Epiphany

All of the people in today’s gospel reading heard the same information about a new baby, born to be King. But they had very different responses to the news.

The wise men responded by taking action. They travelled great distances to find the king and pay homage to him. When they found him they were overwhelmed with joy and showed great humility in kneeling before a baby, even though they were very wealthy men and important in their own lands.

King Herod and the Jewish people he governed in Jerusalem responded with fear. King Herod was eager to find out more information about Jesus but not so he could go and worship him. Instead he wanted to kill him.

And finally, the priests and scribes knew all about the prophecies that a king was coming and were able to explain it to Herod in great detail, but they themselves didn’t go to find this king that they knew so much about. They were detached observers, scientifically interested. They had God in a book, everything he had revealed to the prophets and the Jewish people was filed neatly in their box of information about Him.

So what exactly was the information these people were responding to and why did they respond in such different ways?

Well, today we are celebrating the Epiphany. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek and means ‘to show’ or ‘to reveal’ and in this case it refers to Jesus – the embodiment of God’s plan for salvation - being revealed not just to the Jews but to the whole world.

The Epiphany is the revealing of what Paul refers to as the “mystery” that God had not made common knowledge to humans, only revealing fragmented glimpses to prophets by the Spirit. The epiphany reveals the “mysterious wisdom of God in its rich variety”, the” eternal purpose of God”: His master-plan to bring Jews and Gentiles, all peoples, to relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ.

As St Paul explains to the Ephesian church: “The Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel… This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.”

There was a realisation – an epiphany – that this ‘King of the Jews’ was more than just the King of one tribe or nation, gentiles – represented here by the three wise men from the East - were coming to worship him also. God was revealing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords before whom every nationality would bow. In former times God had spoken to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the prophets, telling them who He was.

Now God was making the revelation of himself perfectly clear by coming into the world as a human. Jesus is the fulfilment of the prophecies of a coming “Emmanuel, God with us”, the Perfect revelation, the perfect showing of who God is and what His kingdom is about. So why did this Epiphany, this revealing of God, provoke such different responses from Herod, his scribes and the wise men?

For Herod, and the society he ruled, there was fear. Why were they frightened? Because they already had a King and a kingdom or way of life. Herod saw in Jesus a threat to his kingship, his control. Prophecies described Jesus bringing in a Kingdom completely different to the kingdoms of the world. One where justice and mercy was abundant. Where the poor and the helpless were prioritised and not oppressed. In a dog-eat-dog society where it was survival of the fittest, this kingdom was not welcomed by people who wanted things to remain the same. They perhaps were benefitting from the inequalities of society and didn’t want a new King or Kingdom to upset their way of life.

The Chief priests and scribes were familiar with the prophecies of a coming king. They were able to explain to Herod but they didn’t go with the wise men to seek this king. Why? Perhaps they were comfortable in their own traditions and their own understanding of God, faith and religion. They had God in a box and didn’t want to see a new thing, a new baby, a new, fuller revelation of God. They wanted a God that they could debate and philosophise about from a distance, not one who would come to them up close, entering into the dirt, chaos and reality of humanity.

They wanted a God they could contain and determine His parameters, not one who could step out of their constraints and invade their lives in uncomfortable ways. Perhaps these religious priests and scribes didn’t want to include other races, the gentiles they viewed as beneath them. If this was a King who would welcome Gentiles as well as Jews then perhaps this wasn’t the kind of king they were looking for.

Finally, we see the wise men. They responded in awe of God and his new revelation to the whole world and not just a chosen elite people. They responded with overwhelming joy. Travelling for many miles to witness their promised salvation face to face. They bowed in humility to the God who had stepped out of the preconceptions and boxes that people had tried to place Him in and poured himself into the body of a human child. In awe and wonder the wise men presented Jesus with their own precious gifts in worship and gratitude.

I wonder, can we see our own reactions to Jesus in any of these people?

Do we – like the priests and scribes – sometimes respond with indifference to what God has done and is doing in our lives and the world? Becoming complacent with what we know, it becoming a religious tradition or set of phrases we say and forgetting about the reality of God’s presence, power and the amazingness of his salvation.

So many times in my own life when I’ve been on the right track for a while I forget what a sinner I was in the past and am still all too often capable of being every day. I overcome one temptation and think, wow, I’ve made it, then forget how without being dependent on God to daily help me overcome each days temptations that inevitably my pride comes before a fall.

And I guess, like those scribes at the epiphany, that’s how we can show indifference to God’s work because we forget how dead we were in our sins and therefore minimise the extent of the sacrifice God had to make by sending Jesus to die in order for us to be in relationship with Him as Father. We show indifference to the necessary and life-long regenerative work of God the Spirit to sanctify us and transform us into the image of the Son as we walk this Christian journey.

Are we indifferent to who He wants to reveal his kingdom to? Do we listen to the Spirit and speak to those God asks us to speak to? Those who are seeking Him? Those who we may not like very much but who are loved by God and who He wants us to reach out to.

Have we put God in a box that we can open and shut when it suits us? Do we avoid allowing Him to be up close and personal in all of our day to day dealings, in some of the messes we find ourselves in once we are away from our religious activities and duties?

Or, like Herod, do we resist Jesus’ kingship over every part of our lives. Because, if we allow Him to reign completely it might disrupt our way of life.

I have recently found myself doing this, not wanting God to have control of an area of my life that I know isn’t right but I’m not ready to give up. And whenever there is an area of sin in my life that I am wrestling God for kingship over, I find myself reacting in the same way. Like Herod I keep away from the king – I become a master of avoidance – I’m much ‘too tired’ or too busy to read the bible, to pray, to spend time in God’s presence as I don’t want to hear Him tell me that I need to hand over even this area of my life to Him and obey what He wants instead of what I want to do in that situation.

Because accepting Jesus as Lord and King means serving Him rather than our selves. It means overthrowing your kingship of your own life, dying to self daily and allowing Jesus to take up His rightful position on the throne of your life. Letting Jesus be King might mean that we can no longer sit in silence about the ills of our society – poverty, slavery, abuse, excesses of capitalism, inequality, discrimination. Living under God’s kingdom involves being part of his mission for justice.

Living under God’s kingship might mean we can no longer ignore the sins in our lives that we try to hide from His gaze or minimize and rationalise in our own minds.

I hope that I, and we all, will be like those wise men. In awe of God’s revelation they surrendered their own kingship and embraced God’s kingdom.

Because what makes the Epiphany, the revelation, such good news is that access to God’s kingdom is open to everyone. The Jew, the Gentile, rich, poor, the wanted and the unwanted.

All we have to do is lay down our crowns like the wise men did – allow Jesus to be Lord of every area of our lives, submit to His will in every area and stop harbouring little pockets of resistance in his kingdom.

We need to not be like the scribes – full of religious knowledge and tradition but not wanting to meet God face to face and have a real personal relationship. Not wanting to step out of our comfort zone and see what God is revealing.

And like the wisemen we need to come in humility and with joy to worship the King. In humility because we see that our Holy God – the God who created the universe and everything in it - has come down into His creation, into all of our mess and sinfulness because he wants to forgive us and have a relationship with us. In joy of this Amazing Grace that has saved a wretch like me and you.

And like the wise men, we need to come close to God in joy and worship because our God and our King has become our Father through Jesus Christ.

This Epiphany, let’s be full of awe and truly celebrate Jesus – the revelation of God’s mysterious plan to save us all.

Matthew 2:1-12

The Visit of the Wise Men

2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, ‘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.’ 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”’

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.