The Epiphany story starts much as the Christmas story did, just 12-some days ago.
The important story,
the story of what God is doing in the world,
is found in the shade of the story that the powers that be tell themselves…
Last week it was the story of Emperor Augustus
—in all his pretension of greatness,
this week Herod much the same
—literally known as Herod the Great,
who killed two of his own sons to hold back challenges to his kingship,
a kingship he can only keep hold of as long as Rome continues to occupy his country
he is a henchman of the Empire.
This great man,
this self-styled King of the Jews,
is confronted by the worst words you could say to him, “The King of the Jews” is coming…
To this news, he blanches with fright…
and all his subjects with him
—when Herod is unhappy, we’re allunhappy!
Herod stays put…
if he really believed the rightful king had come, he would have rushed out there…
instead he asks for details… details that he will later use to enact a dreadful campaign, called by the Church, “The slaughter of the innocent.”
All the baby boys of Bethlehem killed to keep Herod as King...
…when Herod is afraid,
we all should be afraid…
The Magi
—we have all kinds of fanciful ways of imagining them
—but here’s what we can be fairly sure of.
They are:
-Astrologers, stargazers seeking answers in the night sky,
the play of the planets and alignment of the stars.
-Foreigners—citizens of the Parthian Empire!
That doesn’t sound like much today, but they were the Eastern Empire that was the boogie man of every Roman nightmare
—a nation at war, off and on, with Rome for 250 years,
-a nation who once humiliated and then killed Julius Caesar’s right hand man and bankroller, Crassus…
-A nation who intervened in both the Roman and the Jewish civil wars…
Yes, they were citizens well outside Roman jurisdiction
—coming to a lackey of Romesuggesting he was lacking as king…
-Non-Jews, Pagan, in fact,
probably Zoroastrians, watching the sky for signs that their good god
—Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom,
was coming to save them from the evil god of utter chaos, Angra Mainyu.
These Magi
—Foreign. Pagan. Astrologers.
—some of the most outsider outsiders you could find
—are let into the good news that Mary and Joseph have long held in their hearts,
Gospel enmeshed in the very namesof this child, this lord, this messiah:
Yeshua, The Lord Saves.
Emmanuel, God with us.
Such joy,
they have found this star child,
this Savior,
this presence of God.
They bring him gifts, Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh
—an ancient equivalent of a Savings Bond and Medical kit…
but also gifts heavy with symbolism
—pointing to the kind of King they honor,
the kind of king who exercises power in a way that leads to the cross.
Gold—not unlike the coins that Judas will take in payment for his work IDing and locating Jesus.
Frankincense
—bitter,
forming tear drops when harvested,
then darkening red, like tears of blood
—like Jesus’ tears at Gethsemane,
“Take this cup away from me!”
Myrrh—which was mixed with the wine to comfort Jesus on the cross,
myrrhbrought to Jesus’ burial.
A Savior betrayed, beaten, buried.
A king exerting the kind of power that gets you killed, that pulls you from the center of a throne and up onto the cross…
Releasing, instead of clinging, as Herod would cling,
to all authority and honor and victory.
Revealedin their gifts, his ending in Jerusalem, that becomes a new beginning, for him and for us.
Revealedwhat kind of Messiah, what kind of Savior, they have found.
Revealedto these foreign, pagan, stargazers.
Revealedfor all people
—that’s the meaning of this night,
the meaning of Epiphany
—The Savior of all people, God for all people.
God foreven… especially… our enemies.
God forus all the way through
—life, death, and resurrection.
Godborn in our midst. God moved by our need.
He is born for us.
He is here to save us.
Thanks be to God. A+A
