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Thought for the Week 3 January – Epiphany
The
prophesy of Isaiah was probably written about 700 to 680 BC and if I can
remind you of verses 2b and 3: “…but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears
over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.” With the birth of Jesus, God in a dramatic way breaks in upon human
history out of pure love for his world, for his creation, for humanity. In
this prophecy Isaiah is foretelling the arrival of the Messiah, the Christ,
of Jesus. In fact the prophesy of Isaiah lasts for 66 chapters and was
written around 701–681 BC — can you imagine?
It’s hard to take on board. Today we look with a certain amount of scepticism
on prophesy, and maybe that’s what those hearing Isaiah experienced, because
what came about didn’t happen in their lifetime. Certainly, today, if we hear
prophesy we tend to dismiss it as rubbish. What
about phrenology, palmistry, tasseography and astrology? Are they the same as
prophesy but more specific in terms of the source? Prophesy seems to be an
ability to foretell future events based upon a revelation by the Divine. It
is therefore limited to religions and religious experience whereas the others
are not revelations by the Divine but by the shapes left by tea leaves in a
tea cup, the lines on the hand, the bumps to be found on heads and the
juxtaposition of heavenly bodies. Basically speaking the Christian faith, and
indeed Judaism in which Christianity has its roots, prohibits any sort of
divination or foretelling of future events unless it is a prophesy, divinely
inspired. You
may remember that Saul had a problem with God because he consulted the witch
of Endor to call up Samuel and to find out why God had abandoned him. When he consulted her she said to Saul
“surely you know that Saul, the king, has cut off mediums and spiritists from
the land. Why do you set a trap for me to bring about my death?” He promises
that nothing will happen to her and she calls up Samuel. Samuel then gives a
prophesy that because Saul has disobeyed the Lord again by calling on a
medium the Israelite army will be given over to the Philistines and he Saul
and his three sons will be joining Samuel before another day was out. Which
is exactly what happened, Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword
after the Philistines had killed his three sons In
fact in the book of Leviticus it says that the practice of divination,
sorcery of any nature, consulting mediums or seeking out spirits must be
avoided, the words used are that you will be defiled by them. So what about
Astrology then? Astrology
was in ancient times closely liaised with Astronomy, the two being pursued by
the same learned individuals. Astrology was in fact, and still is, the study
of the position of stars and other heavenly bodies and applying it to the
prediction of natural and moral events or the art of judging the occult
influences of the stars upon human affairs to quote the Shorter English
Dictionary. The belief being that the stars and planets exercise a decisive
influence over human destinies. The bible is in fact full of warnings against
putting any reliance upon such arts c.f. Isaiah 47 vs 13 et sec., and
Jeremiah 8 vs 1-3 for example. So
what about these Magi from the East, who were clearly Astrologers since they
followed a star they had seen in the western sky? “Where is the one who has
been born King of the Jews? We have seen his star when it rose and have come
to worship him.” It’s interesting isn’t it? The bible forbids the practice of
Astrology and yet here we have the Magi practising it to lead them to the
Christ child!! There is, surely, a contradiction here somewhere.. It is said, by those in the know, that the
Magi identified it with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which occurred
in 7BC. Certainly it can only have been an extraordinary phenomenon for why
else would the Magi have identified it with the birth of the “King of the
Jews”, an expression used by them and clearly shows them to be Gentiles,
generally thought to have come from Persia or southern Arabia. What is clear
from Matthew, and his is the only account we have of the Magi, is that we
know surprisingly little about them. Although it has to be said that a large
amount of tradition has grown up around them. They
have been numbered as three, although there is no record of how many there
were. They have even been given names that vary according to the tradition
you have been brought up in. In the western Christian tradition since the 8th
century, they are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Chinese Christians believe
at least one of them came from China but he remains nameless! Then they have
been elevated to the monarchy, by being described as kings, which was meant
to link them to early prophesies such as that from our Old Testament reading
from Isaiah 60 at verse 3 where reference is made to kings coming “….to the
brightness of your dawn”. When?
is another question — all Matthew tells us is that it was after the birth of
Jesus. On top of the when comes the Where? All verse 9 tells us is that the
star stopped over the house where the child was. Again contrary to tradition
they didn’t visit Jesus on the night of his birth, as did the shepherds, they
came sometime later and then visited not the baby, but the child Jesus in his
house. Some place the visit of the Magi up to a year after Jesus’ birth! Then
the Magi, instead of returning to Herod, as he had requested to tell him
where the child Jesus was to be found, returned home by another route having
been warned to do so in a dream — we are not told who warned them or in fact
why. The consequence of this was what has become known as the slaughter of
the innocence. So
the Magi enter stage left and disappear into oblivion stage right as it were
after a very brief appearance. What therefore is their significance? Firstly
Magi does not mean King or Kings. Calling them such is a tradition that
probably doesn’t bear close scrutiny, although there is, of course, nothing
to say they weren’t kings. Magi is a word derived from Old Persian via Greek
and Latin. Its meaning is best stated as being magicians, wise men,
astrologers and the like all rolled into one. Which is probably what the Magi
were. Their entry on the scene immediately throws into relief the spiritual
Kingship of Jesus the Christ and the earthly kingship of Herod, the earthly
powers if you like. Herod doesn’t in fact take kindly to this child being
referred to as King of the Jews by the Magi. Seeing that Herod, in order to
safeguard his kingship, had already murdered his wife, his children, his
brother in law and indeed any number of his family it doesn’t take long to
work out what was in store for Jesus in this respect. Herod and his dynasty
were not going to take kindly to anyone calling himself or herself, or to
their being called, King of the Jews.
So the king was disturbed as was “…all Jerusalem with him.” Why all Jerusalem as well? The
answer is simply that the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers — the
Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing classes were comfortable with the status quo.
Witness their power over Pilate when it came to the death penalty for Jesus.
Over and above that like Herod anyone being called King of the Jews was a
threat to their power and influence over the Jewish people. But
why this inconsistency? Why this apparent conflict between what brought the
Magi to Bethlehem and the overall teaching of the Bible? Is there a conflict,
is there an inconsistency? Certainly
the Magi came as a result of their Astrological expertise, Jupiter was
considered the Royal or Kingly planet and Saturn was thought to represent the
Jews and therefore the conclusion was obvious, there was to be born a new
king of the Jews. Political dynamite as Tom Wright calls it. Why? Because as
Matthew presents the story he is in fact saying ‘here is the true king of the
Jews’ whereas Herod and the house of Herod are usurpers to the title. The
arrival of the Magi on the scene with this background has the intention of
showing that Jesus is not only king of the Jews but king of the gentiles as
well. But not only that, I would say that because of the Asrological
background Jesus is also king over all the forces found in the world. When
the Magi bowed down and worshiped him they brought him the gifts of gold
incense and myrrh — all gifts associated with the kingship. Kingship not only
over them, whatever their position might have been, but also over the powers
they used to get them there. In submitting themselves to Jesus they submit
all that they stand for, kings if they were gentiles as they surely were and
their powers as astrologers. The Magi were very much ahead of their time for
Jesus’ ministry was to the lost house of Israel, the Jews, it was not until
the last chapter of Mathew that Jesus proclaims the great commission to his
disciples of go and make disciples of all nations. A
theme taken up by Paul in the reading from his letter to the Ephesians “ This
mystery is that through the Gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with
Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in
Jesus Christ.” Three times in the one
verse Paul emphasises that we the Gentiles are, together with the Jews,
children of God. One
of the lessons in all this for us is to go, like the Magi, direct to Jesus
the Christ, to bow down before him, to make him lord of our lives — of
everything that goes to make us up as individuals. To avoid palmistry,
phrenology, tasseography, astrology and all the other “ies” and rely entirely
upon God through Jesus Christ for our future, for the revelation of our inner
self, for the revelation of the path, that in the same way, God has for us.
All the “ies” whatever their origin are poor imitations of the truth to be
found in Christ, as the Magi recognised. Mel
Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude To return to main Thought for the Week page, click X at top right to close this window. |