The seventeenth century painter Guido Reni has left us a magnificent painting of Matthew. An angel is whispering to him various events in the life of Jesus. The attentive Evangelist is frantically writing down all that he is told. The tale will become his Gospel. A portion of those whispers is today’s story of the Epiphany. It is only Matthew who tells us this tale filled with wonder. Why the other Evangelists ignored this magical story, we will never know – at least this side of the grave. But how fortunate we are to have the poetical story at all! Its charm is eternal. It has inspired millions!
It has taught countless others! For example, it was an excited little girl who told me this story. The first two wise men offered their precious gifts to the Babe. He declined them. When He did so with the third, the exasperated savant asked, “Then what do you want?” The Child answered quickly and with a warm smile, “Your camel!” A confessed feminist asked me why God gave the star to the wise men. I professed ignorance. She told me with glee, “God knows men are too proud to ask directions.” I read recently of the traditions the wise men have inspired in various countries. In Latin countries, boys and girls leave hay in their shoes for the camels on the eve of the Epiphany. They hope the camels will reciprocate by leaving gifts. In France, cakes are baked and coins placed in each. He or she who gets the coin is king or queen for the day. In Greece, a cross is thrown into the water.
Whoever retrieves it receives presents. It is silly, perhaps spiritually suicidal, to turn one’s back on this account as so much child’s play. We do so only at our own risk. The shrewd Matthew has much to teach his readers. As their journey began, the three pilgrims left behind them the warmth of their own fires and the love of their families. Alone and undaunted, they went searching for God. Eagerly they responded to the invitation of the Spirit. They abandoned their own country with its familiar tongue and culture. They came into a foreign land among an alien people. The record shows they nearly lost their lives. Yet, for them the search for the God was worth all risks and dangers. At last their quest was done. They found their God. He lived not in a palace surrounded with retainers and ministers. Rather, He was in a manger surrounded with the foul odors of farm animals.
Matthew does not record any disappointment on their part. Rather, they humbly fell to their knees and placed their finest gifts at His disposal. Then, and only then, they returned to their homes, wives, and children. They were energized. They were new people. They had become the first Gentiles to worship the Christ. They had become the first Christians. They also had walked into history. Wherever the Christmas story is told, they will be remembered. These men had proved wise indeed. They had risked all for God and they had become big winners. Is there anyone who still doubts that the equally wise Matthew is attempting to teach us something? Each of us too must gamble if we too are to find God. If we play cautious and afraid, we will come up with hands groping frantically at empty air. We will not be energized. We will not become an Epiphany people.
We will not enjoy our own epiphany. How unlike the Temple priests, who surrounded King Herod, the wise men were! These priests knew the Scriptures. They knew the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. As a matter of fact, Bethlehem was but a short hop, skip, and jump from Herod’s home. Yet, the priests declined to join the wise men in their search. They would not leave their libraries and creature comforts. History passed them by. Now we only shake our heads in wonder at their blindness and pity them. Hopefully we will be wise enough to learn from their obtuseness. The wise men of today’s Gospel would applaud the Epiphany wisdom of another finally successful pilgrim, Malcolm Muggeridge. It was he who wrote the following. “God signifies an alternative impulse – to sacrifice rather than to grab, to love rather than lust, to give rather than take, to pursue truth rather than promote lies, to humble oneself rather than inflate the ego.”