. What it is that our dreams, our prayers, and our teachers are telling us. If we truly want to understand, we study, we pray, we listen, we watch, we receive, we are open to how surprisingly the Spirit might move. We get out of our comfort and familiarity and seek God. It’s a long road and sometimes we have to go home by another route. But glory be to God, these magi trusted and did not falter. Not finding Jesus, they pressed on until they did. Looking for the King of the Jews in the Temple made sense, but boy howdy, they found him in a simple home born to two poor parents whom nobody really knew. But they knew it to be true. They had prepared for this.
May we, in our own wanderings and searchings, never give up even when the journey takes a very, very long time. Even when the answers aren’t forthcoming. Keep studying, praying, reading, listening, and asking questions. You’ll most likely be quite surprised at God’s epiphany in your own lives, in the epiphany that God will make manifest in the life of St. Christopher’s. If we are true to our calling and baptismal vows, we will see the Light.
Magdalena's Musings 