The Feast of the Epiphany!
We (as a church body) seldom get to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, because it occurs every year on January the 6th. It is not a moveable feast or worship date.
This year, it falls on a day when we worship together, so we actually get to celebrate it! Yay! I am excited!
It was just a week or so ago – that I preached a sermon on “seeking Jesus” – this is just another case in the Gospels of individuals “seeking Jesus out.”
In this case, it is the Magi and Herod…and later it will be Herod’s soldiers. Let me just say this again, “seeking Jesus” or “looking for Jesus” is never a bad thing!
We are told that astrologers from the east, possibly Zoroastrians, perhaps even priests, following a star that they have seen rising – follow it – seeking the birth of a “new unknown king.”
That’s huge news!
The presence of these learned scholars – men of another religion, culture and worldview – should not be underrated.
These outsiders, these foreigners, these exotic Eastern Mystics, these gentile-pagans are included immediately in the story of salvation! God can and does – use anyone and everyone for his purposes!
This should be good news for “all people” everywhere – because it states that God’s love transcends all boundaries, including that of faith.
“That” they “go first to Herod” – makes perfectly good sense – he rose to power in the region through military conquest and with the backing and blessing of Rome. He was “the main-man to see.” It was obligatory!
He was well known throughout the region for he himself – presided over a large number of architectural and cultural achievements, including the glorious Jerusalem Temple. He was also known as being a huge regional power player and “a man of maneuvering”-as he saw fit.
What we do not know is – how much “pomp and fanfare” accompanied these prestigious visitors? And for the record, we are not told “how many of them” there are! We also do not know if the news of their arrival spread like wildfire. (We can only imagine that it did!)
How verbose were they in asking the questions that they sought answers to? How many people had they spoken with?
Where is this newborn King of the Jews? Was their repeated question.
For what period of time were they in Jerusalem before their audience?
How long did they have to “wait” to be “seen” by the King?
Is it any wonder that people were agitated, anxious and talking and speculating? A “usurper” – a “rival” was born and lurking! The mere thought of “another King” …someone other than he himself – was enough to threaten Herod’s comfort zone.
Herod’s angst is confirmed by the chief priests, the scribes and the Magi or wise men – themselves: that a new king is indeed “teething and battling diaper rash,” somewhere in Bethlehem of Judea (of all places.)
The research that Herod had commissioned from his scholars yielded some interesting old prophecy: “And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to “shepherd my people Israel.”
That alone – would have caused an immediate and expected uproar! This was an insult, a slap in the face. It had been assumed and expected – that any and all Kings of Israel would be from Judah…and never from Galilee.
That was considered to be “yokel-hay-seed country,” the place of “backwater hamlets” and nobodies. The uneducated and the backwards lived there – not wanna-be-Kings-in-the-making.
You can even sense the growing paranoia in the text itself.
No way – would someone from “that kind of region” – from “that kind of background” – ever be accepted as king.
Just so you know and are aware – it is from “tradition” alone that we have “their arrival cast in stone” – precisely twelve days after the birth of Jesus.
So this therefore is twelfth night…the famous 12th day of Christmas…and the official end to the Christmas season. “The Season of” Epiphany begins tomorrow.
The tree is down, the ornaments put away, the shepherds are back shepherding, Mary and Joseph have moved into a temporary home, the star is losing its luster, the angelic host is nowhere to be seen and all seems like it is returning to normal. And in come strangers bearing gifts from a foreign land – who bend down and worship him.