THE MAGI AT EPIPHANY
Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany Observed, Sunday January 5, 2025
Pastor Ritva H Williams
In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus is the second person named, after King Herod, but only to provide context for the visit of “wise men” from the East. The Christ-child is the end goal of the wise men’s journey but curiously is not the main character in this story. The “wise men” hold center stage but the gospel writer does not say much about them, aside from identifying them as magi from the east. Then again he didn’t have to.
In the ancient world magi referred specifically to scholars and priests of the Persian prophet Zoroaster. A thousand years before Jesus, Zoroaster promoted the worship of a single Creator God and taught a way of Wisdom that integrated spirituality, ethics, sciences, health and order. The magi studied the stars, developed a remarkably precise solar calendar that they used to prepare for planting and harvesting, moving animals from one pasture to another, and the timing of caravans. We might call this applied astronomy. They also read the stars astrologically, seeking insights into the choices and decisions of every day life. We might think of the magi as priestly scientists or science-y priests.
Over time gospel readers filled in details about the magi, naming them Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, and transforming them into “the three kings.” In the middle ages, a monk named Johannes of Hildesheim compiled an “authoritative” account of these three kings in which Caspar came from India, Melchior from Mongolia, and Balthasar from Africa. Their independent study of the stars launched each on a journey of thousands of miles. They met outside Jerusalem, inquired after the child born to the king of the Judeans, and journeyed another six miles to Bethlehem where they found the infant Jesus and Mary his mother (curiously Joseph is not mentioned). Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi fled to India where they built a chapel on the Hill of Vaus. They made a pact to return every year, and finally to be buried there. Eventually the Apostle Thomas found them, baptized them and made them bishops of local churches.
I encountered this legend in my early teens and have always loved the image of magi of different ethnic backgrounds all journeying toward the same goal of encountering the Christ-child. So it should be no surprise that my favorite artwork includes Richard Hook’s pen and ink depiction of the three kings as African, Middle Eastern, and Asian (on the right); and Brother Mickey McGrath’s painting of an Indian Caspar, an African Balthasar, and an Asian Melchior adorning the Christ-child (on the left).
Matthew doesn’t tell us how many magi there were. Tradition says three, but legends have as many as twelve. Even more frustrating is that the languages of patriarchal cultures insist on using masculine nouns and pronouns to describe mixed gender groups of people. As a result women, non-binary, intersex, and trans persons are rendered invisible, and have to make a case for their presence and agency in the face of stubbornly literal-minded readers. Even though the Bible clearly and explicitly includes women prophets, e.g. Miriam and Hulda in the OT, the seven daughters of the deacon Philip in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul lifts up Junia the Apostle, Phoebe the deacon, and a whole cadre of female church leaders. Jesus himself commands Mary Magdalene to go and proclaim the good news of the resurrection.
So I lift up and celebrate contemporary art that depicts female magi of different races and ethnicities. Cindy Pincus’ painting (right) depicts a Middle Eastern Mary with a blond, pale-skinned Jesus, surrounded by Asian, African and Mediterranean wise persons. Jan Richardson’s cover art for her book, “Sacred Journeys: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer” depicts a parade ofAsian, Middle Eastern, and African wise women (left). Here is the poem she composed o celebrate them
Wise women also came.
The fire burned in their wombs long before they saw the flaming star in the sky.
They walked in shadows, trusting the path would open under the light of the moon.
Wise women also came, seeking no directions, no permission from any king.
They came by their own authority, their own desire, their own longing.
They came in quiet, spreading no rumors, sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came, and they brought useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing, fire for warm illumination, a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came, at least three of them, holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs, breathing ancient blessings into her ear.
Wise women also came, and they went, as wise women always do, home a different way.
And then there’s the ha-ha (but all too true) version of what difference it would make if the magi included wise women: “Three Wise Women … would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts, and then there would be Peace on Earth.”
But … what can we take away from the visit of the magi as we begin this new year of 2025?
(1) God does whatever it takes to reach out to all people. God announces the birth of the Christ to lowly shepherds through angels, to magi in distant lands through a star in the heavens, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people through foreign visitors from the East. (2) God is present and active in and among all peoples, tribes and nations, regardless of race and ethnicity, age and size, gender expression and sexual orientation, social class, and religious affiliation. This means that our neighbors of other faiths and even no faith might be preaching the gospel to us!! Our non-Christian neighbors may have some wisdom that we need to hear!
The Rev. Dr. John Philip Newell writes:
“Tragically we have often been given the impression that we have all the Light we need, within our nation, within our religious tradition, within our cultural inheritance. But our Gospel story points to something radically different, that there is Light beyond our inherited boundaries, and that we need this Light, that it is given to complete the Light we have [already] received.”
(3) God draws people to the Christ through the scientific study of creation. That means scientists and environmentalists might be preaching the gospel to us!! Again, Dr Newell reminds us that understanding the movement of the stars, the flowing of the seasons, and the dreams of the night are part of learning to read what he calls the “big book” of God — the universe, its creatures, and everything that exists. Alongside this “big book” God has also given us a “physically little” book — the scriptures in which God speaks to us through our ancestors in faith. Newell asserts that we are invited to listen to these two books in stereo.
This is in fact what we see the magi doing: using their Zoroastrian scientific knowledge and spiritual practices but reaching beyond them. Not only do they travel beyond their native land, they seek wisdom from the authorities of a religion that is not their own. In the Hebrew scriptures they find the information they need to complete their journey.
Ironically, it is through these Zoroastrian scientist-scholar-priests that King Herod and his religious counsellors discover that their Messiah has been born. But Herod and his minions do not rejoice in the good news because it threatens their vulnerable hold on power. One more quote from Dr. Newell: “Any power structure that favors only some rather than serving all … is a false power. It has no ultimate future. It will collapse. And at some level false power knows this.”
So in 2025 let’s try to be more like the magi and less like Herod. Let us walk as children of the light. Amen.
