Another Road

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they [the Magi] left for their own country by another road.” Matthew 2:12 NRSV

Just the other day I was out with a friend. As we were leaving to go home we decided ‘go by another road’ and the comment was made about how biblical that was. But as I heard the preacher’s opening to their sermon this past week, suddenly I had a very different understanding of just what those words meant in the context of the story of the magi. One might say I had an epiphany!

We don’t know anything about who wrote the gospels or even when or why the gospels were written. We can surmise that the authors were writing down these stories in an attempt to pass on the transformative effect the life and teachings of Jesus had had on their lives and perhaps the lives of others around them. So I have come to understand the two birth narratives to be an attempt to rewrite his birth showing this importance. As angels sang, he was revered by the poor and humble as well as the wise and wealthy, while all the time feared by the powerful.

So just what was my epiphany? As I heard the opening to the sermon on Epiphany this past Sunday, my thought was the the words ‘they left for their own country by another road” were perhaps some of the most important words, not only in that story, but in the whole gospel. The wise men had seen Jesus as the result of a a long and treacherous journey. We too come to our understanding of who this person of Jesus is after a long journey with many twists and turns. They finally arrived just as we do. They had given him priceless gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We too give him the priceless gifts of our worship and homage. But then what did they do according to Matthew? They went home by another road.

Once we have seen Jesus, once we have given our gifts of love and worship, we too need to go home by another road. The author of Matthew is telling us that if we have really experienced the Chris Child then our lives will be drastically changed. We will find ourselves on a different road because that is the only place we can be. That road will lead to where we belong, to our home.

What does the road we are on say about us? Have we really ‘seen’ Jesus in the same way the Magi in the Christmas story did? Are we on ‘another road’?

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