01/04/2026 - Epiphany Sunday, Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
 by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,
 because from you will come one who governs,
 who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

~

The first Sunday of January is often referred to as Epiphany Sunday, the day where many churches celebrate the magi arriving in Bethlehem to see baby Jesus. Normally we just lump this visit in with the rest of the Nativity, specifically the visit of the shepherds. But unlike our nativity sets that we lovingly set out on fireplace mantles or on altars, the magi probably did not come to see Jesus in the stable the night he was born. Most likely this visit took place months, or even up to a year after Jesus was born. It really depends on how far the magi had to travel, and how quickly they were able to get a caravan together after seeing the star. And while Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem, they had been able to find a guest room at this point at least.

So in some traditions, the magi get added to the nativity scene on Epiphany, which is something that my family attempted to do a few times. We had beautiful nativity set hand-carved from olive wood, gifted to us from our family. My dad set it up every year on top of a wooden set of drawers in our living room. But he wouldn’t put Jesus in the manger until Christmas, and the wise men wouldn’t appear until Epiphany. Well, at least he would try to do that, but then I got old enough to have opinions and I did not like having an incomplete nativity in our living room.

And the reason I didn’t is not because I didn’t like how it looked without Jesus or the magi. It was because I wanted to play with them like they were my dolls.

So for many a December when I was little, the nativity set would also include a few Barbies or Polly Pockets at any given moment. I’m honestly not sure why I liked playing with that nativity set so much - maybe it was because it was special and only out for such a short part of the year, that it felt special to be able to play with it. And even though I promised my parents that I would be careful, Baby Jesus definitely has a few scuff marks on him, one of the magi has a few splinters, and there was one year that there was a sheep missing until he was found under the couch.

The nativity set was not in any way meant to be a toy. But throughout my childhood that’s exactly what it was. And in the hectic Christmas season, I think my mom was just happy to get a few minutes of peace whenever I was playing with it.

Over the years as I played with it, I settled on which of the three magi in the scene were carrying which gifts. The one who was kneeling was carrying the gold, because that was the heaviest and he couldn’t hold it for that much longer, while the one meant to stand right behind him was carrying frankincense. Which meant the last one carried the myrrh. These were beautiful gifts meant to honor the newborn baby, ones that carried connotations of royalty and spiritual significance. They were given as an act of worship by people who recognized that this child, Jesus, was someone special, and wanted to honor him with their customs, which was in the giving of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And none of these gifts were cheap - they would’ve been worth more money than Mary and Joseph had ever seen at one time. Joseph is a carpenter, a job that wouldn’t have made him wealthy, although it probably did provide a stable enough living for his growing family. And Mary and Joseph are from Nazareth, one of the poorest towns in Judea. And Judea is poor anyway - any wealth that might’ve been accumulated is being leeched out by the Roman Empire and put into its coffers. So having this much money on hand at one time? It honestly might’ve been more stressful to Mary and Joseph than anything else.

But that wasn’t the only stress on the Holy Family and the magi.

At the beginning of our passage, the magi had been intercepted when they arrived by King Herod, who told them to find Jesus and then tell him where he was. While Herod was king over Judea, he was essentially a puppet king under the Roman Empire. That being said he was still a powerful, wealthy figure, and he had a prophecy ringing in his ears that a king would be born in Bethlehem who would overthrow him.

So when magi from the far east show up looking for that child, almost confirming the prophecy? Well no wonder he tells them to let him know where the child is. He wants to eliminate any chance of that prophecy coming true.

Thankfully the magi know better. We don’t know when they had the dream warning them not to return to Herod, but if it happened early enough, they may have even snuck into Bethlehem so their movements couldn’t be reported back to the king. And when they meet Jesus, they worship him by giving him the gifts they’ve brought, then they leave quickly by a different route than they arrived so that Herod can’t intercept them again and demand to know where Jesus is. Even though they may not fully understand who Jesus is, they know he’s special, and he’s only a little baby. So they do everything they can to protect him, even after only seeing him once for who knows how short of a time.

But even though the Magi foiled Herod’s plan to locate Jesus, Herod doesn’t give up. He sends his soldiers into the streets of all of Judea, not just Bethlehem, in order to find Jesus. And when Mary and Joseph hear about Herod’s plan - again, through a dream that Joseph has - they flee in the middle of the night for Egypt to keep Jesus safe (Matthew 2:13-18).

But traveling that far is no easy task. They need money for food and supplies since they only fled with that they could carry. And once they reached Egypt they needed money to settle and live before Joseph could get work. And they needed it to be in a form that they could easily hide and carry as they travelled. This is not money that a poor carpenter’s family could easily get together.

But thankfully, Mary and Joseph had recently acquired gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they could sell in order to live.

Now, the magi meant for their gifts to be acts of worship, gifts signifying the importance of Jesus.

Maybe they thought that Jesus would wear the gold jewelry as he grew older.

Maybe they thought Mary and Joseph would use the frankincense and myrrh to make their house smell good, or even in their own worship traditions.

They probably didn’t anticipate that their gifts would be sold to fund a long trip so that baby Jesus could grow up in safety in a foreign country. But sometimes things don’t go the way we expect them. Sometimes circumstances change, and the gifts you thought you were going to be able to treasure forever have to be sold off to keep your family alive.

Or, the nativity set you thought was going to sit nicely on top of a cabinet gets a few dents in it from an enthusiastic six-year-old.

But that doesn’t mean that you haven’t honored the gifts, that they haven’t fulfilled their purpose. Their purpose just took on a different form than you were anticipating.

While we’ll never know for sure, I don’t think the magi would’ve been upset if they learned that their gifts had been used to fund Jesus’s safe passage to Egypt. I think they would’ve been glad, maybe even honored, that their gifts had been the reason Jesus’s family could get to safety.

Maybe they felt like they’d been part of fulfilling the prophecies that had led them to travel to Bethlehem in the first place - prophecies of the little child that would grow up to be the king of the Jewish people.

Just a few weeks before Epiphany, on Christmas, like the magi, we gave gifts to our friends and family. We may have been more excited for certain people to get their gifts while others, we were just happy to find something that we’re hoping they like. And we may have an idea of the purpose of those gifts now that we’ve given them. But sometimes we can be surprised by how those gifts can be used. Maybe a journal that you meant to be a diary turns into a sketchbook. Or maybe the laptop you meant to be used for school is used more for creating music rather than note taking.

And of course I’m not just talking about gifts like the ones we gave on Christmas. We all have different gifts and abilities, different things we’re good at. And throughout our lives we may have ideas about how we’re going to use them, or how our friends, family, and children are going to use their talents. But we never quite know what life circumstances will come around that call for us and our loved ones to use our gifts in ways we didn’t anticipate.

Maybe our writing skills aren’t used to write copy for corporations, but instead write notes to remind people that someone cares about them. Or maybe our years of experience balancing the family budget becomes just what a small nonprofit needs. Because sometimes, we realize that maybe our gifts weren’t meant for what we thought they were.

They were meant for so much more.

So when you get a chance, take stock of what gold, frankincense, and myrrh you have. You may think you know what they’re for, but be ready for you to be called to use them in ways you’ve never imagined. And maybe they’ll have an impact far beyond what you could’ve ever dreamed.