The Feast of Epiphany

ἐπιφάνεια: a manifestation

Epiphany: January 6

Celebrates the arrival of the Magi to worship the Christ child; Christ being made manifest to the Gentiles.

Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

You notice that the biblical account does not actually state how many Magi there were, nor does it call them "kings." It does specify three gifts. The Bible says they came "from the East." In much traditional art, they are portrayed as being of three different races: African, Asian, and European. There was a time when those were the three known continents, and so they represented all the Gentile peoples having Christ revealed to them, and worshipping him, as foretold in Psalm 47:9:

The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
he is greatly exalted.

Also, Nativity scenes, such as my own, which I love, show everyone--the shepherds and the Magi--at the stable worshipping an infant. But the Bible makes clear that the Magi first saw the star two years before they arrived in Jerusalem (When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi--Matthew 2:16). It also doesn't specify whether the child was in a stable. We don't know if the star appeared two years before the birth of Jesus, so that the Magi arrived soon after his birth and found him as an infant, or if it appeared when he was born and they found him a toddler.

We Three Kings (1863)
John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (1820–1891)

We three kings of Orient are;
bearing gifts we traverse afar,
field and fountain, moor and mountain,
following yonder star.

Refrain:
O star of wonder, star of light,
star with royal beauty bright,
westward leading, still proceeding,
guide us to thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain,
gold I bring to crown him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
over us all to reign.
(Refrain)

Frankincense to offer have I;
incense owns a Deity nigh;
prayer and praising, voices raising,
worshiping God on high.
(Refrain)

Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
(Refrain)

Glorious now behold him arise;
King and God and sacrifice:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
sounds through the earth and skies.
(Refrain)

When I was in high school, at a theater in Syracuse, New York, I saw the best Christmas play ever, called "Butterfingers Angel." I have never seen or heard of that play again, but it had the best grasp of the heart of the Christmas story of any Christmas play I ever saw. And it was funny. Amazing. Anyway, there was a scene where the three actors portraying the Magi start to sing "We Three Kings." The play used Christmas carols throughout to advance the story. When the third guy sings his verse about the myrrh, its bitter perfume, gloom, sorrowing, sighing, the other two stop him and ask, What kind of song is that to sing to a baby? But he says that's how the song goes. I also remember that they had a moment where everyone froze with the spotlight on, and the stage looked just like a Nativity scene. Then the actor portraying Herod declares, Now, Operation: Massacre of the Innocents. Lights go out, people scream. I think that the play ends with Joseph and Mary and the baby on the road to Egypt.

(By the way, yesterday I couldn't access the blog window of blogspot, although I could enter a title. So I posted just a title. That's why that's the way that is.)