Photo Courtesy of A Peculiar Prophet
Magi Herod
As I write this, it is Epiphany. It is the Christian celebration of the magi from the east arriving to pay homage to the young Jesus. Thus, Jesus is recognized as a divine figure by knowledgeable authorities.
“Epiphany” means a kind of discovery, pushing back a veil and seeing something new and powerful and meaningful. I have heard it literally refers to lifting the top off of a container to see the mysterious contents. This makes me wonder if the word “epiphany” is used in the story of Pandora’s Box.
The magi looked into a mystery because a new, heralding star has appeared. What they found might not have been what they expected. It was just a little boy, a Jewish boy under the rule of Rome, and seemingly of no importance.
What was “behind the curtain” may not have seemed as exciting as the star they’d seen. Perhaps the magi didn’t understand it all, but their faith said that something about the boy’s existence was miraculous, that what they had discovered had yet unimaginable potential.
But did they know whether that potential was for good or evil? Were they certain?
It’s hard to say. They must have leaned in the side of good - hoped what they didn’t understand was part of a whole with the promise of their guiding star. I imagine their entire endeavor was based on the idea “this star could only be the mark of God.”
It was their hope and faith that led them. And they accepted the boy as the embodiment of their hope and faith once they looked behind the curtain.
You know that phrase “look behind the curtain.” It reminds us of The Wizard of Oz. At the end of the story, Dorothy and her friends have returned to the Wizard’s inner sanctum after vanquishing the Wicked Witch. They expect him to provide them what he had promised in exchange for the Witch’s broom.
They stand trembling before the frightening, enlarged, and angry visage of the Wizard. He demands that they go away. Then Toto pulls back a curtain to reveal a timid man working controls like a special effects master.
It’s an epiphany. The curtain is opened and a truth is revealed. The Wizard is all smoke and mirrors, a false front.
He bellows to the foursome, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
But he is no threat any longer. He’s been uncovered.
The epiphany in this case can be viewed as a downward arc. Dorothy and her friends go from believing in a powerful wizard to seeing the a little man who is more scared than they are. What a disappointment!
It’s the opposite arc of the Bible’s epiphany story. The magi go from faith to increased faith, believing that a great king has been revealed to them. There is no disappointment.
Their faith that the star foretold great things had been sustained in Herod’s palace when they heard about the Jewish belief in a coming Messiah. After they worshipped Jesus, their faith was bolstered again when they were given a dream to leave the country quietly.
Behind that curtain was the assurance of safety and freedom, the realization of great hopes, and the renewed hope of more to come.
There are three takeaways here:
First, without faith, anything that is revealed to us is pretty meaningless. If we keep looking for something to believe in, for greater hope behind the curtain, we will at least find something revealed to us. But if we don’t believe, we won’t push forward at all. And nothing new can be found that way.
Faith is the embodiment of hope, and we stay stuck without it.
Second, we do have to be vigilant and careful about what we put our faith in. We should examine what we believe. Believing in God, for instance, is quite different from believing in worldly circumstances or powers.
Dorothy and the gang didn’t know much about the Wizard and accepted him at face value. They inferred greet value in him. But he was a phony. The magi were wise, they had studied and they sought out local knowledge. They looked to put more substance to fill in the gaps of what they believed.
Even faith calls for diligence and awareness. It requires more than mere dreaming.
And third, following our faith can present us with outcomes from joyful to deeply hurtful. So it’s not easy to keep going, to keep looking ahead positively. It’s empowering to know that we will learn and grow in the process of exploring our faith even if we don’t eventually find what we were looking for.
Growth sometimes comes not in the discovery of something outside ourselves, but in uncovering what’s within us. The search itself is a discovery process. That’s what happened with Dorothy and the gang. In the end, their faith was rewarded - just not in the way they had thought.
Sometimes, hope itself is our reward. It’s all around us and we can uncover it again and again if we keep looking.
In the story of Pandora’s Box, every kind of human ill is uncovered when she opens the lid of the box. There is a dark epiphany behind the curtain.
But at the end, the tiny light of hope is revealed. And that discovery makes all the difference.
In The Wizard of Oz, it is revealed that hope was based on falsehood. But that is only the specific hope of the characters. It‘a only the details. Behind the curtain is a ruse, but there is more to be discovered. Hope still exists - and in the end its unimagined power shines through. Dark and light are unveiled together.
As for Jesus, the Epiphany uncovers glorious truth, light without darkness. And all who come to Him are part of the revelation of God’s presence - in it, of it, and living testaments to it. The magi see behind the curtain of mystery and take their leave as bearers of Hope and Light.
Behind every curtain is knowledge, so it’s always worth looking for. Much may be discovered. It’s better to know the truth (even about evil and human ills) than to be ignorant. It is better still to press on seeking good amidst the darkness.
Pandora found only a tiny hope. But what future could there have been without it? Her epiphany was a sobering experience. Still, it led forward.
Dorothy found false hopes and a true one. Her experience led to a brighter new beginning.
The magi experience the Christ, the presence of God. And it was more than a beginning, it changed them. They went off with the touch of God in them and God’s kingdom revealed to them. Their hope expanded into revealing God’s promise – embodying the hope for others.
That’s the difference. Christians don’t just experience Epiphany, we.become it. We push back the curtains we’ve gathered around us to reveal not ourselves but the God in us.
So pay attention. There’s a lot behind the curtain.
We are an Epiphany people.
The Rev. Chris Weitzel of Richmond, Va., is a retired clergy member of the Virginia Annual Conference. He couldn't find a photo of himself he liked, so he asked us to tell you he looks like "Brad Pitt, or Brad Pitt's brother Ralph." This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page.