Revealed (Matthew 2:1-12)
Rev. Peter Heckert
01/09/22

+ Grace to you, and peace, from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + Amen.

The text for our meditation on this Epiphany Sunday comes from our gospel text, especially where Matthew records, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” Here ends our text; my dear Christian friends …

Unsurprisingly, there are many misconceptions about this text in Matthew’s gospel. The most common one is that the visit of the Magi occurred the same night as Jesus’s birth, with the shepherds and these men from the east fawning over the newborn babe; actually, the text suggests that Jesus was as old as two by the time of their arrival. Another is that these men were kings, as we all know the song, “We three kings of orient are ….” They weren’t royalty, but were more likely servants of kings in the east, astrologers and star-readers and emissaries. One misconception that was brought to my attention as a youth was that there were exactly three of these guys, representative of the three gifts; nowhere do the Scriptures cite their number. There could have been only two, or there could have been 50! We simply don’t know.

I think, however, that the sneakiest misconception that everyone seems to believe is the idea that these were wise men – even the translators of our text suggest this is the case. It’s not. The Greek word there is “magoi,” from which we get the word “Magi” and also where we get the word “magic.” They were sorcerers, wizards if you will, practicers of magic … breakers of the second commandment. Simply put, they were unbelieving foreigners, pagans who really didn’t understand the enormity of what was actually happening in Judea and specifically Bethlehem. They thought they knew; from how the text reads, they believed this child born in Bethlehem, whose star they had followed all these months and miles, was going to be the new earthly king of Israel. They thought they knew, but they knew not. Perhaps instead of “wise men,” we ought to call them, “sophomores,” or “wise fools.” In any case, these were not faithful (albeit misguided), wise philosophers from Persia; they were heathens, worshipers of the false-god Ahura Mazda who would sooner be stoned to death by the masses if they set one foot in the temple of Jerusalem.

That’s actually a point not to be missed, especially when you remember that the audience for whom Matthew was writing was primarily Jewish, people who knew the temple laws and history of their people. Matthew starts his gospel account with the birth of the Messiah, born to Joseph of the line of David, and the first people that he mentions coming to reverence and prostrate themselves before Him are not the people in Bethlehem, Jericho, or anyone in Judea for that matter, but rather these pagan fools. Misguided though they were, nevertheless the God of Israel led them to this place to recognize the Holy Child as set apart, something special, worth of their gifts of frankincense and gold and myrrh and their corresponding meanings and significances. The day (and the season) of Epiphany is less about these three sophomoric pagans, come hundreds (perhaps thousands) of miles to worship a perceived foreign king. This has much more to do with God keeping His promise to the father of nations, Abraham, thousands of years prior.

At the time, when he was known as Abram, he was a pagan himself, worshipping the star-goddess Sin. There was certainly nothing outwardly special about this man and his half-sister wife Sarai. They were just another childless, elderly couple who, though descended from Noah’s son Shem, had long forgotten the promises of their Creator. But all that changed when the true God – YHWH, not Sin – said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Contrary to contemporary belief, YHWH’s promise to send the Messiah was a promise for all peoples of the world, both Jew and Gentile. That’s why the example of these foolish pagan emissaries is so remarkable. They are … us. Encrusted in the filth of sin, foolish yet thinking ourselves wise, we were considering the stars and trying to save ourselves from the punishment for our sin even if we didn’t physically bow down to the goddess Sin or the “Wise Lord” Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrianism. The Magi had no business being among the first to recognize Jesus as something beyond special, and neither do we. Yet, by the grace and mercy of God, He led them to the City of David, to offer their gifts to the newborn King of creation, not of Israel alone. We have no business, no right to come into this holy place where the divine majesty of YHWH’s own holy presence fills everything … and yet, out of His divine goodness and mercy and love, He has drawn us here to this place. We, who come from a myriad of ancestors from lands and nations and tongues across the globe, have come here to humbly receive the gifts that God so freely bestows – not because we deserve it, but because He saw the greatness of our need and in divine love seeks to meet it.

The Magi most likely didn’t realize exactly what they were doing, or even know fully just who it was that they were worshipping. In spite of what you may see in popular culture, they very well may not have converted and believed in Jesus as the Savior of the world – they may have, but Scripture is silent on the issue. That said, their witness to the whole of creation is incredibly telling, as are the gifts they bore to this newborn King. The gold of royalty belied His kingship over all creation, all nations, not just Israel. The frankincense, while a pleasant perfume, is also used in incense, burned to bear the prayers of God’s faithful to His listening ears, and is thus a confession of Jesus’s divinity. Myrrh … an anointing oil often used to perfume and bless the bodies of the dead during burial preparation … points to the very purpose this child was born: to bear the sins of the whole world, to suffer, to be crucified, and to die. Regardless of whether or not they believed, we believers, Jews and Gentiles who confess Christ the crucified and resurrected Lord, are grateful for what our heavenly Father revealed to them, and to us. A blessed Epiphany day and season to you all!

+ In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + Amen.