The Epiphany of the Lord, January 2, 2022 – Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3A, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

So tell me if this is the story you just heard. Three wise men follow a star from the East to Jerusalem. Stop off a Herod’s palace to get directions. Go to see the Christ child. And because Herod is plotting to kill Jesus, they go home another way. Pretty much sums it up right?

Nope, every single detail of the story that I just told you is not in the gospel. It’s not there. The gospel does not say how many magi there were. Magi are not kings. They don’t follow the star from the East. They saw the star only at its rising and, because they were interested in astrology, believed that when a new star appeared it portended the birth of an important person. Herod does not reveal to them the reason why he wants them to go and search diligently. And so they have no understanding that Herod means to do Jesus harm. All those details I gave you have been added to the story over the years. You have to understand whose writing this gospel, and who it’s for, and the fact that the first line would have caused scandal to its readers.

Matthew is writing in the mid-80s. He is a Jewish Christian writing for Jewish Christians. They are members of what we call the Diaspora. They are spread out throughout the Mediterranean, partly because of their business interests, but mostly because Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed, and with it went the worship life of the Jewish people. All they have now is their local synagogue and the Torah. Those of Jewish faith who believed that Jesus was the Messiah begin to join the infant church in great numbers, splitting families in two and causing great recrimination. Besides which, all throughout the Mediterranean Pagans are joining the way of Jesus and this is a scandal to Jewish Christians because they had always divided the world into two groups - us and everybody else. And all those “everybody elses” should not have equal access to Jesus that we have.

And so when Matthew says, “Magi from the East arrived one day in Jerusalem,” this should set his audience on edge. First of all, what are Magi? They can be a lot of different things. We get the English word magic and magician from that word. It can mean someone who studies the heavens seriously, like modern day astronomers. Or it can be people who dabble in astrology. Or it can be people who practice the black arts. Or it can be street charlatans. It can mean all of those things. But a Magus was someone who would have had no respect among Jewish people.

They come from the East. What is the East? Today, bordering modern day Israel on the east, are Syria, Iran, and Iraq. In Jesus’ day almost all that territory was the kingdom of Persia. Almost 300 years ago, maybe more, Persia was conquered by Greece, and then Greece by Rome. But, in its heyday, Persia had conquered Israel and the bad taste left by that defeat still lingered in the Jewish relationship with Persian people. And yet they had a great deal in common. First of all, they had commerce in common, and money talks. Secondly, some of the beliefs that enter into Judaism actually arose from Persian mythology. The belief in angels, the belief in an afterlife, came initially from Persia and was incorporated into the Jewish faith. And so there are connections that create hostility and connections that create attachment.

Why do the Magi say they come? They’ve come because they believe a new king has been born. They’re coming to pay their respects. Why? Because it’s good for politics and it’s good for business. They have no idea about anything about a Messiah. And notice who’s upset by their visit. Not simply Herod, who has paranoia about holding on to his kingdom, but also all of Jerusalem with him. ‘All of Jerusalem’ means all the Jewish leaders. They were upset because they did not want the status quo to change. And if a Messiah was finally to be born, change was on the horizon.

The Magi finally see the star and follow it only the 12 miles or so from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. That’s why they’re overjoyed. Because what began as a political adventure has now become a spiritual quest. They’re in the presence of a miracle; a star that moves right above them and then stops over the place where the child is. And so what began as a political delegation becomes an act of faith as they place the gifts that they intended to give to some ruler before a little child. Then they go home by another way.

This is meant by Matthew to be an allegory for Jewish Christians to understand what is happening in their world and open their hearts to accept it. That the rest of the world not only has a right, but has the desire to come to Christ. And that you, as the custodians of Jesus’ earthly life and the custodians of the tradition from which he comes, must change your minds and open your hearts to these people who you dislike.

More than 50 years ago, the Second Vatican Council issued a decreed called “The Church in the Modern World.” And in that decree this is what they said. This is the doctrinal part of the decree, not the pastoral part of the decree. “Those also have a claim on our respect and charity, who think and act differently from us in social, political, and religious matters. In fact the more deeply, through courtesy and love, we come to understand they ways of thinking, the more easily we will be able to enter into dialogue with them. Love and courtesy of this kind should not, of course, make us indifferent to truth. Love, in fact, impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to everyone the truth which saves. But we must distinguish between error and the people who are in error, who never lose their dignity as persons. God, who alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, forbids us - forbids us - to pass judgement on the inner guilt of other people.”

Almost 50 years later, the present Holy Father issued an encyclical. When a Pope writes an encyclical, he intends it to be an official teaching, taking the Church from where it is at this point to some further point which is not necessarily laid out, just a people on the move. And in the encyclical Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), Pope Frances writes this, “But thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and of growth, and discourage paths of sanctification which give glory to God. I want to remind priests that the confessional should not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy, and that the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect and the powerful, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. I understand those who prefer a rigorous pastoral care, which leaves no room for confusion, however, we put so many conditions on mercy that we empty it of its concrete meaning and its real significance. That is the worst way of watering down the Gospel.”

He ends with the expression “watering down the Gospel” because that criticism is being aimed by some people in our church at other people in our church, and is dividing the Catholic Church between those who say those who do not hold to every single teaching of the church in all its entirety and clarity are not Catholic, with those who say we have to be open to the people on the margins. The story of the Magi is the story of people on the margins leading the way for people who think they hold the center.