Epiphany 2021

It has been quite a week for the United States of America, this first week of 2021.  So many of us were hoping that getting past 2020 would mean that life would get better.

For Christians in the West January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, a celebration of the arrival of the Three Wise Men at the scene of the birth of Jesus.  According to the Gospel of Matthew, these men came from far away, led by the light of a star.  In their efforts to reach the child they consulted with Herod, the Roman client king of Judea, who upon hearing of a potential rival ordered every male Jewish child under the age of two to be slaughtered.

Tradition has turned the wise men into kings, splendid and powerful men from the East, in contrast to the humble Hebrew shepherds who likewise come to reverence the infant Jesus. This interpretation presents Christians with three examples of kingship: the three kings who humble themselves before Jesus, Herod who turns to violence rather than permit a poor Jew to grow to adulthood, and Jesus himself, no more than two years old when the wise men arrive, living in the humblest of circumstances.

Which of these three models are Christians invited to follow?  Perhaps the simplicity and humility of Christ himself, and if not, then at the very least, the wise ones who recognize the presence of God in a small child.  Clearly, though, Herod is no hero in this story.  His obsessive grip on power led him to flout the morals of the people he was supposed to govern, inflict oppression and suffering among the poor and marginalized, and order the reckless slaughter of innocent children simply to shore up his own ego.

How, then, could there have been self-proclaimed evangelical Christians among the mob that stormed the Capitol building - on the Feast of the Epiphany - in support of a leader easily the equal of Herod in craven corruption and disregard for life?  I cannot answer that question, but the depth of the irony of the date of that heinous attack must be recognized by American Christians of every denomination. 

We can and we must be better than this.  Our loyalty must be to the Christ who is the help of the poor in every land, who protects children and welcomes women and extends membership in his own body to any who wish to come to him.  In the season of the Christian year in which we look at true kingship, we must ask more of ourselves and our leaders than we have in a long time.