KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 9 January
They departed into their own country another way
Christmas ends and Christmas begins! Such is the point of Epiphany, known as “The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles”; in other words, to the world. The central story is about “the magoi from Anatolia,” the wise men from the East coming to Bethlehem. With the coming of the Magi-Kings, Christmas goes global. It is omni populo, for all people. For Eastern Orthodoxy, Epiphany is Christmas. Such is the significance of what is one of the most intriguing and most beloved stories of Christmas.
And, perhaps, the most challenging. Why? Because it challenges so many of our assumptions about knowing. The Magi-Kings, as we have come to think of them, come from the east, following a star, Matthew tells us. How many and when exactly they came no one knows anymore than anyone knows for sure when Christ was born. Such things are hidden in what Prospero in The Tempest calls “the dark backward and abyss of time.” But the idea of the wise ones seeking to know is powerful. “They saw … they came … and they worshipped.” They present gifts, “sacred gifts of mystic meaning,” as one hymn puts it. The gifts teach. They signal something about the one to whom the gifts are given. The gifts are all part of the manifestation, the making known of the mystery of God with us. Christ is God, and King, and Sacrifice. Epiphany is Theophany, a making known of God.
This story which has so captured the imaginations of artists and musicians brings out the universal aspect of the Christmas story. What it offers is something for all regardless of our different faith or non-faith perspectives. In a way, the story shows the real meaning of education. The wise ones are the ones who seek to know and who are committed to learning. Students are those who embark on the journey of learning, a journey with their teachers who are also always students, always seeking to learn (otherwise they aren’t teachers!). The wise ones are in pursuit of truth before which they fall down and worship.