Sermon for Epiphany - January 6, 2024

Sermon for Epiphany, based on Matthew 2:1-12

“Mystery Revealed: Good News to All in Christ”

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation tonight is the Gospel Lesson, from Matthew 2:1-12. You are welcome to look at it with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

The Epiphany story is both an ending and a beginning. It is an ending of the Christmas story, as the wise men finally reached the Christ-Child, Jesus. It is clear from this passage that it was some time after Jesus was born in Bethlehem that they came.

Nativity scenes often try to picture everything together, but Matthew clearly tells us,
inspired by God, that the wise men were led by the star to a house, where Jesus and Mary and Joseph had moved, by this time, in Bethlehem.

And who were these wise men? The word for them is “Magi,” a Persian word which means that they were not kings but advisors and representatives who helped kings and other leaders in the Babylonian Empire and later in the Medo-Persian Empire, far to the East of Israel. And how did they know about a star announcing a coming King?

God, in His wisdom, allowed the Babylonians to carry many of God’s people into captivity in Babylon, because of their own sins and rebellion against God. One of those captured Jews was a young man, Daniel, who was a faithful follower of the One True God, even in pagan Babylon. Most of us probably remember only one story about Daniel - how he was thrown into a lion’s den because he would not worship and pray to any kings or false gods (Daniel 6). God spared him and protected him from the lions, and he became a great advisor to leaders in Babylon and among the Medo-Persians who followed (Daniel 2:47-49, 5:11-12).

Daniel also wrote one of the Old Testament Scriptures, as a prophet of God, and in it, he is described as “chief” of these advisors, these Magi, the wise men of his time, but only by the power of God and His Word. For example, he did not follow astrology, as others did, because it was condemned in the Scriptures.

Daniel also had and used the other Old Testament Scriptures and knew of prophecies of a coming star and a kingly symbol, a scepter, connected with the land of Judah and a Ruler to be born there (Genesis 49:8-11, Numbers 24:16-19). Daniel even predicted, by God’s power, the coming of a Son of Man, a term Jesus often used for Himself when He came - a Son of Man who would have an everlasting kingdom, where “all peoples, nations, and languages” would be drawn to and “serve Him” (Daniel 7:13-14). Daniel would certainly have shared these Scriptures, the Word of God, with his fellow Magi, also, and he seems to have been influential among Medo-Persian leaders, who allowed Jews to go back to Jerusalem at last. And from that group of Jews, from the line of David, that promised Savior, our Lord Jesus, was finally born, of the virgin Mary, by the miracle of God.

Scholars think, then, that when the very unusual star appeared in the East, wise men, Magi from that time, still knew the Scriptures and promises, given long before, and some of them chose to follow the star and go to Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, to find this King. We don’t know, but maybe God gave them some direct revelation to help them, as well, as God at the end of this text warned them not to go back to King Herod.

These wise men clearly came in faith, trusting the promises of the Scriptures about this King. They were not Jews but came to worship this King of the Jews and called the star His star. The star seems to have disappeared at times, but they still came. And what joy they had when they were directed by the Scriptures to Bethlehem, and the star, clearly not a normal star, reappeared and led them directly to where the child Jesus and His mother were.

And notice that the wise men did not worship Mary, but only Jesus. And they gave gifts specifically for Jesus - gold, worthy of a King; and a kind of incense used for worship of God, since Jesus was God the Son who became man for us; and myrrh, like that used later on to anoint the body of Jesus after His crucifixion, and thus predicting His death on the cross to pay for our sins and their sins and the sins of the whole world.

These wise men went home, trusting that Jesus had come as a King and Savior not just for certain people or just for the Jews, but with Good News for everyone, including them. These wise men were, in fact, also fulfilling many prophecies, including our Old Testament lesson for tonight, where we hear that the Lord Himself would come, in Jesus, and people from other nations would come to His light and bring Him gold and frankincense and see that He was for them and for all people.

Contrast the wise men now with the current actual king of the Jews and the Jewish religious authorities when the wise men came. Remember that Jesus was born to bring Good News to all, but He could be resisted and rejected. Herod was the king and had been for more than 30 years, but was actually not even a Jew himself. He was an Edomite, and if you read Old Testament history, you find that Edomites usually hated Jews and were often creating trouble for them. Herod had been appointed as king not by Jews, but by the Roman government, and Herod was a clever and diabolical leader. He tried to keep the Roman authorities happy, above all, but also pleased many Jews and the Pharisees and others by remodeling the temple in Jerusalem, making it a magnificent place for worship. At the same time, he was very paranoid and cruel to anyone who seemed a threat to him.

Jewish historians said that Herod had murdered his wife, his three sons, other family members, and many others, because he feared that they were trying to overthrow him - and it was no surprise, then, that he later ordered the killing of all the babies and small children in Bethlehem to try to get rid of this supposed newborn king.

And what did the Jewish religious authorities do? Nothing, as far as we can tell. They did look at the Scriptures and saw that the promised Savior and King was to be born in Bethlehem, but there is no indication that any of them bothered to go to Bethlehem to see if what the wise men said was true, even though Bethlehem was only about six miles south of Jerusalem. They didn’t care and didn’t expect that the Messiah would care about these non-Jews, anyway. The Messiah would come only for His own people, many of them thought.

Jesus and His family were able to escape to Egypt and returned to Israel only after King Herod had died. As time went on, opposition to Jesus often came from these same religious authorities and those who came after them. Even Paul, who wrote our Epistle lesson for tonight, was anti-Jesus and persecuted Christians until the risen Lord Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and brought him to faith in Him.

Paul wrote in our Epistle lesson for tonight that this was all a great mystery to him, “not made known in other generations, as it had now been revealed in Christ. “This mystery is that (even) Gentiles (non-Jews) are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus through the Gospel” (Ephesians 3:3-6).

God’s Son was born into this world in love for us all (“God so loved the world” -John 3:16) and He lived a perfect life in place of us all, where we fail to do so. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for all of our sins, no matter who we are. And He rose in victory to give us all forgiveness and new life, through simple faith and trust in Him.

The wise men saw the star again and found Jesus and “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” in Him. We can have that same joy in our Savior, for Jesus cares about us all, too. But it is hard, at times, to see that. We live in such a troubled world, with personal and family problems and so many difficulties and conflicts all around us. We can get overwhelmed with all this - and forget the promises of Jesus.

But as I mentioned earlier, Epiphany is not just an ending of the Christmas story. It is also the beginning of a whole Epiphany season, six weeks where we see that in His own life and public ministry Jesus did care for all kinds of people with His Good News - and that means us, too.

Paul was converted to faith in Jesus, but he also had to spend time searching the Scriptures again and seeing that the promised Savior would come to help everyone. Paul still had plenty of problems in his life, but he could then go out in joy, sharing the Good News of Jesus with everyone he met.

The same is true for us. Let me give just one quick example, as I close. We heard Psalm 72 chanted so beautifully, a little while ago, in our service. It is also a prophecy about Jesus, “the royal Son” of God. He came not just for the high and mighty, like the “kings of Tarshish” who are mentioned. He cares also for “the cause of the poor” and “the needy” and for those “oppressed” by many things, as we often are. He came for “children,” as well as adults. In short, He came for each and for all of us. In Him and in the Epiphany Scriptures we will hear in coming weeks, we too can find peace and joy and hope in Him as this Epiphany season continues

Let us rise for prayer: Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they are safe, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)