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Sermon - The Meaning of Epiphany - 6th January 2008
St Alban’s 7:00am and 8.00 am
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12
You might be surprised by today’s gospel reading. It is the story of the visit of the Magi or the three wise men to the place where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Actually, we don’t know if there were three wise men, only that there were three gifts, gold, incense and myrrh.
And we usually associate these events with the Christmas story. But Matthew’s gospel seems to indicate that the visit of the magi occurred some time after Jesus’ birth and in the church calendar we date the visit as 12 days after Christmas day. As well, we call this day Epiphany which simply means it is the day that the baby Jesus was revealed to the world.
Up until this point the birth of Jesus had been a private affair concerning only Mary, Joseph and a few shepherds. But now we have others entering the story including King Herod, the king of Israel, as well as these wise men from the East.
So the news of Jesus’ birth was beginning to spread, even beyond the borders of Israel into the rest of the known world. Some people have asked if these are true stories or are they just myths that the church has collected. Its hard to answer that question. The only place where this story is told is in the Bible so we don’t have any other documents to back the story up.
On the other hand, we do know that back in those times there were magi and they were people who studied the stars. And there are accounts of them travelling through the middle east conducting research regarding some of their observations. So what we read in the gospel is not unusual magi behaviour. The story fits naturally into the history we know.
Then we have the account of King Herod. He didn’t have a strong grip on this throne and his claim to be the rightful king was questioned by many. No doubt he would have found unsettling these reports of the birth of a king. And so his attempt to get information from the Magi secretly is not surprising. So even though we can’t prove that these events are historical, they seem to fit the times they are describing. And it reminds us that when the Son of God came into the world it was a very real human experience. He came into a world with the kind of tensions and dangers we understand.
The magi must have been an impressive group. They were the type of people who could get immediate access to the king and when they did, they had a strange story to tell. They probably saw some significant change in the heavens big enough to encourage them to leave their homes and begin their wanderings until they came to Jerusalem. And the birth of a new king was just the sort of thing magi would be looking for.
As scholars, magi often provided kings with their advice, and the one thing kings were interested in was politics and who was in power amongst their neighbours. The birth of a new king was palace news and palace gossip. So if they had seen something in the heavens they would be called on to give their opinion on it. Having seen something in the sky its not surprising they packed their bags and began their search.
But you can imagine the impact they made in Jerusalem, when they announced to an insecure king, who was fearful of usurpers, that a new king had been born in Israel particularly as he had been ignorant of Jesus’ birth. And its no wonder he called for his advisers to find out from them where the Messiah was to be born. The answer came back “Bethlehem”. Immediately, Herod began to hatch his plot. He could use these wise men to his own ends. He could encourage them to seek out this new king without putting this rival king on his guard.
Notice the cynicism in his command, “Search for the child. As soon as you find him, let me know, so I too may go and worship him.” But there was murder in his heart. How many babies have been born that have so quickly become the object of an assassination plan. Here we have the Son of God coming into our world but from the very start it was a dangerous mission. He left behind all the privilege of Heaven to experience all the danger of this world, protected only by his young mother and her carpenter husband.
We don’t know how it was that the star guided them, but having left the capital city, these wise men travelled on to Bethlehem and eventually found this baby. But why was it that they bowed and worshipped Jesus? It must have been that what they saw in the sky was of such significance that this baby was worthy of a special regard. And notice the gifts that they gave. These days we might think they are quite odd – gold, incense and myrrh.
These are not what you give for a new born child. But they are the gifts for royalty – this is palace protocol. They indicate what these wise men thought of this baby. They were convinced he would be a king and so they gave him the honours due to a king by presenting to him gifts fit for royalty.
It is an irony isn’t it. Here was a baby in a manger – a baby in a stable. And yet these wise men were convinced he was a king and had travelled from a far country to give him the honour he was due as a king. Maybe they had seen in the stars how great he really was and so in spite of his humble circumstances, they knew they had found their king. And then Matthew adds the brief note that they has been warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Somehow the dream had warned them of the danger the baby was in.
And so they secretly returned to their own country without letting Herod know where they had been. Later Matthew tells us that Joseph too was warned of the danger in a dream and took Jesus and Mary to Egypt. It was not long after this that Herod came through Bethlehem in his frustration and slaughtered every young male child he could find hoping to destroy this new child king.
This is a confronting story. Its not the story we might expect of God sending his Son into the world. This Epiphany Sunday reminds us of how quickly Jesus was revealed to the world not just to those in Israel. It reminds us that Jesus came to save and to rescue all the world. But it reminds us too that not everyone welcomed the coming of the Son of God.
He was not welcomed by those who prefer war to peace, or darkness rather than light, who prefer to cling to a lie rather than confront the truth, who prefer injustice and oppression rather than honesty and equality.
We may love the words of the Magnificat, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He had filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” But they are the words of comfort for the poor, not for those in positions of power.
And so as Jesus is revealed to us in this epiphany, he is revealed as who he really is, not as we might like him to be. But he is not a tame God. He will not conform to our world or to our expectations.
And yet if he did that, we would miss out on the glory of who he really is.
When we look at any baby, we often think of the potential in that one small life. We think of the education they might have. We think of the talent they may possess. We think of the vision that may burn in their hearts. And we speculate on the difference they might make in our world. Yet with this one special baby, though he was cradled in his mother’s lap, he had made his presence felt in the world.
And through this one life the world would never be the same. And our future is entirely shaped by his life, his ministry, his love for us in rescuing us from the dominion of darkness and transferring us into his kingdom for all eternity.