- Isaiah 60:1-6 •
- Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 •
- Ephesians 3:1-12 •
- Matthew 2:1-12
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| Adoration of the Magi -- Mantegna (1500) |
The Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th) is one of those
relatively rare days in the Christian year when the Gospel reading is always
the same. The reason is very simple. Although this has long been a major feast
of the Church -- and of special importance in the Eastern Orthodox tradition
-- only Matthew makes any mention of the
strange event on which it is based -- the arrival at the stable of strangers
from some far off place. Tradition has
filled out the story considerably, notably by holding that there were three
travellers, identifying them as 'kings', and even giving them names. The Bible
does not provide any basis for this. In some modern translations the
description 'wise men' is rendered 'astrologers', and in fact 'magicians' may
be the most accurate-- which reduces their status considerably for a modern
audience.
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| Star of Bethlehem -- Edward Burne-Jones (1870) |
So why has this brief and mysterious episode attracted so
much attention for so long? The answer lies in the theological significance
that has been found in it. First, the fact that the travellers seek out Herod,
but then fail to report back to him, gives an early sign of the 'political'
context in which Jesus was born -- the actual Messiah ultimately proves quite
at odds with what people hoped for or (in the case of Herod) feared. Secondly,
the gifts that the wise men leave in the stable all have symbolic meaning; gold
and frankincense are traditional gifts for a king, but myrrh also presages
death. Thirdly, these men are Gentiles, foreigners. This is the most important
aspect. Although the story of the birth, ministry, suffering and death of Jesus
has to remain firmly rooted in the Jewish theology of a long expected Messiah
if it is to be understood properly, it has significance far beyond the confines
of Jewish life and culture. The Gospel is a Gospel for Jew and Gentile. This is
St Paul's great insight, an insight that leads him, at intense personal cost,
to take on the enormous task of proclaiming a Jewish Gospel to a Gentile world
-- a call that he explicitly acknowledges, appropriately, in the Epistle for
Epiphany.
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| Dream of the Magi - He Qi (2001) |
'Epiphanic moments' are those times when, quite suddenly,
something of the greatest importance strikes us. At the Feast of the Epiphany
we commemorate and celebrate the moment at which the universal importance of
the Jewish religion is, for the first time, revealed to the whole world. It is
the moment, we might say, when the birth of the historical Jesus is revealed to
be the incarnation of the eternal Christ.
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