If you wanted to give the story of the Visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus a different title, you could call it, “The Empire Strikes Back.” No, this is not “Star Wars”, but some of the tensions in the bible story are reflected in that series of films.
Taking a leaf out of Graham’s sermon style, today I offer you three themes from our readings.
This is not a cosy story, but a revealing of Jesus’s future ministry.
This is a story about worship and how essential it is for the health of humankind.
This is a story that has modern indication for interfaith dialogue.
The story of the visit of the Magi is extraordinary but perhaps we have made it cute and tamed as we have remodelled Christmas for children. The story is actually full of danger and horror – and from the beginning, tells of the dominions of darkness and the powers Jesus came to expose, challenge and overcome.
It is a surprising story for Matthew. In the main the gospel of Matthew is a very localized story in a very small geographic area. But it doesn’t start like that. Following a colourful genealogy which has mention of people that you wouldn't put in most respectable genealogies, we are introduced to these astrologers from who knows where - some say Persia, some say Arabia? Wherever they are from, these exotic visitors would be very strange to your ordinary Israelite and their faith would be questionable. Yet they have travelled and arrived using their own wisdom, their own religious knowledge and their own experience. They have discerned the birth of the King and they are coming to worship. What we, the readers get from Matthew’s opening is the sense that this story is going to go global.
We are introduced to the Magi before we are confronted by danger in the form of the tyrant, Herod. But then, first slyly and finally violently, danger smashes any idea we have that this is a cosy story.
First, Herod meets the Magi and pretends to be on their side, as he plots to do away with this usurper King in Bethlehem.
Then, having visited the Holy Child, the Magi are warned of Herod’s intentions in a dream and go home another way, thereby avoiding a second audience with Herod and, they believe, protecting the child.
The non- appearance of the Magi, alerts Herod.
Joseph is also warned in a dream of impending danger and the family flee to Egypt.
Herod the Tyrant, frustrated in his plans, in fear and fury murders every little boy under two in Bethlehem.
Earthly Powers and dominions. The Empire will strike back. And why should that surprise us when we look at human history and the tyrants and dark powers in our world today? The gospel is not ever a cosy story.
What else does this story invite us to see? One of the themes that I've always liked about this story is that human error does not prevent the Magi getting to where God wants them to be. Of course, they do what you or I would do if we were searching for a newly born king. Even though the Star has not let them down thus far, they don’t initially go to where the Star is leading them, which is Bethlehem. They go to Jerusalem. It is sort of like this. My Satnav, my GPS, my Star is clearly wrong. I know that it's wrong. It's telling me to go to Bethlehem but I know that kings are born in Jerusalem. So, I ignore my SatNav and the irritating voice of the woman who is telling me to turn around, and I follow my human reasoning. Reason tells me that kings are born at the human centre of power so I go to Jerusalem. But that's not where the Magi are supposed to go. So, here in the story is a little nudge about following God as opposed to following human ways of thinking.
Yet, it is the very visit of the Magi to Jerusalem that begins to underline another and major point not only in this story but in Jesus’ life and ministry. Jesus comes to unveil hypocrisy, tyranny, idolatry, falsehood. Here come these exotic foreign visitors with their costly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – and Herod soon learns that these treasures are not for him. These men have not come to bow down to him. They have come for the birth of a king because, “We observed his star at its rising and we have come to pay him homage.” They want to pay another homage. Not Herod.
Herod has been and is the centre of his universe. How do you get the person in authority to show their true character? Tell them they are not the centre of the universe.
Herod will strike back when it appears that his empire is being called into question or not being recognized or worshipped.
One way we go through the Season of Epiphany, is by looking at each story and seeing the way each one manifests the Godhead of Jesus. But as the season unwraps the realities of the kingdom, and what is God's reign, it also begins to expose what is not God's reign. So, the stories of Epiphany are not just focused on the manifestations of Jesus as Lord and King. They also expose what will come alongside to call that into question or even squash it.
Even though we do not have the character or the power of a Herod, most of us do have the tendency to make ourselves the centre of our universe. It is human nature. Left to ourselves we almost cannot help it. So, is there any way in which we can stop that tendency? What can we do to draw back from always needing to be at the centre of the universe?
The response is that, like the Magi, we pay homage to God, we worship God. What is worship? Worship is the weekly and hopefully, in your prayer life, the daily de-centring of yourself from the centre of your universe. It is bad for us to live there and it is bad for our neighbour and human society in general when we are so self-absorbed that we are the centre of the universe. Worship is the act of constantly putting God back at the centre of both your universe and the universe in such a way than that you can turn then to your neighbour, knowing that you are freed from self-absorption to love your neighbour.
The last thing I want to draw out of this story is how, given human error and all our major differences of culture and faith, the Messiah is to become manifest to the nations? The answer this passage gives us is, if we listen to God’s directions, we will figure it out. Or God will guide us there. Our Magi visitors have the Star. They have their own way of discerning. But they also get help. If they go to the wrong place, they have someone who can consult the scriptures for them So, this is not a story that suggests they simply do their thing and we do our own thing. This is a story about how to be in interfaith relationships.
This story can ask, at least in this age, how does the church listen to the wisdom of its neighbours who have great traditions not just of theology but of piety, of attending to others and of service? There is a kind of partnership, connection, built into this moment of the Magi’s visit. But the Magi don't stay. They don't decide to become Jews. They go back home and how this experience has changed them is unclear. We never know. What we do know is that it has certainly changed the trajectory of the whole gospel from Matthew's perspective.
We have seen that the themes in this story talk to us of how we turn in on ourselves and we have asked, how do we prevent ourselves from being our own centre of attention? There may be a clue in our OT reading, in verse 4 of Isaiah 60, it says, “Lift up your eyes and look around.” That is the charge and command of the Season of Epiphany. To lift up your eyes from what is right in front of you or from your absorption with yourself; to lift up your eyes to God. This moment of looking to God first enables you then to look around at who is around you - your neighbour. The invitation of Epiphany is this act of lifting up your eyes and looking around and doing it intentionally and actively. In this way we might have an epiphany. We might see God in a new way. We might see our neighbour in a new way. God will reveal Godself to us in this season.