A sermon on the visit of the wise gentile kings to two kings of God’s people, to Herod and to Jesus. Preached in the North Peace Epiphany 2024

Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen. -Ps 72:19

Jesus’s arriving was a public event. This child’s birth was not some private thing. Over a year before a man named Zechariah went in to do his service in the temple and came out dumb. He could not speak. What’s more he was old and his wife was old and she became pregnant. When he at last opened his mouth to speak he proclaimed before a crowd of interested people in Jerusalem the Benedictus, that his child would prepare the way for the Saviour that God had now raised up. A public proclamation that God’s salvation in Jesus had come.

Six months later shepherds were told by angels that this child lying in a manger was the Messiah, the King promised all throughout the old testament. Seeing him they went forth and told everyone in the countryside around Bethlehem that would listen to them that they had seen the Messiah, the Christ, as a little baby. As they proclaimed the heavens changed and a star appeared.

We have record of this star in other sources, seen in China and Korea, in Egypt and Rome. In Rome they were convinced it was the blessing on the ending of Augustus’s long and transformative reign, a star for their king. They had it minted on coins with Caesar’s face on the other side. 

A week later, according to the law of Moses, this child the shepherds spoke of was circumcised. Two doves were offered in the temple in thanksgiving for his birth. A man there who had been waiting for the Messiah his whole life took this baby in his arms in that crowded place and proclaimed he could go in peace for the child who was born to fulfill God’s promises to Israel, and give hope to the nations, was born. Anna who was there went and told everyone in Jerusalem that would listen to her what she had seen. 

Four days later a great entourage arrived. All Jerusalem must have been consumed with its arriving. Kings had traveled from the East and they wanted to find the new king who was born, the Messiah, to bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. So they went to the man who had the title “King of the Jews” to congratulate his son but – awkward- no baby had been born to him. So they asked the religious leaders and officials “where does it say the Messiah, the Christ child is to be born?” And they said Bethlehem. Note these are the forerunners of the Sadducees and the Pharisees who will be trying to trip up Jesus and who cry out for his crucifixion. They know, they know without a doubt that this child is to be born in Bethlehem and gentile kings have come seeking such a child. Herod was called the fox because we was wily and here we see it, he asks the Magi to return if they find the child that he too may pay homage to him.

The wise men set off down the road, not a long journey now, to Bethlehem and there they found this child and they worshiped him because they knew he was divine. They gave him three gifts. Gold as befits a king, precious and regal. Frankincense as befits a god, the sacrifice of many cults, the incense we burn at feasts here at times, in those days it was always burning in the temple praising God. They also gave myrrh, for anointing a dead body, and by so doing they proclaimed that this God, this King, was also a sacrifice he had come to live and die for us to prepare a way to heaven, to endure the justice we deserve, to grant us a mercy we are not entitled to. King, God and sacrifice they worshiped him. 

This moment is a fulfillment of Old Testament hope. God’s people were called to be a blessing to all nations, a teacher to the nations of the ways of God. At times some gentiles had come to learn of them like the Queen of Sheba in Solomons day. But more often Israel had scorned its duty and hated the Gentiles, like when Jonah the prophet fled to Tarshish rather than to teach the Assyrians to repent. In Psalm 72 it says may the kings of the East bring him gold and the kings of the West bow down and worship him, our king who will deliver the needy from death and will bless all the nations of the earth and reign for ever. Here are kings of the nation being blessed and bringing gifts. In Isaiah 60 it says the Christ when he comes will gather sons and daughters from afar, and kings will come bringing gifts of gold and incense when he appears. We see here another sign that this is the King expected. And all Jerusalem saw these gentile kings leave to greet him.

Lancelot Andrewes says that there are four stars that shine in this moment. The first star is the star in the sky that showed first from Christ’s birth that the King had come, which led these kings of the nations to him. But the child they saw, the child they gave gifts, and left home and comfort and family behind for, the child which is making these mighty and noble and wise men bow down before him in worship is also a star. He is the light of the world shining in the darkness of men, he is the morning star to lead us to the true and eternal dawn. They followed the first star. They worshiped the second star. Andrewes bids us attend these words of St. Peter at Epiphany for the other two stars that shine here. From 2 Peter chapter 1:“We did not offer you cleverly devised stories when we told you about our Lord’s coming. We saw his power. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. On a sacred mountain I saw him receive majesty from his Father and heard a voice from heaven saying this is my son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. What the prophets promised also is entirely reliable. You will do well to pay attention to it, as a light shining in a dark place, until the morning star rises in your own hearts and the day dawns.”  The first star is the star in the sky. The second star is Jesus himself. The third star is the hope of the prophets pointed to by the wise men’s coming. The fourth star is the dawn of faith given in the hearts of mortals like us. 

But not all hearts are brought to the dawn, or are there yet. The wise men were warned in a dream to go home another way. So they did. Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt and so he did. For Herod that wily fox, full of rage and jealousy at the coming of one who would challenge his claim to be the ruler of God’s people ordered that all baby boys under the age of two in the area around Bethlehem should be killed. So Mary and Joseph and Jesus fled while the cries of those under tyranny and the shroud of death cried out. 

Jesus’s incarnation, his nativity was a public event. Proclaimed in Jerusalem before his coming. Proclaimed in the hill country around Bethlehem. Proclaimed in Jerusalem again by Simeon and Anna in the temple. Proclaimed in the coming of the wise men to the courts of Herod. Proclaimed in the heavens by the glory of the star. Proclaimed in the raging of this perishing world in the violence of Herod. Christ the King, the hope of the nations is made manifest to all peoples beginning with the wise men and continuing now in the breasts of those whom God will give faith. For the reign of Christ continues, and his star shines, even here, even now.

Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen. -Ps 72:19