Matthew 2:1-12

GIVERS IN SEARCH OF MEANING

I love this annual celebration of the Epiphany despite the fact that
it asks a great deal from Christians. On the one hand there are so many
traditions connected with Epiphany, not to mention substantial literary
and artistic allusions. The tradition of eating the King’s Cake
and finding the three jelly beans (for the three magi) is still popular
in many settings. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night relates to the day,
as does Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and O’Henry’s
The Gift of the Magi. A mystical etching by Richard Root called Three
Kings is one of my favorite artistic expressions, as is the haunting
melody of We Three Kings of Orient Are. And who has not noticed the popularity
of the enduring bumper sticker Wise Men Still Seek Him? On the other
hand, the gifts given in this ancient story summon us to supreme expressions
of sacrifice, never very popular for Christians after they’ve emptied
their pockets in the annual commercial frenzy of Christmas shopping.
What is there here for us in Matthew’s story that can both capture
our interest today as well as challenge our resolve to move more boldly
into a new year of discipleship?

Epiphany often gets lost in the Church calendar primarily because it
falls on a Sunday only every seven years, and because the government
didn’t make it a national holiday like Christmas so it could be
celebrated regardless of when it falls. However, it was once, along with
Christmas and Easter, one of the three major feasts of the Christian
year. As early as the late second century in Egypt, Epiphany remembered
the birth and baptism of Jesus for Eastern Christians. It was placed
on the winter solstice, Jan. 6, to discourage the pagan remembrance of
the birth of Osiris from his mother, Kore, goddess of the Nile. When
two hundred years later western Christians did something similar by remembering
Jesus’ birth in place of the rebirth of the unconquerable sun,
the Sol Invictus, on Dec. 25, Eastern Christians joined them, pressing
January 6 to search for new meanings. Thus it happened that the ancient
Eastern celebration on Jan. 6 came to inaugurate a post-Christmas season
of the ways in which God shared the incarnation with the world, beginning
with the story of the revelation to the sages from the East. It is a
story about giving which presses us to understand God’s gift as
well our own need to give.

THE GIFT OF GOD

Matthew’s story is cherished by us, first of all, because only
he relates it. It fits well in Matthew’s context of concern for
the alien and outsider, it being a revelation of the Savior not only
to the Jew, but now also to the gentile. Furthermore, this Savior’s
role is established by the story’s revelation that Jesus is no
ordinary child, but one who will assume a role of leadership in the world.
The story therefore has his arrival, his “epiphany,” recognized
by people of significance, by travelers from afar.

It is commonplace to say that the world was waiting for this Gift. Matthew
remembers the words of the prophet Micah (5:2) who had foretold that
the ruler in Israel, one whose origins were from ancient days, was to
come from Bethlehem. Roman historian Suetonius related that “there
had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief that it
was fated at that time for men coming from Judea to rule the world (Life
of Vespasian 4:5). (See also Tacitus, Histories 5:13).

Into this anticipation caused by the unsettlement of the times, Matthew
tells his readers that God enters to give not what humans want, but what
they need. Kings, sages and common shepherds all sought the meaning which
governmental stability and affluence cannot bring. What humans need most
is the knowledge that in this vast cosmos of ambiguous meanings there
is a heart that beats for them, a purpose which claims them, and a love
which embraces them. This gift of understanding is intended for everyone
and through it all lives find the personal meaning in life which God
has been seeking to provide.

GIFTS OF THE MAGI

It is fascinating to readers that among those to whom God reveals this
greatest of gifts are seekers, people like us, who are waiting to be
sure they have embraced that which life seeks more than anything else.
In our story, they are magi, wise men, astrologers, people who want more
than daily bread. Interestingly, historians like Herodotus (1: 101, 132)
place them right in the heart of today’s U.S. military occupation.
They were Medes of Babylon/Bagdhad who had come to provide wise counsel
for Persian rulers. With skills in medicine, philosophy and science,
they also interpreted dreams and foretold human destiny by studying the
stars. Although we have little appreciation for this primitive science
today, such people were the true wise men of the near East in ancient
times. What they were seeking is precisely what bumpers stickers today
tell us wise men still seek: A meaning which transforms life and assures
us that in the midst of starry galaxies there is purpose for our life
when the God of all creation claims us for himself.

The Venerable Bede, England’s great church historian of the 730s,
gave names to these men and meanings to their gifts. Mechoir brought
gold as for a king, Gaspar brought incense for one who would serve as
priest to his people and Balthasar, of swarthy skin, myrrh, typically
used to embalm one for burial. They were grand gifts for the whole of
life from men of significance. They were the best gifts that could be
provided for one who could change the course of the world and the direction
of one’s life. The magi become models for us as the first bearers
of Christmas gifts. Their gifts gave meaning not only to the recipient
who could be Lord and Ruler of their lives, but their gifts also gave
meaning to themselves as they sought to kneel in homage before the only
One who could give meaning even greater than they sought.

GIFTS OF GOD’S PEOPLE

Matthew’s story both charms and challenges us. Wise seekers from
distant lands bow in homage before an infant whose mysterious potential
is as yet untested. Gifts as always seek to embrace the real meanings
of the givers and the recipients. What can this mean for us today?

Here in Austin, Texas, we have a special claim to understanding because
here O’Henry lived and wrote the great short story The Gift of
the Magi. In it, a young couple in their twenties, Jim and Della, struggle
to find the right Christmas gift for each other. Each has treasures,
Della’s long, beautiful hair, and Jim’s father’s and
grandfather’s gold watch. More than that, less then two dollars
in cash, each! Both do the unthinkable. Della sells her hair for $20
to buy Jim a platinum watch fob for his gold watch. Jim sells the gold
watch to buy a set of oyster shell combs for her long flowing hair. When
each discovers what the other has done, there is a sense of epiphany,
a discovery about who each really is and what their partner means to
them. The author concludes with these words which have entered the annals
of the world’s greatest literature:

Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish
children
in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures
of their
house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that
of all who give
gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as
they are the
wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are magi!

Here O’Henry is telling us that the deepest meanings in gift giving
arise from an understanding of and a love for the recipient, not to mention
an even more profound understanding of who one is and what one has to
give. Epiphany begins a season for us in which we learn of God’s
profound love for people of every race and clime, every station and evil.
The incarnate gift of that love, appearing for us in the life and sacrificial
death of Jesus, transforms us. As we enter this transformation, as true
magi, knowing that we are among those who were lost but now are loved,
we are touched to give gifts in new and different ways. We search our
personal meanings to ask what our greatest treasures are and what we
might be motivated to give. We look at the needs in our local churches,
in charities and in people all around us. We discover the wonderful power
of sacrificial love, Jesus’ own, and ours as well. As we discover
the inter-relationship between being loved and loving another, we claim
the real gift of Matthew’s story. It is then we know with Jim and
Della that whoever we are, “everywhere we are wisest. We are magi”

Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen, President emeritus
Concordia University at Austin
Austin, Texas
dzersen@aol.com