Matthew 2: 1-12
“Beginning With a Question?”
January 6, 2019
Only a single question is directly asked in this passage that has given us our image of magi following a star to find and give honor to the new king in a baby’s body. It’s a tough story with some bright spots and the part we read ends before the worst of it.
The magi ask, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” This is where the fear began. King Herod’s insecurity is set loose at the thought that his power would be subtracted from or have to be shared if indeed this baby in Bethlehem is actually the one that the prophets foretold, the one who first slept not in a jewel encrusted bassinette, attended to by servants but rather in a trough filled with hay that just the day before had served as the dinner plate for livestock. As one writer noted this is “A story that reveals our Messiah, our Savior, as one whose very presence is a kind of power that the powerful hate.” (Karoline Lewis, www.workingpreacher.org) This is a story about a different kind of power coming into the world and the ones who shine a light on it are outsiders. We refer to these guys as magi which in Greek mean Zoroastrian priests. These were not necessarily scholars or kings but were thought of as wise because they were known for interpreting dreams and their knowledge of astrology. Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest of the world religions, found then throughout Persia and is still practiced in modern day Iran. It, too, has a Virgin birth story which may have been what these outsiders, the number of which we don’t know but only know there were 3 gifts, were also drawn to. It was important for Matthew to have these magi head toward Bethlehem to look for a king rather than Rome. Persians viewed Jews as allies in their opposition against the political powers of Rome. This is the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel which will more than once show that outsiders, Gentiles, received Jesus and even revered him. This comes from a Gospel writer who was also bold enough to start with a genealogy that even included five women – another way that Matthew shows an expansive and welcoming God.
With the question of the Magi as the jumping off point for a story that speaks of a despotic dictator and those who go along with him up to a point and then realize that power can corrupt and absolute power can corrupt absolutely. They come to learn that they have the power to resist evil and they do this by going home another way instead of reporting back to Herod. They have seen a light – an epiphany – and they recognize that they have the power to do the right thing. They are willing, through their new journey home, to question authority.
The writer Gertrude Stein was quoted on her deathbed of asking, “What is the answer?” After a long period of silence, she then was said to have followed up with, “What is the question?” For many, the Bible has been referred to as the book of answers and what we realize from this story of the Magi and Herod is that scripture asks us questions that we each have to wrestle with for ourselves. One of the reasons we come together on Sunday mornings is to chew on some of these questions together. Some come in actual question form such as Cain’s defensive question of God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” found in Genesis or Pilate’s question of Jesus, “What is truth?” or the religious scholar who asked of Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”
These are questions that get to the very heart of who we are, what truth we operate from, and what are our deeply held values. When considering which earthly leaders to follow we may need to figure out if they are wrestling with these same deep and profound life-altering questions and if so, where do they arrive at and what other questions are birthed from them.
What are the questions that speak deepest to you when determining the direction your life will take? Perhaps a question that arises this morning in considering King Herod’s insecurity and ultimate cruelty in ordering the slaughter of all boys under the age of two years who were born in and around Bethlehem that today’s account stops short of is what will we do when we cannot follow a leader and have to go home another way? What will that other route look like? What are we willing to risk answering the question in a way that is consistent with the values we hold most dear? What powers and principalities are we willing to disagree with and use our voice to counter, even if it shakes?
Epiphany – to appear, to be made manifest, to reveal, to bring light – that is what we celebrate this day until Lent begins in exactly two months. Up until the 4th century, Jesus’ birth, Christmas, was observed on this day, January 6. It was the emperor Constantine who moved it to December 25 which was the date that had been the one he celebrated which was all about worshipping the sun- SUN. Here we have these astrologists, men whose work was to study and try to understand the heavens above, who were not Jewish and yet came to worship and pay homage to the one who would be found under a star. The epiphany experience of these travelers who weren’t afraid to ask questions and pay attention to their dreams lays the ground work for the Gospel message that will unfold in Jesus’ life experience.
These star followers came before Jesus in wonder and awe. They came with trust and journeyed with courage. What parts of the Jesus story will we heed in this new year? What questions will we continue to wrestle with? This story of the birth of Jesus and what came after continues to raise questions, some of which we may never know the answer to. What exactly propelled the Magi to follow a star? What made them strong enough and courageous enough to embark on such a journey? What happened to them after their meeting with Jesus, Mary and Joseph? How were they changed?
Just three weeks ago, here on these steps, we followed in a centuries old tradition of using a pageant as a way of telling the story, a tradition that may have begun with St. Francis some eight hundred years ago. Back then almost nobody he knew could read and so few of them knew for themselves what it was like to read and enjoy the story of Jesus’ birth and thus didn’t have a sense of the beauty of the Christmas story. What St. Francis did to bring the story alive was to put friends and neighbors in costumes with live animals in the cave-like part of the back of the church and we continue today to try to put ourselves in the story – with pageants and nativity scenes, this year with an adorable star-pointing, sitting-up Jesus. As the Christmas season ends and the season of Epiphany begins, may we continue to ask the questions as those who seek the living Christ in this world and this time. Let us keep Jesus alive and continue his work as disciples, living our questions. Amen and amen.