Jesus in the Middle

              Last week was Epiphany Sunday. And in the churches I serve this is a day that, in part, we remember the journey of the magi’s quest to search for the Christ-child, the One born “King of the Jews”. The story is told in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel, and is as familiar to us as the shepherds and the manger as part of Jesus’ birth.

            And yet the magi would have arrived a year or two after Jesus was born, so Jesus was toddler at the time these Gentile gift-bearers arrived at the house in Bethlehem. And yet most all of our modern nativity sets include these three men, even though Matthew never says how many magi there were, just that three of the gifts that they brought included gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I don’t say this to crush your Christmas image of shepherds and wise men hanging out in the stable while the little drummer played his drum and cattle lowed and baby Jesus slept quietly under the star lit sky.

            In fact, I love the image of shepherds and magi together in the same place. Even though perhaps that’s not historically accurate, I believe it is theologically accurate.

 

                                                     (Image Photo by Minr Alawi)                                                                                         

           On the one side are the shepherds. They were probably Jewish born men who worked a hard job and weren’t exactly the socially accepted. They spent their days and nights in the fields, caring for sheep. And also selecting sheep to be taken to the priests to be examined for defects and blemishes. The perfect sheep were used in the sacrifices. So these Jewish men knew about sheep, and sheep “without spot or blemish”, and sacrifices, and about what being a “good shepherd” looed like in day-in day-out life.

            And on the other side are the magi. These men are not Jewish, which means they are what the Bible refers to as “gentiles”, which is basically anyone who is not Jewish born or a Jewish convert (proselyte). They come from somewhere around Persia and travelled hundreds and hundreds of miles over a period of months because of “star” they saw that they believed heralded the birth of a Jewish king. The word that Matthew uses to refer to these men, “magi”, is where we get our English word “magician” from. And as cool as David Copperfield and Criss Angel are to watch on TV, the Bible never refers to magicians in a positive light. These men are not worshippers of the One True God by birth or by confirmation. They knew about the Scriptures that foretold of this coming Messiah, and the prophecy that a unique star would herald his birth, and so when they saw something unique and out of the ordinary, they followed it.

           The shepherds were told by angels. The magi were told by a star. And both groups made their journey to Jesus.

           On one side shepherds, and on the other side magi. On one side Jewish blue collar economically poor sheepherders. On the other side horoscope reading-star gazing gentile alchemists. And in the middle, Jesus.

         That’s why I love the nativity. All of the unique diversity there. All these people coming from different backgrounds are there. And the One who brings both sides together, the One who bridges the gap between them and proves that what they have in common is greater than any differences that they have, is Jesus.

        And if this is true of shepherds and magi in 1^st century Israel, I wonder could this still be true for us today as well? As we continue our journey to Jesus, perhaps it is in seeing Jesus in the middle of all things, then we might then see the wide variety of others who have been journeying to Him as well.