The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
I always think of the Church Year as being something like a person throwing
stones into a pool or lake. Advent is like the throwing of a stone or pebble. It
disturbs the water, and starts things moving. Christmas is joyous and wonderful,
but at the same time intimate. We think of the tiny family, Mary, Joseph and
Jesus, with a kindly innkeeper and a few awe-struck shepherds...the ripples from
the stone get larger and move out to touch more people. And then comes Epiphany,
when the ripples get large enough to touch strangers and bring them to see
what's going on. Later, during the time when we learn about Jesus' ministry, the
ripples get wider and wider and touch and affect more and more people, until at
Easter and Pentecost they are able to touch everyone in the whole world, through
all the ages of time.
The Greek word epiphany means to show forth.
Epiphany is the time when we remember and celebrate how God showed the world who
and what Jesus really is. It begins with the three wise men from the East, from
probably the area where Iraq and Iran are now. The Bible does not say they are
kings. That's our guesswork, probably based on the extravagant cost of the gifts
they brought to Jesus...gold, frankincense and myrrh, all very costly things. At
any rate, they saw a very unusual star that seemed to beckon and draw them to
follow it, and wound up in Jerusalem, just a few miles from Bethlehem, and
stopped there to ask about the meaning of the star. They asked, Where is
the babe born to be the king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East, and
have come to worship him.
Now, for all that we call them the wise men, there were some things they did
not know. One of the things they didn't know was that the Roman Emperor had
proclaimed King Herod to be the King of the Jews. Herod was not himself a Jew.
He had been set over the Jews as king by the Romans when Rome conquered Israel.
So, of course, all the people of Israel hated him on two counts...first, that he
was a Gentile, not a Jew, and second, that he had been set on the throne of the
kingdom in place of a proper Jewish king of their own, as a representative of the
hated Roman conquerors. It didn't help that he had killed his brother so that he
could marry the brother's wife, which was contrary to Jewish Law. And it most
certainly did not help that he was called the King of the Jews.
So, when the wise men from the East showed up asking for the "king of the
Jews," they got directed to Herod's palace. Nobody else was going to have
anything to do with anybody that was called "the king of the Jews." That's how
much they hated Herod.
And the wise men couldn't possibly know that Herod was a very insecure,
jealous person. He was terribly afraid that the Jews would find some way to get
him in trouble with Rome, and that he would lose his throne. So he made a habit
of killing anyone whom he thought might be trying to get the throne...his first
wife, his brothers, his sons, and many of his officials.
And then the wise men came calling, asking Where is the babe born to be
the king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East, and have come to
worship him.
Herod was seriously upset.
So, he gave the wise men some refreshments, to keep them busy, while he
called for the scribes...men who could read and write, and who knew the Bible
(of course that means what we now call the Old Testament; the New Testament had
not been written then) through and through. They hurried to check, and came back
to tell Herod that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of the area called
Judah...a small town, six or seven miles down the road from Jerusalem.
Herod went back to the wise men and told them this, and then asked them to
come back, after they'd found the child, and tell him where to find the baby,
too. He wanted, he said, to go and worship the child, himself. But you know,
with Herod's insecure feelings about his throne, what he really meant to
do...get rid of another possible future king.
Well, the wise men made their manners to Herod, thanked him for the lovely
wine, and left. They found Bethlehem, and they found Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
They did worship to the child and presented their gifts, and then withdrew to
the inn.
An inn in Judea at that time was a big courtyard with a fountain in the
middle and a wall all around it. There might be a couple of real rooms in a
building nearby, but most travelers would pitch their tents in the courtyard,
draw some water from the fountain or well, and do their own cooking. The only
thing provided was water and safety from thieves trying to get at your tent and
travelling packs.
While they were sleeping, they had a dream that told them not to go back to
Herod, because he wanted to kill the child. So they got up in the middle of the
night and packed their things and headed home by a different road, not going
through Jerusalem this time at all.
Joseph also had a dream, and got Mary and Jesus up in the middle of the night
to pack their belongings and head for safety in Egypt, where Herod could not
harm the young child Jesus.
There are a lot of interesting things involved in this story of the Epiphany.
Maybe you remember the story of Abraham, hundreds of years before that first
Christmas in Bethlehem? God had promised him that all the nations would be
coming to the land God was going to give Abraham and his family, and that all
the nations would be blessed by Abraham's faith and obedience to God. And here
were wise men from far nations coming to Jerusalem, the capital of the land God
had given Abraham and his descendents; and while nobody knew it just yet, that
child Jesus would grow up to be a blessing to people of many nations, who would
make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see the places he had been born and had lived
and died. So the promises to Abraham were fulfilled.
There are many stories and legends of important stars appearing in the
heavens at the time of the birth of a person who later became an important
person in history. Jewish rabbis have stories of stars appearing at the time of
the birth of Abraham and of Moses and of King David. These stories are not in
the Bible, but were traditions that were handed down through the ages. There are
also stories of stars appearing at the time of Philip of Macedonia, and of
Alexander the Great, both of whom conquered Israel and many other countries. So
it is not hard to understand why the wise men came following the star. It was a
common belief that a new, important star meant the birth of an important person.
Many people believed, at that time, that each person has a star that starts
shining at the person's birth and goes out at the time of the person's death.
Then, the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, the leaders of the
Temple, were the power structure of that time and place. They hated Herod but
they worked with him. Is it any wonder that later on, they hated and worked
against Jesus when he grew up and began his ministry? Some of them even spied
for Herod, the Bible says, and told him what Jesus was doing. Of course that was
years later.
When the time came that Jesus was crucified, the Roman governor, Pilate,
ordered that a poster be put on the cross over Jesus' head. Do you remember what
was written on that poster? Pilate ordered that Jesus die under a sign that
said, The King of the Jews. Apparently the Epiphany was not only
the fulfillment of a prophecy, but was also a prophecy itself.
There is one more thing theologians have noticed. It is that the people who
held power, such as Herod and his supporters and the Roman army, used that power
in hurtful ways. But the people who were not powerful, such as the wise men, who
were Gentiles or foreigners in a strange land, and Joseph, the husband of Mary,
the poor carpenter, were righteous people in their behavior. They obeyed
promptings from God, whether the promptings came in a dream or from an angel,
and did what the Lord told them to do...and so the young child Jesus was taken
to Egypt to be kept safe there, and the wise men went home another way, and
avoided the wrath of King Herod. That's interesting to think about. It is like
our modern saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
That is not necessarily true, of course, but it often is so, as we have seen
over and over again in history.
What can we learn from the Epiphany?
Perhaps the most important thing is to pay attention to God's word, and to
study the Bible, including the prophets. Most of us brush them off as
unimportant oddballs, always scolding and complaining. But prophets are trusted
by God to give his words to us, so they should be given our attention.
Another thing we can think about is how we have added to the showing forth of
Jesus in the world. How have we spread the Good News about Jesus? How did we
hear that Good News ourselves? We might want to thank God for the life and work
of the people who taught us about God and Jesus, and then think of ways we can
reach out to tell others the same Good News.
And finally: if we are entrusted with power...whether it is power over our
children, or our employees, or the power to vote for government leaders...we
need to think seriously about righteous ways to use that power, and not use it
for our own selfish purposes but for the good of all people. We do have the
choice of whether we want to be like Herod or like Joseph and the wise men.
Which do YOU choose to be?
Amen.
