Starchild

Propers: The Epiphany of Our Lord, A.D. 2017 A

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Magi appear in Scripture just long enough to captivate our imagination. Wise men from the East who follow Jesus’ natal Star in order to worship the Child Christ! It is an image both romantic and exotic, intoxicating in its mystery. We reflexively want to know more. Who were they? Where were they from? Why did they come? And what is it about them that enchants us so? Alas, we are given precious few details.

We know that they are Magi. Magi is the plural of magus, from which we derive such words as “magic” and “magician.” We translate magus as wise man, or perhaps an astrologer, but strictly speaking a magus is a priest. Far to the East, in what is today modern Iran, sprawled the ancient Persian Empire. Now, the Persians are usually depicted as heroes in the Bible. When the Babylonians conquered Israel and exiled the people of God into alien lands, it was the Persians who defeated Babylon and let Israel return home to rebuild.

The priests of Persia were known as stargazers and fire-worshippers. They believed in two gods, one good and one evil, each struggling to take over the world. They appear to have learned a lot from the Israelites in Exile, and the Israelites learned a thing or two from them as well. Israel and Persia go way back. They were neighbors for generations. It makes sense that Persian Magi, quite familiar with biblical prophecies of the Messiah, would see His Star and come quickly bearing gifts. After all, everyone knew that a Star, a miraculous light rising in the heavens, would announce the birth of the King; it says so quite clearly in the Bible.

There is another possibility, however. We read today Old Testament prophecies from Isaiah and the Psalter that Arab kings—chieftains from Ephah, Tarshish, and Sheba—would come to worship the Messiah bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These too were Magi in the broad sense: stargazers, Wise Men. These too had ancient connections to Israel, being likewise descendants of Abraham, likewise familiar with biblical prophecy, and with formal relations going back to King Solomon’s fateful meeting with the Queen of Sheba. It was Sheba, after all, that held a monopoly on frankincense.

And then there are those gifts, the famous gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What are these glittering prizes and exotic-sounding spices? As you may already know, these gifts are taken to be prophecies, rich in symbolic meaning. Gold is easy enough. Shining like the sun and impervious to decay, gold is universally recognized as the king of metals for its beauty and its value. Gold is always associated with the riches of royalty; it is a gift fit for a king.

Frankincense and myrrh are tree resins, taken from the living sap of rare groves in Arabia. Frankincense has an ethereal, spiritually uplifting aroma that the ancient world reserved for the worship of deity. Pagans burned frankincense in their temples; the Jews raised it up as evening offerings to God. Frankincense is a gift set aside, sanctified, only for that which is divine. It is a gift for a God.

And last but not least we have myrrh, an incense so prized that it was worth seven times its weight in gold. Myrrh has a darker, richer scent, almost cloying. It reminds me of haunted houses. Romans threw myrrh on their funeral pyres to mask the scent of burning flesh. God’s people Israel dissolved it in oil to anoint the dead for burial. Myrrh is a funeral spice, a sign foreshadowing Jesus’ impending death.

So there we have it, just like the song: “Glorious now, behold Him arise / King and God and Sacrifice.” Even from birth, Jesus is worshipped as King of Kings, God from God, and the Passover Lamb of our salvation.

We have, then, few answers to our burning questions about the Magi. We don’t know how many of them there were; we don’t know for certain that they were kings or priests or ambassadors; and we don’t know precisely whence they came, though they likely hailed from Persia or the Arab tribes. What we do know is that they were foreigners; they were led to Christ by the light of a Star; and they were canny enough to see through His veil of humble flesh to perceive exactly who and what was made incarnate that cold night in Bethlehem. And wise as they were, they immediately fell down to worship God on earth. Marvelous, isn’t it?

Now over time, faithful Christians started to do something quite interesting. We started to universalize the Magi. We began to paint them, to depict them in art, as hailing from the three known continents of the ancient world: one from Asia, one from Africa, and one from Europe, representing respectively Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah who repopulated the earth after the great Flood. Moreover, one Magus came to appear as a clean-faced youth, another as a man in the prime of life, and the third elderly. Thus collectively did the Magi come to symbolize every continent, every race, and every stage of life, all together seeking out Jesus.

Here then we have the real secret of the Magi: the fact that they represent not some strange foreign country or religion, but all of us, no matter who we are, all the people of the world who would search for a sign, for a hope, for a Savior. As Christians we believe that the Church is Israel fulfilled: not a New Israel to replace the old but the old Israel broken open, universalized, so that now entrance to the family of God has been thrown open to all the peoples of the world.

We are brought into this family by adoption, grafted on as new branches of an ancient vine, gathered from the four corners of the earth from out of every tribe, every race, and every religion under heaven. The birth of Jesus fulfills not only the hope and promise given to His Jewish children, but to all those of every clime and creed spiritually yearning for God.

It is no accident that the Magi were led to the infant Christ by a Star. The wisdom of these Wise Men represents the knowledge of God made available to every person of reason and goodwill through the glories and harmonies of Creation. Nature proclaims her Maker’s praise, and the Magi represent the variegated religions arising from the One Divine Mystery at the heart of all human experience: a spiritual Mystery that is itself beyond all bounds of visible or tangible Nature.

The wonders of Creation naturally lead Man to religion. “Natural religion,” we call this. Yet natural religion can only take us so far. For us to truly know God as more than Mystery, more than unknowable transcendent Majesty, He must reveal Himself to us. He must bow down to our level when we cannot ascend to His. Thus the Magi can follow the Star to Israel, but there must consult biblical revelation in order to encounter Jesus and worship God face to face.

Nature, philosophy, religion itself all call us to seek out Christ. He is our King and God and Sacrifice, our Creator come down to earth, the Maker of Man made man. We seek Him, indeed, until He finds us. And then all worldly science and wisdom fall short, and we must either fall down and worship the Child as Magi—or else seek to destroy Him and all His family, as does Herod.

Wise Men seek Jesus because He is Wisdom Herself made flesh. He is Truth and Beauty and Goodness incarnate. He is everything we’ve ever longed for, come down from Heaven to bring us home. The Star may point the way, but it is the Child who directs the Star. Seek out Wisdom and you will find Him, for Wisdom is seeking you.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.