Epiphany of Faith
Text: Matthew 2:1-12
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
They’ve become a fixture in most nativities, so we have a certain image of them locked into our minds, but the magi, or the wise men, who visited the Christchild have a slightly different story than what can be told in a simple image of them kneeling before the manger. In fact, it’s not likely that the magi saw the Christchild in the manger at all. We can figure out from the account in Matthew that Jesus was something closer to one or two years old when the wise men from the east came to worship Him as the One born King of the Jews. Between Herod’s dreadful orders about all the two year old and younger male children of Bethlehem, and the travel time it would have taken the magi to reach Judea from the east, we can get a rough time frame worked out.
Very likely these magi, who were something like astrologers, advisors, healers, and court magicians all rolled into one, had learned about the prophecies of the Messiah from the scrolls of the Hebrew prophets that were taken into captivity to Assyria or Babylon when the Israelites were captured hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. They had some of the prophets’ writings, but not all of them. For instance, they knew that a star would herald the Lord’s birth, but not that He would be born in Bethlehem—two different prophecies from two different prophets. They knew that this King would be also be God, but not His specific earthly lineage. And so, in order to learn what they did not know, they went to the first logical place that came to mind, the place where kings are usually born: they went to the royal palace in Jerusalem.
This tells us something about what the magi perhaps expected to see. They were from ancient pagan empires, so they were used to kings and emperors claiming to be gods. Thus they expected that this God child would be descended from a royal lineage. They had their own myths about gods and heroes, and so they were perhaps expecting something glorious and powerful in this One born King of the Jews. They were led by a star, so surely there would be something majestic and magnificent at the end of the journey.
But what is it that they’re recorded as seeing? “Going into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother.” That’s all they saw. No beams of light, no glory of the Lord shining around them. No heavenly host appearing in the night sky, as the shepherds had. No proclamation from Gabriel. They saw nothing unusual in this house—not a palace, not a temple, not a fortress—a house. They simply saw the Child with His mother. And yet they still fell down and worshiped Him, and opened their treasures of gold (for a king), frankincense (for a god), and myrrh (to anoint a sacrifice to die). They saw nothing unusual, or even particularly glorious, with their eyes. All they had was what they read in the Scriptures and the very beginnings of the fulfillment of what was written there.
What are you expecting to see when you look for Jesus? Are you expecting to see something great and glorious, something that will be so powerful that you’ll immediately acknowledge Him as God and Lord? Are you looking for a solution to all your problems, here and now, something to chase away your troubles, something to elevate you to the status you think you deserve? Are you expecting someone who will give you limitless success in whatever you pursue? Are you expecting someone like the emperors of old, who ruled with fists of iron, rewarding their favorites and punishing their enemies? Are you looking for a God who will act like all the other gods that humanity has dreamed up, which are really only bigger, stronger versions of humans themselves?
You will look for Jesus, you will look for your Lord, and you will see Him. But He will not always make Himself fit your expectations. In fact, I daresay He rarely will. Like the magi, you will see Him as He shows Himself to you, to His Church, to the world. But He will not show Himself like the rulers of this world or the false gods of the nations. He will show Himself as meek, humble, even weak. He will show Himself in ways that your fallen nature will be underwhelmed with. He will show Himself with crosses. That is all to say, He will show Himself to faith and not to sight.
Epiphany, the season of the Church year we’re now entering, is a season of faith. You will see Jesus, but He won’t be in the palaces. He’ll be in the slow moving, muddy Jordan River. You’ll see Him among the sick and the lepers. You’ll see Him with the tax collectors and sinners. You’ll see Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself to you, glory veiled, not as the shock-and-awe idols of the world try to do. He will come in humility, mercy, in unexpected answers to prayers. He’ll show Himself to you in the Word, in water, in bread and wine.
And it is there where you, like the wise men, will worship Him. That’s what makes our worship, Christian worship, different than the world’s. The world only wants to worship the bigger, stronger, more impressive version of itself. We worship the God who comes in meekness, hiding His glory behind His mercy. We worship the God who comes to forgive His enemies. We worship the King who rules from His cross, with a crown of thorns rather than gold; a God who makes Himself the sacrifice; an immortal who dies in the place of mortals.
This season of Epiphany will walk us down the path of Jesus as He reveals Himself in the veiled, merciful, and grace-filled ways He chooses. You’ll learn that this man Jesus is the eternal Son of God, is God Himself, as He does things like heal the sick, give food to the hungry, and teach wisdom that rejects the teachings of the world. There will be no attempts to grasp the throne, no chariots, no lightning striking down His foes. There will be a gracious God on His long way to the cross, where the greatest epiphany will take place: His desire is to be known to faith. His desire to show grace. His desire to do whatever is necessary, even dying in your place and rising to give you eternal life, just so He can be with you for eternity. Behold your God. Behold Jesus in His Word. In the name of Jesus, who reveals Himself to faith. Amen.
