FINDING THE CHRIST CHILD

A MESSAGE FOR THE FEASTS OF EPIPHANY AND HOLY FAMILY

Wise men came from the East to worship at the child-bearing of the Virgin.  These wise men, or Magi, were the first-fruits of the Gentile Church.  Today, we are perhaps the final harvest of that Church.  They followed a star, while we follow the voice of the Apostles and their true successors.  The message is the same, it is the proclamation of the coming of a Saviour, a message from heaven declaring the glory of God.

When Christ lay in the manger, he drew to himself Wise Men from the East.  While he was unknown in the stable, he was made known in the heavens; so that, being recognized in the heavens, he was made manifest in the stable.  Hence it is that this day is named from the Greek tongue: Epiphany: which is, being interpreted: Manifestation: for he is manifested both in greatness and in lowliness.  His greatness was attested by starry signs in the open heavens; yet, being sought on earth, he was so lowly that he was found in a narrow lodging.  For there was no room for him at the inn, and so instead he was born in the frame of a little Child, bound in swaddling-clothes.  Nonetheless, he was the object of worship to the Wise Men and of terror to the godless.

For King Herod feared when those same Wise Men gave him information concerning the Child that they were seeking, and of whose birth they already knew by the witness of a star.  This little Christ Child struck terror into a mighty king.  How much wiser would be our present kings and world leaders today, if they would only seek Christ like the Wise Men, to worship him, rather than those who seek him, like Herod, to slay him.  Our leaders today mostly follow Herod, foolishly seeking to put Christ to that same death, which he came to suffer from his enemies for their salvation; and who, by his death, has destroyed death!  Kings will do well to fear him who now is seated at the right hand of the Father, and whom Herod feared when he was still a tiny Infant.

Herod tried to trick the Wise Men, claiming he would come and worship the newborn King: but in reality he intended to put him to death when he found him.  But God’s power and might is far superior to the wiles and trickery of his creatures.  And so it came to pass that Herod could not find Jesus when he sought him.  Thus it is with hypocrites who, seeking the Lord in pretence, find him not.

Contrast the genuine fear of God, the terrible sorrow of Mary and Joseph, as they later sought the Christ Child when he remained behind in Jerusalem, unknown to them.  Unlike the hypocritical seeking of Herod, they sought their Son with prayer and suffering.  And after three days, returning to the temple of Jerusalem, they found him.  The message is clear in this comparison:  we must seek Christ with love and for no other motive.