Epiphany: The Feast of Pagan Astrologers

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 in the east 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 Christ 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 be the shepherd of 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 make a careful search 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 in the east 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 and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Epiphany is one of my favorite church feasts… because it is the day after my birthday every year. But I also love it because the story in Matthew about these magi is the sort of story that has lost its radical edge over the years.

A lot of the story we tell every year is more from tradition than the biblical narrative. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many magi there were. They came long after Jesus was born. They were pagan astrologers, even further outside Israel than the half-breed Samaritans. We’re not really told how it is that they are included in God’s story. They just sort of appear “out of the east” asking questions that they really shouldn’t be asking. How do they know about Jesus and why exactly are they coming to worship him? What happened to make these pagan scholars come to worship a Jewish baby? Did they have an appropriate conversion experience? Do they know the exact hour that Jesus became their personal Lord and Savior?

So much of the story about the magi visiting is shrouded in mystery. There is so much we simply don’t know or understand about these pagans and their involvement in God’s story. Will they be in heaven? There’s no indication that they ceased to be pagan astrologers. We simply can’t know the answer to the question, but it is clear from many many stories in the biblical narrative (Ruth, Rahab, Cyrus, the woman at the well, Ethiopian Eunuch and on and on) that God continually uses and includes people who are beyond the boundaries of what has been defined as the “people of God”. This opens up exciting theological vistas for me that includes many questions. That’s why I love Epiphany.

I pray that on this Epiphany God can break through our walls and barriers, our boundaries and definitions. I hope that we will learn to be still, wait and watch for what God is doing all around us in unexpected ways and through unexpected people.

Epiphany