Epiphany Carols
The visit of the Magi is a strange episode. It doesn’t help that they’re variously referred to as kings, wise-men and magi – The most obvious word to use would be magicians – The Greek is magos – the same root as magic. From the story we know only that they were star-gazers and took dreams seriously, and they were wealthy; It is a lucky boy who gets gold from his surprise godparents.
The story is only in Matthew – which means only he had heard it, or thought it worth including. This is kind of surprising. Matthew is the most Jewish of the Gospels; It’s Matthew that records Jesus saying not one iota of the Law will be removed; And consistently draws parallels between Moses and Jesus – When the kings leave, Herod kills all the little boys like Pharoah did; Jesus then escapes to Egypt, echoing Moses’ upbringing; And most of Jesus’ teaching occurs in the Sermon on the Mount, the parallel of Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments. Jesus brings the New Law, the New Commandment – the universal message to love God and your neighbour.
The Hebrew Bible doesn’t have any time for magic – it’s frequently prohibited and in the law, punishable by death. So why does Matthew have these ancient Russel Grants, at the outset of his Gospel?
The episode is really emblematic of a movement throughout the Gospel from the people of Israel to a universal Gospel. While the prophets always came to restore the people of Israel to a right relationship with God, in Christ this message of restoration becomes Good News to all people. So if there is a parallel in Luke, it’s the Candlemas Gospel of Simeon holding the baby and proclaiming him The Messiah – that is the anointed one, the king – Who is now a light to lighten the Gentiles, that is the nations of the world. And as the light to the nations, he is discoverable, as the magi show, and through nature and reason they are led to proclaim him king.
Christ as the universal, discoverable revelation of God has captured the imagination of artists and poets. Auden in his poem speaks of the star as the light that drew magi but still draws our seeking – As Augustine famously wrote – our hearts are restless until they rest in thee – And this desire for understanding comes from God, drawing the wise. This path of discovery, for Auden, is uncomfortable, costly; Those ‘three old sinners’ miss their dinners, wives, books and dogs – But their passion to find wisdom leads them onwards.
TS Eliot’s earlier poem rings a similar note – missing the ‘silken girls bringing sherbet’, Hearing ‘the voices singing in our ears, saying/ That this was all folly’. The voices of easy living and materialism persist in pulling magi, and all who seek answers, away from their journey. The wisdom they seek, that the Magi find, Eliot puts down to a discovery of life and death. We all, of course, know life and death. But in finding Christ the magi understand them differently. Discovering the birth of Christ is the comprehension of our need for redemption, And the miracle of an infant Lord ‘stranded/ Immensely in distance’; It’s followed by the discovery of his death – foreseen in the magic of these strangers and their gifts – which is the redemption we seek.
The art of magic may have been replaced by science, music, poetry and the arts. Perhaps there are still ways in which these in their various charms can speak to our hearts. Reason alone is unlikely to stir us to restless exploration or to fulfil the empty spaces of our hearts. But wonder and curiosity lead in the direction of truth, beauty and goodness, which are shades of the divine. Let us then follow the magi, as they follow their star, and pray that, whatever the wilderness, the awful weather, the night, it leads us to Christ.