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Kings
Rev. Stephen Milton
Lawrence Park Community Church
January 5th, 2024
Tomorrow is Epiphany, the day the Magi arrived with their three gifts. This story has captured the imagination of Christians pretty much from the very beginning. When Christians first started to paint images of the nativity of Jesus, they ignored the stories of the shepherds and the angels. But they loved the story of the Magi, those mysterious visitors from the East.
Here’s an image from a catacomb in Rome. It shows three Magi approaching Jesus and Mary. It was painted in the 200s.
Here's an image from a stone coffin, from one hundred years later. The Magi wear Persian hats and point at the star. These images show the Magi as astrologers or courtiers of a Babylonian court in the East.
Here’s an image from one hundred years later, in the 400s. It appears on the walls of one of the first churches in Rome. The Magi look a bit like harlequins, appearing on either side of Jesus, who sits like an emperor on a throne. Mary is by his side, dressed in blue, looking like a queen or princess.
At this time of year, we tend to focus on the mystery of the Magi. Who were they, where did they come from? What kind of star did they follow? Who were they really? Today I would like to suggest that if we want to know who the Magi were, we need to first ask who Jesus is. Figure that out, and the presumed identity of the Magi becomes much clearer.
The Magi first appear in the Bible as court astrologers for some Eastern king. They follow the star because that’s what astrologers do. They think stars are important, and new stars are extraordinarily important. In the pagan world at that time, any star that moved through the skies was associated with a god. That’s why our planets are all named after Roman and Greek gods – Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars. Pagans assumed that lights in the sky that have a will of their own, so those that move were believed to be gods. So, when The Gospel writer Matthew told pagans about the birth of a new God, Jesus, he told a story of a new moving star. To pagans that would have immediately signalled that a new god had been born. Matthew was speaking their symbolic language.
The gifts the Magi gave a hint of the identity of this god under the star in Bethlehem. He would be a king – so he deserved gold. He would be a priest - someone who could intercede with God to relay the prayers of the people. So, he received incense – frankincense. And, unlike most gods, he would be killed by the world, so he deserved myrrh. This was a spice that was used for burying the dead. King, priest, victim. The Magi’s gifts reflected who they thought Jesus would become. Once we know who Jesus is, then we can understand the Magi.
Over time, Jesus’ identity shifted, and so did the identity of the Magi. Let’s skip forward a thousand years to the 1400s.
Here’s what the Magi looked like to medieval Europeans. They come with a large retinue. They don’t look Persian anymore. The Magi are now kings. They have crowns on their heads. They also make a point of getting down on their knees when they come near the Christ child.
This identity is immortalized in our Christmas carols of course, such as “We Three Kings.” But the Bible doesn’t suggest they are kings. So, how did they get a promotion from astrologer to king?
Once again, the key to the Magi’s identity is knowing who people think Christ is. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church was in constant conflict with local kings in Europe. Kings like to expand their territory because land is wealth. The church was a major landowner, owning all sorts of abbeys and convents. Kings were always wanting to take away the church’s land, which the church resisted. The church also had a mission to subdue the more violent tendencies of kings. The church issued orders that wars could only be fought on certain days of the week, and not at all during Lent or Advent.[1] Kings did not like this very much.
This conflict between the kings and the church led to a re-evaluation of the identity of the Magi. The church instructed painters to portray the Magi as kings.
They were to bow or kneel in front of the Christ child. To kiss his feet. The message was clear: Christ is the true King of Kings. Real world kings should obey Christ and his church, just as those Magi had submitted themselves to the Christ child. Once again, it was the identity of Christ and the church which defined the identity of the Magi.
This tension between states and the church, between kings and presidents and Christianity continues to our day. Four years ago, on January 6th, an angry mob laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC, at the urging of outgoing President Donald Trump. That crowd, which wanted to overturn the election the election results, was populated by many right-wing Christians.
They brought shofars, ram’s horns, the same kind that were blown to bring down the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6:1–27).
Jan 6 1
They brought Bibles.
Jan 6 2
They brought banners with Jesus’s name next to Trump’s.
Jan 6 3
They brought crosses. And most of all, they brought Christian rage.
In the United States, right wing Christians have declared that they want their country to be ruled by Christians, for Christians, with Christian values. These Christian nationalists have their own view of Jesus. Jesus is a man’s man, a macho warrior who knows what’s right and wrong, and will lead the fight to win the world for Christianity. These Christian leaders have no interest in the meek and mild version of Jesus shown in the Gospels. These Christian writers, who are almost always white men, have promoted a more masculine view of Jesus. The Jesus they follow is the warrior Jesus they find in the Book of Revelation. [3]
This angry Jesus, who wants to tear down the worldly order on behalf of Christians is the one who Christians brought to Washington four years ago. Those insurrectionists were our modern-day Magi. They were MAGA Magi. They had come to worship and install warrior Jesus. And now, in 2025, with Trump ready to return to the White House, the President has promised to pardon all their jail sentences.[4]
The Magi story keeps changing because society keeps changing. When people believed that stars were gods, the Magi were astrologers. When humans thought they could be all powerful as kings, the Magi became kings. Now, wealth is all powerful. The poor want it, billionaires hoard it, the media glamorize it. Trump’s cabinet will be the richest cabinet ever, filled with many billionaires, including Elon Musk, a self-appointed king maker. Every age has its false gods, and wealth is ours.
So, on this eve of Epiphany, we should take a moment and remember what happened when the Magi found Jesus. They came with animals laden with expensive treasures. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. No matter who we think those Magi were, astrologers, kings, MAGA, the original story remains the same: the rich came with gifts to this poor child. No matter how much we revise this story, God has written it so that we have this image of a reversal of expectations. The story of Jesus, which is always our story, the story we are asked to live into, begins with wealthy strangers bestowing gifts on a poor child.
The story of the Magi only appears in the gospel of Matthew. Near the end of his gospel, Jesus tells his followers that any time they help the hungry, the sick or the prisoner, they are helping Him (Matthew 25). This suggests that each of us are asked to be the Magi now. We can be the ones who travel far, or just across the street, to bring compassion, a smile, a donation, a good word to those who need it. We are all called to follow Christ’s star, not knowing where exactly it will lead us. Wherever we end up, we are asked to simply help each other. To turn the world upside down, one small act of faith at a time.
Happy Epiphany.
Amen.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/event/Truce-of-God
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/storming-of-the-capitol-through-the-lens-of-a-veteran-jewish-dc-photographer/
[3] Just search for “warrior Jesus” online to find this. The book
explores this is in detail.
Examples: https://forgingbonds.org/blog/detail/becoming-the-kind-of-warrior-jesus-was
[4] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-pardoning-jan-6-insurrectionists-would-endorse-attacks-democracy
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