The Epiphany Of The Lord
Preaching
PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
A Narrative Approach
The focus in Matthew 1 was on names. Name after name after name culminating in THE Name: Jesus! In Matthew 2 there is a focus on places. The first place mentioned is Bethlehem. Matthew begins his birth story by simply telling us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In the course of the story the Magi come from the east looking for the city in which the "child of the star" was to be found. Herod didn't know. The chief priests and scribes looked it up. Bethlehem! They tell Herod that Bethlehem is the place of the birth by quoting from the prophet Micah: "And you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel" (Micah 2:6).
Bethlehem, of course, was the birthplace of David! See 1 Samuel 16:1-13 (v. 1); 17:12-15. Matthew makes a big deal out of the place of this "by no means least" city. ("O Little Town of Bethlehem!") He makes a big deal of it because he is now telling us that by place Jesus is the Son of David. In chapter 1 he had told us by names that Jesus was David's Son. Jesus is Son of David. The entire genealogical list in Matthew 1 may be simply to make this point. Matthew calls his Gospel "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David..." (1:1).
Son of David means Messiah. Messiah means heir of the promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7:1-16. This is probably the most important promissory passage in the entire Old Testament. Nathan tells David that God will bring it to pass that David's sons will always rule in Israel. The kingdom shall be eternal. The present day heirs of Israel still cling to this passage as the clue to their destiny. For Matthew, and for Christians in general, the birth of Jesus-Messiah is the fulfillment of this age-old prophecy.
The Magi come from the East to Jerusalem. The Magi are Gentiles! If they are all men they match up alongside the four women in the Matthew 1 genealogy.
All these Gentiles! The message of Matthew is pretty clear. Messiah, Emmanuel, comes for all people. (See the comments in Chapter 1 on mission in Matthew.)
The Magi are astrologers or philosophers or sages from the East. They are the best of the intellectual community in their cultural world. The stars were a part of what they were all about. And the star led them to Jerusalem and on to Bethlehem.
The very best in this Gentile culture led them to the Christ-child! Their coming to the birth of Jesus was for them a very public event. They saw it in the stars. It's as if God had put a huge sign up over the Bethlehem stable that read: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Today's world is full of people selling many brands of spirituality and religiosity. Those we call cults, and there are many of them, live by the philosophy that the public would not understand its inner secrets until they've undergone a long period of initiation or apprenticeship. Cult members, therefore, never tell you in public what the heart of the matter is for them. The heart of the matter is private information. It is secret.
The religion of the gnostics in all ages is also always about a hidden mystery. Most of the cults in America are gnostic in their world view!
How different this is from the Christian faith! Our sign says: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. What we believe is out there for everyone to see and hear. We'll tell you in our first conversation that Christianity is about a God who loves sinners. That's the heart of the matter for us. It's public information. We want everyone to know it!
The Magi come to King Herod. "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?" the Magi ask the King.
How did the Magi know to ask the question this way? Did they see in the stars that a king had been born? At any rate, Matthew accepts their point of view on this matter. He tells us that the Magi worshiped this newborn King.
Herod is another matter. He is quite a piece of work! In contrast to the Magi, Herod the Great and all Jerusalem react with fear to the news that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, has been born.... Moreover, Herod proves himself to be prototypical of others with whom Jesus will become embroiled in conflict in the course of his ministry, namely, Pilate and the religious leaders.... According to Herod's evaluative point of view, Jesus is an insurrectionist. Similarly, Pilate also deals with Jesus on the presumption that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, is one who lays political claim to the throne of Israel (27:11-14)1
Jack Dean Kingsbury makes much of the prototypical nature of the role of Herod in Matthew's story.
The manner in which Herod reacts to the perceived threat the infant Jesus poses anticipates the manner in which the religious leaders will later respond to the adult Jesus. Both Herod and they reveal themselves to be "spiritually blind" (2:3; 27:63); "fearful" (2:3; 21:46); "conspiratorial" (2:7; 12:14); "guileful" and "mendacious"; "murderous" (2:13; 12:14); "wrathful" (2:16; cf. 21:15); and "apprehensive of the future" (2:16; 27:62-64). In Matthew's story, Herod is the precursor of the religious leaders, and his opposition to Jesus foreshadows theirs.2
Once they get their Bethlehem information the Magi are on their way to present their gifts and to worship the One born king of the Jews.
King Herod does not join in this worship pilgrimage. Neither do the religious leaders. We're perhaps so familiar with this story that the shock simply passes over us. Jewish political and religious leaders remain fixed--in their positions, in their places. The Magi, the Gentiles, go to worship the newborn king. This is an incredible, turn-the-world-upside-down, Epiphany story.
Once the Magi arrive at the house we hear that they fell down and worshiped Jesus. Joseph and Mary are now of little significance. The focus is on King Jesus. The focus is on this God-in-hiding in a newborn babe. Luther said it long ago: The God of the Bible is a God who is revealed in hiding!
In his work of pastoral theology on Matthew, Mark Alan Powell devotes a chapter to worship. One of the forms of worship that he identifies in Matthew's Gospel is "epiphanic worship." This is worship in the presence of the divine. He points out that there are five occasions in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus is worshiped beginning with this passage concerning the Magi in 2:2, 11. The other instances are 14:33; 21:15; 28:9; 28:17. The focus in each of these worship passages is Jesus himself as the One he is revealed to be.
Powell also deals with a form of worship in Matthew which he labels "supplicatory" worship. "Four times in this narrative individuals come to Jesus, worship him, and then present him with a need or request that they hope he will address." These passages are 8:2; 9:18; 15:25; 20:20. At the end of his discussion Powell notes that there are, therefore, nine instances of supplicatory or epiphanic worship in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus is always the heart of these worship passages. Powell points out that all nine of these instances of worship of Jesus are unique to Matthew's Gospel: "...the worship of Jesus is a much more pronounced theme in Matthew than in the other Synoptic Gospels."3
The Magi came to worship and to bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Old Testament reference for the bearing of such gifts is in the Old Testament lesson appointed for this week: Isaiah 60:1-6. Gerhard von Rad (Old Testament Theology, Vol. II) talks about two themes that occur repeatedly in the prophets of the later Persian period: Trito-Isaiah; Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah. Both themes center on the city to which the exiles have recently returned: Jerusalem. One theme speaks of an eschatological day when all the nations will come upon Jerusalem in attack. This attack, however, will be foiled. (See 2 Samuel 5:6-7 on the pre-Israelite notion of the invulnerability of Zion. The Zion Psalms--46, 48, 76--pick up this tone of invincibility.) This theme lives among us today in the form of Luther's hymn penned to Psalm 46: "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."
The second eschatological theme of the late Persian period is of a day when the nations will make a peaceful pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Whereas the first theme deals with war and the judgment on the nations, the second theme speaks of a time of peace and salvation for the nations. This theme is found in Isaiah 49:14-21, Haggai 2:1-9, Zechariah 14:8-19, and in this week's text from Isaiah 60. What a stretch it must have been for returned exiles to imagine such glory for the future of their holy city! All the nations will come. They will bring their wealth. They will worship Yahweh. These stories can certainly be put together for preaching on the day of Epiphany. The story of the Magi come to Jerusalem with gifts and obeisance is the story of light to the Gentiles. This is what Epiphany is all about!
We haven't mentioned the one other prophet of the late Persian period: Jonah. The story of Jonah is also a story of light to the Gentiles.
Homiletical Directions
There are a myriad of possibilities for narrative connections with this week's Gospel text. Though it is not a strong Epiphany theme, the "Son of David" theme offers narrative possibilities. We might begin with some Bethlehem stories that link David to this place. Secondly, we would need to tell the story of the promise made to David by God through Nathan as told in 2 Samuel 7. David from Bethlehem is the Anointed (Messiah) of God to whom the great promise of an everlasting monarchy is proffered. This is the fundamental promissory text in the entire Old Testament. We're dealing with vital stuff here. Thirdly, the genealogy from Matthew 1 can be presented as Matthew's way of tying Jesus to David. In Chapter 1 we indicated that this genealogy would have generated great excitement in the ancient oral world where identity was a gift of genealogy. Discover a creative and exciting way to tell this genealogy. Finally, we come to today's text where the Magi come to Bethlehem guided by the star and helped along by Herod's counselors.
The Jesus that is revealed through this series of stories is Jesus as Son of David. A closing proclamation might begin with Jesus saying: "I am the Son of David. David and I are both Bethlehem boys. God promised to David and fulfills in me the promise of an everlasting kingdom. I bring this kingdom to the world. I bring this kingdom to you. My kingdom is the fulfillment of all worldly dreams of kingdoms. Walk with me and we will walk forever in God's promised and eternal kingdom." Amen.
A second narrative possibility would be to deal with the Magi. Tell their story, starting in Persia, with some real imagination. Some of the above comments can be included in your telling of the story. Let's think in terms of telling only this story on this Epiphany day. The key to the conclusion of the story and the key to any proclamation based upon it is the notion that God's kingdom is wide open to the Gentiles. The best of their culture leads them to Bethlehem. (This has many interesting implications for our work of evangelism and mission today.) It's written in the stars. Forget the astrologers ancient and modern! Here is the star that counts, and this star leads to a boy in diapers. See the stars. See the child. It's all OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Make use of the above material contrasting this Christian posture of public disclosure to cultic and gnostic forms of secrecy. It's a great Epiphany story! The whole world is invited!
A third narrative possibility would be to tell the story of Herod and Pilate as the political rulers who are the bookends of Jesus' ministry.
First, tell the story of Herod. Second, tell the story of Pilate. See the text above for guiding verses. Turn then to the story of Jesus and his declaration that he is King. The Magi come to worship him who was born king of the Jews (2:2). Jesus lives out his kingship between two great political powers. It seems that you just can't keep the Bible out of politics.
A closing proclamation to these political stories might go something like this: "I am God's true and only king. You can't trust Herod. You can't trust Pilate. You can't trust any earthly ruler in matters that are ultimate. You can trust me. I rule as your servant.
I am a servant king who will walk with you through life. I am a servant king who will walk with you through death. I am a servant king who will walk with you into the dawn of an everlasting kingdom." Amen.
A final narrative possibility for this Magi text is to take a quick walk through the prophets of the later Persian period who looked for that eschatological day when the peoples of all the nations will come to Jerusalem to pay homage and give obeisance to Yahweh. (See texts in the above material.) Matthew knows these old texts. He sculpts the Magi as the fulfillment of prophecies that portray God's day of fulfillment as the day when the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi, come to Jerusalem and to Bethlehem to pay homage and do obeisance to the child who is truly a light to the nations; a light to the Gentiles.
A closing proclamation might hear Jesus say: "I am the light of the world. I am the light to the Gentiles. I am the light to all the world's nations. All peoples shall come to me. The Magi are the sign. The Magi are the invitation. Today I invite you to come and worship. I invite you to come to me with your gifts. I invite you to let your light be kindled by my light that together we might be truly a light to the nations." Amen.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 48.
2. Ibid., pp. 48-49.
3. Mark Alan Powell, God With Us (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), pp. 33, 42, 57.
Bethlehem, of course, was the birthplace of David! See 1 Samuel 16:1-13 (v. 1); 17:12-15. Matthew makes a big deal out of the place of this "by no means least" city. ("O Little Town of Bethlehem!") He makes a big deal of it because he is now telling us that by place Jesus is the Son of David. In chapter 1 he had told us by names that Jesus was David's Son. Jesus is Son of David. The entire genealogical list in Matthew 1 may be simply to make this point. Matthew calls his Gospel "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David..." (1:1).
Son of David means Messiah. Messiah means heir of the promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7:1-16. This is probably the most important promissory passage in the entire Old Testament. Nathan tells David that God will bring it to pass that David's sons will always rule in Israel. The kingdom shall be eternal. The present day heirs of Israel still cling to this passage as the clue to their destiny. For Matthew, and for Christians in general, the birth of Jesus-Messiah is the fulfillment of this age-old prophecy.
The Magi come from the East to Jerusalem. The Magi are Gentiles! If they are all men they match up alongside the four women in the Matthew 1 genealogy.
All these Gentiles! The message of Matthew is pretty clear. Messiah, Emmanuel, comes for all people. (See the comments in Chapter 1 on mission in Matthew.)
The Magi are astrologers or philosophers or sages from the East. They are the best of the intellectual community in their cultural world. The stars were a part of what they were all about. And the star led them to Jerusalem and on to Bethlehem.
The very best in this Gentile culture led them to the Christ-child! Their coming to the birth of Jesus was for them a very public event. They saw it in the stars. It's as if God had put a huge sign up over the Bethlehem stable that read: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Today's world is full of people selling many brands of spirituality and religiosity. Those we call cults, and there are many of them, live by the philosophy that the public would not understand its inner secrets until they've undergone a long period of initiation or apprenticeship. Cult members, therefore, never tell you in public what the heart of the matter is for them. The heart of the matter is private information. It is secret.
The religion of the gnostics in all ages is also always about a hidden mystery. Most of the cults in America are gnostic in their world view!
How different this is from the Christian faith! Our sign says: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. What we believe is out there for everyone to see and hear. We'll tell you in our first conversation that Christianity is about a God who loves sinners. That's the heart of the matter for us. It's public information. We want everyone to know it!
The Magi come to King Herod. "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?" the Magi ask the King.
How did the Magi know to ask the question this way? Did they see in the stars that a king had been born? At any rate, Matthew accepts their point of view on this matter. He tells us that the Magi worshiped this newborn King.
Herod is another matter. He is quite a piece of work! In contrast to the Magi, Herod the Great and all Jerusalem react with fear to the news that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, has been born.... Moreover, Herod proves himself to be prototypical of others with whom Jesus will become embroiled in conflict in the course of his ministry, namely, Pilate and the religious leaders.... According to Herod's evaluative point of view, Jesus is an insurrectionist. Similarly, Pilate also deals with Jesus on the presumption that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, is one who lays political claim to the throne of Israel (27:11-14)1
Jack Dean Kingsbury makes much of the prototypical nature of the role of Herod in Matthew's story.
The manner in which Herod reacts to the perceived threat the infant Jesus poses anticipates the manner in which the religious leaders will later respond to the adult Jesus. Both Herod and they reveal themselves to be "spiritually blind" (2:3; 27:63); "fearful" (2:3; 21:46); "conspiratorial" (2:7; 12:14); "guileful" and "mendacious"; "murderous" (2:13; 12:14); "wrathful" (2:16; cf. 21:15); and "apprehensive of the future" (2:16; 27:62-64). In Matthew's story, Herod is the precursor of the religious leaders, and his opposition to Jesus foreshadows theirs.2
Once they get their Bethlehem information the Magi are on their way to present their gifts and to worship the One born king of the Jews.
King Herod does not join in this worship pilgrimage. Neither do the religious leaders. We're perhaps so familiar with this story that the shock simply passes over us. Jewish political and religious leaders remain fixed--in their positions, in their places. The Magi, the Gentiles, go to worship the newborn king. This is an incredible, turn-the-world-upside-down, Epiphany story.
Once the Magi arrive at the house we hear that they fell down and worshiped Jesus. Joseph and Mary are now of little significance. The focus is on King Jesus. The focus is on this God-in-hiding in a newborn babe. Luther said it long ago: The God of the Bible is a God who is revealed in hiding!
In his work of pastoral theology on Matthew, Mark Alan Powell devotes a chapter to worship. One of the forms of worship that he identifies in Matthew's Gospel is "epiphanic worship." This is worship in the presence of the divine. He points out that there are five occasions in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus is worshiped beginning with this passage concerning the Magi in 2:2, 11. The other instances are 14:33; 21:15; 28:9; 28:17. The focus in each of these worship passages is Jesus himself as the One he is revealed to be.
Powell also deals with a form of worship in Matthew which he labels "supplicatory" worship. "Four times in this narrative individuals come to Jesus, worship him, and then present him with a need or request that they hope he will address." These passages are 8:2; 9:18; 15:25; 20:20. At the end of his discussion Powell notes that there are, therefore, nine instances of supplicatory or epiphanic worship in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus is always the heart of these worship passages. Powell points out that all nine of these instances of worship of Jesus are unique to Matthew's Gospel: "...the worship of Jesus is a much more pronounced theme in Matthew than in the other Synoptic Gospels."3
The Magi came to worship and to bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Old Testament reference for the bearing of such gifts is in the Old Testament lesson appointed for this week: Isaiah 60:1-6. Gerhard von Rad (Old Testament Theology, Vol. II) talks about two themes that occur repeatedly in the prophets of the later Persian period: Trito-Isaiah; Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah. Both themes center on the city to which the exiles have recently returned: Jerusalem. One theme speaks of an eschatological day when all the nations will come upon Jerusalem in attack. This attack, however, will be foiled. (See 2 Samuel 5:6-7 on the pre-Israelite notion of the invulnerability of Zion. The Zion Psalms--46, 48, 76--pick up this tone of invincibility.) This theme lives among us today in the form of Luther's hymn penned to Psalm 46: "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."
The second eschatological theme of the late Persian period is of a day when the nations will make a peaceful pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Whereas the first theme deals with war and the judgment on the nations, the second theme speaks of a time of peace and salvation for the nations. This theme is found in Isaiah 49:14-21, Haggai 2:1-9, Zechariah 14:8-19, and in this week's text from Isaiah 60. What a stretch it must have been for returned exiles to imagine such glory for the future of their holy city! All the nations will come. They will bring their wealth. They will worship Yahweh. These stories can certainly be put together for preaching on the day of Epiphany. The story of the Magi come to Jerusalem with gifts and obeisance is the story of light to the Gentiles. This is what Epiphany is all about!
We haven't mentioned the one other prophet of the late Persian period: Jonah. The story of Jonah is also a story of light to the Gentiles.
Homiletical Directions
There are a myriad of possibilities for narrative connections with this week's Gospel text. Though it is not a strong Epiphany theme, the "Son of David" theme offers narrative possibilities. We might begin with some Bethlehem stories that link David to this place. Secondly, we would need to tell the story of the promise made to David by God through Nathan as told in 2 Samuel 7. David from Bethlehem is the Anointed (Messiah) of God to whom the great promise of an everlasting monarchy is proffered. This is the fundamental promissory text in the entire Old Testament. We're dealing with vital stuff here. Thirdly, the genealogy from Matthew 1 can be presented as Matthew's way of tying Jesus to David. In Chapter 1 we indicated that this genealogy would have generated great excitement in the ancient oral world where identity was a gift of genealogy. Discover a creative and exciting way to tell this genealogy. Finally, we come to today's text where the Magi come to Bethlehem guided by the star and helped along by Herod's counselors.
The Jesus that is revealed through this series of stories is Jesus as Son of David. A closing proclamation might begin with Jesus saying: "I am the Son of David. David and I are both Bethlehem boys. God promised to David and fulfills in me the promise of an everlasting kingdom. I bring this kingdom to the world. I bring this kingdom to you. My kingdom is the fulfillment of all worldly dreams of kingdoms. Walk with me and we will walk forever in God's promised and eternal kingdom." Amen.
A second narrative possibility would be to deal with the Magi. Tell their story, starting in Persia, with some real imagination. Some of the above comments can be included in your telling of the story. Let's think in terms of telling only this story on this Epiphany day. The key to the conclusion of the story and the key to any proclamation based upon it is the notion that God's kingdom is wide open to the Gentiles. The best of their culture leads them to Bethlehem. (This has many interesting implications for our work of evangelism and mission today.) It's written in the stars. Forget the astrologers ancient and modern! Here is the star that counts, and this star leads to a boy in diapers. See the stars. See the child. It's all OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Make use of the above material contrasting this Christian posture of public disclosure to cultic and gnostic forms of secrecy. It's a great Epiphany story! The whole world is invited!
A third narrative possibility would be to tell the story of Herod and Pilate as the political rulers who are the bookends of Jesus' ministry.
First, tell the story of Herod. Second, tell the story of Pilate. See the text above for guiding verses. Turn then to the story of Jesus and his declaration that he is King. The Magi come to worship him who was born king of the Jews (2:2). Jesus lives out his kingship between two great political powers. It seems that you just can't keep the Bible out of politics.
A closing proclamation to these political stories might go something like this: "I am God's true and only king. You can't trust Herod. You can't trust Pilate. You can't trust any earthly ruler in matters that are ultimate. You can trust me. I rule as your servant.
I am a servant king who will walk with you through life. I am a servant king who will walk with you through death. I am a servant king who will walk with you into the dawn of an everlasting kingdom." Amen.
A final narrative possibility for this Magi text is to take a quick walk through the prophets of the later Persian period who looked for that eschatological day when the peoples of all the nations will come to Jerusalem to pay homage and give obeisance to Yahweh. (See texts in the above material.) Matthew knows these old texts. He sculpts the Magi as the fulfillment of prophecies that portray God's day of fulfillment as the day when the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi, come to Jerusalem and to Bethlehem to pay homage and do obeisance to the child who is truly a light to the nations; a light to the Gentiles.
A closing proclamation might hear Jesus say: "I am the light of the world. I am the light to the Gentiles. I am the light to all the world's nations. All peoples shall come to me. The Magi are the sign. The Magi are the invitation. Today I invite you to come and worship. I invite you to come to me with your gifts. I invite you to let your light be kindled by my light that together we might be truly a light to the nations." Amen.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 48.
2. Ibid., pp. 48-49.
3. Mark Alan Powell, God With Us (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), pp. 33, 42, 57.
