Ann Barker, Epiphany 2008

It would have been much smarter for the magi to stay home. They spent months, if not years, on the road, and the trip had to have been very expensive. All this effort just to spend a day or so at a small house in an insignificant town, giving gifts to and even worshiping a young child who had no idea what was going on. Then they returned home, using more time, energy and resources. Even if their traditions suggested that the birth of kings was foretold by heavenly signs, all sensible indications were that this child’s coming kingdom could not be very important. The people of Israel were under Roman rule, and it was unreasonable to think that anyone born to them would wield much power at all. What could they have been thinking when they set out? Regardless of their reputations, this journey was not a smart choice. (P)

But the Gentiles in this story are not “smart” men; they are the wise men. And there is a tremendous difference between smart and wise. Mona Bagasao-Cave, in a meditation on a painting of the wise men, says that perhaps it is the difference between acquiring information and acknowledging possibility. It was not the information they knew that  made them wise; it was their ability to look at the old prophecies, she says, and find a glimpse of the future – a king to worship in the present. It was their ability to see and then follow not only the celestial star, but the glimmer of hope it brought to their hearts that led them to Jesus. (P)

The word Epiphany means revelation, and the story of the magi’s visit to Jesus is in the largest sense about God’s revelation of Jesus to the Gentiles – about the unveiling of God’s plan that the Gentiles were fellow heirs of God’s promise, not because the Jews had been bad, but because, as Paul says, God had always intended it so. The Christmas story reveals salvation to God’s people Israel as Jesus comes to them in a manger in Bethlehem. This story is about the nations, the non-Jews of God’s creation, also being invited to come and behold the light of salvation, the glory of God’s love for all people. (P)

Beyond the symbolic meaning, there is much wisdom the magi can offer us about our own journeys to Jesus. The wise men did not know God as the Jews knew God, revealed in the Torah, but they knew God revealed in God’s creation. They saw the star and they knew what their legends said about stars and kings, but they also opened their hearts to God’s invitation to follow this particular star. God’s whispered invitation to come was compelling enough to convince them to go to unfamiliar far-away places to see this king and to worship him. They could not have known what Jesus would mean to the world. They simply responded in their hearts to God’s voice. (p)

If we want to journey toward Jesus, we too have to see knowledge – even belief – as only a beginning, not as the only way to “understand” anything. It is knowledge that opens up possibility – the possibility that God has something special to say to us, that God invites us on a journey that may not seem the smartest thing to do in the world’s eyes, but is full of possibilities if we look closely. We have to be willing to risk, to go beyond what we know to what we feel, to reach out of our comfort zone and trust we will find God in alien lands. (P)

The wise men started with what they had and journeyed into the unknown, trusting God to provide. They followed the star to Israel, but they needed to stop and ask directions in Jerusalem. There, the scribes gave them what they did not know – that the prophecy said the child would be born in Bethlehem.  After they were given this new knowledge, they followed the star again until it stopped right where Jesus was. When we journey toward Jesus, we never have all the information we need. God gives it to us a piece at a time, sometimes from familiar places where we have often found God and sometimes in new places – a book that drops in our lap, a person we really don’t like, an uncomfortable life situation or something new and different that piques our interest. God invites us to trust God to provide us with resources for the journey along the way. (P)

The wise men came with treasures for the king. Gold, frankincense and myrrh were expensive substances and fit for royalty. The gifts were the best they had to offer, because they knew this king was something special. Journeying toward Jesus is about bringing our best – whatever it is at the time – and offering it to our Lord. Every time we thank God for a gift and ask God how we can best use it, we are giving our best. We don’t always know how God can use what we give God, particularly if it is some part of us we don’t like, such as our anger or our inability to do something, or our exhaustion. The wise men could not have known how Jesus was going to use the gifts they brought, but that was not the point; they just brought them and made an offering to him.

Offering God gifts is about giving and then letting go of the outcome, allowing God to use our gifts and us in the way God sees fit. Sometimes it is very practical – surely those gifts would have come in handy when Mary and Joseph fled into Egypt with Jesus as Herod began to slaughter the Holy Innocents. Sometimes giving to God gives God room  to transform us into the people God wants us to be. (P)

The wise men were warned in a dream to go home by another route because Herod wanted to use their information to kill Jesus. They literally took another road, but it is a new spiritual road that is given to us when we come near to Jesus. We are transformed  more and more into his likeness. Being more like Jesus means being less like the world around us, which can make us feel uncomfortable and insecure. It meant the wise men did not go back to the king as protocol demanded and they followed an unfamiliar path. Being more like Jesus also means allowing ourselves to be changed and being willing to leave the outcome of the transformation in God’s hands. Sometimes the new road home is just a little different and we return to the same places, changed in the way we are  present to ourselves, others and God. Sometimes, the road we are sent out on is a completely new road to a completely new place and the changes in our lives are great. Either way, Jesus walks with us, because having offered ourselves to him, we are now one of his loved and protected sheep. (P)

The common thread running through all our lessons from the wise men is their availability to new things. They were not content with knowledge, but wanted to listen for new possibilities. They opened their hearts to hear God speaking and were obedient to God’s call. They offered themselves and their gifts to this new king in adoration, not knowing how it might change their lives, and they were willing to let God guide their journey to Jesus. On our spiritual journey, God invites us to come see Jesus over and over again. Knowledge about Jesus or a positive view of his moral teachings might be a starting point for us, but these are only starting points. It is relationship that we are called to with Jesus the King. We are called to trust in and obey this king throughout our life’s journey. We are called to give ourselves to the one who is the Messiah. Taking that path may not make us smart in the world’s eyes, but it will make us wise men and women in the ways of the Spirit, open us to possibilities and bring us eternal joy and life with God. AMEN.