Following the star.

Sunday 6^th January – the Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6. This famous piece announces the light that has been revealed to the world, and how our response is to “thrill and rejoice” because of the abundance of the gift that has been given. This future action of God is presented as a “prophetic perfect” as if it had already happened. We are to rise and shine with the reflected glory of the presence of Emmanuel.

Ephesians 3: 1-12. Paul tells us that the revelation of the mystery made manifest in Jesus Christ was long hidden but now, by the gift of Grace, has been made known to him and the apostles to inform the church of the abundance of the boundless riches in Christ. This mystery was in accordance with the eternal purposes of God, that through Jesus we have access to God.

Matthew 2: 1-12. The Magi were a class of Zoroastrian priests from Persia. They were obviously gentiles, so the Book of common prayer explained Epiphany as the “manifestation of Christ to the gentiles.” In later tradition they became kings with names although interestingly Matthew’s gospel never says there were just three of them – only that there were three gifts.  In the Zoroastrian religion they expected a final saviour of the world to be born to a virgin impregnated by the god Zoroaster.

Who is Jesus and why is he any different to any other person ever born?

Epiphany is my favourite time of the liturgical year because the answer to those central questions is the subject matter.

To Paul he is the “image of the invisible God”( Colossians 1: 15). To John, he is “the word made flesh”.

How they came to those conclusions is primarily through the resurrection of Jesus for John, and for Paul, encountering the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.

But then, in the light of the resurrection Biblical authors look back on Jesus’ life to look again at all the signs that were given that point to his true identity.

The visit of the Magi is one such story that acts as a prism refracting the light emanating from the Christ-child. You will note that the family are now living in a house as it says in verse 11, and as I said last week this incident probably took place about two years after his birth, so the wise men at the crib is something of an anachronism but the symbolism is immense.

The first notable thing is that the king of the Jews was recognised by foreigners following a different religion altogether. This says that Jesus is a gift for the whole world.

The fact that they had travelled from the East, probably present-day Iran, and that journey would have been long and arduous could be a metaphor for our own spiritual journeys to Jesus. Many of us have journeyed from no faith at all to being a committed believer, and others may have journeyed from a perfunctory faith to a more meaningful one. On their faith journey some may feel they have become side-tracked or lost in the desert and are looking for a sign or a fresh revelation

Wherever we are on the journey or how we got there, the end is recognizing  God revealed in Christ, just as the Magi did.

Of course, Matthew never says there were just three of them, only that there were three gifts, and these gifts were symbols that throw light on the true meaning of Jesus and what he represents.

Gold is a gift that denotes royalty and kingship.

This child is a king but not a king in the earthly temporal sense. His kingdom is spiritual in nature and his kingdom knows no earthly boundaries and doesn’t need any armies to defend it.

We don’t need passports or I.D papers – and the only way a fellow traveller can be recognised is when they exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, as Jesus said, the fruit that is our collective identity (Matt. 7:16). The Spirit of God knows no ethnic, religious, or cultural barriers so when one does what is required by the law of love, you are a part of the kingdom which is the message of the parable of the sheep and the goats.

In the end every knee will bow to the revelation of the true nature of God.

Frankincense tells us that as well as a king he is also our high priest. For the Hebrew people, the high priest in the temple represented the people of Israel  to God. He made sacrifices and offerings out of gratitude to the God that had given us all life. Jesus, breaking the bounds of Judaism represents all of humanity, not just the Jews before God in a very special way, which brings us to the final gift – Myrrh.

Myrrh was used in the embalming process, and probably what the women were carrying when they went to anoint the body of Jesus on that first Easter morning.

This gift indicates that the death of Jesus is going to be of huge significance. I said the High priest offered sacrifices in the Temple and the greatest sacrifice that could be offered was a blood sacrifice because blood is symbolic of life itself – we still use the phrase lifeblood. And the animal sacrificed needed to be the best they had, without blemish.

Jesus in his very person was the perfect unblemished sacrifice made on behalf of all humanity at all times and in all places. The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus was sinless in the sense that he had an unbroken perpetual relationship with God the Father, when sin is understood as a broken relationship with God.

His self-sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world and open the gates of heaven to all who would enter in.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh symbolise the life and work of Jesus but life is so multi-faceted and complex there will always be unanswered questions which is why I like Paul’s description of Jesus as a mystery revealed. Revealed but not fully explaining everything.

God’s wisdom and thoughts are far above our thoughts. A symbol contains more meaning than can be expressed in words. That is true for all symbols whether a wedding ring or a communion wafer.

At Mirfield I was taught that there were always going to be mysteries that defy our attempts to rationalise and categorize them. Sometimes we just need the humility to sit under the mystery and wait for our own personal epiphanies on our journey to full communion with God.