Lessons of the Magi

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to thee, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer and Lord, give us here today, eyes to see and ears to hear so we can learn your word together as a family. We offer you all the praise, honor, and Glory for it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning, my fellow encouragers! Although it may be a few days late, I wish you a Happy New Year!

Has anyone made a New Year’s resolution yet? Have any of them lasted through today? I must admit that I no longer bother making New Year’s resolutions. I’ve tried a lot of them over the years: I’ll get fitter by jogging and/or going on a diet; I’ll learn to speak Spanish fluently; I’ll finally get the shed cleaned out and organized etc. etc., etc. And how did I fair with all those resolutions over the years? My waistline shows no sign of shrinking, my Spanish is no better, and my shed keeps getting junkier.

But maybe we should not be so quick to dispense with New Year’s resolutions entirely. Although resolutions can make us feel bad about ourselves when we, once again, fail to stick with them, perhaps they can serve a useful purpose.

Maybe thinking about our resolutions forces us to look at who we are now and compare that to who we would like to be. Then, strive to close the gap between the two. Even if we are unsuccessful, it makes us take a self-conscious look at ourselves and try to improve who we are.

So, this year, I am making one New Year’s resolution, and it is related to the theme of the Epiphany that we celebrate today. I’ll return to my resolution in a moment, but before I do, let’s think a little more about the church season.

Despite being in the New Year and despite the retailers itching to get Easter eggs on the shelves, we should not forget that now and for the next several days, at least, we are still celebrating the season of Christmas and the Epiphany.

In many nativity plays and crib scenes, like the Creche we set up on the Last Sunday in Advent, the three wise men, magi, or Kings are often shown arriving in Bethlehem at the same time as the shepherds. There’s nothing wrong with that, as it makes for a picturesque scene. It shows the wise and wealthy “Kings of the Orient” kneeling to worship Jesus beside the poorest of pastoral workers, all equal before God.

But I think it is helpful to remind ourselves, in this context at least, that the traditional nativity scene of wise men and shepherds together in Bethlehem is a conflation of the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Today’s Gospel lesson from St. Matthew iterates the Epiphany, or the showing forth of the revelation of Christ to the Magi, and contains no shepherds at all, while the Gospel of St. Luke has the Shepherds but no wise men.

That doesn’t mean one gospel writer got it right and the other got it wrong, or, as I said, it’s wrong to combine the stories in dramatic form. However, from a biblical literacy perspective, it’s good to remind ourselves that St. Matthew and St. Luke’s accounts of the nativity are written from different angles to shed different light on the scene and the purpose of Christ’s birth.

So, what does the story of the Magi who traveled from the East, possibly for months, if not years, tell us about Jesus and the faith we have inherited? I believe St. Matthew tells us three basic things here. First, he lets us know Jesus is for everyone. Second, the gifts of the Magi tell us about who Jesus is. Third, St. Matthew shows us that God communicates by any method He wants to.

1. Jesus is for everyone. Our Gospel lesson makes that quite evident. The Magi were not Jewish, yet they traveled very far to pay homage to the King of the Jews. The message of the Magi is that Christ’s kingship reaches beyond the borders of Israel and Jewishness. Jesus is King not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles and the whole world.

2. The gifts brought by the Magi each tell us something about who Jesus is: He was given gold as a gift suitable for a king, frankincense as an offering to God, and myrrh as an “embalming fluid,” if you will, in recognition that the road he was to follow would involve passing through death. Myrrh was one of many spices used to anoint the body at burial.

Isaiah 60:6 says, “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 bring good news, the praises of the Lord.”

Interestingly, gold and frankincense are highlighted in this prophecy, yet myrrh is absent. This observation leads me to two reflective insights:

A. The Gospel account of the magi was not crafted merely to fulfill prior prophecies and

B. The understanding of Jesus as the Messiah by the Gentiles differs from the Jewish expectation. The Jews expected a King from the line of David to come and release them from Roman oppression.

So, St. Matthew highlights that Jesus’ arrival not only fulfills earlier prophecies but also transcends and transforms them in remarkable ways. For instance, Isaiah’s prophecy we just read was intended for Zion, or the city of David, which is Jerusalem. Yet it is fulfilled in the child of Bethlehem, the root of Jesse, the father of King David. The gifts of gold and frankincense foreshadow the gifts brought by the magi to pay homage to the baby Jesus.

3. The story of the Magi illustrates how God can call and communicate with people differently. Although the Magi were not Jewish and likely did not have access to Jewish scriptures, God spoke to them through their knowledge and interests.

In their culture, people looked to the skies for signs about important events in the world. God used this by sending a star to guide them to Bethlehem. This shows that we should humbly recognize that God can connect with anyone, no matter their culture, and in any way He chooses to communicate. If God wants someone to know Christ, He can reach them anywhere through any means. Consider Saul’s experience when he was blinded on the road to Damascus. This led him to become St. Paul and to spread Christianity widely.

As our reading of the “Expectation Gap” emphasizes, we are human size, and God isn’t. If God is truly universal in both the literal and the figurative sense, we shouldn’t try to fit Him into a box or solely into our cultural mindset.

St. Matthew emphasizes another way God speaks to us. When the Magi visit Herod in his palace, Herod also wants to know about the birthplace of the King of the Jews, albeit for very different reasons.

He asks his own “wise men,” the scribes and teachers of the law, to find out where the birth will take place. They don’t look at the star but consult the Old Testament scriptures, which clearly tell them that the King of the Jews is to be born in Bethlehem. So, God speaks through the scriptures, perhaps quicker than following a star.

There is one other method of divine communication that St. Matthew mentions. After the magi had paid their respects to Jesus, God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod but to go home another way. God speaks through dreams several times in the nativity drama – when he tells Joseph about his plan for Mary and again when he tells Joseph that Herod has died and it is safe to come back from Egypt. And although they are not mentioned in today’s reading, we know that God regularly communicates through the ministrations of his Angels.

We live in a highly rational culture that may feel somewhat embarrassed or worried about anything that is not clearly written down, understood, or explainable. Still, plenty of biblical writing tells us repeatedly that God communicates in a myriad of ways.

Thinking back on my own life and especially my journey of faith, I can recall encountering God not only in the scriptures but also in the signs and portents of my life and, yes, even in dreams. I can’t remember meeting an Angel in shining raiment, but there have certainly been times when I may have been entertaining an angel unawares.

So, what is my resolution for 2025? To listen and watch for God in everything. Given my proven fallibility and poor track record in keeping resolutions, I will need your help in keeping this one. I need you to help me watch and listen for God and His calling in everything here at St. Barnabas. If we, as a church, watch and listen to and for God together, we stand a much better chance of hearing what He has to say.

Of course, when listening and watching, we must be on our guard and always prepared to test the spirits. Danger lies in blindly following everything we think comes from God. Remember that whatever is truly from God will always lead us to God.

We at St. Barnabas have been further sanctified not only by the membership we’ve gained over the last couple of years but also by our commitment as “Encouragers for Christ” to bless others. Because of our prayer warriors, random acts of kindness, and outreach “from the front porch,” as our beloved Bishop likes to nurture us to do, we have, in turn, been spiritually and financially blessed this past year.

Listening carefully to the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost can help us as “Encouragers” discern the next steps in St. Barnabas’s journey with Jesus toward God our Father and in reaching out “from the front porch” to bring others to the font. Will you join me in this New Year’s resolution?