The Visit of the Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star* at its rising and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.”

After their audience with the king, they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.

Discussion Questions:

1. Have you ever experienced a sign, something you would describe as a religious epiphany? A moment in which you suddenly saw or understood something in a new or very clear way? Explain.
2. In the coming new year, in what ways could you be open to receiving more spiritual wisdom versus more knowledge?
3. Epiphany is about God revealing God’s self to us in Jesus. In what ways are you a light revealing Jesus- “God with us” to others? Is being Christ’s light in the world a conscious part of expressing your faith?
4. When have you experienced absence or deep longing as an invitation from God?

Biblical Context

Matthew 2:1-12
Margaret Nutting Ralph

Today’s Gospel is the wonderful story of the magi coming to pay homage to the Christ child. We have probably all acted out this story either as children in costume or by assembling a crib set. It is very likely that in all of our enactments the magi arrived at the manger. Combination of images that does not appear in the Gospels. The magi appear only in Matthew; the manger only in Luke.

The fact that Mathew and Luke both tell stories, of Jesus’ birth, but that their stories differ in details, is evidence that both Matthew and Luke were using the infancy-narrative literary form. (We discussed infancy narratives briefly in the Gospel commentary on the feast of the Holy Family.) Infancy narratives teach not what was known about child at the time of the child’s birth but what was known after the person became great.

In order to teach his post-resurrection message about Jesus, Matthew winds Old Testament images around his account of New Testament events. Alluding to Old Testament passages in this way was a teaching technique of the time called midrash. We will better understand Matthew’s teaching if we are familiar with the Old Testament passages to which he refers.

When the magi arrive at Herod’s palace they say? “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” This is an allusion to Numbers 24:15-17a.

The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor,

the utterance of the man whose eye is true,

The utterance of one who hears what God says

and knows what the Most High knows,

Of one who sees what the Almighty sees.

enraptured and with eyes unveiled.

I see him, though not now;

I behold him, though not near:

A star shall advance from Jacob,

and a staff shall rise from Israel….

In the Book of Numbers these words appear on Balaam’s lips. This scene takes place while the Israelites are camped on the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho. They have not yet crossed the Jordan to claim the promised land. The king of Moab, Balak, is afraid that the Israelites will conquer his people. He asks Balaam to curse the Israelites so that they will no longer be a threat. Balaam explains that he cannot say anything that God would not have him say. When Balaam speaks, he blesses the Israelites rather than curses them.

When Balaam says, “A star shall advance from Jacob, / and a staff shall rise from Israel,” he is speaking of King David, who did later conquer the holy land. The setting of this scene precedes David, but the person telling the story lived after David. The story in Numbers is teaching that David’s reign was ordained by God. Matthew uses Balaam’s words to teach not about David, but about Jesus.

In Matthew’s story, when Herod assembles the chief priests and scribes to ask where the Christ was to be born they say,

“In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:

And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

since from you shall come a ruler,

who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

This passage, largely based on Micah 5:1, is also a reference to King David. Micah was a prophet to the southern kingdom in the eighth century B.C. Micah is reminding the people that King David, who was the greatest king they ever had, was from Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the source of the Davidic dynasty to whom God has promised fidelity. Micah is offering the people hope that future kings will also come from the Davidic line and will be faithful to God.

Still a third Old Testament passage that Matthew uses in his story appears as our Old Testament reading: Isaiah 60: 1-6

What is Absent from Your Life?

Reflection
Fr. Michael K. Marsh

For most of us the beginning of a new year tends to focus our attention on the future. For some of us that focus is expressed in our New Year’s resolutions, the intentions we have for our life, and the plans we make. Others of us may not make resolutions but we still have hopes and wishes for the coming year, and we consider the possibilities of what the year might hold for us. Some of us simply want a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning.

In whatever ways this gets expressed or experienced it touches a longing or desire within us. We seek something we don’t have. We want something different. We are aware of an absence. Something is missing from our lives. I don’t mean our life is defective or deficient and I am not making a criticism or a judgment. It’s just the recognition that there are times in our lives when we experience absence.

Here’s the paradox. That absent thing, that missing piece, is also present to us in and though our longing and desire for it. We may not see it or experience it and it may not yet be fully realized in our lives but it is there. It is present by its absence, and we experience that presence as longing, desire, and searching. It already exists within us.

So, one week into the new year, let me ask you this. What resolutions have you made for 2024? What are your intentions or plans? What do your hopes and wishes focus on? Maybe it’s about your marriage, or your life of prayer. Maybe you want to be more generous or less judgmental. Maybe you want to get healthier, live more simply, let go of your need for approval or perfection. Maybe you’re longing to find and hear your own voice, desiring to live with greater integrity and authenticity. Maybe you’re looking for peace, consolation, hope.

Sometimes we don’t know what it is we’re after. We only know we’re looking for something. Have you ever had that feeling that something was missing, you didn’t know what, but you knew you’d recognize it when you saw it?

You might be wondering what absence has to do with epiphany. They sound mutually exclusive. But maybe it’s not as simple as there’s either something there or there’s nothing there. What if the experience of absence and the accompanying longings and desires are the beginning of an epiphany for you? What if that sense of absence is the star of your life by which God is revealing God’s self to you? And what if your sense of longing and desire is really God’s longing and desire for you?

Maybe epiphanies are the means by which God’s expresses God’s longing and desire for each of us. Maybe they are God calling and guiding us into the house of the divine. Maybe an epiphany is not so much an “Aha, I got it” kind of moment as it is an “Aha, it’s got me” kind of moment. It’s a moment that awakens us to the deep desires of our hearts, touches the longings of our life, and fills the absence in such a way that we get up and go, change our life, know ourselves in a new way, and travel along a different road.

I really do believe that’s what happened to the magi, and I think it happens to us as well. That star in the night sky illumined for the magi an absence. It shone on them as a longing and desire. They thought they were seeking the Christ child, but it was really the child seeking them.

I wonder if we often fail to recognize the epiphanies in our lives because they so often begin in absence. If we think nothing is there, then we’ve misread the absence, and we will miss the epiphany. I don’t want to do that, and I don’t want you to either. I want us to begin with the absence. I don’t want us to run away from it, deny it, or cover up. I want us to name the absence and in so doing “observe his star at its rising.”

What is absent from your life today? What are your deep longings and desires? What is the word of Christ that you need to illumine your life tonight? Whatever you might name, that is the beginning of your epiphany. It is more than emptiness. It is God calling. It is a guiding star that illumines your life. It shimmers with God’s longing and desire for you. It shines in the night sky of your life. It twinkles presence in the midst of absence. It is a beacon beckoning you home.

Trust the star. Follow it. Listen to it. Learn from it. Let it take you to the house of Jesus. Stand at the door with the magi, as a wise woman or a wise man, and listen to the child tell his mother, “Let them in. I brought them here.”

Selections from Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors—Cycle B, by Margaret Nutting Ralph, Copyright © 2005 by Margaret Nutting Ralph. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com.

Reflection Excerpt from “Interrupting the Silence” Fr. Michael K. Marsh www.interruptingthesilence.com
Used by permission.