The Meaning of the Magi

2 Christmas B January 3, 2021
Jeremiah 31:7-14   Ps 
Eph. 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:1-12

Lectionary Link

   I hate to do this, but I have to deconstruct or de-mystify the prevailing notions regarding the magi, the Wisemen from the East, who also came to have the names of Caspar, Balthasar and Melchior.    Were there just three travellers?  Probably not, since three people probably would have travelled in a protective caravan entourage across the desert for protection.  Why do we say there are three wisemen?  We infer that because there were three gifts there were only three magi.  But of course that does not logically follow.  Were the Christmas travelers magi and kings?  Well no, because the Gospel does not indicate that they were kings.   How did they become kings?  From references in the Hebrew Scriptures about all kings paying homage to a special person, it was inferred that these travelers had to be kings and so we have the famous song, "We three Kings of Orient Are," even though it is no longer politically correct to call Asia, the Orient.  Most every Christmas Pageant has the Magi arriving at the stable, but this violates the text.  The Magi actually visited the Christ Child in a house in Bethlehem after the birth.  Alas, the poor Pageant director cannot do an entire scenery change in the chancel of the church on Christmas Eve, so the magi end up having the stable as their final destination.  Directorial license is taken.

   And the costume designers for the Pageant demand that the magi be three kings.  It allows them to go wild with luxurious costumes for the three kings.  Why would you want three poor scholarly wisemen coming to the manger?  Such plain costumes would take away color from the pageant.

So, we've deconstructed our common visions of the Magi.  What was the meaning of the Magi within the messaging of the early Matthean churches?

The story of the Magi illustrates what was happening within the Jesus Movement.  God-fearing non-Jewish people were having their faith validated within the group of people who were followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

The followers of Jesus, were those who traced their roots to Jesus of Nazareth and they highlighted his special mission with a certain strain within the Hebrew Scriptures.  What was this strain?  It was the universal strain of Judaism. The prophets believed the Temple to be a House of Prayer for all people, not just the people of Israel.  The prophets believed the one God was available to foreigners like the Ninevites.  The prophets believed that God's covenant to Israel was to be the means of delivering the message to the entire world.

And when religious people do not practice the universal accessibility of God, there needs to some more messaging.  The message of Jesus Christ did not come to nullify the mission of the Jews and Judaism; it came to say there was another mission to make the universality of God more accessible to people who could not locate themselves completely within ritual adherence to Judaism.

What do you do to God-fearing seekers who are different from you and not acquainted with all of your ritual customs?  You find a way to indicate to them that they are desirous to connect with the image of God on their lives as it is known in the eternal Word Christ within them.

God-fearing seekers may travel far beyond their own limiting situation to make a journey.  Even we who think that we have found God and God has found us, still need to be God-fearing seekers on a journey deeper into a further realization of God.

The meaning of the Magi is that people who once were regarded as foreign and not God-approved by a certain group of people of God,  became accepted and regarded by God and by a community of welcoming people.

The meaning of the Magi continues through out the history of the church.  The meaning of the Magi continues within the church for people who have sought God and yet who have not been properly regarded with full grace status within the church.

Imagine all of the "superior colonial" missionaries bringing the message of God's love in Christ to people of color all over the world.  Imagine missionaries who brought the message of the love of Christ to people of color but who could not admit people of color to the level of dignity which they themselves held.

Just think about all slaves who professed and sang the love of Jesus and yet who were for so long not allowed the basic dignity of Jesus?  Imagine Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, Black Americans who were called to be ordained minister, being denied their recognized call for so long by "white churches?"  They were Magi worshipping the birth of Christ in their souls but not recognized in the equal call of God's Spirit on their lives.

Think about all of the women, gay persons who have been baptized in churches but who have been told that all of the sacraments are not open to them, like marriage and ordination.  What kind of sacramental justice is there if so many people know a deep call to these sacramental ministries and yet are denied by church policies which still have not caught up to universal availability of the call of God.

Remember Herod?  In the magi story, Herod is the person who feigns interests in the Christ Child and tries to use the magi as spies to do something devious.

How often has the church been willing to live off the gifts and the money of baptized person but then deny those same people the fullness of calling within the ministries of the church? We know the blessing of having opened up the ordained ministry to women and gay persons in the Episcopal Church, but do you know how much of a controversy and a scandal such ministries remain for many people who call themselves Christians?

The meaning of the Magi continues today.  People who are God fearers inside and outside of the church are looking for validation and welcome in community.  And we need to understand our identity as a community to be those who welcome the regarded foreigner and outsider to the community of Christ.  

The meaning of the Magi for us should also be personal.  You and I are to be the wise persons still on our journey to what is yet new in our spiritual journey.  We may have arrived at the place of the birth of Christ within us; we need to journey to those other sites of the growing up of the presence of Christ within us toward spiritual maturity.

May God help us be magi on a quest of further reading the signs of God in our circumstances; but let us also be magi who are always welcoming other magi who seek to find God's presence born within them as the awareness of the Risen Christ.  

Let us live the meaning of the Magi in our lives today, both as continual seekers on a journey, but also as those who are open to accept the full validity of other seekers who may be different from us.  Amen.