{"id":58493,"date":"2022-01-06T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=58493"},"modified":"2022-01-02T18:18:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:18:22","slug":"adam-and-the-magi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/01\/adam-and-the-magi\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam and the Magi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happy Epiphany<\/a>, the day in the church year that commemorates the coming of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus!\u00a0 This day, January 6, has been called \u201cthe Christmas of the Gentiles<\/a>\u201d and is a major celebration in some countries.\u00a0 (Among other things, it is the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, so it\u2019s when the Christmas decorations are taken down.)<\/p>\n

The word is both a theological and a literary term<\/a> meaning revelation, manifestation, or recognition.\u00a0 The season of Epiphany follows on subsequent Sundays with other \u201cepiphanies\u201d of Jesus; that is, times when He was revealed and recognized as the Son of God:\u00a0 His baptism; His first miracle at the wedding of Cana; then other events in the life of Christ; culminating in the Transfiguration.\u00a0 The Epiphany season leads right up to Lent.<\/p>\n

\n

Read what Luther has to say about Epiphany from a sermon I blogged about<\/a> a few years ago, which includes reflections on the Bible story, the necessity of the Word of God, and vocation.<\/p>\n

The text about the visitation of the Wise Men, Matthew 2:1-12, is very rich, as Luther shows.\u00a0 I am still learning from it.\u00a0 Last Sunday, Pastor Moerbe pointed out a curious fact.\u00a0 When the Magi came in search of the newly born King of the Jews whose star they had seen in the East, they went to King Herod, who sensibly consulted the \u201cchief priests and scribes,\u201d who sensibly consulted the Bible.\u00a0 And those Bible scholars of the day found the correct answer:<\/p>\n

Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.<\/span> \u00a0They told him, \u201cIn Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;<\/span><\/span>
\nfor from you shall come a ruler<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>who will shepherd my people Israel.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 2:4-6)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Magi followed this Scriptural truth and found the Christ child.\u00a0 Herod even followed this Scriptural truth, though in wickedness, sending his troops to murder all Bethlehem children under two years old.\u00a0 The one group mentioned in the account that did not<\/em> go to Bethlehem to seek the promised Messiah was the Bible scholars!\u00a0 The chief priests and scribes knew with great accuracy what the Bible taught, and yet they did not seek Christ, whether in hostility or in worship, and so their scriptural knowledge was in vain.<\/p>\n

I also benefited from a post<\/a> at Anxious Bench by Baylor historian Philip Jenkins.\u00a0 He wrote about a series of legends that grew up around the Magi.\u00a0 He alerted me to a 4th or 5th century text from the Syriac-speaking Eastern church called The Book of the Cave of Treasures<\/a>.\u00a0 It says that Adam, after his Fall, brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the mountain of Paradise and hid them in what would be called \u201cThe Cave of Treasures.\u201d\u00a0 Before his death, Adam instructed his son Seth to see that the treasures would be offerings to God, when He comes into the world to die and rise again \u201cfor all children of Adam.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Thousands of years later, this is what the Magi did, giving Adam\u2019s treasure as an offering to the incarnate God.<\/p>\n

The Book of the Cave of Treasures<\/em> also says that Adam was buried beneath a mountain outside what would become the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 A tree would grow from that grave and be made into a cross.\u00a0 The mountain would be called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, and the skull beneath its surface was Adam\u2019s.<\/p>\n

And when the Wood [the cross] was fixed upon it, and Christ was smitten with the spear, and blood and water flowed down from His side, they ran down into the mouth of Adam, and they became a baptism to him, and he was baptized.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The point of The Book of the Cave of Treasures<\/em> is not to recount what actually happened, as if it were a historical text.\u00a0 Rather, it is an imaginative meditation on the meaning of Christ\u2019s coming to redeem all of us fallen children of Adam.\u00a0 It shows the connections between the Fall and the Redemption, Christmas and Easter, Adam and Jesus.<\/p>\n

The book may not be true in its facts, but it is true in its meaning:\u00a0 We offer to Jesus all of our human treasures.\u00a0 The human race is baptized in Jesus\u2019s blood.\u00a0 This is the significance of Epiphany.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 \u201cAdoration of the Magi,\u201d by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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