Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12
At the beginning of the week I thought this sermon would be focused on a star – and instead, the star was blocked out by the smoke of an explosion in Las Vegas. I thought I’d be pondering the long journey of a group of individuals from Persia coming to pay homage to the infant Jesus – and instead, I pondered the nearly 50 individuals who weren’t able to safely make the brief journey from one end of Bourbon Street to the other. I thought I’d be reflecting on those wise men, warned in a dream to return home by another way so that they’d be safe from Herod – and instead, I reflected on the 179 in South Korea who wouldn’t be returning home.
The year 2025 is only five days old and already the world has witnessed scenes of unimaginable tragedy. The year is only five days old and we’re already wrestling with questions for which there aren’t yet any answers. Why has this happened? Where do we go from here? If this is just the beginning of the year, what awaits us in the remaining 360 days?
All of this overshadowed the reading from Matthew. I wrestled with how the Gospel narrative related to these events – and in reflecting I found that while the answers and feelings of those today don’t easily tie into the wonder of this narrative, the questions do. In the journey that took these visitors from their homes to kneel before Jesus and then back again. I pictured the wise men asking the same questions after first seeing the star and setting off. Why has this happened? Where do we go from here? If this is just the beginning of the journey, what awaits us in the time ahead?
Perhaps the value for those struggling and who read this passage is not in finding the answers but rather in seeing the shared questions. Perhaps it’s not knowing how things end, but rather recognizing that others have also traveled difficult roads. Perhaps it’s looking beneath the surface to see what helped these visitors endure in their own difficulties. Perhaps it’s seeing that amid the challenges inherent in what these visitors undertook and the dangers they faced, in the narrative there’s a thread of hope. There’s a thread of faith. There’s a thread of persistence.
To begin with, the journey would have been much longer than the 12 days we commemorate each year between the Nativity and the Epiphany. Despite the popular images of three kings kneeling before the child in a dim Bethlehem stable, the truth of the matter is that these visitors didn’t arrive in time to see Jesus at the manger. In fact, they didn’t even arrive within a few days of the birth of the child. It could have been as long as two years before they delivered their gifts to the child. By that time Jesus and Mary and Joseph, while still in Jerusalem, were – as we hear in Matthew – in a house.
Then there’s the fact that we don’t even know there were three travelers; nowhere in the Gospel is that number attributed to the group. I have a guess that when John Henry Hopkins, the 19th century priest and writer of “We Three Kings,” set down the verses to that hymn he saw three gifts and assumed three kings. After that the rest is, of course, history.
What I’d like to focus on here though isn’t how many folks showed up at Mary and Joseph’s front door or how long it took them to complete their journey. Instead, I’d like us to consider who God called to this incredible journey.
These wise men – Magi – likely came from somewhere in Persia or Babylon. This group of individuals would have been well known to the people of Jesus’ day, largely because of the references to them – mostly negative – found in the writings of the prophets. In the Book of Daniel, for instance, they’re portrayed “in a negative light as selfish, incompetent, and brutal pagans.” They were called “the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers.” Despite the tradition and references about them found in the Scriptures, however, the members of this culture were in truth “representatives of Eastern theology, philosophy, and natural science.” At that time, on this journey, they’re “wise and pious Gentiles who from the beginning … seek to worship the child Jesus.”
Wise and pious … Gentiles. Think about that for a moment. God could have called anyone from among the people of Israel to travel to Bethlehem. God could have called a priest from the Temple in Jerusalem to go, a distance of only about six miles. It could have been the rabbi from a local synagogue – even the one in Bethlehem – who was directed to make the journey across town. As we saw in other instances throughout the season of Advent, God could have sent an archangel to summon a wife or mother or sister, as was done when Elizabeth and then Mary were told they would in turn bear the last of the prophets and the one whose coming he foretold.
But God didn’t do any of that. Instead, God went outside the box … and most certainly far beyond the comfort zone of the people of Israel. God looked away from Israel and towards the East to summon with a star … Gentiles. God called those viewed as faithless to worship the incarnate God on whom the faith of Israel rested. The story revealed in Matthew’s Gospel “challenges his audience’s prejudice against outsiders to their faith.”
It’s a remarkable thing that non-believers were called by God to this journey. The fact that they did it, the fact that they were willing to travel so far to worship this child and bestow gifts upon him, “reflects some recognition of his identity.” Because of their views on other aspects of reality in the world, they didn’t necessarily believe in Jesus. But they knew Jesus, and they knew what – and who – he represented.
I’d like to issue a new call to all who journey for God. First, in our world today, we should never discount the value of anyone. We may look at someone and see what they are saying or offering and wonder Why? … all the while missing the point that God has chosen them and is saying to us Why not? Second, if these Magi – these non-believers – were willing to travel so far and experience so much to worship Jesus, to what lengths are we as believers willing to go to do likewise? What risks will we be willing to take for Jesus on our own journeys from East, West, North and South?
Rest assured, just as the wise men were changed by their journey, we will be changed by ours. When God calls you, answer – and when God asks you to undertake a journey guided only by a single bright star, go.
Amen.