The story of the Magi began in a vision of promise but they loose their way. In the darkest moment of their journey, grace finds a way and joy breaks through. 

Changing the view point

We’ve been in Luke. The people we saw were two amazing children, their parents and a group of shepherds. But, Matthew brings another perspective to this story: largely the magi, King Herod. These are the powerful, wealthy, and influential in two societies. It’s a striking contrast. With Luke, we were seeing people that Hebrew scriptures repeatedly directed people to care for: the strangers, the least powerful and those on the fringes of society. With Matthew, we reminded that the call to save and transform all creation also covers Kings and Social Elites; the rich and powerful, figures Matthew brings to the center of the nativity story.

Front Row Seats

To Mary, events far away resulted in her giving birthday in a room shared with sheep and goats, events that she and her husband had little influence over. 

But, in Luke, we get a front-row seat to those far-away events and decisions. The conflict between the kingdom of heaven that Jesus would talk about and the kingdom of someone like Herod is not an abstraction.

Operating under incomplete information

The Magi were persian or babylonian experts in reading the stars and interpreting dreams. From the value of the gifts and the amount of time they could devote to traveling, it’s not hard to guess they were wealthy and this was not the first time they had been summoned by royalty. 

But, here, they find themselves in an interesting spot. Perhaps they were used to having the answer. But, in this case, their expertiese and training only gets them part of the way… they’re not even in the right city … When they’re summoned, perhaps they expected to honor a new-born king only to find an existing king, a king who doesn’t know about any new-born king, a new-born king who can’t take that title until the throne is vacant.

Herod (and all Jerusalem) under threat

We hear that all of Jerusalem was troubled. Given the story is focused on the royalty and chief priests, on the rich and powerful, that makes a certain amount of sense. They have adapted to his rule. Some are invested in it and benefited. Some have come to understand Herod. For all his other problems, he is a known quantity. Promise and change can be threatening.

Where we spent advent looking forward to promise, to Herod, promise represents a threat to his rule. And those threats were mercilessly defeated. Herod was not above ordering the elimination of potential rivals. For all Herod’s talk of longing to honor the new-born King, the magi and their quest is an opportunity to locate and eliminate a potential competitor.

Being filled with Joy

So the king calls up his own experts who give the magi the directions they need to get to the right city. 

It seems that even experts will stop and ask for directions… when summoned by a king.

And… they find the star again, that thing that had originally set them on their way. And their reaction stands out. The story had become about conflict, lostness, fear, and danger among the rich and powerful. But, seeing the star filled them with Joy.

Gd at work in the darkness and heaviness

Somehow, god is at work even in all of this darkness and heaviness. People that we’d expect to never find their way to the infant child, through a series of increasingly unlikely events, find their way to the child. Even King Herod’s fear ultimately works for the good. The wisemen find evidence in a place they never would have expected. 

Matthew and Joy

In Matthew, Jesus will later tell stories about unexpected joy. Joy of a man searching for a fine pearl, something of great value… and when he finds it, he sells everything he has for it. The joy of the women at the tomb on easter morning. Threatened leaders and violence seem to have destroyed the promise, everything seems to have slipped away. And … in the simple act of continuing on the journey, the women find what they though they had lost. 

Setting the stage

This story sets the stage for all that. In Jewish tradition, gentiles (or in the words of a different time) pagans were not consigned to judgement. Instead, the expectation was that one day, a pilgrimage of nations would come to Israel’s Gd. Here, the story Matthew tells, is that has begun to happen. Hope is not for someday but instead breaks into the present and can guide us in our actions now. To speak of the kingdom of heaven within and Jesus as Christ is to say that eschatological events are not in the distant future but have already invaded the present. In the arrival of the magi, god’s promises are already being realized.

Grace and Joy

John Wesley spoke of a kind of grace that comes first. I suspect John Wesley saw grace at work throughout this story, beginning with a vision of a star … and continuing with finding the vision again. And, in between, there is endurance to continue on even when the story no longer seems to make sense, when the worst seems to have won, when you think you’ve become a pawn in someone else’s game. Joy is not about the absence of troubles and challenges. It is not a guarantee the journey will be easy or that giving up won’t be easier. In fact, the very opposite. Often, joy comes when we are in the midst of troubles and challenges. Even as other evidence pushes back, the joy is the light that reminds us we are still on the journey, we are getting closer, it calls us to continue on. 

Conclusion

We’ve been looking at the story of Jesus birth through the eyes of parents and shepherds, through the eyes of those at the mercy of events far away. Today, we’ve stepped into the court of a king where even elites are at the mercy of a threatened merciless king. A journey that began in a vision, a promise of a new king and a new kingdom, seems to have gone off the astray. But, even as the Magi do not know the future or fully understand the journey, grace continues to flow and joy breaks when they find the vision again. Joy is not about the absence of troubles and challenges. The journey will continue to be harder than they know. But, joy often comes in the midst of troubles and challenges. Joy is the light that can guide us and calls us to continue on.