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The Feast of the Epiphany

Matthew 2:1–12

Ephesians 3:1–12

The lectionary selections are clearly trying to guide an interpretation of the passage from the gospel of Matthew for Epiphany. With the inclusion of Galatians talking about the Gentiles, the predominant way of reading the arrival of the Magi is to talk about how Jesus’s coming broadens God’s message out from the Jews to the inclusion of the Gentiles. From there, it makes sense to talk about how Jesus’s arrival and ministry is one that centers around crossing boundaries or barriers. Now that God’s love is clearly available to all (there are Old Testament passages that also state that it is, but we tend to ignore those to make a clear divide between Old Testament exclusion and Jesus’s New Testament inclusion), Jesus serves as a representative of that widening.

I don’t want to diminish such a reading, as Jesus’s life and ministry clearly reflect this idea. Whether it was women or tax collectors or Samaritans or Pharisees or Romans or prostitutes, Jesus reached out to everyone he encountered, no matter their ethnicity or religious beliefs or gender or status in society. Jesus’s life exemplifies how we, too, should not let barriers keep us from truly loving our neighbors, no matter who they and we are. There are plenty of passages that illustrate that idea.

What the story of the arrival of the Magi should also illustrate is the power that dominates our world, but also how that power is much more fragile than we imagine. When the wise men from the East arrive and stop to ask King Herod where the child who “has been born King of the Jews” is, the text reads, “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him . . . ” Here is one of the most powerful people in the area, still under the dominion of Rome, certainly, but with almost unchecked power, and he is frightened by these wise men who have come into his country looking for a child, whom they say will be the King of the Jews.

That fear will ultimately lead Herod to kill all of the children he believes could possibly be the one the wise men tell him about, and it leads him to mislead the wise men here. He is so unsure of his power that he becomes so shaken by the simple arrival of a child that he is willing to slaughter countless children. We typically don’t think of power in this way. Instead, we think of those who are so secure in their positions that they have no worries, that their lives are ones of ease and comfort.

However, what those in power know (and what those of us not in those positions often forget) is how precarious that power actually is. They have seen people who have tried, as they did, to move up those levels only to be denied, whether through demotions, exile, or even death. These successful people were often the ones doing the demoting, exiling, or killing, in fact. Given that they know how easily they could dispose of other people, they also know how tenuous their hold on their position is. If they could do these horrific actions to someone else, then someone could just as easily remove them in one of these ways.

Rather than provide us with discouragement about the evils of humanity (though we should certainly remember that truth), we should draw hope from this story, as there are other ways of removing people of power, even by those of us who seemingly have little in our society. The Herods of this world must not only worry about those whom they have wronged on their way up or the ones who will come after them, trying to supplant them. They must also worry about the people they supposedly have power over, as people will only remain in those positions for a certain amount of time. If history teaches us anything, it shows us that people—when gathered together for a common cause against oppression—can overthrow those in power.

The problem the powerless have is that the powerful seem invulnerable, but they only seem that way until they no longer do. For those who grew up during the Cold War, the Berlin Wall seemed impregnable until it was torn down. For those who suffered through years of oppression via Jim Crow laws, those rules seemed immovable until they weren’t. For those in wheelchairs or blind, the obstacles that prevented them from entering buildings and jobs seemed insurmountable until they were no longer there. For those who wanted to marry their partners of the same sex, the laws that kept them from doing so seemed to be set in stone until the Supreme Court said otherwise.

Of course, we all know that all of these groups (and others) still suffer in our society. People on the LGBTQ spectrum still face obvious and subtle discrimination, as do People of Color and women and immigrants, among others. However, throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, groups of those who seem to have no power in society say that they will not accept such treatment any longer. They stand up to the people in power, and they make changes in society.

Across the world, from the Arab Spring to movements for democracy in Africa to protests in Russia to people marching in America, people without obvious power stand up to those who clearly have it, and they change the world. Herod knew that one child born in Bethlehem, whom these wise men had dubbed the King of the Jews, could depose him. He was wrong, on a literal level, as he died long before Jesus grew up, but he was right where it counted. Herod’s type of power will always lose out to the power of unconditional love that Jesus preached. Herod knew how shaky his position was. Those of us who wish to see justice in the world must always remember that, too.

Questions for Reflection or Discussion:

Where are places where people have overthrown power, especially when it appeared impossible or highly unlikely they could do so?

Where are places people still need to overthrow power, even when it looks impossible to do so?