Gospel
Commentary - The magi and Herod
January 5,
2025
Matthew
2:1-12
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The
Epiphany of the Lord is a feast about the manifestation of
Christ to the
nations.
His
sacred humanity, which was once hidden in his mother’s womb,
became manifest at
his birth. And
today, we celebrate the
way in which he is now
made manifest to all, even the Gentiles, represented by the magi
who came from
afar to pay him homage.
Today’s
Gospel also manifests a stark contrast between those magi and
King Harod. When
Christ is made manifest, so too are
various human responses to Christ made manifest.
One
notable difference is the deception and secrecy of Herod versus
the sincerity
of the magi. The
wise men arrive in
Jerusalem and ask openly, “Where is the newborn king of the
Jews?” They explain
to anyone who will listen and
help them find this king, “We saw his star at its rising and
have come to do
him homage.” Herod,
on the other hand,
plots in secret. He
“called the magi
secretly” to obtain from them what information he could. He is not sincere. He hides in the
darkness and deceives others,
making evil schemes while desiring to appear good.
With
this comes a second difference: the motives of each for wanting
to find the
Christ child. The
magi want to find
Jesus and to prostrate themselves before him, adore him, give
him gifts. King
Herod, on the other hand, wants to kill
him. The former
recognize him as someone
greater than themselves, and this leads them to want to pay him
homage. The
latter sees him as a threat to be eliminated.
If this newborn is a king, Herod thinks, then he could be
a rival to
Herod’s own power. There
is no
consideration of right and wrong.
Herod is
only concerned with maintaining his own life of comfort and
power by any means
necessary.
The
magi and Herod also have different notions of serving and being
served. The magi
desire to serve the newborn king,
the King of kings, and they lay down their gifts before him. Herod, in stark
contrast, thinks the whole
world revolves around him and exists to serve him. Notice the way he
treats the magi, guests from
a foreign land who are not his lawful subjects.
He gives them orders, expecting them to act as his
servants, pawns in
his evil scheme. The
Gospel tells us,
“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.’”
One
last difference is that Herod even uses the Sacred Scriptures
merely as an
instrument for his evil plot.
He even
wants the word of God to serve him
and
his designs. The
only reason he consults
the chief priests and scribes about the prophecies of Scripture
is to use that
prophecy to find his target.
The magi do
not make holy writ a mere instrument for their own desires. Rather, they subject
themselves to the truth
that it contains. They
are willing to
follow the God of Israel, whom they hardly know. They trust him and his
word. They desire
to adore the king foretold in
this prophecy.
On
the feast of the manifestation of Christ to the nations, these
two very
different human responses to Christ are put on display before
our eyes. To what
extent do we see something of the
magi in us, and to extend do we see something of Herod? Do we live by
sincerity or by deception?
Do we consider right and wrong in our
decisions, or do we seek to maintain our comfort and control at
all costs? Are we
servants of Christ and of the truth,
or do we expect everyone and everything around us to serve our
own
machinations? Do we
expect even God to
be a mere instrument for our use, or do we trust in him to use
us in his greater
plan?