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| Adoration of the Magi, Burne-Jones |
Matthew 2: 1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of
King Herod—behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
saying,
“Where is the one born here King of the Jews? We have seen
his star rise in the east and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all
Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the
people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born.
And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it
was written by the prophet:
And you Bethlehem, in the land
of Judah,
Are by no means the least among
the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth
the ruler
Who will be shepherd over my
people, the true Israel.”
Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again,
inquired from them the exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them
to Bethlehem and said, “Go there and search carefully for the child, and when
you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him.”
After they had heard the King, they went on their way, and
behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them, and led them in
its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was.
Seeing the star, they were filled with [there awakened in
them] an exceedingly great and holy joy.
Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother;
they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures
and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed to their country by another way.
1st Epiphany
January 6 and 11, 2015
Matthew 2: 1-12
“In the beginning… darkness was on the face of the deep….
And God said, ‘Let there be light’. Thus the very pattern of the world was stamped
with primal pairings, pairings of light and dark – day and night, life and death.
These pairings live on in as the pattern of our souls, which swing between love and hate, hope and fear, good and evil. Herod represents that dark capacity in all of us which fears loss of position, which instigates our capacity for calculating secretiveness, for destructiveness. Yet we also have the three kings in us to balance out our inner darkness. They are the soul’s capacity to see the starlight of higher wisdom; to be devoted to God’s guidance; to willingly acknowledge the necessity of sacrifice.
The darkness of fear contends with God’s light in all of us. Darkness leads us to destruction. But God’s light leads to a great and holy joy. In the words of the poet we pray:
Lift up my eyes
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| Three Kings' Dream, David Newbatt |
from the earth, and let me not
forget the uses of the stars.
….Let me not follow the clamor of
the world, but walk calmly
in my path.[1]
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