Stargazers Visit the Holy Family --- Sermon for Christmas 1A (Matthew 2)
Most creche scenes feature both shepherds and the three kings who kneel before the baby Jesus lying in a manger. While this setup makes for a nice Christmas scene, Matthew and Luke tell very different stories about Jesus’ birth. Luke offers us shepherds, while Matthew tells a story about magi who follow a star to Judea. In other words, the shepherds and the three kings come from two different stories.
This morning we’re following Matthew’s version, in which Matthew’s magi who come from the east follow a star to Jerusalem where they visit King Herod. They ask Herod where they might find the newborn king of the Jews, whose star they saw rising in the sky.
This request made by the magi frightened Herod because he didn’t know that such a child had been born in his kingdom. Besides, he didn’t welcome possible rivals to his rule over Judea. Nevertheless, the crafty king asked his advisors where the Messiah was to be born. They pointed the magi to Bethlehem because the prophet had spoken of a coming ruler who would be born in Bethlehem. With this news, Herod sent the magi off to Bethlehem, but not before asking them to return with news of this child so he could pay homage to the Messiah. So, off they went, following the star to the home of the Holy Family.
If you’re familiar with the rather sacrilegious Monty Python movie, Life of Brian, you may remember that when the magi arrived in Bethlehem they got their addresses mixed up. So, they mistakenly paid homage to a baby named Brian, even offering him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Fortunately, they realized their mistake, took back the gifts, and gave them to the appropriate family. Of course, this wouldn’t be the last time in the Monty Python version that Brian’s life would get tangled up with the life of the child born just down the street. This just goes to show that a star shining in the night doesn’t always provide exact directions.
Now, legend has it that these pilgrims whom Matthew calls magi or astrologers were three in number. That’s because the magi brought three gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Legend even gives these three visitors from the East names: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar. Instead of being kings, the title of magi suggests that they might be Zoroastrian priests from Persia who were known to practice astrology.
While the comings and goings of the magi are shrouded in mystery, if you go to the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany you will find a golden casket that supposedly contains the remains of the three wise men. Whether this is true or not, as the guide at the Cathedral pointed out, is really a matter of faith. I might have questions about the story of the magi, their visit to Jesus, and the bones housed in the cathedral in Cologne, but I did light a candle in their honor when I visited the cathedral in 2019.
We can get caught up in discussions about the historicity of this visit and the nature of the star that guided the magi to Jesus, but as with the bones in Cologne, what we choose to believe about the story is really a matter of faith. So, perhaps the better course here is to ponder the meaning of this visit and the gifts offered to Jesus.
What we can say is that the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, are all gifts worthy of a monarch. By telling this story Matthew lets us know that Jesus, not Herod or Caesar is king. By bringing in these witnesses from outside the Jewish community, Matthew suggests that not only was Jesus the true king of the Jews, but also the means of blessing to the nations. We see this possibility in Matthew’s genealogy that precedes this story. Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage back to David, which makes him a possible heir to the throne of Israel. Not only is Jesus a descendant of David, but Matthew takes lineage back to Abraham, with whom God made a covenant in which the nations would be blessed through Abraham’s descendants. If we follow Matthew’s story to the end, we will hear Jesus tell his followers to make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19-20).
Getting back to the magi, after they got updated information from Herod’s advisors, they headed off to Bethlehem. This information allowed them to reorient themselves to a more precise destination. So, they followed the star to the home of the Holy Family, without making a mistaken visit to the home of Brian and his mother.
When they finally arrived at the home of the Holy Family, they rejoiced and knelt before Mary and her child, paying homage to Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After they paid their respects to Jesus and his family, the magi received word in a dream to avoid returning home by way of Jerusalem.
As Paul Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story you will have to read the rest of the chapter. What you find there is the story of a tyrant who was determined to stamp out any threat to his rule. Since the magi didn’t report back to Herod, the king sent troops to Bethlehem with orders to kill all the children under the age of two. Fortunately for the Holy Family, an angel warned Joseph to leave town before the soldiers arrived. So, the Holy Family packed up their things and fled to Egypt, where they lived as refugees until Herod’s death. When it came time to return home, they headed to Nazareth in Galilee rather than returning to their home in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:13-23).
While we’re not singing that beloved carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” which describes the nature of the gifts presented to the child, the song’s chorus invites us to sing about the “star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.” This perfect light shining in the night is Jesus.
As we contemplate this perfect light embodied here in the person of Jesus, might we heed the call of Isaiah, who cries out to us: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Yes, the “darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Isa. 60:1-3).
Isaiah invites us to lift our eyes and look around so we can see the light of God present in the world. The story of the magi speaks of a star that guides them to the Holy Child. This child embodies the light that is God’s presence shining in the darkness covering our world. To give further definition to this message, we can step back into chapter 1, where Matthew tells Joseph to name Mary’s child Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and that his name would be Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” Yes, this child will embody God’s presence in the world (Matt. 1:18-23). When it comes to Jesus being the light of God, we can turn to the Gospel of John for further definition because John calls Jesus the “true light, which enlightens everyone” (Jn. 1:9). Yes, he is the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5). If Jesus is the light of God shining into our world, then where is that light leading us as we head into a new year?
As we gather this morning to bask in the light emanating from God’s presence in Jesus, Matthew invites us to consider what gifts we might bring to acknowledge this light that shines into our world. While gold, frankincense, and Myrrh are gifts worthy of a monarch, perhaps the most valuable gift we can offer Jesus is our own life. Paul told the Roman church to present their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1-2). When it comes to the light of God, Isaiah told the exiles returning home from Babylon that the nations would gather in Jerusalem. He told the citizens of Jerusalem to look up as the nations gather because “then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.” (Isa. 60:4-5). With gifts that include gold and frankincense and camels, all creation will “proclaim the praise of the LORD” (Isa. 60:6).
We may not have gifts of gold, frankincense, or even the camels that Isaiah speaks of, to offer God, but we can offer our lives to God so we might radiate God’s light into the world.
As we begin this new year of 2023, having heard the message that the light of God is with us in Jesus, may we join the magi by giving praise to God for this light that shines into our world? May we each be agents of light to the world, proclaiming through word and deed the love and grace of God revealed to us in Jesus.
As Martin Luther King declared: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” [King, Strength to Love]. May we embody in our own lives this light that is the love of God revealed to us in Jesus as we begin our journey into this new year of 2023.
So let us sing a song of joy. Yes:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
Northminster Presbyterian Church
Troy, Michigan
January 1, 2023
Christmas 1A
Image Attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Arrival of the Kings, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59233 [retrieved December 31, 2022]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.
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