1st Epiphany
Matthew 2: 1-12
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| Herod and the Magi, Tissot (Brooklyn Museum) |
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.
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| Tapestry by Burne-Jones |
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 10, 2016
Matthew 2: 1-12
To be a king means to rule over a place with a boundary. The king administers, defends, and maintains it. In ancient times kings
were souls pre-ordained by the spiritual world, who were sent into a particular
bloodline, a bloodline that offered the kingly soul the necessary attributes.
King Herod was no divinely appointed king; he was a
political appointee. When emissaries from other lands come looking for the
great soul born into the hereditary bloodline, Herod becomes anxious to
maintain his position. But the emissaries, priest-kings themselves, are
led by the higher guidance of the soul-star. It leads them to the child who
will become, not a ruler, but a ‘shepherd of all nations.’
Later Herod’s son Antipas will also be a King Herod
curious about this man of whom he has heard so much. He will play his part in
the deaths of both John the Baptist, the old Adam, and Jesus, the New Adam. The
irony is that neither Herod actually had anything to fear from Jesus, for
although he was born into the kingly line, he was not destined to become an
earthly ruler. His kingdom would be the whole earth, conquered by the shedding
of his own blood, a kingdom beyond time.
Something of eternal nature of Christ’s kingship wafts
through the encounter with the priest-kings. They make the child offerings
symbolizing their wisdom, their devotion, their forces of healing.
They laid their offerings at his
feet:
The gold was their tribute to a
King,
The frankincense, with its odor
sweet,
Was for the Priest, the Paraclete,
The myrrh for the body's
burying.*
The child they worship in joy will die a sacrificial
death. But Christ will make possible the healing of humankind and of the earth.
He will rise as the first ancestor of a new bloodline, the line of the
Christened humans.
*Longfellow, “The Three Kings”
