Epiphany: The Longing of the Magi and the Glory of Jesus
CONTENT
Introduction
Good evening friends. It is so great to be with you to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. This season is actually older in the church’s calendar than the feast of Christmas itself, but because it doesn’t always fall on a Sunday, it doesn’t get nearly as much attention. Epiphany is an important season that draws us into the revealing of the glory of God in bringing heaven and earth together in the rule and reign of Jesus. This day focuses on the Magi in the western tradition. Then we continue the theme as we look at the revealing of the glory of God in Jesus’ baptism, in the turning of water into wine, and the transfiguration. The second to the last Sunday of this season we call world mission Sunday and it highlights that God’s glory is still going out to all the nations through the Church, which is his body. As we look at our Gospel passage today, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, Amen.”
King of the Jews (1-6)
St. Matthew begins his infancy narrative quite differently than St. Luke. There is no mention of a manger or animals, shepherds, or angels. Instead, we arrive at the place where Mary and Joseph are with their baby, Jesus, in Bethlehem. The timing of this happens under king Herod, who was an Idumean, a group of people descended from Esau and the Edomites who were forcibly converted to Judaism a few hundred years before by the Maccabees. He was an exceptional builder and administrator, but also a cruel tyrant, of whom it has been said that it is better to be Herod’s dog than his son. He was someone who was quick to put an end to anyone he perceived as a political threat.
Jesus was born into this culture of warring madness and it makes it all the more striking that some Magi come to Herod and ask “Where is the child who was born king of the Jews?” These are pagan astrologers who worked in the Royal court, often associated with Babylonia, but their location is ambiguous. The point is that they are Gentiles. These Gentile rulers have come to pay homage to the king of the Jews. Herod, though, claimed this title as his own, so you can imagine Herod’s surprise when astrologers from the East follow a divine light in the sky to find a king of the Jews — who was presumably not him.
Herod’s reign was about himself and his own preservation. By contrast, the rule of Jesus as king of the Jews was to be for the good of the nations. Matthew highlights the nature of Jesus’ kingship as one of a tender shepherd by quoting Micah 5:2 about the rule of the Messiah and bringing it into conversation with 2 Sam 5:2 which contrasts David’s shepherding rule with the tyranny of Saul. Jesus would be king of the Jews to the benefit of the nations around them.
The Nations will come to him (tie into great commission) (7-12)
Herod tells the Magi to go find the child and bring back word of where he is. He probably wouldn’t trust a Jew with this task seeing that the Jews would be eager to meet their Messiah, but these pagan rulers really had no skin in the game. The star appears again for the Magi who follow it to a house in Bethlehem where they find Jesus and Mary, his mother. The light of the world was born in dark times and yet we see the beginning of the nations streaming to the light in the little town of Bethlehem. One of the church Fathers, St. Chromatius, says it this way: “A boy he is, but it is God who is adored...The Son of God, who is God of the universe, is born a human being in the flesh....He is heard in the voice of a crying infant. This is the same one for whose voice the whole world would tremble in the hour of his passion. Thus he is the One, the God of glory and the Lord of majesty, whom as a tiny infant the magi recognize. It is he who while a child was truly God and King eternal....”
The Magi pay homage to this child and offer him their gifts, a foretaste of great commission where Jesus, after the resurrection, will tell his disciples to go into all the nations and make disciples. These Magi are warned in a dream about the schemes of Herod and they go home another way. The story has an important lesson for us about the reign of God. Reconciliation with God and one another is only possible under the Lordship of Christ. It is true of pagans and Jews, it is true of warring nations, it is true of groups of people, it’s true of households, it is true of our own relationship with the God who made us. Herod is an imposter who ruled by fear. Its like he was whetting his sword while he was being nice to the Magi. He shows us that there is a cruel kind of niceness that is manipulative and self-serving and will not produce real reconciliation. Jesus offers us something more difficult, but more real. Humility is the beginning of the kingdom, not denial or the appearance of opulence, not defensive posturing or violence, but humility, honesty, and contrition. This is how the glory of Jesus spreads.
Conclusion
On this Epiphany and in the season after Epiphany, we are invited to explore the goodness of the glory of Jesus who is our kind shepherd-king. We join the Magi in offering him the fruit of our lives to experience the reconciliation he brings. We join the disciples in being discipled so that we can make disciples. The work begins in our own hearts as we ask God to restore and reconcile what is broken. This is the process of Jesus taking us out of the darkness and bringing us into his glorious light. Let me pray for us as we close:
O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
