Tradition and Imagination

Ravenna, on the eastern coast of Italy, stood in antiquity on the edge of a large shallow lagoon. For a time, while the emperor sought to evade the repeated incursions on the old city of Rome, it became the capital of the Western half of the Roman Empire.

Today, Ravenna is a sleepy town. The lagoon has silted up so it stands some distance from the sea. But it is a place where many tourists visit to see some of the finest Byzantine mosaics in existence. One of them perhaps merits description on the Feast of the Epiphany.

In the basilica of San Apollinare Nuovo, there are magnificent mosaics dating from the 6^th century. The mosaics display processions of martyrs down either side of the church, walking in single file towards the adoration of Christ enthroned and flanked by angels. On one side, the martyrs are led by St. Martin of Tours, to whom the church was originally dedicated.  On the other side, the martyrs, those who bear witness to the glory and wonder of the incarnation, are led by three unusual figures. They are unusual in that they are wearing trousers and funny hats. These figures are carrying gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They are of course the Magi described in Matthew’s gospel.

The identity of the Magi is sometimes a matter of debate, a debate reflected in the translations of Matthew’s Greek. The New Revised Standard Version refers to them as ‘wise men’, the New English Bible selects perhaps a more appropriate title when it refers to them as ‘astrologers’.

Such a translation perhaps makes Matthew’s meaning clearer. It explains why they arrive and tell Herod that they sought the king of the Jews for they had ‘seen his star in the East’ and had come to worship him. Matthew does not tell us that there were three wise men. We may surmise that they were wise, but we do not even know that they were men, nor do we know for certain that they wore trousers and funny hats. All that Matthew tells us is that these men were astrologers – and they were pagans. Just like that mosaic in Ravenna, Matthew tells this story to demonstrate that the coming of the Messiah, his appearance, his Epiphany, was not simply the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and the promise of the restoration of Israel. For Matthew, the Epiphany is the fulfillment of all human longing and desire: Christ’s Epiphany is not just for the Jew and the Greek but for the pagan barbarian as well.

That is what Matthew has to say – and the identification of the three kings from foreign lands, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar – all of that belongs to later tradition.

Now at this point, you might expect someone with a passing interest in the Bible to protest at the way in which this story has been adulterated by later tradition. It is precisely the kind of thing that the Reformers sought to debunk. Jean Calvin said that it was a ‘childish error’ to think of the Magi as three, and ‘more than laughable to make them out to be kings.’ But I’m not so sure.

In his book Tradition and Imagination, Professor David Brown has described the way in which this tradition about the Magi has developed – and his description is illuminating.

Carols like ‘We three kings of orient’ arose because various passages in the Old Testament were thought to refer to Matthew 2, not least Isaiah 60 and Psalm 72.10, which speak of kings bearing gifts. And talk of kings, with their sumptuous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, did have one advantage: their high status could now nicely balance the lowly status of the shepherds. And this message served to highlight that in a Christian society, ‘there was no longer the same need to emphasise the relevance of the gospel for pagans as well as Jews. It was now more essential to stress that the privileged and well-to-do must kneel before the Christ-child no less than poor shepherds.’

Of course, like Calvin, we might smile to hear of the discovery of the tombs of the Wise Men and their subsequent removal from Constantinople to Milan and from there in 1164 to their present shrine in Cologne. But again, before we dismiss this story, David Brown suggests that this tradition warrants further scrutiny. For the story goes that when the three bodies were uncovered and before they were placed in their final resting place, one was discovered to be a youth, another middle-aged, and the third an old man. It is worth noting that one can discern exactly the same distinction in the mosaics of Ravenna – one is clean-shaven, another has a black bushy beard, and the third has a white beard.

Now the point of these stories – and there are many others - is not to invite you to suspend all your rational faculties. The point of these stories is to invite you to use your imagination. And then perhaps you can see that they underline a central truth which is expressed and articulated at the heart of Matthew’s Gospel, which is that the Gospel is for everybody, and the subsequent development of the tradition serves to demonstrate and underline that ‘everybody’ means ‘all races’, pagan and Jew,  ‘all ranks of society’, rich and poor, and ‘people of every age’, young and old. The Gospel is universal.

I think we see exactly the same phenomenon in recent debate about the gender of the Magi and the speculation among some feminist theologians that some of them may have been women. A collective noun ‘Magi’ is used – and the gender of the noun does not necessarily disclose the gender of the people described. The truth is that historico-critical methods can’t give us an answer to this question, but such speculation enables us to affirm and articulate something crucial about the universality of the Gospel of salvation. ‘Everybody’ means every nation, every condition, every age, every gender. The Gospel is universal.

And that perhaps alerts us to the difference between Christmas and Epiphany. At Christmas, we emphasise the radical particularity of the incarnation. The incarnation is described in the context of a particular place, in the midst of the story of a particular people, with a particular message about the way in which God stands alongside the poor, the marginalized and the outcast. But during the season of Epiphany, we discover the universal scope of that particular story. It describes the universality, the catholicity, of God’s offer of salvation.

We discover that the gospel is for everybody, and that all of us must kneel before the God who has become incarnate in this child to discover healing, pardon, and peace. And the Feast of the Epiphany should have a special place in our hearts here at St Mary’s as we welcome people day by day and week by week from all over the world. On the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the revelation of the one who will bring salvation to everyone.