Reading 1 IS 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Readings 2 EPH 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel MT 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
On Wednesday, 25th of December, we celebrated the birth of Christ, the Sunday following that, we celebrated the fact that Jesus was born into a family, this affords us the opportunity to reflect on the importance of the family, today is the feast of the Epiphany, I must say that on this feast there is so much to reflect on, but I just want to “trim” my focus.
Today, I shall be reflecting on the different reactions to the good news about Jesus and my attentive focus will be on Herod. There are three principal characters in today’s gospels.
- THE WISE MEN
According to many commentators, these wise men are also astrologers, priests, philosophers and kings from the East. They have been identified in tradition as Melchior, Balthasar and Caspar. These wise men followed the star to look for Jesus, they stopped at nothing to find him, they were never discouraged by the indifference of the Jews who were supposed to be excited about the news, when the wise men saw Jesus they worshipped him and gave him three significant gifts.
They are indeed wise men because only wise people look for Jesus, worship him and offer him their best. They represent a response to Jesus.
- THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES
Herod immediately consulted the chief priests and scribes about the message of the Magi and they were quick to give an answer quoting Micah 5:2
Sadly, they were too indifferent to bother themselves about the event even though they were just six miles away from Jerusalem. They knew the scripture but it did them no good.
This is another reaction to Jesus – indifference. Many people are just indifferent about Jesus, they can’t be bothered about him.
This spirit of the scribes is in our midst today, many are just uninterested in what we say or believe about Jesus, they can tell you “pray for me” but they are not too bothered about drawing close to God.
Interestingly, this spirit is also in some who come to Church, these are people who come to Church but are indifferent to the gospel message, they are unprepared to make any commitment, they know what the church teaches but of what difference is it, they can not just be bothered, their faith does not affect how they live. This is another response- indifference.
- HEROD
I will pay more attention to Herod. Thankfully, through the work of Josephus the historian, we have lots of interesting details about Herod.
Herod became a governor of Galilee in 47BC when he was just 25 years old. In 40BC, the Roman Senate proclaimed him king of the Jews because he was able to maintain peace and stability although through cruel means. The Jews hated this title because Herod was not a Jew by birth or religion.
Herod was a paranoid tyrant, who used power to protect power, cruel, clever, envious, always suspicious and insecure, he could not tolerate those rivalling his power. For him, saving a throne comes before saving his soul.
He killed his wife Mariamne and three of his sons in suspicion of treason, he killed his mother in law, he drowned a high priest, killed several of his uncles and cousins.
Now, at a very old age, after ruling for 41 years, he heard from the magi from the East, the news that a king has been born, he felt threatened, the old demon in him came alive again, he became insanely jealous, no time to rest, one more person to kill, he ordered the killing of all children in Bethlehem from the age of two and below.
Herod has died about 2,000 years ago but his Spirit lives on, his grandchildren are still with us.
His spirit lives in everyone who sees Jesus Christ as a threat and hates to hear anything about him and about his church. These grandchildren of Herod are those St John called the anti-Christ. (1 John 2:18-19).
Every misuse of power, every cruelty, violence, wickedness against the innocent and especially against children is a spirit of Herod.
Finally, the tendency in people to see life as a competition, to be envious, suspicious, to feel threatened by others or unwarranted feeling of being insecure is Herodic spirit. This is a tendency that kills relationship when we begin to see others as threats to our relevance, when the success and excellence of others provoke us to envy when we become unnecessarily suspicious of people, we see them as rivals, we are exhibiting something of Herod, a tendency which destroys our inner peace, rob us of integrity and contradicts completely our identity as children of God created in his image and likeness.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on January 5, 2020