2026 04 - Epiphany Year A
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Isaiah
60:1-6 Psalm
72:1-7, 10-14 Ephesians
3:1-12 Matthew
2:1-12
I feel like today’s
readings are good ones to pray through.
Especially the Psalm; “Give the king your justice, O God, and your
righteousness to a king's son. May he
judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. May the mountains yield prosperity for the
people, and the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to
the needy, and crush the oppressor.” Leading
in difficult times needs prayer support.
That word JUSTICE is
an important one. When we are wronged,
we cry out for justice. When we have
done wrong, we cry out for mercy. Fortunately,
our God is both and He is the King that we need. At Christmas, this is the kind of King who
was born and placed in the manger. This
is the kind of King that Jesus is – he is a King of Justice, and he is an
advocate for the poor and the vulnerable.
He is both – Just and merciful.
We start our readings
with a glorious prophecy; “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the
glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but
the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to
the brightness of your dawn.”
Notice that we are continuing this theme of light and darkness – the
theme of Advent and Christmas where the light of the world stepped down into
darkness. In particular, notice that it
is a thick darkness covering the peoples.
This “word from God” was a prophecy for the Israelite people of that
time, also for the coming time of the Messiah and it is for Christ’s coming
again. It is NOW a prophecy for you and
me! The people are covered in thick darkness – They can’t comprehend the Good
News or see it - BUT ARISE! We are people of the light and the nations
need this light.
In the days of Isaiah
the prophet, the Jews were constantly being oppressed by the nations around
them, and then, they were under Roman rule at the time of Christ’s birth. The prophecy acknowledges that there is a
darkness, but the hope declared by the prophecy is that the LORD will arise and
then Nations shall come to the light…
Gold and Frankincense
and myrrh; gifts from the visit of the Magi, represents the nations that came
to honour Christ, and those Magi were a sign of Gods plan – the mystery, now revealed,
is that Christ came for all people – not just the Jew. The honour given by the Magi showed what was
to come with the message of the Gospel coming to all the world, where Christ
would be honoured by many.
These Magi were wise
men from the East, looking for "the child who was born king of the Jews.
They observed his star in the east and came to pay him homage. These learned men saw a particular star and
knew what it meant, yet Jesus’ own people missed it. How did the Magi know to even look for Jesus,
and why was it so important to them?
It is believed that
the Magi were people who studied the stars.
How they knew to look for the “King of the Jews” is a mystery that is
most likely solved when we realize a little of the Jewish history. The King of
Babylon rose up to power in about 605 BC, and took the King of Judah into
exile. He also ordered that some of the
Israelites from the royal family and nobility to come into his service - particularly he was looking for the best
and brightest, and in doing so, Daniel – the same Daniel who wrote the Book of
Daniel in our Bible, was brought in to serve the king. Daniel proved to be quite brilliant and was
put in charge of the other wise men, and the wise men were known as Magi.
Daniel was not only
brilliant, but he was a prophet, and God gave him details about just when the
Messiah would come and even when the Messiah would die. Most of us would look
at the prophecy and scratch our head.
However, after the King of Babylon fell, the area was controlled by the
Persians. It is believed that Daniel and
the Persians and probably other nations also, all studied and shared learnings
together. This means that the prophecy
about the Messiah was known to the “wise men” the Magi, and it is assumed that
the knowledge was passed down through the years to other Magi.
The Magi knew a lot,
but not everything. They noticed a
star. Many have surmised what this could
have been and have suggested such things as supernovas, comets or
conjunctions. Apparently, there were
some rare astronomical occurrences around the time of Jesus birth, but we
really can’t know for sure, what the Magi were noticing. We do know, that whatever it was, it is led
them to journey to find the Messiah.
The Jewish experts
were well acquainted with the prophecies about the Messiah, and they were able
to tell Herod and the Magi exactly where the Messiah would be born. They quoted from the prophet Micah, 5:2, “'And
you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of
Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
Bethlehem was a town
that belonged to the tribe of Judah and was the birthplace of King David, the
great King described as being a man after God’s own heart, who wrote most of
the psalms, and who was the ancestor of Jesus…. Coincidently, Bethlehem means
“house of bread” – and Jesus said, “I am the bread of Life”.
Here is the thing
that is really quite significant; these non-Jewish outsiders, went out of their
way to seek for Jesus, but his own people, who also knew the prophecy and the
times, and then had this extra information from the Magi, seemed to miss it.
The Magi travelled to
find Jesus. It was revealed to them that
this was no ordinary baby. This was the
Messiah, and they gave Frankincense, signifying the deity of Jesus. They knew the prophecy and that the Messiah
would die, and they gave Myrrh, the ointment for embalming. They also knew that this was the King of the
Jews, and they brought the gift you give a king – gold.
The online dictionary
gives two definitions for Epiphany: 1-
the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi - outsiders – non Jews.
2. - a moment of
sudden and great revelation or realization.
We
celebrate this feast of the Epiphany as the revelation – the epiphany- that
Jesus came as messiah and saviour for ALL people - including the Gentiles. That is, salvation is for the Jew and the non–Jew. In other words, Jesus came for them – and us. From the nation of Israel, God gives His
greatest gift… a frail baby is born who
is Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace… Jesus.
In the
letter to the Ephesians, we read; “the gentiles have become fellow heirs,
members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through
the gospel.” And we are told that this
was God’s plan all along. Galatians
3:28 makes it very clear, as it says; “ There
is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. In Jesus, there is true equality, and we are
united through him – part of the one body.
The
Jewish people were seen as a separate people who were particular about things
like what they ate and keeping holy the sabbath. These people were (and mostly still are)
waiting for the promised Messiah. Although
be sure to note that first Christian church was the Jewish people. Traditionally they believed that the Messiah
was someone who would set them free and put all things right. They didn’t realize that He would do this for
everyone who calls on his name. Even the
disciples of Jesus didn’t completely understand what Jesus was to
accomplish. It was written in the Old
Testament, in the book of Genesis; Genesis 12:3: "and in you (speaking of
Abraham) all the families of the earth shall be blessed". It was always
the plan of God to bring all people into his family.
We are
told in the letter to the Ephesians that this inclusion of all, this joining of
the Jew and the Gentile into one body, is a witness to the spiritual powers and
authorities as to the wisdom of God. Is
it any wonder that this unity is constantly being attacked. The Jew and the Gentile (non-Jew)…. The male and the female… the slave and the
free… All one through the sacrifice of
Jesus who has died to redeem both the one and the other.
Many
Jews, at the time of Jesus birth, death and resurrection, missed that he was
the Messiah. This shows us that you can
know all the prophecies and stories and pray to God and yet miss something as
significant as this! What is it that
makes the difference? Why did those
outsiders respond, when Jesus own people missed it? Beyond any shadow of a doubt, we need an
epiphany.
We
might be able to tell all the stories of Jesus and know all the history of the
story of Christianity, but does it touch our hearts. Does it light up our whole being and bring us
to a such a point of aliveness that people wonder at our difference? This is what the epiphany of God
achieves. Regardless of what we do and
what we know about God – we need an Epiphany … a realization that God is
talking to us personally. A realization
that he is not just the Messiah, but that he is “MY Messiah” – “My Jesus” – “My
God” – and I’m his child. To know Jesus
as the one who came for you personally… to really and truly know this to the
extent that we understand his love like St. John who refers to himself in the Gospel,
as “the one that Jesus loved”.
Those
Magi made it a priority to seek for the Messiah. They put their lives on hold to find
him. And they found him. God wants to be found. God wants to show us his love. The Magi were warned in a dream to go home by
another road, and they obeyed. God spoke
to them. We also need to be familiar
with the voice of God, and we need to be obedient to the voice of
God. More than anything, even though we are
followers of God and may have previously had an epiphany, we need to live in
the reality of that Epiphany, or experience Epiphany again – the Epiphany being that God loves us..
personally. As we enter this new year,
lets continue to seek God. Let’s chase
after him with all our strength…. and in doing so, may we all know his great
love for us.
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