By Another Road: Matthew 2:1-12 - Epiphany Sunday

Shortly after we moved into our new home, we installed a front door camera. 

At our previous home, we’d been visited by a trio of salesmen who were so brazen that we threatened to call the police just so they’d leave our front doorstep. With all the scammers, porch pirates, and unsavory characters knocking on doors, this is a worthwhile investment to protect my family. 

But this also makes me wonder how Joseph and Mary must have felt with all the strangers who’d been showing up unannounced: the angels, the shepherds, and now, the strangest and most unlikely visitors of all: the Magi.

The Road Less Traveled by WxMom on flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0

Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t reveal any the dialogue between the Magi, Mary, and Joseph. Yet, they had quite a story to tell. After all, when they set out on their journey, they weren’t expecting the end up in the little town of Bethlehem. 

They had originally gone to Jerusalem, having followed a star which they believed heralded the birth of the King of the Jews. Naturally, they went to where one would expect the “King of the Jews” to be born: the palace of King Herod in Jerusalem, who was, the king of the Jews. 

I don’t imagine the Magi had any trouble gaining access to Herod when his men saw their fancy robes and treasure chests. But when the Magi explained why they’d come, Herod was confused and terrified. He immediately consulted the scribes and chief priests, who told him that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. So, he gave the Magi strict orders to search for the child and immediately report back to him. 

The magi then depart and continue following the star until it settled over the house where the baby Jesus was. What they found was the opposite of everything you’d expect in a royal birth: two young, poor parents who were guests in someone else’s home, and a child wrapped not in the finest silk but in simple bands of cloth.

And yet, their journey helped them to see the baby Jesus for who he was: he was God, dwelling inside that tiny, fragile body, born into poverty in a place far from home; who came to earth not with lights and fanfare and everyone watching, but in silence. The only sign they had followed was a star that no one else noticed, one star out of many in the sky which announced his coming. 

Now, remember: the Magi weren’t Jews. Their god was not the God of Israel. Still, when they beheld the baby Jesus in the arms of his mother, they worshiped him as God’s Son. Then, they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Since we know this story so well, it’s easy to brush aside the mystery of why God would bring three pagan astrologers on a 1,200-mile journey to meet the Baby Jesus. 

And yet, ours is a God whose ways are mysterious and who does not operate according to conventional human wisdom. And why would he? God’s mission in the world is bigger and greater than anything we could possibly desire. The arrival of the magi demonstrates God’s eagerness to bring people to Jesus, including people who aren’t really even looking for him. 

And God’s plan for your life is bigger and greater than anything you could possibly desire. That’s why there’s so many ups and downs, twists and turns in the Christian journey.

If you follow God, God will take you to places you do not expect to go. You will face perils in which you will realize how desperately you need God, and God will not let you down. God will send people who bless you on your way, and God will send people to you who need your blessing. And you will be transformed every step of the way,

Mary, Joseph, and the Magi are radically transformed in each other’s presence, because God is present to them in the baby Jesus. We are told that the Magi return home “by another road,” and this isn’t just because they’d been warned not to return to Herod. They were going home as radically transformed people, because they’d seen the living God. 

Mary and Jospeh, on the other hand, had little need for the gold, frankincense, and myrrh the Magi gave to them. But that will quickly change. Within days, the paranoid and power-hungry Herod will murder every young boy under the age of three living in Bethlehem. An angel warns Joseph that he must take his wife and child and flee to Egypt, where they will spend the next several years living as refugees. The gold, frankincense, and myrrh they had received will prove quite valuable in keeping the Holy Family sheltered and fed. God will provide for you just the same, so that you will parish in the face of peril but be transformed. 

In the meantime, you can make your New Year’s Resolutions. You can make your plans for 2025. But if there’s anything to be learned from the magi and the Holy Family, it is that the Christian journey is full of surprises; some good, some not so good. But God is good, and if you are willing to walk the pathways of obedience along the new roads God opens up to you, you will never be the same again. 

There’s a prayer titled “The Call of Abraham” which was written by Eric Milner-White, dean of the chapel at King’s College, Cambridge and published in 1941 during World War 2. As you might imagine, those who prayed it were facing the scariest days of their lives. Still, they prayed these words:

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grant this, O Lord, unto us all. Amen.