Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 5 January 2025.
The Three Magi: Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar, from a late 6th century mosaic at the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy
• First Reading: Isaiah 60: 1-6 (Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. And all of Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense)
• Epistle: Ephesians 3: 1-12 (The grace given to Paul to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ)
• Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12 (The visit of the Magi. Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews?)
They came looking for a new-born king and so went to the palace in the national capital. An easy mistake, especially if they knew nothing about King Herod.
In a move which today would be seen as distinctly odd, the religious people consulted the scriptures and then determined a course of action, sending the visitors to Bethlehem.
And so they arrived. Not at a palace, but neither was it really the stable: more the house where the Holy Family were staying for it was a couple of years since Jesus had been born. Now, He was more a toddler than a baby.
But the sense of kingship still prevailed, and so they worshipped Him and then presented their gifts, and they did so in an interesting order: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
First the gold: a gift for king, a symbol of royal wealth and magnificence. A symbol also of power: the armies at royal command, the courts dispensing royal justice, and the right to issue coin, to regulate credit and trade, and of course to raise and spend revenue.
But presenting these things to Jesus carries a further set of issues. He would later be tempted to avoid going to the cross and instead to rule the world – but under Satan’s authority and using his methods. Jesus never disputed Satan’s claim on the kingdoms of the world – He simply rejected the premise of the temptation altogether.
But a Godly regimen of authority in establishing and maintaining the peace of God, raising and spending taxes rightly, regulating trade justly, applying the law without bias: this is a different set of assumptions, free of the more corrupting impulses to control and manipulate, to deceive and coerce.
The gold of the Magi was indeed a pointer to the time when a fully Godly authority would prevail under the direct and personal management of Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But then there was the frankincense, symbol of priesthood and of worship.
Every regime needs an underlying principle to legitimize itself. For a long time the Divine Right of Kings to rule was accepted and in England was overturned only in 1649. Violently.
But other regimes have also needed their founding principles: nationalism is a ready source of inspiration and control, often drawing on resentment and even hatred of others to support it.
Then there is Communism, Nazism, Fascism, not to mention Capitalism and Socialism, in all its variations.
All have offered some kind of mass appeal and have drawn their authority from it as some kind of mandate in governing.
But in the case of the Kingdom of God, it is founded on the work and person of Jesus Christ, who came with a message of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
This might upset those for whom social control and the liberal dispersal of personal, social, racial or national guilt were their stock in trade.
But Jesus would be proclaiming a new era of life, and life in its abundance. A doctrine of peace with God and reconciled before Him. The opportunity to turn away from dead lives and dead works; dead loyalties and dead ambitions.
In Him was light, and the light was the light of all of humanity.
Finally there was the myrrh.
It is still used today to soothe pain. It is also a pointer to future suffering.
If kingship needed an underlying doctrine to justify its power, then the myrrh was pointing to something much more costly.
The doctrines of Jesus would be underpinned by His self-giving on the cross.
Other rulers normally find others to bear the pain and costs of their rule. Scapegoats, easily identified and yet not normally powerful enough to defend themselves. That makes them useful.
For Jesus, He would be the sacrifice, wholly acceptable in the sight of God. He would bear the cost of His own teaching, and would be both priest and victim.
He was sent, not only to preach the gospel of repentance and forgiveness, but to atone for the rebellion of the whole of humanity, directly and personally.
He always knew where His path was being directed and He followed it, knowingly and willingly. This would be the sacrifice to underpin His priesthood, itself needed to underpin His eventual rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As we reflect on the coming of the Magi, perhaps there are things in which we can make our personal response.
First, how are our wealth and personal giving directed and dedicated?
Second, what is the real principle of faith that supports our lives and our choices, our priorities and relationships?
Third, given the costs that Jesus accepted in bearing the sins of the world, what areas of sacrifice and dedication is He leading us into as we reflect on the coming of the Magi?
