January 5, 2025, Sunday of the Epiphany
“What It Means to be Wise”
Psalm 72:1-15; Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
Divine Service III with Holy Communion
Hymns: #395 “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”; #400 “Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning”; #397 “As with Gladness Men of Old”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
It’s Epiphany Sunday today in God’s Church. An “epiphany” is a revelation, a revealing, an ‘aha!’ moment, a making known of something that’s never been seen before. Epiphany marks the day when the Magi, the “wise men from the east,” came to see Jesus, the newborn King, and laid their gifts down at His feet.
Why do we call the wise men “wise?” What is “wisdom?” What does it mean to be wise? The Greek word for wisdom is sophia, a word that means “to have insight, skill, or intelligence” – a good thing! The Bible is clear, though, that there are two kinds of wisdom. There’s worldly wisdom, human wisdom, the wisdom of the world; and then there’s the wisdom of God - divine wisdom, spiritual wisdom, heavenly wisdom, the wisdom that comes down to us from above.
The wisdom of the world, human wisdom, is a useful thing. It’s good that we’re able to “do stuff” - to think, to imagine, to have ideas, to make plans and put them into action; to build things, create things, and profit from them. The sciences, philosophy, and engineering are part of human wisdom, as are law, politics, and government. It takes basic human wisdom to build a life, make a living, and achieve some measure of success. Hopefully we get wiser as we age, and as our years go on.
The trouble with human wisdom, though, is that it’s tainted by sin. It’s tempered by greed, selfishness, and blind ambition. Human wisdom went wrong way back in the Garden of Eden: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Human wisdom is often flawed (we’re only human!). It’s changeable, as times change and society changes. (How different does human wisdom appear now than it did 100 years ago?) Human wisdom is at best incomplete. (“Thick darkness is over the peoples,” Isaiah says.) Human wisdom is often undefinable; what’s wisdom to one is foolishness to another. In the end, it’s unreliable, sometimes dangerous, and often disastrous. (“Follow your heart” sounds nice, but it’s terrible advice!)
But, thanks be to God, human wisdom isn’t the end of all wisdom, or the only wisdom there is. As opposed to human wisdom, and far above human wisdom, is the wisdom of God. “The manifold wisdom of God,” St. Paul calls it. Manifold means multifaceted, like a diamond. God’s wisdom is a wisdom far greater than ours. It’s the wisdom of the eternal Creator, vs. the puny wisdom of we whom He created. It’s “the wisdom that comes from above, from the Father of the heavenly lights.” It’s the Spirit of Wisdom, the Holy Spirit. It’s wisdom that comes to us by the marvelous grace of God, “a mystery made known only by divine revelation,” St. Paul says.
God in His wisdom and mercy has called us to put all human wisdom aside. St. Paul put it far better than I; listen to what he says in 1st Corinthians 1:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
All the years we humans have been trying to fix things for ourselves; to change and rearrange the world, to shape and mold the world in the image we think best, while we argue and fight amongst ourselves about which way is best. And our hopes and dreams – our League of Nations and United Nations and New World Orders and empires – always end up in disaster, as kingdoms rise and fall. When the answer all along has been for we humans to turn our eyes off our own foolish plans and dreams (think Tower of Babel) and turn our eyes and our hearts to the manifold wisdom of God, and to the unsearchable riches to be found in knowing Christ and listening to Him.
Christ’s intent, says St. Paul in Ephesians – His purpose, His reason for coming to this world as an infant, and for dying on a cross for our sins - was to make the love of heaven’s God known to everyone. For that purpose and reason Jesus, through His apostles, established a holy Church on this earth. It’s through God’s Church that the manifold, holy, living wisdom of God was, and still is, available and made known. We’re the clay jar that hold the precious treasure. We’re the keepers of the fire, the Light that shines in the dark. We’re the guardians and distributors of God’s holy Sacraments. We’re the ones who still hold the Bible to be faithful and true, the ones who still open God’s Word and read it, and proclaim it as a Light to a broken world stumbling along in the dark. We’re the ones who’ve been given the blessed assignment of pointing the world to wisdom that has real hope in it, wisdom that’s true and effective and lasting and real.
All the wisdom in the world won’t help you if you’re living apart from Christ. All your plans, all your dreams, all your hopes and schemes, are useless without the love and knowledge of your Savior. But, says Paul, “In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” What’s required of us is humility. What we all must do is put aside any trust we may have in our own wisdom, our own abilities, our own knowledge, our own education, our own human pride, and bend our knees in repentance, and confess our arrogance and sin, and trust in God alone. Not easy, to be sure, proud of our own achievements and efforts as we tend to be; but necessary if we’re going to be saved.
The Magi in our Gospel reading, the ones we know as Wise Men - who were they, and where did they get their wisdom? The Magi, who came most likely from ancient Persia, were a class of astrologers and scholars known for their ability to read the stars and predict and interpret significant events. They weren’t kings, but they were advisors to them; every king needed wise men in his court.
The Magi had worldly wisdom. They were literate, they were intelligent, they had knowledge most ordinary people didn’t. They were held in high regard; they had the ears of kings. They were the intelligentsia of their day, the educated class. And yet, somehow, they also knew the wisdom of God. They were searching the stars for a sign that a Savior – a Hebrew Savior, a Jewish Savior, a King of the Jews! - had been born. How did they know? Where had they heard such a thing?
I believe the answer can be found in the Book of Daniel, back in the Old Testament. Prophet Daniel, as a young man, had been taken into exile when Babylon conquered Jerusalem. By the end of the story, Daniel, because of his wisdom, had been promoted to “chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners” – the Magi – in all Babylon. Daniel was a man of God, faithful to God’s Word and faithful in prayer (lion’s den and all!) I believe it was Daniel who planted the seed of faith in that place, and taught the Magi, from the Hebrew Scriptures and prophecies, the signs they should look for. And those who knew and were taught by Daniel passed his knowledge and wisdom along, generation to generation, for over 600 years. And then at last the star – the star of promise, the Christmas star – appeared in the sky on the night that the Christ was born.
The Magi were respected and important men in their world. They had respect and wealth and influence – worldly wisdom and worldly success; yet they left their homes to look for something greater and better and holier than themselves. It’s hard to say how long it took them to gather their goods and put their caravan together, or how long the journey took. Two or three months? Six months? A year or more? And their knowledge of where to find the One they were looking for seems to have been incomplete; their journey seems to have been a journey taken largely on faith. They knew a King of the Jews had been born, but they didn’t know exactly where. If they had known, they’d have gone directly to Bethlehem to worship Him, instead of to Jerusalem to ask for directions.
King Herod had worldly wisdom, too, as kings do; but his wisdom was of the twisted and awful kind. His wisdom was selfish wisdom, self-concerned wisdom, wisdom that seeks wealth and influence and power. The wise men saw that a Savior had been born and came to worship Him; all Herod saw was a rival for his throne. The contrast between worldly wisdom and God’s wisdom couldn’t be clearer.
King Herod called for the chief priests and scribes to ask where the Christ was to be born; they were the ones who would know. And they pointed right to God’s Word in Micah 5: "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 be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
That was wonderful news for the wise men, as it told them where to go to find Him; but it also told Herod, where to go to murder Him. Herod told the wise men that lie about wanting to worship Him, too. And the wise men went on their way, to go and ask in Bethlehem where the Savior could be found.
And then the star appeared to them – the star of wonder, star of might, star of royal beauty bright - the same star they’d seen in the east, says the Gospel. But the star hadn’t been there for them all the way to Bethlehem. If it had, again, they’d have gone right to Bethlehem. They’d seen it the night the Savior was born, and then made their way to Jerusalem by human wisdom. (They knew where Jerusalem was!) And now the holy star reappeared to them, to their everlasting joy, and at just the right time; not a star they found by human wisdom, but a star given to them by God’s wonderful grace, a star that pointed them – pointed them! – to the exact house where the holy family was staying.
They came to the house, and there was the holy Child – Jesus our Lord – with His mother Mary. The wise men didn’t present their credentials. They didn’t announce their presence with pomp and circumstance and trumpets. They didn’t demand to be honored, or hang on to an ounce of their human pride. They only bowed down and worshiped Him. Big men, important men, rich men, down on their knees to worship a Child. They brought Him gifts, expensive gifts, gifts worth more than anything Mary and Joseph had seen in their lives. What can we give to God, after all, worth more than what He’s given to us? Then the Magi went home to tell the Good News, by a safer route than God had shown them; and Herod, enraged, put his terrible plan into motion.
What does it mean to be wise? How can we become wise in a way that truly matters? Do what you can to make your place in this world, with all the ability, strength, and talent God has given you. Use all the worldly wisdom you may possess to care for yourself and your loved ones. But whatever you do, do it while bending your knees to God. St. Paul says in Col. 3: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Seek His Word, seek His face, seek His light, seek His Spirit. Look for the wisdom the world can’t give. Come to worship! Come to the Sacrament! Bring your families, bring your children, invite your friends and neighbors to come to know the grace you won’t find anywhere else. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Lord, teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. In Jesus’ name; Amen.