Seeing the Light

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has 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."

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:1-12).

This week we are celebrating Epiphany. But do you know what the word ‘epiphany’ means? An epiphany is an event where God reveals something of Himself to mortal men. There are many epiphanies throughout the Bible; indeed, the Bible itself is an epiphany of a sort, because it is through the Bible that God reveals Himself to us. But the epiphany we are remembering presently took place shortly after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. The epiphany we aree remembering is the event when God revealed His chosen Messiah to the Gentiles. Through the use of a miraculous star, God led magi from the east to come and worship the Christ-child.

Who were the magi? Matthew really doesn’t tell us much about them, although historians can make several educated guesses to give us some additional details. Matthew’s primary concern is that the magi were Gentiles. To a Jew, the people of the world were divided into two groups. One group consisted of Jews. The Jews were God’s chosen people, a select group who had a long-standing relationship with God that began with their ancestor, Abraham. Through the Jews, God sent prophets to proclaim His word. Through the Jews, God had promised to send a Messiah who would free all Jews from oppression and would rule the earth in justice and peace. This Messiah would be King of the Jews, and ultimately King of the World. The members of the other group, the non-Jews, were called Gentiles. Gentiles were heathens, people who had no relationship with God. At best, Gentiles were to be ignored or pitied; at worst, they were active enemies of the Jews. The Gentiles would also come under the rulership of the King of the Jews, but as far as the Jews were concerned, Gentiles would always be second-class citizens under the Messiah’s reign.

Matthew tells us that the magi came from the east. To the east were such countries as Arabia and Persia. The city of Babylon, where many Jews had been held in exile for 70 years, had a strong tradition of studying the sky in order to better understand the world and to predict the future. People who specialized in interpreting the heavens, people we would call astrologers, were there known as magi, or wise men. It is very possible that the magi Matthew speaks of came from Babylon, where they would have had access to Jewish writings about the Messiah and become interested in the expected King of the Jews.

We don’t know how many magi were involved in the events of Epiphany; since three gifts are mentioned, it is speculated that there were three magi. Regardless, these learned men saw a remarkable star in their western sky, a star that was new and commanded attention. From their studies, the magi concluded that the star heralded the birth of the long-expected King of the Jews. We don’t know precisely what they believed about this newborn king, but consider the types of gifts they gathered to take with them. Gold, of course, would be a suitable gift for a person of importance, such as a king. Frankincense was a very expensive incense, generally burned as a part of worship; this gift suggests that the magi may have believed in Christ’s divinity. Myrrh is a spice often used for embalming; whether or not the magi understood from their studies that Christ would suffer and die to buy His people back from sin and death, myrrh was perhaps the most appropriate gift of the three. In fact, whether the magi fully realized it or not, God saw that they chose gifts which testified to Christ’s three-fold office as Prophet, Priest and King. Frankincense witnesses to Jesus as God revealing Himself to us—His prophetic role. Myrrh witnesses to Jesus as the God-man who died to pay the penalty for our sins—His priestly role. And gold witnesses to Jesus as the ruler of the universe who is empowered to punish sin and forgive the faithful—His kingly role.

The magi knew that an extraordinary person had been born in the land of the Jews, and they set out to pay their respects to Him. By the time they arrived in Jerusalem, capital city of the Jews, the star had apparently faded from view, so they inquired of Herod, the current king, where they could find his successor. Herod was no Jew—he was an Edomite, put on the throne to be a puppet king by the Roman Empire. So Herod called the religious scholars together to find out more about this possible threat to his throne. The scholars knew where Jesus was to be born, but no one from Jerusalem went with the magi to Bethlehem to meet the newborn king. The religious leaders of the Jews stayed away in disbelief; only foreign Gentiles went to worship the King of the Jews.

God’s guiding star appeared again, and the magi were overwhelmed with joy to see it. The mere promise of soon seeing the long-awaited King stirred excitement in the wise men’s hearts. When they at last entered Jesus’ humble house and beheld the Savior of the world, the magi immediately bowed in humble worship. The magi knew that they were in the presence of true greatness, disguised as it was in baby’s clothes. And they offered gifts to the King of the Jews, expensive gifts that spoke of the high esteem they held for the infant king. So came the very first Gentiles to worship our Lord Jesus.

The magi in Matthew’s account were real people, but they also represent us. We, too, are Gentiles. We, too, are strangers who have been brought into God’s chosen people. Saint Paul compares the people of God to an olive plant; the Jews are native branches and we Gentiles are grafted in among them, as he explains in Romans: "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you" (Romans 11:17-18).

Like the magi, we seek Jesus. Like the magi in Babylon, we are surrounded by God’s word and God’s people. The magi had Jews and the writings of the Old Testament available for consultation and study. We have our fellow Christians and the Bible. There is no place in this country where a Christian church cannot be found, no place where a Bible cannot be borrowed or purchased. Like the magi, we talk to God’s people and we study His written Word. We want to know of God, because we know in our hearts that we are sinful and unclean, and that we displease our Creator in thought, word, and deed. And as we attend church to listen to God’s Word, as we study the Holy Bible looking for answers to the mysteries of life and death, God sends us an epiphany. When we hear or read about how God loved the world so much, that He sent His only Son to reclaim its lost and lonely people for His own, God sends us the guiding light of His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our bright evening star, the star that leads us to the throne of our heavenly King. As the magi were led by the star of Bethlehem to the presence of the Christ child, the Holy Spirit leads the believer to our Savior’s waiting arms. The Holy Spirit gives us faith so that we can believe that the Jesus, written of by Matthew and the other writers of the Bible, is indeed the Son of God come into our lives to save us from the oppression of our sins. The Holy Spirit gives us faith so that we can bow down and worship our King, just as the magi did. And when we acknowledge Jesus as our Savior and our ruler, our hearts are filled with the same joy that the magi had. The magi were grateful that Jesus had come to live among us, and they showed that gratitude with gifts, gifts that honored Him as Prophet, Priest and King. We poor sinners are also glad that Jesus came to live among us, died in our place for our sins, and rose from the grave so that He could hold open the gates of heaven for us. Because of this gratitude, we too are moved to bring gifts. To honor Him as our Prophet who reveals God to us, we give Him worship when we gather in church, singing His praises. To honor Him as our Priest who gave His own life as a sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven, we give Him first place in our hearts, asking Jesus to help us live lives that are pleasing to God. To honor Him as our King who forgives our sins and protects us from our enemies, we give Him our time and money, that His church may grow and bring the light of faith to people who still live in the darkness of night with no star to guide them.

This week, we celebrate Epiphany. This week, we celebrate that God has given each of us, foreign Gentiles, an epiphany that has brought us into the People of God. This week, we thank God for forgiving our sins and opening heaven to us. This week, like the magi of old, we bring gifts of thankfulness—gifts of time and money, gifts of worship, gifts of humble submission to our Lord’s leadership in our lives. This week, we rejoice that "there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:12-13).