St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Second Sunday after Christmas/Year C: January 2, 2022
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12
This hand-made creche at the altar was gifted to St. Paul’s by the artist in celebration of St. Paul’s first Christmas two years ago. The figures inside do not move. The only figure that is removable is the baby in the manger. During Advent, the figures had been gazing upon a sight unseen. Since Christmas Eve, when the figure of the Christ child was returned to its rightful position, the positioning of the surrounding figures, visually makes sense. This three-dimensional image, a snapshot of the temporal world joined with the divine, intentionally points us, the living spectators, to our savior in the manger. Prominent figures in the creche are the magi from the east, featured in our gospel passage today. There is evidence that they, were divinely led by God so that the divinity of Christ might be made manifest to the Gentiles.
We enter into the passage with a few chronological and geographical markers. “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem…”. This situates the reader in the story. The astrologer-priests in the Zoroastrian religion, who are called the wise men, were well-regarded for their knowledge of astrology, which was considered at the time as a science. Imagine those Gentiles—the outsider wise men—who came to Jerusalem and asked the Jewish inhabitants a very specific question, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage” (2:1-2).
In these two verses, are nuggets for our deeper understanding as to why Herod became frightened and initially began his efforts to gain intel about this threat to his ruling power. The wise men asked a question seeking information; but it was a question that touched a nerve with the ruling King Herod. You see, Herod’s kingly power had been bestowed upon him by the human Roman government. But the infant, Jesus, had the genealogical prerequisites to be Israel’s anointed one by God—the Messiah.
At the very start of Matthew’s Gospel, the author gave a lengthy account of “…Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1). David was Israel’s greatest King and Abraham was the ancestral patriarch of the Israelites but also to a multitude of peoples—gentiles (Gen 17:4-5). These verses dedicated to the genealogy of Jesus established Jesus’ human kingship.
When the wise men said that they observed HIS star at its rising and had come to pay him homage, we begin to peel back the deeper meaning of their statement, exposing Jesus’ divine kingship early in the narrative. A celestial body, the Star of Bethlehem, rose at the birth of the Christ child, and served as the instrument for God’s holy leading of the wise men, as it moved ahead of them and stopped at the place where the child was (v.9). Who is this child that the heavenly bodies serve him?
One clue is that the wise men said that they had come to pay the child homage. Our English translation of, “Pay him homage,” does not fully expose the meaning of what the magi came to do. The Greek verb, proskuneo, means to fall down and worship, a type of devotion shown only to God. This specific verb is used in this text to definitively emphasize that Jesus is the one in whom God is present. No wonder Herod was freaking out and wanted to kill the natural-born threat to his power. The wise men did not just “show up” in Jerusalem. They had been led there by God.
The magi entered the house, already overwhelmed with joy, knelt down and worshipped God made manifest in the child before their very eyes. They offered him the traditional kingly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. God had revealed God’s self to Gentile outsiders whom God chose to experience “the manifestation” or “appearance” of Christ in the person of a human child—the epiphany!
The final verse in our passage underscores, yet again, God’s holy leading. The wise men heeded the warning in a dream not to return to Herod, and returned to their own country. Now, when Herod sent the Magi to locate the child, his intent was not to pay homage to the child, but to kill him. In ancient times, dreams were considered forms of divine communication. God’s warning in the form of a dream, guided the magi back to their own country instead of returning to Herod. And, because the wise men headed the warning, the life of the newborn Messiah was spared.
This passage, however, is not about the magi; they are merely instruments of God’s holy leading, used by God to fulfill His purposes for salvation history. This scripture is about the primordial sacrament of Jesus, who being God himself, always points to God—always points to God’s holy leading; to God’s divine protection; to God, who is always moving on our behalf; to God with us… Emmanuel. God is the focus of this passage.
As we rejoice in the birth of our savior, let us remain vigilant in positioning our hearts and minds toward one focal point, Jesus Christ. As we locate ourselves in the creche of this temporal world, with all of its distractions, we, like those created figures, gaze upon the one focal point, Jesus Christ, whose real presence is with us in the sacraments of the bread and wine at the Holy Table. As we approach the feast of the Epiphany, in which the divinity of Christ was made manifest to the Gentiles, we rejoice in the birth of Jesus because, as Paul said in Ephesians today, we were destined to be adopted as God’s children through Jesus Christ.
Sisters and brothers, let us be clear that on this day, we, like the wise men, did not just “show up” here at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to worship God; we were led here by God. And, our response to His active presence moving, in and through, each of us, through the life of this faith community, can be nothing other than falling down and worshiping him. Amen.
