Today many Christians around the world celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany which occurs  12 days after the Nativity and is the first major Christian feast day of the new year. It recalls the visit of the Magi  who were following a new star leading  to Jesus in Bethlehem.   It is called “The Epiphany” from the Greek word epiphaneia  or manifestation because  Jesus made His first divine manifestation to the Gentiles through the foreign Magi who were  seeking the new born king of the Jews. It’s accepted that the Magi were not  kings at all, but  astronomers or astrologers who studied the heavens but may also have been familiar with the ancient prophecies foretold by Daniel during  the Babylonian captivity and later by Micah.

The story of the Magi has been embellished with  much fancy, fable and fabrication so that the Biblical back story and truth have gotten buried in legends and tradition – about who the Magi were, where they originated and when they found Him.  One  critical fact which  Matthew included has not been distorted over time:  The Magi brought gifts and worshipped the child.

¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 1:11

In  these two sentences as Jesus is manifested to the Magi,  Scripture reveals God’s  great plan.    Their   visit  was more than “Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar”  riding camels  to Bethlehem  where  Jesus lay  in the manger.  Much of the story of the Magi as we know it came centuries later, especially that there were three kings (named above in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian and later still canonized as saints), that they found Jesus  nine months and 12 days into their travels, just shortly after His birth instead of two years later, obviously not in a manger. It is  questionable whether  each “king”  presented  a single gift for Jesus. What matters is the nature of the gifts. Gold, frankincense and myrrh would not have been given except to royalty. Their bowing down and worshipping the child Jesus indicate they recognized the divine king before them. It is a salvation moment,

Despite 12 years of parochial education (and countless hours in church)  I did not know  the Magi   were  essential to the Gospel of Salvation.   The inclusion of the Magi in Matthew’s narrative is like the opening   paragraphs  of a wonderful story which draws one  into the deeper, more complex events about to unfold. The story is about Jesus. It is always about Jesus, but the  Magi appear right at the beginning in all their wondrous array of riches. They’ve come from far away to worship Christ with gifts fit only for a true king: precious gold;  frankincense  which was even more valuable and used in temple worship; and myrrh, the spice for anointing a body.  The symbolism is deafening. Did the Wise Men   understand the import of their gifts? Could  they foresee the shadow of the cross falling on the Child Jesus?  One can only conjecture without creating yet another misleading legend. What is not conjecture is that God ‘s plan of reconciling mankind to Himself  had begun and is and will be until the time of Jesus’ return.

I think of how God used the Magi to introduce Jesus to the entire world and to us. How might He use us to bring Jesus  into a dying world?   What are the epiphany moments awaiting us in 2023?  I  don’t have  silver and gold, frankincense and myrrh, but I  can offer   hope in the power, authority and name of Jesus  to   sick and broken,  lost and desperate souls. Will it be like Peter responding to the crippled beggar near the temple”

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”Acts 3:6

Or will the lesson of the Magi be tucked  away for another year like  Christmas ornaments?