Sermon on Matthew 2:1-23
The story of the Magi is one of those wonderful, magical stories that every Christian knows. The image of three crowned men of different races kneeling before a manger is one of the most recognizable icons we have. Unfortunately, it’s also one of those stories that no one gets right. Whatever we might know about them, they weren’t kings. They might not eve have been men. The Greek word is “magoi”, plural of “magus”, from which we get the word “magic”. Magoi were an eastern priestly caste, skilled at interpreting dreams and the stars. There were probably more than three of them. The scriptures list three gifts, but they never mention a number of people. They saw Jesus in his home in Bethlehem, not a stable behind an inn.
One of the personal promises I have made this year, perhaps I could call it a New Year’s resolution, is something that I’ve hinted at over the last few weeks. We are in Year A of the three-year lectionary cycle, and throughout the rest of the year we will be exploring the Gospel According to St. Matthew. I want to take seriously what Matthew wanted to tell us, not combine all the stories from all the gospels, glossing over the differences and inconsistencies. What did this story mean for Matthew?
Only Matthew tells us this story about travelers from the east coming to adore the Christ child. Matthew skips the birth of Jesus entirely, focusing instead on the angel appearing to Joseph, as we heard the last time I was with you, and on the visitation of the magi. No birth narrative, no shepherds, no donkey. First, Joseph is made aware that his child will be the messiah, and then these strangers from a far away country are made aware of this same fact. For Matthew, the significance isn’t in the birth or even the existence of Jesus. For Matthew, what is important is what the knowledge that Christ is King means for the world.
We call today the Feast of the Epiphany or the Epiphany of the Lord. It is through these magoi that the world learns that Christ is king. The Jews, the children of Abraham, learned through Joseph, a man of the house of David. Although the magi were from the same place, probably somewhere in modern-day Iraq, in fact there’s some speculation they were Kurds, I like the tradition of depicting one as European, one as African, and one as Asian. This incorporates the whole world into the story, uniting all the children of Eve in the revelation of Jesus’ true nature.
In this chapter we read this morning, Matthew interrupts the narrative four times to use scriptures to “prove” that Jesus is the messiah. I don’t agree with his interpretation of these scriptures, but I do agree with his conclusions. Jesus is the messiah, but a different kind of messiah than we were expecting. I think Matthew does this because the knowledge he wants us to have, the knowledge that Jesus was and is the messiah for all the world. But he doesn’t just want us to know this as an abstract fact.
Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the messiah because that knowledge makes a difference in our lives. For Matthew, this knowledge didn’t guarantee us a place in the afterlife. There’s very little about such things in any of the gospels. For Matthew this knowledge changed our lives. It made lepers clean, it restored vision to the blind, and it made one shared meal enough for five thousand people.
In today’s reading, it makes a difference, as well. Knowing that Jesus is lord means, conversely, knowing that Caesar is not, nor are his governors and client kings. When the magi learn that Jesus is lord, they no longer feel bound by their promise to Herod. They are able to see that Herod deceived them. They are able to understand that true power does not lie with the king.
However, we don’t get to see what difference this knowledge makes in the rest of their lives. The disappear back to wherever it is they actually came from, and we never see them again. This knowledge really makes a difference to Herod, however. He, like Joseph, like the magi, believes that Jesus is the messiah, the king of the Jews. And what a difference that knowledge makes.
Some people read this story and wonder why the magi had to make this trip. If it hadn’t been for them, those hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small children wouldn’t have been slaughtered. Aren’t the magi in some way responsible for this?
We can never be sure of the results of our faithfulness. The magi were acting out of faithfulness. After their epiphany, after they learned that Jesus was the messiah, they were even more able to listen to God, capable of hearing God’s voice more clearly. But as a result of their faithfulness, these children were murdered.
Faithfulness can lead us to strange places, and those whose faith is in the wrong things will react strongly. The rich young ruler, a story Matthew tells us a little later on, had faith in his wealth, and so when he became aware that Jesus was the messiah, it caused him great sadness, because it meant he had to choose. Herod had faith in his strength, in his armies, in his power and might, and when he learned that the messiah had been born, he trusted in these things to eliminate the threat. His knowing that the messiah had been born caused fear and anger. The entrance into his life of the living God was a source of hatred and anger, because he feared that he would lose everything he treasured, those things he had faith in.
That is the difference of the knowledge that Jesus Christ is lord. This knowledge can change our lives, heal us of our sin and hate, fill us with love for all humanity, and open us to the will of God in our lives. Or it can fill us with fear and anger, hardening our hearts as we cling to those places where our faith really is, destroying families, churches, and even human lives to keep that change away. Knowing that Christ is Lord changes everything. Whether that’s good news or not depends on us.
It was important to Matthew’s community that people know that Jesus is lord, because that knowledge has to change things. It can make things better if our faith is in God, or it can make things much worse, if our faith is somewhere else. In Matthew, we don’t hear a birth story, because it isn’t important just that Jesus existed. What is important is that we know Jesus is the messiah, the true king, the Son of God, and what is even more important is the difference that knowledge makes in our lives. How is the world different because you know that Jesus is lord?
That is the question we must continually ask ourselves, both as individuals and as a Church. For Matthew, it was the central question. Hear now as he asks us that question, people he could never have imagined, people so different from him that we would seem like another species, but he still asks us the same question: “How is the world different because you know Jesus is the messiah”? Amen.