Today is Epiphany, which is a medium big deal in the scheme of big deal church days. So, things!
Matthew 2:1-12; Ephesians 3:1-12; Psalm 72:1-7,10-14; Isaiah 60:1-6
This is one of those rare times in the church year when an important day actually falls on the day we celebrate it. Epiphany is always January 6 – twelve days after Christmas – and we usually celebrate it the Sunday after January 6, because most of the time it’s not a Sunday. Oh and, by the way, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” are the days between Christmas and Epiphany, not the two weeks before Christmas. That’s a little bit of trivia for your Epiphany morning.
Epiphany, which means “manifestation” or “striking appearance”, is the celebration of God revealing himself in Jesus Christ, using the example of the visit from the magi. Now there isn’t a lot we know about these magi – only that they’re from the east and they brought Jesus three gifts. Western traditions assumes there are three magi, and gives them names: Melchior from Persia, Caspar from India, and Balthazar from Arabia.
There’s also a tradition that the magi were Zoroastrian priest-astrologers; They would have paid quite a bit of attention to the movements of stars as part of their religious observances. It’s actually from this group that we have the term “magic”, from “magi” the name of this Zoroastrian priestly caste.
But no matter their origin, some group of “wise men” showed up one day on Herod the Great’s doorstep asking where the new king is because they saw a sign in the stars regarding him. Now let me tell you a little bit about Herod. He was basically your prototypical dictator. The Jewish rulers condemned him because of excessive brutality. He killed his second wife, her mother, two brothers-in-law, and three of his sons because they were threats to his continued power. But all the while, he tried very hard to act like a good Jew, but only when it served his purposes.
So when a group of magi showed up at his front door saying, “Where’s the new king of the Jews?” Herod’s jealousy would have kicked in quickly – because he hadn’t had any kids born lately. As Matthew understated, “King Herod … was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” Basically Herod was trying to figure out who he had to kill, and everyone else was worried it was going to be them.
With the help of the Jewish scholars, he figured out the “king of the Jews” was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, and then he lied to the magi saying, “When you find the new king, let me know where he is, so that I can worship him, too.” Luckily the magi were warned against telling Herod in a dream, because when Herod found out about Jesus, he ordered the murder of any boys under two years of age in Bethlehem – something that was, sadly, completely in his character to do.
So you have the different reactions of two groups of people: there’s Herod, the one who claims to be a Jew; and then there’s the magi, who are about as Gentile as you can get. There’s the one who should have been looking for the Messiah – the King of the Jews – and the ones who more or less stumbled on him. But who actually wanted to worship?
It’s always fascinating to me that the first people in Matthew’s gospel to see the new-born Jesus are not Jews. Matthew’s gospel is usually seen as the most “Jewish” gospel – Matthew wants to show Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy regarding the Messiah, so much so that it opens by tracing Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham through David, whereas Jesus’ genealogy in Luke goes all the way back to Adam. The story of the magi seems like it would fit better in Luke’s gospel – the one that is more focused on showing Jesus as the Messiah for all people. And yet here we are in Matthew’s gospel – reading about the Jew who wanted to kill Jesus and the Gentiles who wanted to worship.
It’s exactly backwards from what one might except – well, to be fair, I don’t think anyone was surprised Herod wanted to kill anyone who may be a king in the future, but we’re talking generalities here. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah to come, who they thought would save them from Roman oppression.
But Herod was only playing at being Jewish. He used religion when it served his purposes, but nothing in his life showed him as caring at all about God. Yet the magi, whether Zoroastrian or otherwise, almost assuredly didn’t worship God. They had no motivation to seek out a Messiah, or even a king – depending on the tradition they were either quite happy with their own king or kings in their own rights. Yet they came to worship.
Often we run into situations like this today – there are people who act like they love God when it suits them, but don’t really follow. They find it more important to look like Christians than to act like it. But there’s also those who might not call themselves Christians, but do Christian things – namely, they seek after and worship God like the magi did.
Even then, the key message to us is much more simple: Do you want to worship God, or be seen to worship God? That’s really what it comes down to. Throughout his ministry, Jesus sought out and served the people who wanted to worship God, while delivering rather scathing criticism at those who wanted to be seen to worship God. Much of the sermon on the mount later in Matthew’s gospel talks about this very thing, and it’s illustrated here between Herod’s and the magi’s reaction to Jesus. So which is it? Worship God or look like you’re worshiping? Follow Jesus or look like you’re following? I, for one, would rather follow.