The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi
Matthew 2:1–12
January 6, 2008
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

They show up dressed in old bathrobes, carrying a bottle of bath salts, an old jewelry box, or a gift-wrapped empty box. Their crowns are cut from cardboard and covered with aluminum foil or gold wrapping paper. If they’re lucky, someone has taken the time to glue plastic jewels onto the crowns, or even hand sew their robes out of velvet, or shiny metallic fabric. They are, of course, the three kings, that show up every year in the annual Christmas pageant, arriving at the manger just after the shepherds, in time to kneel and present their gifts.
Legends have sprung up over the years about these visitors from the east.
Like the idea that they were kings at all. The gospels don’t say that. In fact, this story only appears in the gospel of Matthew, and he calls them wise men. My NRSV footnote says “or astrologers. Greek: Magi”.
And like the legend that there were three of them. Again, Matthew doesn’t say that. We probably get that number from the three gifts that are mentioned: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Three gifts, three wise men.
And like the idea that they came the night Jesus was born. More likely, they didn’t show up until 2 years later, judging from the fact that Herod sent his soldiers to kill all male children under the age of 2.

Fact is, we don’t know much about them at all and Matthew isn’t interested in satisfying our curiosity.

They only appear this once, and only in this one gospel. We don’t know where they came from and where they went from here. And though legends have sprung up about who they were and where they came from and what a difference this visit made in their lives, Matthew doesn’t tell us. It’s just a part of the birth story. Part of the explanation that reveals who Jesus is and why he came.
Why, this story is so short and lacking in details that it probably wouldn’t even make the newspapers if it happened today. Unless it was a slow news week and Britany Spears hadn’t done anything crazy and the Seahawks or the Mariners weren’t playing good post-season games.
And yet we remember them. Why? What makes them worthy of inclusion in our Christmas pageants, and even celebrating Epiphany because of them?

By the way, today is Epiphany, January 6. And between now and Lent, we will be in the season of Epiphany.

“Epiphany” means “manifestation of God.” It is the season celebrating the showing of God to the world. There are three stories that are celebrated on Epiphany. One is Jesus’ baptism. Remember when Jesus was baptized and the heavens opened up and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and the voice of God proclaimed: This is my beloved Son. Epiphany: manifestation of God. A second story is the story of Jesus turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee. Remember that’s when Jesus’ mother told him to help out and do something, and Jesus rebuffed her, but then changed the water into wine and everyone marveled over the quality of the vintage. It was Jesus’ first miracle. Epiphany: a manifestation of God. And then the third story: this story. The visit of the wise men from the east, the gifts brought by the Magi.
How is it that these visitors from the east helped show us God?

Who would’ve thought that they’d show up? They weren’t even close relatives. They didn’t have to come.
It’s likely that they were rich, judging by the gifts they brought. Gold and frankincense and myrrh were gifts fit for royalty. So why should they pay homage to a poor peasant baby? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? How often do the rich honor the poor? That’s certainly not how our society works. So here we have a reversal of the social order. The rich bowing down to the poor. Echoes of Jesus’ later words: Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth.
And they came a great distance. We don’t know from where exactly, but we can be fairly sure that “from the East” didn’t mean East Bethlehem across the railroad tracks. These were foreigners, strangers, recognizing the uniqueness of a child.
And they weren’t even Jewish. The wise ones from the East weren’t members of the chosen people. They were gentiles. Pagans. Outsiders. They were ones who had no place in God’s kingdom, no entry into God’s family. And yet they came to worship.

And according to Matthew, it was to these unlikely visitors that God was made known. Epiphany.

You see, Matthew has a reason for including their story in his gospel. The same Matthew, who in his genealogy of Jesus included not only the fathers, but also four of the mothers, and each of those four mothers were outsiders in some way: Tamar and Rahab and Ruth and Bathsheba. Matthew wants us to know, that in the visit of these foreigners from the East, God was opening the doors of the kingdom and welcoming the outsiders in.
In the visit of these wise men who had little connection to the Jewish child born in Bethlehem, God was breaking down the barriers that separated those who were in from those who were out
In this visit of strangers who brought precious gifts to a child they didn’t know, God was revealing Godself not just to a chosen few, but to the entire world. God’s love was made known to all people, even rich astrologers from another land.

Matthew wants us to know that in Jesus Christ, right from his birth, the gospel is good news for all people, rich and poor, neighbor and stranger, Jew and Gentile. The doors are opened and all are welcomed in.

And we are the descendants of those strangers, descendants of those who were welcomed in.
It is for us that God has broken down the dividing walls and made us one with the people of God.
In that epiphany to the wise men, we too see the hand of God, calling each of us to come and worship the child, Jesus who is called Christ.

There is a story told of another church. We’ll call it the First Christian Church of Righteousville. And in this church, the chairperson of the evangelism committee decided to take seriously the stories of God welcoming in the outsiders. So she decided to throw a party. She threw open the doors of the church and invited all of the outsiders in. And they came. The homeless and the hungry. The teens who usually lounged on the street corners and the people who lined up at the food bank. The scary looking ones who roamed the streets in packs, and the scary looking ones who sat by themselves having conversations with invisible people. All of those people came. And the church people came too, the supposed insiders who often felt like outsiders. The lonely and the discouraged, and the curious, and the fearful. They all came. And they had quite a party.

Eventually though, the noise and the gathering started attracting attention. The police arrived to see what was going on, because this wasn’t a usual sight at this particular church. The evangelism chair met the officer at the door. With a disdainful look on his face, the officer peered inside. “Well, you certainly have all the riffraff here don’t you.” The evangelism chair looked around and said with a smile, “You bet, and look there’s room for one more,” and she held the door open wide.
Through Jesus Christ, God has made room for us, thrown open the doors and invited us in. As far back as the visit from the Wise Men to a peasant child in Bethlehem, we have a home and a family, and a place to belong.
A gift wrapped up in those wise men more valuable than gold or frankincense or myrrh: a place in God’s family for each one of us and for all the world. Amen.