Epiphany | “We keep seeking”

PRINT GUIDE HERE
focal scriptures Matthew 2:1-12 | Matthew 2:13-23
theme connections
The Magi were seekers. They sought wisdom, they sought the divine, they sought fortunes to tell the future. Their seeking leads them to Jesus, the newborn king of another culture and religion. And yet, their seeking is also what protects them from Herod’s deception and harm. After the Magi go home by another way, Joseph is visited again by an angel in his dream. This time, the angel brings a warning, and like before, Joseph heeds the message. Fleeing from Herod’s massacre, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus seek refuge in Egypt; they remain there, living as immigrants, until Herod dies. Like the Magi, may we seek the divine and be willing to journey closer to God. Like the Holy Family, may we seek safety for all families who are under threat. This new year and every year to come, let us keep seeking— wisdom, justice, and a better world.

Commentary on Matthew 2:1-23 | by Dr. Christine J. Hong
A better world for all means to enter deep solidarity and accountability with one another. In the decade after the Korean War ceasefire, my grandparents and my parents would tell me about the many ways neighbors helped one another survive. In fact, when I was growing up, I had great aunts and great uncles whom I later learned were not biologically related to me. They were neighbors who raised children together, cooked together, lived together at times, and became one another’s adoptive families in the wake of the loss everyone experienced when one Korea suddenly became two.

When my parents became immigrants in the United States, their experience of being welcomed by the Korean American community was what grounded them during a bewildering and tumultuous time. In the Korean American church, they sustained life together, preserving culture and language for their children, and processing the many ways racism affected their lives. For them, in the Korean American church there were no strangers, only extended family.

When we consider Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ story as refugees, fleeing from an enraged despot, I wonder about the people who came alongside them. We know the example of the Magi, who protected the Holy Family by going home another way. Yet, surely, there were others too. People who helped the new parents and their child hide along the way to Egypt. Neighbors who helped settle the small family in a new country, among a new people. Friends who helped them learn a new language, and new ways of life. Jesus probably had many aunts and uncles who were not his blood relations but were family all the same. I give thanks for all my great aunts and great uncles via war and displacement, for all the Korean American church aunts and uncles who raised me, and for the aunts and uncles in Jesus’ life those thousands of years ago. I give thanks for the strangers who became friends and family through solidarity with the Holy Family, wanting a better world, not only for themselves, but for a refugee family too.

Guiding Q’s
• We can only speculate what kind of people the Magi were. Were they royalty? Astrologers? Sorcerers? Alchemists? Philosophers? Were there three or many? Were they all men, or were they an entourage of men and women, aged adults and young adults? Despite the vagueness of their identities, we can learn much from their actions. They observe the star and discern that it is pointing them to the divine. Instead of ignoring it or simply observing it from afar, they decide to make the treacherous and arduous journey closer to Christ. They cross over geographical, political, religious, ethnic, and cultural boundaries to seek out the newborn child. They are filled with joy at the sight of the child and humble themselves before him, bowing and bearing gifts. They listen intuitively to their dreams and evade Herod’s deception, choosing what is perhaps a more difficult journey home by a different route. Look closely at the actions of the Magi. What can we learn from them? What do they teach us about being a seeker, as in, one who persistently seeks the sacred?

• When Herod learns that the Magi are coming to pay homage to Christ, he is deeply troubled, along with the rest of Jerusalem. How do you make sense of this detail in the story? What disturbs Herod about this news? Why is all of Jerusalem troubled as well? Note that the same root word is used in Luke 1:29 to describe Mary’s initial reaction to the angel’s news. Compare and contrast Mary and Herod. While they both may have had initial discomfort, they ultimately respond very differently. Compare their responses and how they each choose to act when God intervenes in their lives.

• Look back at all of the humans involved in the story of Christ’s birth as it unfolds—Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, the shepherds, Herod, the Magi. As God intervenes in their lives (in mysterious and startling ways), what does each person seek? As we begin this new year, what are we seeking?