A Meditation to read at home for Epiphany
We have noticed that during Christmas time, we read either from Luke’s or Matthew’s Gospels because they are the only evangelists who wrote about Jesus’s childhood. And we have also noticed that the two accounts do not overlap: Luke’s focuses on Mary’s story, while Matthew tells us about Joseph. What we may have missed though is that the story isn’t just different in the events that are narrated, it is also different in the tone that is used. While Luke’s stories are filled with hymns of praise and joyful invitations to trust in the future God has secured for all people in Jesus-Christ, Matthew’s narrative is much more sobering and even darker. Yes, Christmas brings the good news of Emmanuel, God with us, but in the shadows loom suspicion, jealousy and even murder conspiracies. Jesus coming into this world does not make everybody happy, and Herod certainly embodies this hostility in the way he reacts to the visit of the wise men.
Now we have to realize that those “wise men” we hear about weren’t a group of sweet doting grandpas, as the Christmas pageants have often turned them into. The wise men were of the tribe of the Magi, powerful Persian priests and scientists, not kings themselves but king counselors and king makers. In fact, one had to be educated and endorsed by the Magis to become a king, and they also had the authority to remove them from the throne. And so here are the Magis arriving in Jerusalem, and not as a procession of three traveling on camels backs as we picture them in our creches. They come in strength with their caravans, thousands of soldiers, servants and all the cattle needed for such a long journey. They claim they want to see the one who was “born the king of the Jews” to “pay him homage” which also means “to endorse him”. No wonder Herod is terrified. He was made King of the Jews by Rome, but he never was born a king. Between the lines, Matthew tells us that Herod is an impostor. Jesus is the king because, like Moses but even more than Moses, he is the one who rules, who gives the Law. If Jesus reminds us of Moses, notice how Herod reminds us of Pharaoh, paranoid and violent. As Pharaoh ordered the death of all the first born of the Hebrews, we know that Jesus’s birth will start a bloodbath in Bethlehem with Herod ordering the death of all boys under the age of two – although by then Joseph, Mary and Jesus would have fled to Egypt.
Darkness, indeed in Matthew’s Gospel, to say the least. But it’s easy for us to get fascinated by stories of jealousy, violence and murders – just look at our TV programs. What’s harder to notice in Matthew’s and, yet it may be the real point of his narrative, is the indifference of his people. The king makers arrive in town in all their magnificence to pay homage to the king of the Jews, and not one among the religious people seems to bother to make a move. Scribes and pharisees open their scrolls and confirm that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, five miles away from the city, and yet no one among them makes the trip, even out of curiosity, when the Magis have been traveling for several months. Are the people afraid to arouse Herod’s anger? Are they just caught in their own business? Are they afraid that a new prophet will overshadow their own authority? Have they just gotten tired of waiting for the Messiah and ended up practicing their religion only to maintain order and a sense of belonging, but deep down they have lost their faith in God?
The story does not give us an answer, but we may have to answer to the story.
Have we, also, grown indifferent to our King? Is he so close that we have stopped looking too hard? In this New Year where everybody talks about their good resolutions, should we worry about rekindling our love for Him, to start seeking him again? Luke writes an upbeat Gospel trying to bring new people in the Christian community, but Matthew uses a darker tone because he weeps throughout his Gospel trying to wake up his own people to the treasure they have in their Scriptures, traditions and, above all, in Jesus coming to them. How about us? Will we realize the treasure we have and how will we reembark on our quest?
Actually, I left church with a warm heart last week. We had sat casually around a table after coffee hour, we were just a few ones of us, and we started talking about our faith because one of us, from another denomination, started asking questions. And we realized how little we knew and how much we still had to discover about Jesus. We started getting excited again, because we had someone from another horizon coming to wake us up by asking questions, not unlike the Magis on that day in Jerusalem. May we be always eager to go together to find Him again.