THE magi, central figures of the Christmas and Epiphany story, are celebrated in other ways at different times amongst the various Christian traditions which comprise God’s Church in Palestine and world wide. The Gospel account doesn’t tell us what number of they were or where they got here from, notwithstanding later Christian traditions which have numbered them as three, given them the names Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, and associated them with the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Matthew doesn’t discover the magi as kings, a practice first attested in writings of the second century. Nor are we told where they went after their visit to Jesus in Bethlehem, apart from presumably returning to their homes by a unique route (Matthew 2.12). We aren’t told where this was, or how their visit to Jesus affected the remaining of their lives.
The mystery that surrounds the magi invites us to reflect on ways through which our encounter with Christ affects us. Irrespective of where we now have come from — our place of residence, our language and cultural background, our citizenship, our social status, our education, our experience in life — we’re confronted with a vulnerable and defenceless infant who’s directly like us and at the identical time in every way different. Do we simply “go home” and proceed our lives as before? Or does our encounter with Jesus mark a big stage, a turning point, in a journey which continues in numerous and unexpected directions through the remaining of our lives?
WHETHER we undertake a physical or spiritual journey to Bethlehem, by whatever means and following whatever route, where will we go from there? Returning to our homes, families, and work doesn’t mean continuing our lives as before, if we now have been modified by our encounter with Jesus. We may not have the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to supply, but God has given us other gifts — not necessarily to go away behind in Bethlehem (though that, too), but to make use of in God’s service wherever our Christian pilgrimage may take us.
Bethlehem — like Jerusalem or Nazareth, and even Medjugorje, Guadaloupe, Lourdes, Compostela or Walsingham, Lindisfarne, Iona, Whithorn or Knock — could also be a big pilgrimage destination, a spot where God has been revealed and experienced particularly ways. But the journey doesn’t end there. The return journey may retrace the physical steps of the outward journey, but it surely will not be the identical. It will not be, or shouldn’t be, simply that journey in reverse, but in a crucial sense an onward journey, to an extra destination.
As Christians, our ultimate destination is God. Pilgrimage is a possibility to experience God in latest ways, not only by visiting significant places, but through encountering other people while doing so — and being modified through that have in order that, as our lives proceed, not only are we enriched, but we’re in a position to glorify God and proclaim the gospel of Christ in renewed ways.
RACHEL died before reaching the tip of her earthly journey, giving birth to Benjamin, the ancestor of Saul, the primary king of Israel, and of Saul who became the apostle Paul. Jacob’s journey continued, and with it God’s purposes. Within the needs of God, Rachel’s descendant Saul became king, but he turned from God and his reign ended ignominiously in defeat and death on the battlefield. God’s purposes continued with others.
The other Saul was a zealous student of the Torah, God’s law contained in scripture, and he sought its fulfilment in his own day. In doing so, he got here to persecute the Christian Church — until he encountered God in unexpected ways while on a journey to Damascus. Saul repented, received baptism, and continued his journey not as an opponent and persecutor, but as an apostle of Christ and his gospel.
His journey continued to many places, where he proclaimed the gospel and established churches, at considerable cost to himself, until Paul glorified God in his death as he had glorified God in his lifetime of arduous work, frequent travel, and intermittent suffering for the gospel of Christ.
RUTH’s journey brought her to Bethlehem, where she became a part of one other family, one other nation, an ancestor of David and, ultimately, of Jesus. She didn’t return to Moab and all that her background represented. God’s purposes were fulfilled in her remaining within the place to which she got here.
Over the centuries, others have come to Bethlehem and stayed: some, pilgrims who’ve formed communities across the place of Christ’s birth; some, refugees who’ve lost their homes and livelihoods and sought shelter where it could be found, struggling to maintain alive the hope that sooner or later they may have the opportunity to return to the homes from which they were driven, and, meanwhile, living within the shadow of the shrine that marks the birth of 1 who left Bethlehem a refugee.
DAVID left Bethlehem to develop into a soldier, a warlord, and ultimately King of Judah and Israel. His journey brought him hardship and peril before he attained power and wealth. It was precisely when he was secure on the throne that he overpassed his dependence on God, his regime became exploitative and repressive, and David’s sin brought calamity not only on himself, but on the people of Israel as a complete.
The security derived from earthly power and wealth could be beguiling, corrupting, and ultimately destructive. Discipleship is dear and continuously brings suffering and danger, when we want to know our dependence on God, and learn to depend on God slightly than our own resources. David was called to repentance by the prophets sent by God. We should be willing each to heed the words spoken to us in God’s name, and in addition to be willing ourselves to talk the reality within the name of God, difficult those in power, and in search of God’s justice on this planet.
ELIJAH passed through Bethlehem as a refugee, in search of food, rest, and shelter, before continuing his flight into the wilderness of Sinai. There, he met God, but, as a substitute of having fun with peace within the divine presence, he was sent back, to fire up revolutions. His mission as God’s prophet wouldn’t end until he had prepared the best way for Elisha to proceed his work. Only then would he be released, however the finality or otherwise of his departure stays an enigma, still felt keenly by observant Jews and resolved for Christians in Jesus’s identification of John the Baptist as Elijah, who was to come back (Matthew 11.14).
Jesus left Bethlehem a toddler refugee, in peril of his life. The throne he attained was the cross, and thorns were his crown. The costly path of suffering, which he experienced as an infant, and consciously followed from his baptism within the Jordan until his crucifixion, led to God’s overcome evil and death.
While God’s victory is assured, we’re, none the less, called to proceed after the instance of Christ, playing our part within the completion of his saving work on this planet, and accepting our share within the suffering that this entails (Colossians 1.24). As we renew our commitment to Christ at Epiphany, a matter we want to ask ourselves is: where does our pilgrimage — our discipleship of Christ — take us? Where will we go, and what’s God calling us to do?
This is an edited extract from Advent in Bethlehem: Reflections on scripture and Bethlehem today by Nicholas Taylor, published by Sacristy Press at £12.99 (Church Times Bookshop £11.69); 978-1-78959-401-0.
