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The Magi: Harbingers of Glory
(Matthew 2:1-12)
This morning I’ve decided to take a little detour from the Lectionary, whose prescribed
readings are those for The Baptism of Jesus. Instead we’ve just heard the readings for
the Epiphany, which actually was observed a couple of days ago, but I felt guided to
direct our attention to it today. (And by the way, thank you to our readers and the
worship team for your flexibility in turning the bus on relatively short notice.)
The word “Epiphany” means a showing forth, or a manifestation of something important.
I really like it that the ancient Greeks often used this word to describe the sunrise. When
I was younger I spent many an early morning up in the mountains on backpacking trips,
enjoying the first light of dawn after a long and cold night. And indeed Jesus’
appearance after the agonizing wait for the Messiah must have felt like a warm, golden
dawn for those who understood what was happening.
So on this day, two weeks after Christmas, we celebrate the showing forth of the
incarnate God, Jesus Christ, to the first outside witnesses. Whenever I think of the wise
men—the Magi—I can’t help but wing my way back to the church of my childhood in
Decorah, Iowa, where we had a yearly Christmas pageant whose most splendid and
colorful feature was that regal procession of the wise men from the back of the church
to the front, singing “We Three Kings.”
So my first impression of the Magi is that they looked and sang like three Norwegian
farmers, two of whom wore glasses. (They never would have found their way to the
Christ child without them, I can assure you.) But to an eight-year old boy they still cut a
dashing figure.
But as I did a little more research on the wise men, I realized how much our image of
them is a product of tradition, and not exactly history. And in all fairness the sparse
narrative in today’s twelve verses leaves a lot of questions unanswered. For instance,
when did they visit the Christ child? How old was he? Where did the Magi come from?
And were they wise men or were they kings?
(You may have seen that comic strip that kind of typifies the confusion as it shows the
wise men out in the desert reviewing their plan with each other. One says, “Right, we’ve
picked up the gold and myrrh, but what on earth is that?” And one of the others is
escorting Frankenstein in front of the curious camels. You know, gold, Frankenstein and
myrrh. Many have been unclear on the concept.)
Anyway, I thought I’d start by saying a few words about the history of this rather
mysterious account in Matthew’s Gospel. And in so doing I sought out the very wellinformed opinions of one of my go-to Bible scholars, the late Rev. Dr. Kenneth Bailey.
His book called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is one of the best of its kind, and I
highly recommend it.
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Bailey thinks that a lot of Bible scholars have missed some very important information
about the Magi. Conventional wisdom has it that they were Persian astrologers, what
with all their talk about a star guiding them toward this monumental birth of a new king.
But Bailey thinks the Magi came out of Arabia, to the south and east of Judah. For
starters, Arabia was a hub of gold mining in the Middle East, and frankincense and
myrrh both came from trees that only grew in southern Arabia. He thinks that the most
natural origin point of the gifts brought in homage to the baby would match the origin
points of those who bore them.
On top of that, the earliest commentary on this story comes from Justin Martyr, in about
the year 160 A.D. Justin Martyr was a Palestinian Christian who lived in Caesarea. In
one of his books he says, “The wise men from Arabia came to Bethlehem and
worshipped the child and offered to him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.” 160
A.D.
And there’s an intriguing account by one British scholar from the 1920’s who came
across a tribe of Bedouins in Jordan. They were Arabic Muslims who bore the name “alKokabani”, which means “Those who follow the planets.” When the scholar asked the
tribal elders about that surname, they replied that their ancestors followed the planets
westward into Palestine to honor the great prophet Jesus when he was born. (Who
knows? Kind of interesting.)
But Bailey takes it back much further than this, into the Isaiah reading we heard a few
minutes ago, Isaiah chapter 60. Like many prophets, Isaiah wrote of things that can
apply both to the time in which he lived and to future events. And of course he gave us
more messianic prophecies than probably any of the other Old Testament prophets.
Isaiah, chapter 60 is widely considered to be one of these. It starts off in a brilliant and
sweeping way. If you’re familiar with Handel’s Messiah you’ll recognize the first words:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For
darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise
upon you, and his glory will appear over you.” Okay? Something remarkable and
glorious is coming! he says. The darkness of sin that has cast its long shadow over the
ages is about to be pierced by the light of the Lord! Isaiah says elsewhere, “The people
who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
And later in Isaiah 60 some other curious things appear. The prophet writes: “A
multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those
from Sheba shall come. “They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the
praise of the Lord.”
Now, interestingly, Midian, Ephah and Sheba were in Arabia. And while tradition has it
that there were three magi, that’s not exactly what the text says. It says there were three
gifts, but is doesn’t say how many people came in the company bearing these gifts. But
Matthew certainly does report that they did indeed proclaim the praise of the Lord. In
fact he uses that shocking and inflammatory Greek word that means “worship”. “They
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knelt down and worshipped him” is what the Greek says. If you were here a couple of
weeks ago we talked about that. For believers in the one creator God, “worship” was
simply not an option toward any human being. Yet the Magi not only followed God’s
direction in a dream, but they brought gifts of veneration, and they knelt before the
Christ child, and worshipped him.
Now, there’s something that needs to be made clear here. When Isaiah says “the Lord
will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn”; and when he talks about the coming of herds
of camels and important people from Arabia bearing gifts and so on, most would agree
that he’s talking about Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. Isaiah seems to foresee the glory of a
Jerusalem that will shine forth to give light to the whole world.
But Matthew puts together the pieces of a surprising puzzle. You see, by the time
Matthew wrote the words of his Gospel, Jerusalem had not fulfilled this prophecy. It had
basically failed in this divine mandate. Remember that Jesus once came into the great
city and said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those
who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”
And afterward Jesus cleansed the temple of the moneychangers, and he proclaimed
that its stones would soon fall, but that this temple, the temple of Jesus Christ’s own
body, though it be destroyed, would be raised up again in three days.
Jesus was making a very clear statement here. He was saying that he would redeem
Jerusalem’s failure to be a light to the world by himself becoming the new Jerusalem,
the new Israel. This was a complete left turn for the Jewish people. It caught most of
them by surprise. It’s not at all what they expected. They didn’t get it. In fact there were
many ways in which the birth, the life, the teachings, the death, and the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ caught his own Jewish people by surprise. The messianic prophecies were
fulfilled in unexpected ways. Matthew records and explains many of these in his Gospel.
And Matthew’s choice to include this account of Magi coming from the East fits into this
pattern. It’s the fulfillment of a prophecy. The prophecy may have originally envisioned
the city of Jerusalem, but it was fulfilled in the person of the New Jerusalem, Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Matthew 2 is the realization of Isaiah 60. In Ken
Bailey’s words, “The great [unfulfilled] hopes for [Jerusalem] were transferred to the
child in the manger.”
A great light had appeared which would banish the world’s darkness. Nations, their
people, and their riches would come to this Light. And leading the way would be wise
men, perhaps from Arabia, bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh, and kneeling before
him in worship.
Jerusalem is, of course, a great place of pilgrimage, not only for Christians, but for Jews
and Muslims as well. But for us the supreme pilgrimage isn’t to a place, but to a person,
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because through him God’s light shines and the Lord’s glory has come. The hopes of
God’s people have been fulfilled in him.
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
It never ceases to amaze me how God uses unlikely people and unlikely situations to
show forth, to manifest his love and his truth. This past week I went into a clinic for a
blood draw, and struck up a conversation with the nice young man who was doing the
work. He happened to notice on my insurance card that it’s administered through the
church. He asked if I was a “preacher”, and offered some evidence that he knew a little
about “religion” because he knew some people who were “religious.” I guess that was
the whole extent of his experience with Christianity.
Then he brought up an article he’d read about archeologists at the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher recently uncovering the stone table upon which Jesus’ body is thought to
have been laid. The phlebotomist called it “that table where his body was when that
thing happened—I think it starts with an ‘R’.” (I’m pretty sure the word he was looking for
was “resurrection”.) This may sound humorous or sad to those of us who are familiar
with what the scriptures teach, but I’m finding it pretty typical for a lot of younger folks
now. If there’s no one to tell them, how will they know?
Obviously, with patients waiting and a lot more information needed, I couldn’t “seal the
deal” and lead him to the Lord then and there. But I pray that our little conversation
might have planted a seed or two that the Holy Spirit may germinate. God has used
stranger things, and maybe even stranger people than me to do so.
This brings me back to the Magi. These were people who never had the advantage of
hearing Jesus’ words, or stories of his miracles. They weren’t even from Palestine. And
Jesus was just a baby. Yet through their openness and obedience to God’s direction,
they were the first outside witnesses to the Incarnation. They discerned, however dimly,
the supreme importance of his birth. They even worshipped the Christ child. And they
were led to courageously protect him from the evil blade of King Herod whose conniving
demand for information they bluntly disobeyed as they returned to the East.
This is the kind of thing that happens when unlikely people are chosen to do important
things in God’s great plan for the human race, if those unlikely people, if we, are paying
attention. Please think about that.
In this new year of 2017 may we have listening ears, discerning spirits, and obedient
hearts as we identify our role in the great, unfolding story of the world’s redemption.
Amen.