ICCM; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson; January 6, 2019; Epiphany
It seems that Christmas just won’t let go this year. The gospel for today seems to be the Christmas story all over again. A closer look reveals that this is not the story we’re used to hearing. We’re used to Luke’s version of the Christmas story, complete with the songs of Mary and Elizabeth, the journey to Bethlehem on a donkey, the search for a room, the stable, the shepherds, the angels. That’s the reading assigned for Christmas each year. Today’s version of the birth of Jesus come from Matthew’s gospel and is the assigned reading for the day of Epiphany, January 6th, which only falls on a Sunday every 7 years or so. That means it’s hardly ever the assigned text for preaching.
There’s very little overlapping material between these two different Christmas gospels. So, today I want to look at the differences and focus in on the diversity of witness we find even within the Bible itself. A bit of background first… of course, you know that we have four gospels.
Mark was the first gospel written, sometime around 60 or 65 AD. It has a particular character to it—it’s short, direct and immediate in focus. The stories are brief and urgent. Mark doesn’t mention the birth or childhood of Jesus at all but starts his gospel with Jesus baptism by John.
Matthew and Luke were both written later, after 70 AD. We know, from historical documents, that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. Since both Matthew and Luke refer to the destruction of the temple, we can date those gospels as later than Mark’s which doesn’t mention it at all. Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels both follow the same general outline as Mark’s. Most scholars think that they each had access to Mark’s gospel and used it as their foundation.
Matthew was most likely written in Greek and then translated into Aramaic which tells us he was writing for a community of mainly Greek speaking Jewish Christians. He’s interested in showing the way that God is reaching out beyond just Jews with a messiah for all the people. He is interested in showing Jesus as both the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and the bringer of a whole new era too.
Luke’s gospel has a literary elegance to it. It’s the gospel that’s most focused on the poor and on Jesus as the bringer of justice. It was written by the same hand that wrote the Acts of the Apostles.
John’s gospel follows a completely different outline and includes many passages that don’t occur in the other three. John focused on the divinity of Christ and has a sort of anti-Jewish theme that indicates that it was written much later, perhaps as late as 100 AD, after the Christians as a group had time to separate a bit more from the Jews. John’s gospel is marked by long monologues and poetic passages, many layers of meaning and rich symbolism instead of the stories, parables and sayings of the earlier writings. John doesn’t write about Jesus birth or childhood at all. Instead he gives us a poetic and symbolic passage about the Word becoming Flesh, the Light shining in the darkness.
There is a rich diversity of thought and even a pluralism of ideas within the Bible when we compare the various writers and the different schools of thought represented. I find that diversity of thought stimulating—it gives us room to explore, sets the pattern for us to see that God’s revelation to us isn’t finished. God is still speaking today.
In Native American storytelling the speaker will sometimes begin a tale by saying, “I don’t know if this really happened, but I know it’s true.” It’s only our modern, factual focus that gives us trouble when we compare Matthew and Luke’s Christmas gospels and see that they don’t match exactly. When we read the scriptures, the questions we ask make a big difference. The gospel writers weren’t intending to write a historical report. They crafted their writings to answer the questions: What does it all mean? What is God’s message to us? How does God speak to us today in this text? Those questions lead to a rich depth and a variety of understandings over the ages. So, let’s dig into Matthew’s version of the Christmas story boldly, confident that there is a message there for us today.
It seems to be another Christmas story but without the shepherds, angels, donkey, inn or stable. We have Jesus born in Bethlehem and the wise men coming from the east looking for the baby with their gifts. We have King Herod with his concern and suspicion and his false words about wanting to worship the newborn king. We have the star of David shining over Bethlehem, leading the magi to the baby and then a dream of warning to the same magi, prompting their quick retreat by another road.
All we know for sure about the wise men was that they came from the East, following the rising of a star and looking for a newborn King. They went to Jerusalem–the place of local power. King Herod took them seriously, calling them into his presence so he could learn everything they knew. After their audience with Herod the magi continued to follow the star until they were overwhelmed with joy at finding Jesus and Mary. They gave their gifts–gold a gift for kings, frankincense an incense used by priests in Temple worship, and myrrh a healing and embalming salve. Each of those strongly symbolic gifts that tell something about Jesus: a king sorts, a religious leader, a healer, and a man who would die.
The wise men were not Jews. They were from the Median tribe of ancient Persia–an area that is now part of central Iran. They were priests of a religion that worshipped a god called Zoroaster. The religion started in about the time period of our OT lesson for today–500 years or so before Christ. As priests, they were responsible for offering sacrifices, making prophecies, and reading the stars. They were astrologers. There are historical records of a star from the time of Jesus’ birth that rose in the daytime with the sun. It was called the Mesori star, which by the way, means the Birth of a Prince. That is about all we know about the magi and their visit to Jesus.
We’re left with questions: Why did they come? What significance does their bowing down before Jesus have? What does it mean that these strangers to Israel would recognize Jesus while no one else did? Why in the world is the glory and wonder of Christmas clouded over by the presence of these astrologers, these people who deal in the occult and magic?
And what about this business with Herod. His words “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage”, reek of falseness and his secret scheming to get his hands on the child. In the very next section of Matthew’s gospel, a section often called the massacre of the holy innocents, we read that when Herod found out he had been tricked by the magi he was furious and gave orders for all the children in and around Bethlehem under the years of age of two to be killed. Clearly, Matthew doesn’t give us the happy, glorious, wondrous Christmas gospel we are used to.
Matthew pushes us back into the real world, showing us that Jesus came not just into a peaceful stable in Bethlehem, complete with singing choirs of angels and adoring shepherds. No, Jesus also was born into a world of manipulations and darkness, a world filled with scheming political figures and distant travelers from other faiths. It is good news that the baby we celebrate as the Messiah cannot be imprisoned in the sheltering confines of romanticized scenes or memories. Christmas speaks to the harsh realities of life, too.
Today we move into the season of Epiphany. The word Epiphany means the shining or the showing. The season that starts today has historically been a time to focus on how God is shown to us in our world. Epiphany celebrates the identity of this baby being made clear. The season’s symbol is the revealing light of the star, shining its light on all the dark places too.
Matthew’s gospel reminds us that the effects of Jesus’ birth reach beyond our happy celebrations. The magi were astrologers from the East who reminded the Jews of that time period that Jesus could not be possessed by the Jews alone. The plotting of Herod reminds us that the powers of the government cannot contain the love of God. Herod was not able to stop the message of God’s grace from getting through. Yes, eventually Jesus was put to death. But not even the governmental power to execute a person was enough to stop the love and power of God.
Today’s gospel is a strong reminder to us that God’s gift of grace is to all creation, that God’s grace enters the world of shady dealing hucksters and powerful political manipulation with an even stronger power. Today’s gospel brings Christmas out of the manger scene and into the real world where, like it or not, we live. AMEN
Let us pray— O God, you continue to show yourself to people in every age. As we move past the seasonal glitter, as we put away the Christmas decorations and lights for another year, teach us to look for your coming all around u. Open each of us to your word for us today. AMEN