We three kings of orient are, bearing gifts, we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.
This feast of the Epiphany. It is also called the Manifestation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. More about that title in a bit. This feast is on January 6th every year, and it brings to a close Christmastide. It’s lovely that the feast falls on a Sunday this year, so that all of of us can celebrate this important event in the life of our Lord — the arrival of the Wise Men, the adoration of the Magi.
The three kings. We even have names for them, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. Those names showed up in about the 5th century. Somewhere along the way we crafted all sorts of storied about them. They were reported to have come from Persia, from Arabia, from Ethiopia, or maybe from Armenia, or China, or India. Somewhere from the east at any rate.
Now, the Bible never says there are three of them. We know they brought three gifts, so I think it’s natural that we’ve just decided there were three gift-givers. But maybe there were four, or fourteen, or forty. Who knows. That’s fine. The number isn’t really that important.
The Bible also never says that they are kings. They are desceibed as Magoi. So what are Magoi? They are priests of the Persian religion called Zoroastrianism. Persia is modern day Iran, and once upon a time the influence of Persian culture and religion was felt all the way from Greece to China. Now, Zoastrianiasm at that time used a lot of natural observation in its search for divine messages. The Magi were astronomers and astrologers. Magi is the source of our words magic and magician. Zoroastrians are still around, incidentally.
So we celebrate these three kings who are really an unknown number of astrologer-priests, but we won’t let the details spoil our fun.
The arrival of the magi tell us so much about God’s gift of salvation!
Now, the story of the Magi is found in St. Matthew’s gospel. Remember that the two Christmas stories are slightly different between Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s gospel. Jesus is born in Bethelehem in both of them, which is good. At least they agree on that point. But the two gospels tell different stories after Jesus is born.
Luke tells us about the shepherds. Matthew tells us about the Magi.
Two sets of visitors to the Holy Family after the birth of our Lord, and they couldn’t be more different.
The shepherds were poor, uneducated, the lowest of their class.
The Magi were doubtless trained, educated, privileged, learned.
The shepherds were from the Jewish people. The Magi were gentiles.
The shepherds followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of their ancestors. The Magi followed other gods, yet hungered for the same things that every human longs for.
The shepherds were summoned by the angels, who appeared, and spoke to them, and gave them their glad tidings.
The Magi studied ancient writings, measured the stars, the sun, the moon, mapped the heavens, and found in them patterns that pointed to a prophecy from a distant land.
The shepherds travelled straight from field to manger. The Magi visited King Herod on the way, instantly catapulting the newborn infant Jesus up into the adult world of politics and power, and Matthew’s Gospel confronts us with the truth that Christ’s birth had big consequences.
Jesus was no ordinary baby. He inspired the pilgrimage of these wise men. He inflamed the paranoia of Herod. The Angels sang for his birth. The Shepherds rejoiced. The very stars aligned, for the whole of the cosmos was waiting for this moment — the moment when God would join with the creation in this birth.
The shepherds returned to their fields and their friends, and told the glad news, and so became evangelists of the joy that is Jesus. The Magi returned whom by a different route, to avoid Herod’s madness, of course, but also because they had changed in the meeting of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their pilgrimage was different now.
The wise men and the shepherds discovered Jesus. In coming weeks we will hear about other times when people discovered Jesus. This is what we learn in this season: that Jesus is Jesus. He is who he is. He does what he does. The whole world is saved through him. But humans do not open our eyes easily. We have to be lucky enough to catch him, or quiet enough to hear him, or hungry enough to desire him — and so here is a question:
What star is leading you towards Jesus? You are still on your pilgrim’s path. Where will you explore this year, or be led, in your ongoing walk towards Jesus and with Jesus? It is best not to think that you have already arrived. There is always another step to take, and always a new dimension to divinity. The journey continues.
For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing
by Jan Richardson
If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.
There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.
There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.
Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel
to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.