Mass readings for the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord:
Isaiah 60.1-6 Psalm 72.1-2, 7-8, 10-13 Ephesians 3.2-3a, 5-6 Matthew 2.1-12
At Epiphany we celebrate the coming of the Magi to the Christ-child; and we’re all familiar with that: there are Christmas carols we all know that celebrate this episode in the nativity story.
It may strike you as strange to ask the following question: why have they come?
Well, the first answer that might spring to mind, is that they’ve come to see the Christ child.
I don’t think that’s correct at all. What do we know to be their motivation from the text of scripture? And what do we know about these wise men from the East?
In answering those questions, we realize that they were looking for something else, trying to achieve a quite different goal; but in the course of pursuing their own goals, which by the way were quite worthy, and by being men of scientific integrity, they make a great discovery well beyond what they could have imagined.
In the popular theology of the Church, this visit is seen being of representatives of “the nations” – those outside the community of Israel. And, as with our nativity scene, and on many Christmas cards, each magus is shown as being a crowned individual, one clearly Asiatic in appearance, one northern European and another African. Now nothing in the gospel text indicates they were anything other than three astronomers from Mesopotamia, that is, the land of Babylon with all its ziggurat pyramids.
So, while we can say this is a coming of the pagan world, those peoples outside of Israel, to do homage to a universal saviour, the representatives are significant because they come, not from the widespread regions of the world, but from a specific place long associated with imperial oppression and hostility to the people of God. I’ve mentioned the Assyrian Empire before –one of its great cities was Babylon which was and continues to be a byword for evil, corrupt civilization.
So, I hope we get that this visit is even more significant than supposed because these aren’t just non-Jews who’ve come, but they represent the world in terms of both its sophistication, learning and technological achievement, but also as the world with its legacy of violence, ideological oppression, and its illegitimate claims to authority – the Magi represent the world as “Babylon” in all its splendour and decadence.
And its because they represent the world, they offer us hope that the world, for all its fallenness, for all its ignorance, for all its arrogance, has in it those who can find their way to Christ; and find him, not so much guided by the Word of God in scripture, but by God’s providential hand at work in their hearts and minds, and through their “science” leading them where they never expected to arrive.
According to the best current scholarship, what these wise men saw from their observatories, and was seen by many others, was probably not a “star” but a stellar phenomenon that the gospel writer simplified for the sake of readers. Rather, it was likely a “conjunction”, that is the paths of planets and stars into an unusual configuration, that astrologers would read as anticipating an important event. And the particular event that fits our story is a triple conjunction that saw the planets Jupiter and Venus, and the star Regulus come into very close proximity to each other from an earthly perspective. Occurring in the year 3 B.C., an astrologer would read this as heralding the birth of a king in Judea; but not just any king, this prince would have to be special for the heavens to signal it. After all, princes were born all the time back then.
What this all presented to these men of wisdom was a unique opportunity to test the validity of their science, to verify that their reading of the stars was accurate. So, while Judea was quite a ways away from them in Mesopotamia, it was reachable – caravans travelled there all the time.
But let’s not underestimate the effort involved to get to Judea. These men were scholars, not caravan operators. They would need help, and protection. So, this would not be just three men on camels, but a true expedition across a great distance, and it involved crossing into the Roman Empire, the territory of a sometimes enemy. That’s probably why only three went – their colleagues might have had a send off party, but were quite happy to stay home.
So, these wise men go to see the reigning king of Judea, Herod. And likely, they expected to learn from him the joyful news of a prince being born in the house. Perhaps not a son, all of Herod’s children were born by this point; but perhaps a grandson.
However, that was not the case. Indeed, they were more likely to hear of Herod’s execution of one of his sons (he had three of them put to death, by the way).
So, now they’re stumped, but they don’t give up. So convinced that they’ve made the correct calculations, they don’t give up, but as men of integrity, they follow where the evidence leads them. And when it leads them to a modest shelter in Bethlehem, they don’t scoff at what they find, at who they find there.
And who do they find? Well, baby Jesus, of course; but the Magi need information, they are on a scientific investigation. So, it is to Mary and Joseph they must turn; two people who have dedicated their lives to this child in an exceptional way, beyond what any other human parents as selfless as they may be have. In full knowledge of the consequences, Joseph has surrendered all his expectations of married life and family for this singular task. Mary, well we know her story – she will offer an unfaltering love for Christ through all trial and tribulation.
Now, they aren’t scientists, they wouldn’t be regarded by the wise men as colleagues; but I think the three men were fair-minded and could gauge the authenticity, the sincerity and truthfulness of the story that Mary and Joseph gave them. And so, they accept the results of their search. The gifts they give are a sign that indeed, against all appearances, the compete lack of a regal setting, the commonness of the parents, the humbleness of their abode, this must be the prince.
On Christmas day, I did a little reflection on the Christian belief in Christ as the Word of God, or to use the Greek word – He is the Logos. That is, he is divine reason, the logic of creation, the one and only true rationality. Christ is God’s logic. And so, any person of integrity, who is in earnest about finding the answers about life, justice, truth, our purpose, and so on, can by application of their reason and a sincere inquiry into the facts of life, find themselves where our wise men found themselves: before the Christ-child, contemplating the divine miracle of God’s love. But they have to be willing to follow the evidence, and put aside all their presuppositions and prejudices, all their notions as how things ought to be according to personal desires or whatever ideology they have hitherto followed, to look at the evidence and then look at how Christ is the logical response to all that ails us as sinful human beings in a fallen world.
But they also need to have someone to speak with because at this point the Christ-child is something of an enigma, someone they can’t yet speak with. There must be those willing to stand in the place of Mary and Joseph today to offer their witness, to tell their story, to help those coming from the Babylons of our day and age understand what and who they are looking at.
That’s you and me: both disciples, you as lay people active in the world of family and work; me as clergy. Tonight, we have dedicated this mass / yesterday we dedicated a mass to vocations to religious and ordained life, calling upon us to pray for the Church to call from out of its midst women to take Mary’s place of in exceptional devotion to Christ in religious life; to call forth men to take on the mantle of Joseph as priests, and so “fathers” in a similar vein to the Christ within you and I, protectors and providers of what we need sacramentally so as to grow up into the full stature of Christ.
So, as much as this season of Christmas, now drawing rapidly to a close has been about celebrating the birth of our Saviour, it ends on this note: that now we are called to receive the world who does not know him, to be gracious hosts even in the modest circumstances, and by our faithful witness bring people to see the child of Bethlehem for who He truly is.
Amen.