Fr Leonard W Doolan – Athens
In this first sermon of 2021 we begin with a question. I will offer four responses to the question, but these are personal responses, so others may offer different responses. However before we do this, we have to know the question.
Why is it that only St. Matthew tells the story of the arrival of the Magi, the wise men, to worship at the Christ manger?
The first response is a pragmatic one, but we need to say it, even if we don’t expand too much on it. From the academic discoveries of biblical criticism we know that the 3 gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are similar. This is why we call them the ‘syn-optic gospels’. The 4th gospel, that of St. John, is excluded for these purposes.
The material included in St. Mark’s gospel constitutes the ‘core’ material for all three synoptics. However, St. Luke has additional material distinctive to himself, as does St. Matthew. This choice of material stresses their own ‘take’ on divine events. For our purposes it is enough to say that both Matthew and Luke add their own tradition of stories, especially around the infancy of Jesus, and again after the resurrection. So this is a purely pragmatic first response.
The second is that Matthew introduces us early in his gospel to the ruling family of Judea, who will persistently be seen as opponents of Jesus and the kingdom he came to preach and fulfil. The story of the Sages’ journey gives an account of a stopping place chez Herod. This is Herod the Great, the murderous Herod. We are told of his shocking reaction to the news that a ‘king’ had been born in Bethlehem of Judea – namely the slaughter of the holy Innocents, whom we commemorate a couple of days after Christmas Day. The Orthodox give the specific number as 14,000. It is one of Herod’s sons, King Herod Antipas who will later be the adulterous king, denounced by John the Baptizer, and who will have John beheaded. At the time of the trial of Jesus before his death, St. Luke and only St. Luke, tells of Jesus being put before this Herod (but that is outside St. Matthew’s account so we must move swiftly on). This royal household of Herods is not a family to be messed with, and represent a kingliness entirely of this earth.
The 3rd response I offer to the question about Matthew’s unique inclusion of this story lies at the very end of his gospel. The beginning is in the end, so to speak. 27 chapters after the story of the Journey of the Magi, Matthew completes his gospel with a scene of a gathering on a mountain in Galilee. Despite the doubt of a few, his disciples worshipped the risen Jesus. This is the same word in Greek to describe what those Magi did when they presented their gifts – they worshipped him. Jesus with his disciples gathered around him on the Galilean mountain gives what we call ‘The Great Commission’. He instructs his followers saying ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.’ (Matt. 28, 19)
This commission to go out to the nations – an inclusive and embracing apostolic mission – is a universality that is already shown by Matthew at the beginning of his gospel, with the journey of the Wise Men. These are not of the house of Israel; they are not of the faith of Abraham, Jakob and Isaac, but gentiles, foreigners, and even worse than that, they were astrologers because they interpret events through the movements of the firmament.
READ MORE
