2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
Intro —
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds. (Psalm 77)
The Church calendar gives us the means to recite our theology and our History. If familiar with the Church calendar we can become a people who are anchored in our undoubted catholic Christian faith. When we are involved in this recital theology as connected to the calendar we are involved in a kind of catechism.
2.) Importance of History
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of history.
We want to use the Church Calendar to remind us of our History as a Christian people. And so we spend this time seeking to ground these New Testament texts in the history of God’s people. The purpose is that we will be both theologically and historically grounded.
When we celebrate Epiphany, for example, we look at the History of God’s people looking forward to the coming of Christ and then we speak of that fulfillment and then we add that we now look forward to a future coming of Christ.
3.) Muscular Christianity
As a Christian people we desire to measure time in a Christian fashion and not as a people who think the measuring of time is neutral. If we will not measure time as Christians we will measure time as non-Christians. Why should we note President’s Day or MLK Day and not mark Epiphany or Advent?
4.) Church Calendar not Absolutized
There is no intent to absolutize the Church Calendar. We ourselves do not find ourselves tied to it. We will deviate to address other issues that need to be spoken to but neither do we find ourselves required to ignore a means that can work to help us to ground us in Christian thinking habits.
There is no Romanism or mysticism in observing the movement of time in Christian terms.
Epiphany
Greek — epiphaneia, “manifestation, revelation, striking appearance”
In the West, Christians began celebrating the Epiphany — that is the visitation of the Wise men in the 4th century. Even up until the 19th century, January 6 was as big a celebration as Christmas Day. However, with the increasing removal of Christianity from the public square increasingly Epiphany as a day of celebration was pushed into the background.
If in Christmas we celebrate the birth of the sinless Christ child to Mary in Epiphany we celebrate the work of the Father in making His revelation known to the peoples. With the accentuation on these Gentiles from the East bearing gifts. Epiphany becomes tied up with the truth that the Gospel is God’s gift for all the Nations. In finding the Gentile Nations in worshiping the Christ child we have a prophetic word from Isaiah 49 affirmed
6He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
That Epiphany was connected to the idea of Christ for the Nations was seen in how each of the traditional three wise men became characterized as coming from different continents. Because of the three gifts mentioned it has traditionally been held that there were three Kings though the text nowhere tells us that. The three Kings (Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar) represented Europe, Arabia and Africa respectively.
There is an insight that we can gain here if we take this long held church tradition as true. The insight as to do with a proper understanding of the way particularity and universality work. The nations, in these wise men come to worship Christ and Christ receives the worship for people in every tongue, tribe, and nation. All men from all tribes, clans, races, and nations are commanded to come to Christ just as these esteemed men came. However, in coming they did not lose their national identity. They came, if Church tradition is correct, as Kings representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa. Men from every tribe, tongue, and nation as in their tribes, tongues and nations. There we find all the nations in their nations gathered around Christ to worship Him. Those who gather to worship Christ have a unity that does not sacrifice their particularity. It is the principle of the one and the many.
Anyway, it is appropriate that these Kings should come as the covenant is going to be expanded to include the nations. Israel will refuse her Messiah but the nations own Christ and the reputation of Christ is enlarged by the swarms of people groups that come to worship Christ.
Now we have these Magi and they are bearing gifts. We shall look at the gifts in turn but first let us note that there very presence was anticipated by Scripture. All of what we are seeing here is a fulfillment of OT prophecy regarding the Messiah. Remember Matthew is one of the more Hebraic of the synoptic Gospels and he returns repeatedly to the OT. Many believe that Matthew is seeking, in His Gospel, to reveal Christ as the faithful Israel as compared to faithless Israel. As such he pays close attention to the Old Testament. With the recording of the coming of the Magi Matthew may have had in mind Psalm 72,
10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents;
The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
11 And let all kings bow down before him,
All nations serve him.
15 So may he live, and may the gold of Sheba be given to him;
And let them pray for him continually;
Let them bless him all day long.
Or alternately Matthew may be appealing to Isaiah 60,
“Nations will come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.
“A multitude of camels will cover you,
The young camels of Midian and Ephah;
All those from Sheba will come;
They will bring gold and frankincense,
And will bear good news of the praises of the Lord.
So Matthew is seeking to connect the prophecies of the OT to their fulfillment in the NT, something he does repeatedly in his Gospel. Sometimes Matthew does it explicitly. Sometimes he does it implicitly.
Whom we call “Wisemen” the text refers to as “Magi.” R. T. France in his commentary tells us that Magi was originally the name of a Persian priestly caste, but later, this title was used widely for magicians and astrologers.
These magi were high ranking statesman in the kingdom of Babylon, and then the Mede and Persian kingdoms.
Herodotus, the ancient Greek Historian, tells us that the magi were trained in the arts and sciences. They were the university professors and the political power-players all rolled up into one.
No Persian prince ever became king without having been tutored by the magi, and only when the magi determined the heir to the throne to be ready would the prince be crowned king. They were essentially Kingmakers and these Kingmakers present themselves to Herod to speak of the one who has already been born King of the Jews.
Let’s turn to the gifts for a moment;
The Church understood the gifts brought by the wise men as having symbolic significance.
Gold being a chief representation of value in the ancient world it was used especially in the context of royalty — men and gods. In the Old Testament, we find the Ark of the Covenant being overlaid with gold (Exodus 25:10-17). Also in Solomon’s temple, we find it decked out with 3000 tons of gold.
Gold, therefore, represented the royal and divine standing of the Messiah. He was both very God of very God and King of Kings.
Frankincense represented his divine birth
Frankincense is an aromatic white resin or gum used in incense, oils, and perfumes. It is obtained from a particular type of tree in Arabia. The way it is harvested from these trees is by making incisions in the bark and allowing the gum to flow out. It is highly fragrant when burned and was therefore used in worship, where it was burned as a pleasant offering to God (Exodus 30:34).
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take for yourself spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, spices with pure frankincense; there shall be an equal part of each.
It is interesting that this incense made with frankincense was to be used only in worship. Anybody caught wearing it would be cut off from the people.
Here we may find, at the very beginning the hint of the fact that Christ would be himself our pleasant offering to God as our burnt offering sacrifice.
Myrrh represented the humanity of Jesus by suggesting his mortality
Myrrh was also a product of Arabia, and was obtained from a tree in the same manner as frankincense. It was a spice and was used in embalming. It was also sometimes mingled with wine to form an article of drink. Such a drink was given to our Savior when He was about to be crucified, as a stupefying potion (Mark 15:23). Matthew 27:34 refers to it as “gall.” Myrrh symbolizes bitterness, suffering, and affliction. The baby Jesus would grow to suffer greatly as a man and would pay the ultimate price when He gave His life on the cross for all who would believe in Him.
Taken all together it is interesting what is going on here that whereas in the OT the examples are of Faithful Israelites being proven superior to foreign wise-men (Gen. 41, [Pharaoh’s dream] Ex. 7-10 Pharaoh’s Magicians vs. Moses] Daniel 2 [Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream]) here instead it is the foreign wise men who are superior to faithless Israel thus again hinting at the eventual unfolding of the Gospel where unfaithful Israel is displaced by the Gentile Church as God’s people.
When we take the text as a whole we see that what is going on here is a contrast between the illegitimacy of Herod’s rule as well with the Jewish wise men whom Herod at appointed with the legitimacy of the Messiah and His Magi wise men. There is a fairytale quality to this, and in saying that I mean zero disrespect.
Once upon a time there was a wicked pretender King who ruled over a people to whom he was not related by blood nor by faith. A violation of this people’s law book. While he was usurping this throne the true heir to the throne was born in an obscure and impoverished village to poor peasant parents. While still a toddler the child was visited by Kings from the East in fulfillment of a long known but forgotten prophecy. These Kings from the East had been guided by a supernatural star in the sky which they had long studied in anticipation of their trip. Upon arrival to worship the true King they stop and visit the pretender King who feigns interest only with the purpose of killing the child with the purpose of keeping his own wicked throne secure.
As a brief aside it is interesting the means that God uses to make known His Son. We often speak of God making Himself known via natural revelation and special revelation. In the arrival of Christ we see both of these means being used. To the Shepherds God’s uses what we would term as Special Revelation providing an Angelic band to make the announcement to them. However, to the Wise men every indication is that their discovery was in keeping with a kind of Natural Revelation whereby they studied the matter out consistent with astronomy and on the basis of that natural revelation the Wise men came to worship the Messiah.
Purpose of the Wisemen’s visit
All they wanted to do was Worship the King.
But their were hurdles to that worship they sought to bring and the main hurdle was a chap named Herod. Let’s talk about him a wee bit.
Like many of the Jews today, Herod, though known as “the King of the Jews” was no Jew. He was an Edomite …. a descendent of Esau.
The text reveals that Herod was troubled at the news the Magi bring of the birth of the King of the Jews. And when Herod was troubled all Jerusalem was understandably trouble with him because the man was, like many politicians, a psychopath. This is proven by his murdering of his wife Mariamne I due to his great jealousy against her. In his final 2 years of life, Herod’s paranoia of being overthrown became so terrible that he murdered three of his sons. This helps us to understand this man who will soon order all the young boys to be killed in Bethlehem in order to try and kill the true King of the Jews … the Messiah.
This fake King who lived on the scale between sociopath and psychopath had been told that the King of the Jews was already born. His paranoia is driven by the fact that he knows he is a pretender King ruling over a people who the OT had clearly taught were to be the ones ruling over the Edomites. Going back some two millenium Jacob had been blessed by his Father under deceptive circumstances,
“Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.” Genesis 27:29a
But now the sons of Jacob were bowing down to Herod the Edomite whom Rome had finally granted him his life-long wish to carry the title, “King of the Jews.”
For 1900 years there had been this sibling rivalry between Esau and Jacob and their descendants and now Herod the Edomite … the usurper, in the time of his dotage and the last years of his reign … hears that the true King of the Jews has been born.
We should note here a word about God’s providence. The might and plans of the wicked find them plotting and scheming but when God moves to accomplish what He will, nothing can stop His providence. Not even a maniacal and mentally ill King Herod. This is why Scripture teaches that God sits in heaven and laughs at the plots of the wicked against him.
We should also note again how worthy of Worship Christ remains. It should be our prayer that we would realize that every week as we gather to worship Christ we are, in some sense, repeating what the Magi came to do. Are we all in to worship Christ as they were?
We should also thank God that He receives our worship for the sake of Christ who imputes His righteousness to our worship so that it is heartily received. We are not turned away from worship because Christ is our the one who makes us fit for worship and who makes our worship fit to be received.