Epiphany, Baptism, Solidarity and Justice
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Season 1, Episode 45: Matthew 2.1-12 & Mark 1.4-11. Lectionary B, Epiphany 1
Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it.
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Season 1, Episode 45: Matthew 2.1-12 & Mark 1.4-11. Lectionary B, Epiphany 1
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Epiphany, Baptism, Solidarity and Justice
Herb Montgomery | January 5, 2024
To listen to this week’s eSight as a podcast episode click here.
“Wherever we are working for justice in our world today, these stories remind us of the biblical witness that we are not alone. The God of the Exodus stories, the Hebrew prophets, and the Jesus of the gospels has always stood in unflinching solidarity with whichever communities and voices throughout the ages have cried out for liberation and justice. And we are with that God too, whenever we are standing in that same solidarity.”
This weekend our readings from the gospels are from Matthew and Mark. Let’s begin with Matthew’s story of the epiphany:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “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 shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:1-12)
The first thing to note is how the author of Matthew appropriates and incorporates a famous Roman mythic event into the narrative of the birth of Jesus to lay the foundation for contrasting Jesus and his kingdom with Caesar and the Pax Romana.
The event that Matthew’s author lifts from Roman storytelling is related to the Julian Star. In July of 44 BCE, a comet appeared in the night sky for seven days. The Romans interpreted it as a sign that the recently assassinated Julius Caesar was divine, and so it came to be known as the Julian Star or the Star of Julius Caesar. Caesar Augustus even put this star on the back of the Roman coins he made to bolster his claim that he was the “son of the Divine Caesar Julius.”
Publius Ovidius Naso wrote in Metamorphoses:
“Then Jupiter, the Father, spoke…”Take up Caesar’s spirit from his murdered corpse, and change it into a star, so that the deified Julius may always look down from his high temple on our Capitol and forum.” He had barely finished, when gentle Venus stood in the midst of the Senate, seen by no one, and took up the newly freed spirit of her Caesar from his body, and preventing it from vanishing into the air, carried it towards the glorious stars. As she carried it, she felt it glow and take fire, and loosed it from her breast: it climbed higher than the moon, and drawing behind it a fiery tail, shone as a star.” (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15:745–842)
Here in Matthew’s birth narrative of Jesus, the author states that another star (comet) appears, not at a caesar’s death as a token of his divinity, but at Jesus’ birth as confirmation of the claim that this child will grow up to be special too.
But those who follow the star are not Romans. They are Rome’s closest enemies: Persians “from the east.” Would their presence be interpreted as Herod conspiring with Rome’s enemies? What did they mean when they said “king,” and how would such talk impact Herod’s standing with Rome if it escalated and was reported back? What is the narrative purpose of Jesus being recognized by Rome’s enemies? What is the narrative purpose of baby Jesus being the victim of attempted murder by Rome’s servant Herod, who was in charge of maintaining the Pax Roman in this region?
There is no stable in Bethlehem in this passage. The Magi find Mary and the baby Jesus at a house in Bethlehem.
Who were these visitors? In The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context, Richard Horsley explains that the Magi were the royal advisers and priests to Eastern Kings (Medes and Persians) (p. 57). This is no story of the personal piety of individual “wise men.” When we understand this story in its historical context, we can see it was filled with political tension, and the Persian characters call our attention back to another ancient liberation figure in Jewish history: Cyrus. First, here are a few verses from Isaiah 44:24-45:25 regarding Cyrus as Jerusalem’s liberator:
“This is what the LORD says—
your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the LORD, . . .
who carries out the words of his servants
and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’
of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’
and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’
who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry,
and I will dry up your streams,’
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,”
and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.’”
“This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor, . . .
I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:
I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
says the LORD Almighty . . .”
What is fascinating to me is that Cyrus has his own birth narrative, too. When Cyrus was born, the Median Magi, royal advisors to Cyrus’ grandfather King Astyages, interpreted the strange dreams Astyages was having to foretell that baby Cyrus would grow up to usurp Astyages’ throne and become a great king and conqueror himself. We know today that King Astyages was the last king of the Median Empire. But at the time, feeling threatened like Herod in our story, Astyages tries to have baby Cyrus killed. The Jerusalem audience for whom Matthew was written would have understood the Persian Cyrus as more than the usurper of the Median throne. He not only became king of the Persian Empire but also liberated the Jewish people and authorized their return from the diaspora to rebuild Jerusalem (see Isaiah 44 and 45 above.)
Here in Matthew, then, as with baby Cyrus of old, Magi from the East show up to recognize Jesus and proclaiming that this baby boy will grow up to be “king” and liberator too.
All of these political details speak of the liberation hopes of the marginalized living under Roman oppression for whom the Gospel of Matthew was written. With the Matthean star, Jesus was to be placed on the same playing field as the Caesars. Through the presence of the Magi, Jesus was to be interpreted as a second Cyrus and a conduit of liberation for the oppressed. And just as Cyrus was a threat to Astyages long ago, Jesus now would be interpreted as a threat to the powerful, privileged, and propertied (including Herod and Herod’s household), a usurper of the status quo, with liberation effects rippling all the way back to Rome.
The entire Epiphany narrative in Matthew speaks of liberation and justice for those pushed to the undersides and edges of their society. It calls us to work alongside those same communities today and to work for change, for justice, for a world that is a safe, compassionate, and inclusive home for all.
Let’s now take a brief look at Mark’s story of Jesus baptism, since it also is part of the lectionary readings this coming weekend.
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:4-11)
My favorite part of Mark’s version of Jesus’ baptism is the way Jesus’ baptism is tied to these words that Mark’s audience would recognized from Isaiah:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4)
The purpose of this delight, this upholding, this chosen-ness, is that this servant in whom YHWH delights and upon whom the Spirit descends will “bring justice to the nations.” It’s all for the purpose of “establishing justice on the earth.”
As this new year begins, and we reflect on the liberation themes of Epiphany and the establishment of justice in the themes of Jesus’ Baptism, where are we working for justice today? So many areas come to my mind.
Wherever we are working for justice in our world today, these stories remind us of the biblical witness that we are not alone. The God of the Exodus stories, the Hebrew prophets, and the Jesus of the gospels has always stood in unflinching solidarity with whichever communities and voices throughout the ages have cried out for liberation and justice. And we are with that God too, whenever we are standing in that same solidarity.
HeartGroup Application
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.
2. How does the Jesus story inform your own justice work today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
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You can watch our new YouTube show called “Just Talking” each week. Todd Leonard and I take a moment to talk about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.
And if you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
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Herb’s latest book Finding Jesus: A story of a fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels, is available at renewedheartministries.com.
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The Concrete Liberation Narratives of Advent (Part 2 of 3)
Herb Montgomery | December 18, 2020
“Notice that, for their first audiences, the stories of Jesus were not Christian stories about getting to heaven. These were stories deeply rooted in the concrete liberation hopes and realities people were facing . . . These stories are political. They are rooted in the hunger of an oppressed people for social justice. They are about concrete liberation from injustice, both systemic and private, in the here and now, and that is to be our focus as Jesus followers, too.”
Matthew’s version of the Advent narratives begins with this note:
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.” (Matthew 2:1)
This month’s recommended reading from Renewed Heart Ministries is The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context by Richard A. Horsley. Horsley identifies the Magi as the highest-ranking political and religious advisers of the Medean emperor and the Persian imperial court. Their religious role was meant to maintain what was believed to be a divinely given imperial order: even their religious purpose was for political ends. The Magi were priestly assistants to the Great King of the Persian Empire—the King of Kings, who was believed to be the divine ruler on earth. Tertullian tells us that “the East considers the Magi almost as kings” themselves (Against Marcion, 3:13).
One of their royal roles would have been to cultivate knowledge of the cosmos and cosmic events, including observing any unusual occurrences in the heavens, and interpreting the divine will or order of things to the king.
That the Magi are in Matthew’s advent story at all is significant. It’s about much more than the inclusion of Gentiles in salvation, salvation that the child they came to see would bring.
What are the implications including the Magi here?
Persia was Rome’s enemy at this time, and the Magi advised the Eastern kings. The Magi, therefore, represented the East in the East-West conflict between Rome and Persia. The Magi were also present at the birth of the Persian King Cyrus who had liberated the Jewish people in the 6th Century BCE (see Isaiah 45) So Matthew including the Magi in his story about Jesus had both international political and religious implications for Rome.
Remember, one of the purposes of Matthew’s advent narrative was to subvert the Roman imperialism subjugating the Jewish people. His story includes Rome’s international enemies, and they, as they were for Cyrus, are present at this little liberator’s birth. Matthew’s audience would have recognized their presence as a sign that this baby was allied with Rome’s enemies. The baby’s overthrow of Roman oppression would have been good news (gospel) to Rome’s enemies as well. Matthew’s story takes political sides against Rome by including the Magi.
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matthew 2:1-4)
Three elements of this section will help us understand Matthew’s story more clearly.
- Herod
- The phrase, “King of the Jews”; and
- The disturbance of “all Jerusalem”
As we discussed last week, Herod was Rome’s client king for the Jewish people. Herod economically crushed the Jewish common people, piling on to the already oppressive Roman tax burden people faced in his area and threatening violence from a large, heavily armed militia if they resisted. Herod extracted heavy tributes for extensive building projects aimed to pay homage to Caesar. And he was intensely efficient at crushing uprisings and rebellions against his oppressive policies. He slaughtered people extensively, and life under him meant exploitation and tyranny for the Jewish peasantry: Herod economically bled his people and country dry, and the peasantry cried out day and night for relief from helpless and hopeless poverty. For many, Herod was synonymous with Roman oppression.
The phrase King of the Jews, used in reference to Jesus, has had a long and very harmful anti-Semitic history in Christianity, just as the term Messiah has.
Originally, Jewish liberation movements used the phrase “king of the Jews.” Jewish people didn’t then have a standardized or generally held expectation of a “messiah,” as the term is understood by Christians today. Messiah means “the one who is anointed.” Just like David was anointed by Samuel the prophet, “the anointed one” was anointed to become a king. At the time of Matthew’s story, a common hope among the many and varied Jewish liberation movements was that a king, like David of old, would rise up and liberate the Jewish people from their suffering under Rome. It was simply an expression of the broader hope of the people to be liberated from foreign rule.
This is the only context I believe helpful for understanding why the gospels use the phrase “king of the Jews” in reference to Jesus in the gospels. The community of the gospels was yet another oppressed Jewish community hoping for concrete liberation. For the gospels to call Jesus Messiah, king of the Jews, or anointed one is to simply refer to their Jesus as a liberator from oppression just as every other liberation movement of this time had their king, anointed one, or liberator. But we must leave these phrases in their own social context if we are to avoid Christianizing them into the harmful antisemitic beliefs and practices of supersessionism, the belief that the Christian church has replaced Jewish people and Judaism.
Why might “all Jerusalem” have been disturbed by the Magi’s declaration?
Judea was an agrarian society. Agrarian societies could be headed politically and economically by a fortified city where the rulers lived. This kind of agrarian society benefited and privileged the city rulers with a privileged, secure lifestyle with attendants yet at the expense of the peasant farm workers outside the city. The rulers typically owned the farmland outside the city, too.
That was the situation in ancient Judea. Judean society took the form of a Temple-state centered in Jerusalem and headed by a priestly aristocracy and their retainers such as the scribes. To the best of our knowledge today, this priestly aristocracy was comprised of four families who were appointed to their powerful positions by Herod and therefore Rome. The priestly aristocracy was the elite and powerful who were politically tied to Herod’s success.
When Matthew’s narrative says “all Jerusalem” was disturbed, I don’t believe he was saying all the Jewish population of Jerusalem. That interpretation blames Jews for Jesus’ later execution. No. “All Jerusalem” is more similar to what we here in the U.S. might say: that all D.C. was disturbed. We wouldn’t be talking about the taxi drivers but we’d be talking about those in political positions of power and privilege and their attendants who would have much to lose from a change in the status quo. Horsely again states, “‘All Jerusalem’ would have been the ruling city that politically dominated and economically exploited the rest of the people” (Ibid. p. 50). The elite in power because of Herod’s position would have been deeply disturbed by any threat of change to Herod’s situation and thus their own.
What does this have to do with us today?
Notice that, for their first audiences, the stories of Jesus were not Christian stories about getting to heaven. These were stories deeply rooted in the concrete liberation hopes and realities people were facing. Matthew borrows from the original Exodus narratives at certain places in his advent story because, just like the Exodus story, Matthew’s story is about our concrete real world, oppression in this life, here and now, and tangible hopes of liberation.
How do the ethics, values, and teachings that we find in the Jesus stories guide us to impact our real world in concrete ways as agents of action? How do they inspire us to shape our world into a safer, just, compassionate home for everyone? Are we, unlike these advent stories, just focused on an afterlife, post-mortem heaven, or escaping to bliss beyond? Or are we, like these stories, engaging the real harm being committed against vulnerable populations and communities in our society today? How much does our following Jesus align with these stories? How aligned is our Christianity with the this-life focus and liberation of Jesus?
These stories are political. They are rooted in the hunger of an oppressed people for social justice. They are about concrete liberation from injustice, both systemic and private, in the here and now, and that is to be our focus as Jesus followers, too.
This focus becomes even more pointed when we get to Luke’s advent narratives.
We’ll take a look at those next week.
HeartGroup Application
We at RHM are continuing to ask all HeartGroups not to meet together physically at this time. Please stay virtually connected and practice physical distancing. When you do go out, please keep a six-foot distance between you and others, wear a mask, and continue to wash your hands to stop the spread of the virus.
This is also a time where we can practice the resource-sharing and mutual aid found in the gospels. Make sure the others in your group have what they need. This is a time to work together and prioritize protecting those most vulnerable among us.
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.
2. This year’s Christmas holiday is filled with harsh realities for many in the U.S. Discuss with your HeartGroup what you can do, together, to mitigate some portion of that harm for someone this holiday season. Pick something from the discussion for your group to do together in this final week leading up to Christmas.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week
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