For Epiphany

We could title the text just read for us, Star Trek: The Prequel. This is the voyage of the Magi caravan. Its extended mission was to travel to the land of the Jews, honor and reverence that people’s newly-born king, and then return to star-base Babylon.

The magi (or wise men in the King James) were a tribal group from modern-day Iran and Iraq. The Persian King Cyrus conquered their tribe, and when they mounted a coup against his grandson Darius, their political ambitions were crushed. The magi show up on the pages of history half a millennium before Christ, and some scholars see references to magi in much older documents. In the fifth century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus described the magi as a Persian tribe with priestly duties. Apparently, their role was similar to that of the tribe of Levi in Israel.

The magi appear in the New Testament in our text, and individual Magians (or magicians, which is our English way of saying it) appear twice in Acts. There are also passages in the Old Testament that point to the magi. In the prophet Jeremiah there is a reference to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem that seems to refer to the chief of the magi. Then later, in the book of Daniel, there are numerous passages that refer to wise men, at least some of whom may have been magi. These wise men were probably Zoroastrian priests who specialized in studying the stars and making astrologically-based predictions. Very complete charts of the movements of the planets and stars were kept in Babylon from at least the 8^th century B.C.

Interestingly, after Daniel won the favor of the Babylonian king in the sixth century, he was given a position of authority over (guess who?) the magi. Daniel 2:48 says that he was placed in charge of all Babylon’s wise men. Daniel 4:9 calls him the chief of the magicians. Daniel 5:11 says that “King Nebuchadnezzar … appointed [Daniel] chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners.”

Do you see what this means? Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, God used the disaster of the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of its citizens to bring a young Jewish man to the attention of a Babylonian king, who placed him in authority over of all his wise men and astrologers (his magi).

Daniel served for many years as the chief of the wise men. It is possible that he instructed them in the words of the God of Israel? Did he teach them the ancient prophecy that “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17)? Did he tell them that “From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’” (Daniel 9:25).

If he did (as I think likely), the magi in our text may have seen the star because they were looking for it, and they might have been looking for it since the time of Daniel. And, interestingly, when the first century rolled around, it seems like they weren’t the only ones looking. The first century Roman historian Suetonius writes that “There had spread over all the Orient and old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judea to rule the world.” Another first century historian, Tacitus, writes that “there was a firm persuasion… that at this very time the East would grow powerful, and rulers from Judea would acquire universal power.” The seed of that firm persuasion and established belief may have been planted by Daniel almost six hundred years earlier among the magi in Babylon.

We cannot know for sure, but it would be just like God to set his plan in motion dozens of generations before it was to come to fruition. I say dozens, but that doesn’t go far enough. The star the Magi saw must have been part of God’s plan from the beginning of time. Remember the magi had been watching the stars for centuries and had kept very careful star charts and astronomical records. That’s what they were doing when they saw something in the sky that astonished and excited them, something they took to be the birth announcement of the king who was to come out of Judea.

No one knows for sure what the Magi saw, but that hasn’t stopped people from guessing. One theory is that they interpreted the alignment of Saturn (which was thought to have a special relationship with Israel) and Jupiter, the king of the planets, as proof that Israel’s king had been born. A recent scholar believes they saw a comet because one was seen in the sky around the time of Jesus’s birth. He believes that it first became visible in the constellation Virgo (the Virgin), and that’s what convinced the Magi that a king had been born. He’s plugged his calculations into a star chart and found that the comet would have moved from east to south in just such a way as described in Matthew.

Whichever is true, or if something else is true, think about the brilliance of God. He can create an astrological phenomenon at the beginning of time, if he chooses, so that in the fullness of time, it could lead a caravan of seekers to Bethlehem and introduce them to his Son.

And consider this too. When God spoke about his Son to these magi from the east, he did it in a way that they could understand. He used the language of astral ascensions and declinations. God knows how to communicate; he speaks to people in their own language. He comes to us where we are, in ways we can understand.

The magi saw the star in its rising, and they were as excited as modern scientists were when they found proof for the existence of the Higgs boson particle. They wanted to follow their research and see the child born king with their own eyes. But in that day (as in this), following the research required funding and, perhaps, permission from the authorities. It would have taken time to assemble a team, put together a caravan and raise the money necessary to skirt 1700 miles of desert. When the magi had worked out all the details, they set out for Jerusalem.

Why Jerusalem? Because it was the capital city of Judea. King Herod had a palace there, and they naturally assumed that the newborn king would be the son of the reigning king. But this was – quite literally – a fatal mistake. They came to Jerusalem (in a caravan big enough to attract lots of attention) and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” Or, literally, “Where is the born king of the Jews?”

Even the way they phrased the question drew attention – and concern. The reigning King, Herod, was not a “born king”; he was made king by the Roman Senate after leading a successful military campaign on their behalf. He wasn’t even Jewish – at least his ancestry was half-Idumean. He was always afraid that someone would take his throne. He was so paranoid he had his own wife, his mother-in-law and three of his sons executed at various times because he thought they might be planning a coup.

When Herod heard that there was a born king in his dominion, a shock like lightning must have gone through him. Even then, he didn’t lose his composure or his cunning. He called the magi to him secretly and questioned them closely about the time when they first saw the star. It’s clear he was planning to do to this new king what he had done to his own sons, but he was careful not to let the magi know it. He needed the location of his rival, who could be anywhere. Herod didn’t know the Scriptures – he had no use for them – but he knew who did.

So, he called together the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Davidic king of prophecy was to be born. They didn’t have to think twice. They knew right away what the Bible said. “In Bethlehem, the city of David,” they said. For Micah the prophet had written, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”

So, Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem and ordered them to make a careful search – he didn’t want any mistakes. With long-practiced duplicity, he said, “Once you’ve found him, let me know where he is, because I must go and reverence him too.”

They set off for Bethlehem in the evening or early nighttime. It was only a few miles, and they hoped to conclude their search before the night was over. And that’s when they saw their “star” (or comet, or whatever it was). It seems that they hadn’t seen it for a while. Perhaps the skies had been cloudy, or the star (or comet) had been hidden from sight by the sun’s glare or the moon’s obstruction, and only became visible again as they approached Bethlehem. When they saw it, they were overjoyed.

When the magi arrived in Jerusalem, they expected to find the city celebrating. They expected pomp and ceremony. They didn’t know what to expect in Bethlehem. They found a little house where a simple tradesman lived with his young wife and small child.

The magi opened their gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – and paid reverence to the Child. Did they understand that this Child was Daniel’s anointed one? Did they realize that this was the one whose goings forth were from of old, and on whose shoulders the future of the world would rest? We don’t know how much they understood – perhaps more than we give them credit for – but whatever they understood, give them credit for this: they acted on what they knew.

Others who knew far more did far less. Remember that Herod called the chief priests and the teachers of the law together to ask them the birthplace of the long-awaited Messiah. And those scholars knew the answer. They also knew (with the rest of Jerusalem) that a caravan of magi had come. They knew that the magi believed that Israel’s king, who’s coming had been prophesied in their Scriptures and whose reign had been anticipated for generations, had been born. They even knew where the long-awaited king’s birth was prophesied to take place.

And yet, while the magi (pagans from another land who worshiped other gods) traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles to greet Israel’s king, these religious leaders and scholars didn’t bother to travel 6 miles. Someone has said that taking Jesus for granted is not the sin of pagans but of religious folk and Bible teachers.[1]

Verse 11 says, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”  The scene must have been surreal. A caravan outside their door, foreign men in strange attire, speaking in unfamiliar accents. Joseph and Mary, alarmed, not knowing what to expect; the magi, surprised, and wondering what a king was doing in a place like this; and the neighbors, gossiping about it all for weeks. Then, in an oddly dreamlike moment, these strange men in their strange clothes got down on their knees before the young child, presented him gifts of great value, and worshiped him.

Those gifts would prove enormously helpful. When the Magi did not return to Herod with the exact location of the born king, the paranoid king sent his troops to kill every male child in the vicinity. Critics have accused Matthew of making this part up for dramatic effect, but it is entirely consistent with what we know of Herod. When his young brother-in-law was becoming too popular, he had a mysterious “drowning accident.” It happened in a shallow pool. After some of his officials were accused of misconduct, Herod had them beaten to death, only to find out later that the accusations were false. He ordered one of his sons executed just five days before his own death. When it became clear to him that his death was imminent, he dispatched troops to round up seventy of Jerusalem’s best-loved citizens, had them taken to the hippodrome and held there. He ordered his troops to execute every last one of them at the moment of his death because, he said, he wanted there to be tears, and he knew no one would cry for him. A man like that would not balk at killing a few (or even many) children in and around Bethlehem.

Let’s think about what this passage has to say to us today. First, it makes clear that we can never tell how people will respond to the news about Jesus. In our text, the people we would expect to receive him (the chief priests and teachers of the law) ignored him. The people we would expect to ignore him (pagan astrologers from the other side of the desert) crossed barren lands at great cost to find and worship him.

And don’t miss the fact that God sent the message of his Son to people who worshiped other gods, believed in astrology, and practiced a religion we think mistaken. God, in other words, is a missionary. I’ve had people say to me, “We shouldn’t be spending so much money overseas when the need here is just as great.” There is no denying the need is great, but we already have a missionary presence here – you and me. Many people here, like the chief priests and teachers of the law, really aren’t interested in hearing about Jesus, while some people there are dying to know him.

A few years ago, I heard a former member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and a one-time assassin for Yasser Arafat, share his story. When someone told him that he could know God and find forgiveness in Jesus, it caught this terrorist completely off-guard. A man you would never expect to show interest, gave his life to Christ and was transformed. That’s why we go to the ends of the earth. And it’s also why we should tell people in our own backyard (family members, friends and even enemies) about Jesus. You never know who will respond to the Good News.

Our text also shows us that God loves people who hold beliefs that are different than ours. We’ve just endured another terrorist attack from a Muslim extremist. When this has happened previously, there has been an outbreak of retaliatory violence against Muslims. God hates such acts. A person can do violence to a Muslim in the name of hatred and fear, but never in the name of Jesus Christ. Putting an end to Muslims is not our goal, despite what a prominent (and repulsive) Christian leader said a few years ago. Putting a savior before them is.

People who belong to other religions are not the enemy. Abraham did not treat his Canaanite neighbors as enemies. King David was closely allied with the king of Tyre, even though he belonged to a different religion. God sent Jonah to rescue the people of Nineveh, though they did not acknowledge him. When Paul went to Ephesus, the world center of Artemis worship, he didn’t see its citizens as enemies but as people loved and desired by God. Our enemies are not people who belong to other religions, but the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). We mustn’t forget that.

Our text also warns us of the danger of taking Christ for granted, as the chief priests and teachers of the law did. Matthew has a particular interest in those two groups: he mentions them each more than twenty times. This is the first time he links them together – when they are living next door to Christ the king but don’t bother to acknowledge him. They exposit the Scriptures about him, but they don’t act on them.

The last time Matthew links the chief priests and teacher of the law together is – can you guess? – when they were conspiring (Herod-like) to get rid of Jesus. Taking anyone for granted – parent, spouse, child, even, and especially, the Christ of God – is the soil in which hostility and rejection grow. This generation of chief priests and teachers of the law took the Messiah for granted. The next took him to the cross. If we take Jesus for granted, and I’m afraid millions of professing Christians have, what will our children do?

Finally, this text calls us to wonder at the grace of God and be awed by it. I said earlier that God knows how to speak our language. In Star Trek lingo, he has a universal translator. (Or, more accurately, he is a universal translator.) He spoke, for example, to magi in the language of the stars. But the greatest example of God speaking our language is this: the divine Word became flesh, lived among us and translated God for us. He helped us comprehend grace and truth. He made visible the invisible God. And he did it in a way we could understand. He spoke our language. And it was all because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in his should not perish but have everlasting life.” Let us respond to the love of God.

[1] Craig Keener, op. cit.