On this day, we celebrate the Epiphany – the Theophany, the showing, the manifestation – the revelation of God to man.
In the icon of the Nativity of Christ, we see the shepherds coming from the fields and the wise men, the Magi, coming from the East to worship the Christ Child. In these two groups we see the whole of humanity, Jew and Gentile, simple and wise, rich and poor – all types and conditions of man, come to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords – and to the amazement of all, they find a humble child, born in a cave to a peasant mother. The angels sang their glad tidings to the Jewish shepherds — and the Gentile wise men were led by a star, perhaps all the way from Persia. Angels, men, animals, the stars, the earth – everyone and everything became aware of something profoundly different, something holy in our midst – the good rejoiced and the wicked trembled and feared – for God is with us.
Tradition tells us that there were three Magi who came to worship the King of the Jews: Caspar, Melchior, and Belthasar. We call them kings because of the prophecy in Is. ch.60, “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” When these wise and mighty men found him, they fell down and worshiped him, acknowledging that they were in the Presence of One who was good and great and Holy. They presented strange gifts to this holy child: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold was a gift for a king, frankincense is offered in sacrifice to God, myrrh was used to prepare a body for burial. These gifts proclaimed that this child is our King and our God, and that this child – God with us – came to give His own life for us.
We too can offer gifts to the Christ child. Like the wise men, we offer God our treasure when we offer those things that are most important to us: not just our money but our time, control over our lives, decisions about our behavior, about the way we will live. In a sense we offer Him our gold when we place our money and material possessions at God’s disposal – when we see these things as gifts from God and ourselves as His stewards – when, as St. Gregory the Great said, we can hold our treasures as stewards rather than being held by them. In a sense we offer God our incense whenever we worship Him – when we offer Him praise and thanksgiving and glory – when we remember all He has done for us – when we say our prayers and when we live according to our faith. And in a sense we offer Him our myrrh when we remember His death and burial for our salvation – when we put harmful behaviors in our lives to death – when we put aside things that are unhealthy – when we die to sin and self that we may live anew with Him.
St. Matthew tells us that the wise men, after they had seen the Christ Child, were warned in a dream, not to return to Herod, and that they went back another way. This has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. They avoided Herod, who in his wickedness, sought only to destroy a threat to his way of life. But on a deeper level, the wise men went home another way after seeing the Christ Child because they had been forever changed by the experience. Their eyes had seen a little baby in a manger, but their hearts had seen God. God had revealed himself and they could not go back to life the way it had been. St. John Chrysostom tells us that the wise men went home, filled with the memory of what they had seen, worshiping God and telling others, and years later those instructed by the magi were met by the Holy Apostle Thomas, who told them the full story of Christ and baptized them as Christians. When we find God, or rather, when we open our eyes to the revelation of God, we cannot go back to the way we were, we have been forever changed. We can reject what we have seen, but it will always be a presence within us. How much better if we, like the wise men, fall down in worship, offer our gifts to Him, and tell others of the glorious things we have seen – of the great love that has been revealed.
In this new season of Epiphany the Church will call us to see some of the many self-revelations of God. Today we remember the manifestation of God to the Gentile Kings as well as to the Jewish Shepherds. Next Sunday we will hear of Divine Wisdom as a child teaching the teachers in the Temple. Then – in the Baptism of our Lord – the heavens open and we see a great theophany – a revelation of God the Holy Trinity – as the Spirit descends in the form of a dove and the Father bears witness to His beloved Son. Then we will hear of Christ’s first miracle – turning water into wine, blessing a wedding at Cana of Galilee. There are so many ways that God has shown Himself to us. Some happened long ago and we hear of them in the words of Holy Scripture. But there are also ways that God shows Himself to us today, in fact He shows Himself to us at every moment of everyday – if we will only open our eyes to see. He shows Himself to us in the beauty of creation – in the beauty of stars and flowers and rocks and water, and in bread and wine – in our ability to breathe and think and touch and taste. He particularly shows Himself to us through the good actions of His children, for we are each made in His own beautiful image. He shows Himself in love, in friendship, in forgiveness, in kind words and deeds. In fact We are called to be God’s presence in the world and He is with us in so many ways – let us open our eyes and see – for God is with us.