The Feast of Epiphany, held on January 6^th, celebrates the revelation of Christ to the world. It commemorates the visit of the Magi, traditionally known as the “wise men,” to the Child Christ.

The origin of the Magi has been debated, but the earliest occurrence of the word is found in an inscription from the time of Darius the Great, the Persian King who plays a role in the biblical Book of Daniel. They are thought to have originated among the Median peoples in what is modern-day Iran.

The Magi were a tribal people, like, for example, the Pashtun people in Afghanistan. They were not merely wise men (as the King James suggests); they were a society of scholars who studied the stars and religious texts. They prepared sacrifices for worshipers.  They acted as priests.  Their role was not unlike that of the Levites in Israel.

At one time the Medes, of whom the Magi were a part, revolted against the Persian government and were promptly crushed. The Magians gave up their political aspirations and, from that time on, dedicated themselves to the pursuit of knowledge and religious truth. 

There are references to Magi visiting the tomb of Plato and accompanying the king of Armenia to pay homage to the Roman Emperor. Magi appear as court counselors and priests. Though the word later became associated with sorcerers and magicians (our word “magician” is derived from it), and still later with charlatans and swindlers, the Magi who visited Christ seem to be astronomers and seekers of truth.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi are juxtaposed against Israel’s chief priests, and the pagan astronomers come out looking better than the priests. In the biblical account, the chief priests have answers the Magi seek, but fail to act on what they know. For them, the matter is academic. For the Magi, it is a magnificent obsession.

The Magi traveled something like 800 hundred miles to honor the one “born king of the Jews.” Most people in the first century hated travel. The weather was oppressive, the terrain was rugged, and the roads were dangerous. That did not stop these seekers from crossing mountains and borders to find Israel’s king.

Contrast that with the effort made by the chief priests. They knew where the king was to be born. They knew the Magi believed he had already been born and had traveled great distances to welcome him. They would need only travel about five miles. Yet, from what we can tell, none of them made any effort to see their king.

Are we more like the Magi with their magnificent obsession or the priests with their academic religion? The question is worth pondering. My wife and I are spending a couple of months in Waco, Texas, to be near our oldest son and his family. Waco has sometimes been called the “Baptist Vatican.” It is reputed to have the most churches per capita of any city in the U.S.

Yet many of those churches are nearly empty on Sunday mornings. Though Texas has a much higher church attendance rate than Michigan, where I pastored for 35 years, well over half of all Texans will skip church this week. In Michigan, that percentage is closer to two-thirds.

According to Lifeway Research, the average American owns 3.6 Bibles. That means the U.S. has about a billion Bibles. The Barna Group reports that 54 percent of Americans say the Bible contains everything a person needs for a meaningful life. Yet only one in three of us reads the Bible at least once a week.

It seems we fit better with the apathetic priests than we do with the inspired Magi. If our professed beliefs are not enough to take us to church on Sunday to worship the King or to our bookshelf to open a Bible, what good is our profession? Jesus, seeing the empty religion of his day, reminded people of God’s word from the prophet: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

If the Christian story is true, then it calls for more than empty professions. It calls for devotion expressed in intelligent, consistent action.