Do You Believe in Magi?

Today is the feast of the Epiphany. This is, in the Roman Catholic Church, the last day of Christmas. After today, most people take down the Christmas decorations. The tree is now down and the lights all packed until next year. Today’s feast celebrates the arrival of the wise men who came from the east following that star in the sky to a cave in Bethlehem. The word epiphany comes from the Greek word, epiphaneia, which means to appear, or to show. In English, we give the word three meanings. It is, first, of course, this feast day of the Church (since that’s how the word came into the language). Secondly, it means the appearance of any divine being, Siddartha, the Buddha, for example, or Mohammed. And third, it can either mean the sudden manifestation of the meaning or essence of something, or the comprehension or perception of reality.

Our lives are filled with epiphanies. There is that epiphany when you figure out that you’re not a kid anymore and have to be responsible for certain things, and that nobody is going to come to your rescue anymore if you fuck up. For some people, there is that epiphany when you find that person who is perfect for you. You just know it. There is even that epiphany when you are a child and you figure out just what two plus two actually means. For some of us, there is the epiphany when you figure out that the world does NOT revolve around you.

Once, I had an epiphany on the banjo. I was trying to learn how to frail. That is a technique with the right hand, the strumming-picking hand. In the technique of frailing, you take the back of the fingernail of the index finger or middle finger, and strike a string with a downward stroke. Then you do this again. Then you pluck the fifth string with the thumb. So it goes down-down-thumb. You do this over and over. But I just couldn’t get the rhythm, which should be a sort of bum-titty, bum-titty, sort of rhythm. I practiced and practiced, but I just couldn’t feel it. Then one day, it just sort of came out. When it did, it surprised me, too. And after it came out, it was easy. I had gotten it. I had my epiphany.

According to the bible story, these “magi” (from which we get the word, magic_), these wise men, came from the east. They had been following a star, according to the text. But we most likely take the wrong meaning from that. It is most likely that they weren’t following an actual star in the sky. These guys were most likely astrologers from Babylon. They had, no doubt been studying their charts and determined that some propitious event was about to occur. They had, according to the story, determined that a new ruler was about to be born somewhere in the west. Naturally, the first thing they did was to go to King Herod and give him news of their mission and ask where this new child was. And seeing how Herod was already king and all, and that HIS son was supposed to be the next king, this caused him some alarm. So he asked all the priests and scribes where the messiah was supposed to be born, and they said Bethlehem. They quoted to him that prophecy I gave you from Micah a couple of weeks ago. Now Herod, being a big believer in the stars (as every ruler was in those days. I won’t remind you of my anti-astrology blog from last year), and being no idiot and rather tricky, tells the astrologers from the east to look in Bethlehem and to please very much come back and let him know when they find this king because he wants to do him homage also. But they didn’t call these guys wise men for nothing. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that you can’t trust a politician, so after finding the baby Jesus, they went home by a different way.

According to the story, they left three gifts for the child. And these three gifts are almost certainly symbolic items. They left gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold is symbolic of the world’s riches to which the messiah can lay claim when he claims his rulership. The frankincense was the holy incense to burn before a deity. And the Myrrh was the ointment for his eventual burial.

Matthew is the only gospel that mentions these magi. It is important to know that Matthew’s gospel was written to the Jews. Its purpose was to convince people coming out of the Jewish tradition that this guy who had been hung up on a cross was their long awaited messiah. Putting these guys in the story certainly adds a little credence to the story as a selling point if you happen to live back in first century Palestine. But as always, you can’t look at the past through the eyes of today. This book never pretended to be a factual account of the life of Jesus, and nobody expected it to be one back in those days. We have a different way of thinking of these stories today. It was common to embellish stories two thousand years ago. To those people, it wasn’t the facts of the story that mattered, it was the truth of it.

And while the facts might not be as written in the gospel, the story still tells the truth. Because at some point all of us, whether now, or later, begin to look for some meaning in the universe. And we all look for signs, for pointers on the way. And all of us find some sort of star, something that guides us toward that truth, that truth for us, which isn’t true for anybody else. For some of us, that’s a book. For others, it’s a teacher. For others of us, it’s some kind of activity. It isn’t always a religion, or a philosophy. But it’s out there waiting for us to find it.

But, in order to find that truth, you have to go out looking for it. Look at those guys from the east. They had to travel a long and dangerous journey to find their king. They followed that star a long way. The king didn’t come to them. So to find that truth, you have to go out there and look for it. And then, when you do find it, you will have your own epiphany, and you’ll know. Just remember that the truth you find is YOUR truth. It isn’t everybody’s truth. It belongs to you. You own it. It wouldn’t be the truth for anybody else. So it’s no good pushing it on them. They have to find their own truth. They have their own star to follow.

Another important truth in the story is that when you find the truth, it’s going to cost you. It might be certain friendships, or it might be your lifestyle. It might cost even more than that; it may cost you your pride. Sometimes that’s a price that some people just can’t bring themselves to pay. It seems to be one of those truths of the universe that you cannot gain anything without losing something. That’s the yin and yang of it.

Some epiphanies come at you slowly; others hit you in the face. Some you acquire with years. Thank God for epiphanies. Discovering new things sort of makes life worth living. We have these wonderful brains and the ability to figure things out. We have this amazing curiosity about things. We want to know. At least most of us do. So, somehow it seems fitting we have this Feast of the Epiphany. It is a celebration of finding the Christ child to be sure. It is understanding that every child could be that hope for humankind. And when we find that Christ child in each person around us, recognizing that each person truly is a child of God; that’s an epiphany, too. And when we do figure out that little tidbit, then we can rebuild this world into a new kind of garden, a new kind of paradise. Until then we will just have to wait for each person to have that epiphany of his or her own. In the meantime, it’s a good reason to celebrate. And any reason to celebrate life is a good reason. Happy Epiphany everybody!