Year C, Christmas 2/Epiphany Matthew 2:1-12
The
first church I served put on a rather elaborate Christmas pageant every
year. The sanctuary was transformed to the hills of Bethlehem.
Every year we would try different scripts with slightly different takes on the
story. One year, we decided to include King Herod in the pageant.
Instead of just having three wise men wander up to the manger, we had them stop
first at Herod’s palace to inquire about the star that they had been following.
We had a teenage boy play the part of Herod. This boy was kind of meant
to play Herod. He was one of those kids who only had one volume and it
was loud and authoritative. (He’s now a Marine officer if that
helps.) He really leaned into the role and I realized when people gasped
a little at his loud proclamation --why Herod doesn’t usually end up in
pageants. It’s just not the vibe people are expecting on Christmas Eve.
We want gentle, joyful, meek and mild---a story told as if we threw a gossamer
fabric over the camera lens. We don’t want gritty and real.
We have all the reality we need.
But today is the 11th day of Christmas, which means we can remove
the gossamer filter and talk about Herod. Because Herod is clearly an
important part of this story. The Gospel of Matthew tells the birth of Jesus in
1 verse. There are no shepherds, no angels announcing the good
news. We hear nothing about Mary’s thoughts or feelings. There is a
reason that we read from the Gospel of Luke on Christmas Eve and not from
Matthew. It’s interesting given the lack of details about the
birth, that there would be that much information on Herod and the magi.
The first line of chapter 2
reads: “In the time of King Herod...” It was important to the author of the
Gospel that the person reading or hearing this story knew the historical context...knew
the kind of political climate that Jesus was being born into. Just to
clarify, there are a few Herods who appear in the New Testament. This was
Herod the Great---not the same Herod who killed John the Baptist or was
involved in Jesus’ trial. They were related of course and had a fair
amount in common. Both were deeply insecure about their rule and were
prone to rash decisions. They would do just about anything to protect their
power. Jesus was born at the end of Herod the Great’s reign. At this point in Herod the Great’s rule, he
was known to be unstable and dangerous. He had killed many at this point,
including his 2nd wife and three of his
sons.
These magi (which
means astrologer) had travelled quite a distance. They probably didn’t know of
Herod’s reputation. They were following a star, but as you can imagine,
stars probably don’t provide the clearest directions…which is how they ended up
in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem. They might not have been from the
area, but they knew that Jerusalem was the seat of power and if they were
looking for someone important enough to be represented by a star, that person
was probably in an important city like Jerusalem. And who better to lead
them to that important person, than another important person--- King Herod.
While King Herod was
insecure, power hungry and prone to violence, he did have the information they
needed---or more accurately, he had advisors who were experts in the Hebrew
scriptures. These experts were able to point the magi in the right
direction, to a small town called Bethlehem. While the magi got the information
they needed, their inquiry alarmed Herod and all in his orbit. The text says
that all of Jerusalem was terrified by the news that these magi from the east
were looking for a special person to worship.
We just think of this story as a
nice little epilogue on to our pageant, but for some reason, the presence of
these astrologers threatened a whole city. Why? Because they wanted to
pay him homage. That is what the text says. They were there to
worship someone, and that person was not Herod. The knowledge that a
greater power was in his midst terrified Herod. The reason that all Jerusalem
was terrified was because a scared and threatened Herod was a dangerous Herod.
The people of Jerusalem knew that as long as Herod was threatened, there could
be no safety in their city.
King Herod
asked the magi to return to him after they had discovered this child so he
could worship him. We all know that his intentions were bad, but these
magi from out of town probably didn’t. I am sure that they had every
intention of returning to this helpful king. But something altered their
path. The first thing is that they found Jesus and as soon as they saw
this infant with his young mother, they worshipped that child and gave him expensive
gifts that were gifts much more appropriate for a king than a baby. They saw
something in this child. They also trusted the signs that brought them to this place,
which required courage and confidence. I feel like if I was in their
situation and travelled all this way to find a regular baby with no special
powers born to ordinary parents in a backwater town, I might wonder, was I
wrong? Did I follow the right star?
It would seem these men had more
than wisdom, more than expertise in the night sky and an adventurous spirit.
They also had faith. That faith enabled them to see something that most
others couldn’t see. It also empowered them to listen to a dream that
told them not to return to Herod…which is kind of amazing when you think about
it. They were told by a powerful man to return to him and they didn’t.
They found the courage to defy him and return another way.
I have to admit until
this year, I never thought of the courage and defiance of these wise men from
the east. I thought of them as dreamers and seekers. They were so much
more than that. Within just a few days, they encountered 2 kings—1 king
who wielded power through threats and displays of violence, and one king who
chose to enter the world as vulnerable as possible.
Reading this story as not just a
sweet story about magi and stars, but about courage and power has made me
wonder how we all identify power in our lives and who we choose to worship, to pay
homage to. Who are we bowing before? These magi didn’t simply trust what they
were being told by someone in authority, they trusted in their experience of
the divine. Imagine the courage that must have required, to defy the order of a
king because of what you saw in a star, a baby and a dream.
There are times in our lives
when we have to trust our experience and our faith and not listen to whoever
the loudest and most authoritative voice is at any given time. Those voices have a tendency to drown other
voices out--- to drown out truth. I have been ordained for 19 years and
there are still many times when I question my own experience of faith, my own
encounter of the divine. What I keep coming back to is the magi and their
willingness to bow before an infant, to see power where most would see weakness
and to listen to dreams that many would have dismissed.
It’s kind of amazing the power
of dreams in the first few chapters of Matthew. A dream convinced Joseph to
take a pregnant Mary as his wife, instead of divorcing her. A dream led
the magi away from Herod and home another way. A dream convinced Joseph
that he, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt because Herod was going to search
for and kill all the male children under 2. In this story, dreams saved the
King of Peace.
While I am not telling you all
to follow every crazy dream you have, I do hope, in this season of the Epiphany
that we can open ourselves to see God in the most unexpected of places— to find
hope where others see despair, to acknowledge evil when we see it, and to
discover the courage we have forgotten we have.
Because that courage will enable us to defy the powers that would seek
to control and trample so many of God’s children. Instead, we can embrace the
powers that seek to lift others up.
Jesus never wielded power by controlling people. He displayed power through sacrifice and
love. That is the only God we bow
before.
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