“Epiphany”
January 8, 1995
Whenever the season of Epiphany rolls around, I find myself puzzled. The story that we read seems to be out of tune with the soft melody that we have heard over Christmas – out of step with the beauty and majesty of Mary and Joseph’s tale – out of context when we are celebrating a beginning, a birth. Only in Matthew’s account of the birth do we find this story of the three wisemen. What could it possibly mean, coming so soon – 12 days after the wondrous Events of Christmas?
Recently, I learned a new concept that has helped me to understand many such stories found in Scripture. The concept in Hebrew is introduced by the word HAGGADAH, and it refers to a story that a writer might insert into a text to make a point. HAGGADAH need not be factually true. It is more of a parable or a lesson that is inserted to teach the reader an extra lesson. It is often a story that is more allegorical than real, more illustrative than authentic.
And thus we turn to the beginnings of Matthew’s Gospel and Matthew inserts this story, this HAGGADAH, of three men who are following a star. The reader is to understand that the star represents a dream or a vision, or a hope. So right at the start we learn there are three men who are following a longing, a hope that they might and God.
As the story commences, we quickly notice that they are lost. ‘Where is He?” they inquire. What a strange way b begin a story. But take heart, Matthew is telling us that in order for something or someone to be found, we must first realize that we are lost. And the beginning of any journey is to know that you haven’t arrived. We might even say that the wise men were wise because they realized that in order to find God, one had to know that he was absent.
And so in their lostness, in their search, they determine to stop by the local authority and ask directions. ‘Where can we find God? Where is this wondrous birth?” In effect, they are asking the authority figures what they know about the way God acts. And we quickly see that the authority figures are threatened by these questions. If God were to reveal Himself in other ways, what need would we have for the traditional answers? Would this new revelation not call into question all the explanations from the experts? We might even speculate that any new revelation could lead to a major shift in hierarchy. Somehow, our three principals instinctively knew this – and we read that they, being wanted in a dream, depart and don’t come back that way.
Let us dig a little deeper and raise some further questions about the three principal characters in this little drama. Who are these searchers who abruptly come onto the scene and then quietly leave – with stage left -never to be heard from again? Recent custom has it that they were kings. If we’re going to go against authority, let’s give our hero some status. We have ever given them names so that they might appear more credible. Gaspard, Balthazar, and Meklhior remember those names if you’re ever organizing a Christmas pageant or find yourself on a quiz show.
I’m not sure how these names came about. They certainly were not a part of Matthew’s story_ Matthew simply calls them wisemen. Further research shows that they were magi – which was a designation for astrologers – a fortune teller type – possibly a carnival pitchman, or a court magician kind of person.
These three certainly were not the type that we would expect to be enshrined as religious sages – or that the Gospel writer would have chosen to be the first worshippers of God.
So what is Matthew’s Haggadah telling us? I believe it is the story of some stuffy, third-world alien who, for God’s sake, can’t even speak Hebrew. And yet somehow they managed to find God. And worshipping at the manger, even though – a little late. Anybody with any manners would have shown up 12 days earlier, when all the fireworks and spectaculars were happening. But still these three outsiders made it – arrived – found God -while the religious leaders didn’t have a clue.
Right at the start, Matthew teaches us that things are not as expected. Tradition and rigid orthodoxy are not going to be good enough. Outsiders are going to have the inside track. Surprise is God’s middle name.
The Epiphany story disrupts our expectations -assaults our well-thought-out concepts of reality. Those three men were not the designated players. They are not priests or rabbis – not the bishops or the doctors of the church. They are not even the persons in the next pew. The teaching is that when you seek God, be prepared to be surprised – and be prepared to be joined by some pretty strange and diverse people.
Yes, I am puzzled by Matthew’s HAGGADAH. Coming 12 days after the aesthetically pleasing, neatly choreographed, magnificently staged Christmas celebration, it seems out of place to tell a little vignette about three scruffy Characters stumbling around the environs of Bethlehem.
I suppose it is all right now to quote from ‘The Catcher In The Rye.” I take you to that page where Holden takes his girlfriend to see the colorful Christmas extravaganza at Radio City? The lights are there, the sound of well-tuned instruments, the motion, the activity, the song, the dramatic curtain effects, and first-rate professional staging. But Holden sees through it when he says: “Old Jesus probably would have puked if He could see it – all those fancy costumes and all. The thing Jesus really would have liked would be the funny-looking guy in the back row who plays the kettle drum in the orchestra.”
Those three wisemen were funny-looking – back row characters. So Matthew begins early on, declaring that the Kingdom is found when you are lost, and the journey can only be made with some strange companions. And if one goes on the journey, be ready for the unexpected, for the goal of finding God may not happen where you have been told to look
Let me share with you another HAGGADAH, which for me is an Epiphany story. It comes from the mouth of Martin Bubu. It is about a pious rabbi of Cracow–Eisik – who, like the wisemen, was a se dreamer, a visionary. One day Eisik had a dream in which a voice told him to go to far-off Prague, and under the bridge to the royal castle, he would discover a hidden treasure. He hesitates for a long while, but finally decides to go, making the long journey on foot. On arriving in Prague, he found the bridge. But he dared not get too close as there were sentinels posted there day and night. After a while, one of the guards came up to him and asked: ‘Have you lost anything?’ The rabbi told him of his dream. The guard laughed and exclaimed: ‘You poor man! To have worn out a pair of shoes traveling all this way because of a dream. Why, I had a foolish dream once. A voice commanded me to go to Cracow and search the home of a Rabbi Eisik where I would find a great treasure buried in a dirty corner behind the stove. Imagine believing in such a drum,” and he laughed again.
Rabbi Eisik, bowing politely, bid the guard farewell. He then headed back to Cracow. There he dug under the neglected corner behind his stove and found the treasure thus putting an end to his poverty.
Buber comments that the treasure is not money, but rather the knowledge and presence of God. And the story is to remind us that although the journey may be far, we have to start }lst where we are and be prepared to be surprised at where we might end up.
HAGGADAHS are often puzzling stories. They leave us in tension between what is real and known, and what is unknown and mysterious.
The ways of God, good people, are oftentimes not known. The worship of God often leads us to unknown places – rubbing elbows with unknown people. But that’s our Epiphany message. T.S. Eliot put the Epiphany message in a few short lines of poetry:
‘We shall not cease from exploring –
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive
Where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
AMEN