Reading Matthew 2:1-12
In many Gospel stories, it’s through the
unfamiliar coming-together of normally disparate and separate people that the
real meaning of Jesus is brought to light – something to notice in the stories,
and something to be aware of in our living as well. Who would ever have guessed, for
instance, that the beginning of the revealing of Jesus to the world would come
in a meeting of magi from the East and Mary in her home in Bethlehem?
The reflection that follows the reading is spoken in two parts – from each of their perspectives.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you,
Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Meditation
Part One: One of the Magi
We were so smart! That’s our job. But the farther we got on our journey, and the more clearly we saw where we were being led, the more we realized how much we still had to learn. And un-learn.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’m one of the Magi who went to see Jesus in Bethlehem. My name is … oh, it doesn’t matter. My name is not important.
What’s important is that we thought we were so smart. But in the end, it was something else that was needed.
Not that we aren’t smart. We are, in the world’s terms. We’re among the best and the brightest the world has to offer.
We are the Magi – descendants of the venerated “sixth tribe” of the ancient Medes – the people who have seemed forever to be dominant in the great plains of the Tigris and Euphrates watershed, the cradle of civilization. Among our people and in our culture we are the high priests of Zoroaster – the diviners of wisdom and understanding. We study the stars of the heavens, the seasons and inner workings of the earth, and the movements and traditions of its peoples. From this we know the secrets of life and of all time. And because of this, we have power and privilege, the ear of the emperor, and the respect of the ordinary people.
Which is why we were among the first to notice the star at its rising, and maybe the only ones to know its meaning. It was the great star of the line of David, heralding the coming of One – a great divine One – who would change all the world for the better.
Unlike so many others of our time who thought all time is only cyclical and never really changes,and certainly not for the better, we foresaw the promise of real change, of the coming a new way of peace and understanding, of a new and more humane society, and of prosperity that will be shared and enjoyed by all.
So we set out to find this One, and to help show the way of the world’s redemption.
Except, we made a mistake.
We assumed this One would appear in a palace or some other place of power, privilege and prestige. We ourselves held that kind of place, and were used to working from the top down – a kind of trickle-down theory of the world’s healing and salvation. And when you’re used to being privileged and among the world’s top 10%, it’s easy to assume that the answer to the world’s problems will appear and will come from the same kind of place you occupy.
So when we reached the land of the star’s design, we went to the court of King Herod.
It didn’t take long, though, to realize we were in the wrong place. There was little but confusion, there. And anxiety and fear.
Thankfully at least they knew the old teachings well enough – even though they didn’t seem to live by them – that they could steer us in the right direction. It was pretty clear, though, that they had no interest in journeying there with us. Their concern – the concern of both the political and the religious leaders of that place, was just to gather useful information, not to undergo spiritual transformation. Rather than follow the leading of the star wherever it might lead, they chose to sit tight wherever they were and hang on to what they had.
We were happy to leave them. And as I said, as we found ourselves led to Bethlehem, we began to realize just how different this God, and this God’s way of saving the world is from what we were used to, and from what most of the world assumes.
And the house we were led to was ordinary. Humble. You might even say poor and meagre.
Suddenly we felt silly coming to that place with all our great entourage. Everything we had brought was designed to impress people of importance, who were accustomed to only the best and most up-to-date premium version of everything. We felt we had to show the same, to be credible to them.
But now we were just embarrassed by all we had brought with us, and thought we needed.
At the door I waited to be invited. I dared not presume that I was welcome in this place with all my pride and power and privilege on display. But when I said what I was there for – to see the One who is God’s messiah, I was invited in. I entered humbly. I knelt before the baby and his mother. Hardly dared look up. And waited in submissive silence before this One who seemed so much less than me, and was actually so much more.
When that child reached out a hand to touch me, I felt like I was being kissed by God. An unfamiliar warmth spread through me. I knew I was truly in the presence of the love, the light and the hope that all the world longs for. On the precipice of a different kind of kingdom than most of the world knows how to look for.
And I found it not in the palace before a great throne, but on my knees in the plainest of homes in the most ordinary of towns. It makes me wonder – being new to this God – just how often this is the way of the coming of this God’s kingdom on earth.
I just hope that having involved Herod and his court – having alerted the political and religious leaders of the day to what God is up to, and how this God is found, that we haven’t wrecked it all. I hope we haven’t made too much trouble for Mary and the baby.
I feel there is still so much for me to learn about the way of this king. So much also to un-learn. Enough for a lifetime.
It’s time for me to go home by another route, to live a new way.
Part Two: Mary
I was not pleased. I was frightened.
When I saw the caravan nearing town, my heart sank. When it became clear they were coming to my house, to see me and my baby boy, I felt like running out the back door. Just running with my son in my arms. And not stopping. Until I could hide somewhere. And never be found.
Instead, though, I stood there and just asked myself over and over again, “What do they want with me? What do they want with him?”
I mean, these were obviously people of some importance. They were dressed in strange, exotic robes made of colours and materials I had never even dreamed of. They were obviously rich, and powerful. And just as obviously foreigners. Not Jews. They were not of God’s chosen people.
"What could they want with me? What could they want with Jesus??”
As they came closer, I could also see … I could guess … and yes, it turns out I was right … that they were astrologers and people of great learning and wisdom. Forbidden learning from what I was told. Leviticus – or somewhere else in the Torah – explicitly condemns their way of using the stars and other things to know God’s will and to discern what will happen. I’m pretty sure it does, anyway.
And so, step by step, I kept asking inside my head, “What do they want with me? What do they want with my Jesus?”
Should I let them in? I mean, having an angel of God appear in my home, and saying “yes”is one thing. Letting God and God’s Spirit into my life to change it completely was hard,but in the end it was good.
But this? What good could come of letting these people in?
I mean … I had just begun to settle into the comfort and consolation of raising the baby son of God to save our people. So, he could maybe reform us, make us better Jews. Give us more influence and power. A better place in the world. Help us have a happier life.
Isn’t that all that anyone really wants? Isn’t that what everybody wants God for, in their life? To make their life better?
But what could these foreigners want? What did I have to offer these rich, wise people with their own ways of knowing God?
But then ... the way they came in … and the way they greeted me … the way they greeted my son … greeted Jesus … the way they bowed down … and knelt … silently … offered their gifts … seemed to offer themselves in submission …
And then something happened.
I saw my son … the son of Almighty God entrusted to me, reach out a hand, and touch them,like a blessing … it was a blessing … upon them.
And as he did that, he turned his face up to me … and smiled … as though this is what he was here for … as though this is what he was waiting for … maybe from all eternity … for people like these to come from as far as they had … across so many miles and so many boundaries between us … so they could be welcomed in … to bow down and be blessed … and we could be friends together even just for a moment in the blessing of God.
Something shifted in me. I began to see a little bit more of what God, and God’s son, and God’s Spirit were about in me.
This wasn’t what I thought I signed up for. But I saw that this is what it meant.
First of all, that it was not just me and my people that Jesus came into the world to bless and to heal. It’s really all of us – all the world – all people who care at all about truth and love and justice and peace and the well-being of the world that God has made. And who are willing to seek it out together. Regardless of where we come from, and what boundaries may separate us.
And second, that my humble home, and my little life are what people need as long as Jesus is in it. As long as what I nurture in my home, and hold in my arms, and honour in my heart is the life Jesus, the Word of God planted in me by God’s Spirit.
This was what they wanted. This is what they came to me and to my house, for. And it makes me so happy that God has given this meaning and this high purpose to me and my life. That as long as I say yes to God, as long as I nurture his Word within me, as long as I hold Jesus in my arms and my heart and my home, I have what others seek.
What could they want with me?
What they want is the love I have known in my life from God,and that God wants to touch and to bless all the world, with.
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