The uncomfortable visitors - who & why are the seekers and dreamers

Later today we will once again sing that favourite carol for this time of year “We three kings of orient are”. It’s a carol full of errors and assumptions but I will still sing it with gusto. Scripture never calls these visitors kings, never specifies their number and doesn’t even specify their gender. The significance of the gifts is never mentioned in our text but our carol-writer has used a sanctified imagination to imbue them with significance. 

Have you ever thought that those wise people were the worst gift-givers ever - gold, frankincense and myrrh for a new baby! My niece is expecting her first baby any day and I assure you I plan to buy them something much more practical! - if our story occurred today perhaps Mary and Joseph would be on trade-me on boxing day trying to on-sell those gifts so they could buy something more practical! 

It is surely a difficult story to read today - a story of foreign travel when so many have had to cancel planned travels during the year and so many of us have friends and family who will be spending the feast of epiphany in lockdown. 

This story of the strange foreign visitors has grabbed the imagination from the beginning - there are frescos devoted to this story dating back to the 2nd century. Poets and artists delight in it. We only find the story in Matthew’s account of the birth and infancy of Christ. Why did he include it when others left it out? 

Matthew’s gospel is said to be one particularly addressed to a Jewish audience. He begins his story with the genealogy of Jesus - clearly linking Jesus with Abraham and David - a true Jew for Jews - of royal lineage. In that first chapter, he links the birth and naming of Jesus with Old Testament prophecy - the hope of Israel.

Matthew does not mention a stable - the wise ones find the holy family in a house and we do not know how old Jesus was by the time of their visit verses later in Matthew suggest he may have been a toddler, 2 years of age. The shepherds had gone, there was no host of angels singing when the wise ones arrived. 

Our history of romanticising this story has often obscured the true political dynamite it contains. 

The wise ones arrive in Jerusalem - going to the palace of the king of Israel inquiring about the birth of a new king - the fact that Herod heard about them suggests that rather than 3 solitary men on camels like we see on Christmas cards  - this would likely have been quite a large group - enough to make a stir and come to his notice. 

Where did these people come from and who were they? We are only told they came from the east.  It has been suggested they may have been learned court advisers of Mesopotamia or Persia whose work involved studying ancient and sacred texts, as well as watching for movements of planets and stars that might be interpreted as divine messages. It seems reasonably clear from the text that they were not Jewish scholars (as Herod’s Jewish scholars were able to give them the last piece of direction they needed). If you remember your old testament - practices such as divination and astrology were condemned - this has lead to some trying to redefine these visitors to make them “acceptable” - but another way of looking at this is 

“the God who rules the heavens chose to reveal himself where the pagans were looking” (Craig Keener)

Matthew is setting up both political and theological controversies with this little story. The Herod family were the royal family in Israel at the time. This story begins the conflict between the Jewish rulers and Jesus that is a thread throughout his life and eventually leads to Jesus’ death. This Herod died while Jesus was a child but his son (also called Herod) took over - the later Herod executed John the baptist and then felt threatened when he heard of Jesus ministry (because he thought John the Baptist had come back from the dead). When it comes to the story of the crucifixion - the Jewish authorities are represented by Pilate (In Luke’s gospel Pilate and Herod are in cahoots). So - from the beginning Matthew portrayed Jesus as the true king of Israel and in conflict with the authorities (claiming Jesus as true king also pitted him against Caesar and the Roman occupiers).  “Religion and politics don’t mix” is an oxymoron - look at the story of Jesus - it is political from beginning to end. 

Who were the people who first noticed this world-shattering event (the birth of the Christ)  -  it was Gentiles (the magi - the wise ones of our story). The Jewish authorities and academics did not notice it until it was pointed out. They had both the natural phenomenon (the star) and the scriptures but they missed it. How did they respond to this news? They either ignored it or opposed it. It seems the wise ones continued on their journey with no extra company - the chief priests and scribes researched in the scriptures for the wise ones but having concluded where this momentous ruler was born they just left the magi to continue on - it was the Gentile magi who are first described by Matthew as worshipping the Christ - it was only another 10km for them to travel but the chief priests and scribes preferred to stay in the comfort of the court they knew. 

Questioning power not only challenges the power we question but it questions our own place in relation to the power - for the chief priests & scribes there was comfort and status working with the collaborator, Herod, working with and not against the oppressor. I just watched the movie “Bombshell” - about the women who eventually exposed the toxic environment of sexual abuse in the Fox news network leading to the dismissal of 2 leading lights in the network - it took huge courage for these women to come forward - it was easier to stay in the toxic environment they knew than to challenge it. 

As well as gentiles being the first worshippers of the Christ at the beginning of our story, it was another Gentile who, at the cross, recognised the true nature of Christ when the centurion said “truly this man was God’s son”. The final verses in Matthew are the great commission which specify this is a gospel to go to all nations. 

So Matthew bookends his gospel account with the political challenge that Jesus as true king makes to authorities and the theological challenge to his Jewish readers that this good news is bigger than them - it is global it includes strangers - it includes the “other”. Paul got it - in his epistle today he refers to his manifesto to bring the good news to the Gentiles. 

Today we celebrate the feast of epiphany - this word refers to “an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being. OR A usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.” The epiphany or revelation focussed on here is that of God’s salvation being offered to ALL. 

There is a human tendency to be comfortable with “my people” - people who look like me, dress like me, talk like me, think like me, share my values …

The Jews in Jesus time were no different - they preferred to socialise with their own kind, those who kept kosher, kept the sabbath, prayed and believed like them. The visit of the wise ones split this wide open for early Jewish Christian believers hearing this story - these visitors were foreign, of a different social class, race and religion - speaking, thinking, dressing differently - and yet God is revealed to them - God’s message of salvation is FIRST revealed to them. 

We are not Jews keeping kosher - we are 21st century Christians - but we do feel comfortable with our own kind - who are the “Gentiles” in our community? - God reveals God’s love and salvation to ALL - including and especially those we do not feel comfortable with. God does not always reveal in the ways we think are “right”. 

Scripture is not just a bunch of quaint stories - scripture invites us into the stories, we are invited to see ourselves in them - sometimes in one character sometimes another and sometimes as multiple characters - are you a seeker and dreamer like the wise ones? are you threatened in your situation like Herod? would you rather stick with what you know and ignore the new king like the scribes, are you Mary & Joseph welcoming strange visitors into your home with all the discomfort strangers can bring? Where are you in this story? Where are we as a community of faith in this epiphany? Are there seekers and dreamers around us - looking for God in ways we do not expect? 

Perhaps a part of us always identifies with those on a journey. In Graham Kendrick's modern carol “Seekers and dreamers” the chorus goes like this

We are the seekers the dreamers

Mystical trav'llers, believers

Risking it all on a star

Knowing there's somebody there

Longing to bring you our treasures

Lay at your feet the most precious

Gifts that our hearts can bring

Oh how we long to be there. 

WH Auden wrote a poem about the wise ones and at the end of each stanza each very different wise one discloses the reason for their journey

first wise one

“To discover how to be truthful now

Is the reason I follow this star.”

second wise one

“To discover how to be living now

Is the reason I follow this star.”

third wise one

“To discover how to be loving now

Is the reason I follow this star.”

three wise ones

“That this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners,

And miss our families, our books, our dogs,

But have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are.

To discover how to be human now

Is the reason we follow this star.”

Perhaps this travel story can be reimagined in lockdown

“this lockdown is much too long

we miss our friends and family, work and worship.

We wonder who we are and why we are.

To discover how to be human now

is the reason we gaze at this star”. 

Gracious God

Whether we are locked down or free to travel 

may we always journey on, following your light, 

help us to deal with the discomfort 

of leaving the known, 

help us to rejoice in the discomfort 

of welcoming the other

remind us that there are no limits 

on how or to whom you reveal yourself

Gracious God,
we delight in your light 

in our lives and our world. Amen