Obstacles on the Way

Matthew 2:1-12

Rev. Monte Marshall

Today is Epiphany Sunday.  The word “epiphany” simply means ‘showing’ or ‘shining forth.’  It’s a day to revisit Matthew’s gospel and the familiar story of God’s “showing” or “shining forth” in the birth of Jesus—the one identified in the text as “the newborn ruler of the Jews” and “the Messiah.” 

Now frankly, I doubt that many of us are here this morning because of this special Sunday and the assigned reading from Matthew’s gospel.  So why are we here? 

Well, believe it or not, this special Sunday and the assigned gospel reading may actually help us get a handle on this question:  Why are we here? 

• Have we come seeking the Christ? 
• Are we expecting to experience some sort of epiphany? 
• Are we longing to connect to the one called “’Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us?’” 
• Have we come to pay homage to our newborn sovereign and savior? 
• Have we come to offer precious gifts? 
• Have we been led here by the story of a star, or by some other encounter or insight or impulse that has motivated us to journey toward what Pastor Bruce Sanguin calls, “a higher spiritual consciousness—[a] Christ consciousness?”[1]

If these are among the reasons we’ve come here this morning, then surely we are now caught up in the astrologers’ pilgrimage.  Indeed, there is something of these astrologers in all of us.  Can’t we identify with them in their quest?

If we can, then we’re traveling the road together.  We’re on the way to learning and growing and evolving in ways that feed the deepest and most profound yearnings of the soul.  Along the way, we may even discover a deeper truth than even the astrologers anticipated.  Perhaps we’ll discover that we’re actually on the way to becoming fully human and fully alive, as Jesus was fully human and fully alive, through incarnation—God in the flesh—God in our flesh.   

But to be honest, we’ll confront obstacles along the way.  The Cambridge English Dictionary defines an obstacle as “something that blocks the way so that movement or progress is prevented or made more difficult.”[2]

In this morning’s story, Herod is an obstacle.  Matthew tells us that when Herod hears from the astrologers about the birth of a “newborn ruler of the Jews,” he’s “greatly disturbed.”  One commentator puts it this way:  Herod is “agitated, troubled, disquieted, filled with inner turmoil.”[3]  In fact, all of Jerusalem is upset right along with him.

And we can understand Herod’s reaction, can’t we?  Historically speaking, in 40 BCE the Roman Senate declared that Herod was the “ruler of the Jews.”  The title was his.  The perks were his.  The power was his. 

And Herod had a reputation for ruthlessly and brutally defending his title, his perks, and his power.  He had even executed one of his ten wives, drowned his brother-in-law and mother, and murdered three of his fourteen children because he viewed them all as threats to his power.

As Matthew’s narrative unfolds, we see Herod’s deceptiveness on display, and we learn of his intent to kill this newly born rival.  When Herod tells the astrologers to find the child and report back to him so that he too might go and offer homage, he’s lying.  Herod doesn’t want to worship the child; Herod wants to kill the child. 

As Matthew tells it, after the astrologers find the child—with a little help from the scriptures and a star—and they worship the child by bowing before him and offering their gifts, they ignore Herod’s instructions and instead, heed a warning in a dream to return home by another way. 

When Herod finds out about this, his anger explodes in a spasm of violence that claims the lives of children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under.  Of course, by this time, the target of Herod’s wrath has already escaped the violence by fleeing to Egypt with his mother and father, making the holy family refugees in a foreign land. 

So Herod is an obstacle.  But as Bruce Sanguin reminds us, to reach the Christ child, “we have to contend with Herod” because there is something of Herod in all of us.  Herod is that “part of us that resists and subverts realizing our spiritual depths.”  Sanquin writes: “There is a part of personality that is constellated around an emotion so deep and pervasive that it acts to sabotage any idea, belief, behavior [sic], attitude, or person that threatens its existence.  The emotion is fear.”[4]

Sanguin then notes that “Herod is the survivor within each of us.  This part of us is constantly scanning the horizon for potential threats and preparing to defend the kingdom of the little self.  Herod is the unhealthy part of our self-system that does not want us to make it to the cradle of Christ-consciousness for fear of being usurped.  When a power [like the Christ- consciousness] threatens to take the throne, the Herod within us obstructs transformation.  He is great at defending a kingdom (of the self) when survival is at stake, but he does not know when to stand down in the face of a higher power.”[5]

Sanguin says that “We should not underestimate the ruthless nature of our fear-based self.  It will stop at nothing to ‘defend’ us from perceived threats.”  He then notes that if we are to complete our journey to Bethlehem, “We’re going to need that same sacred impulse, that unswerving intention of the soul [evidenced in the astrologers ‘quest].  [But] Herod has other plans.  He issues a death order.”[6]

So what are we to do?  Sanquin recommends that we confront our inner Herod.  He writes that “we need to surface our deepest fears and squarely face how our defence [sic] system is keeping us from growing.  We need to deal with Herod, not as an evil enemy, but as a frightened defender of the kingdom of the little self.”[7]

A poet puts it this way:

It’s when we face for a moment

the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know

the taint in our own selves, that awe

cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart.[8]

It’s at this point that it’s vitally important for us to pay attention to the astrologers—or the Magi, as Sanguin calls them—for they “symbolize the presence of sacred Wisdom within.”  Sanguin writes: “This part of us is savvy about Herod’s intentions.  Our inner Magi understand Herod’s fears but refuse to be taken in by his various schemes, which are legion and ingenious.  Once you practice the awareness of fear, you realize that our wounded ego is very resourceful and very resilient.  Through this practice of bringing our Magi to bear on our fears over time, those fears certainly dissipate, but they will never disappear.”[9]

In other words, the inner struggle will continue for us between Herod’s fear and the sacred wisdom of the astrologers that leads to Christ-consciousness.  Sanguin describes the tension:

“You will dream bigger, and a voice will sound: ‘Who do you think you are?’

“You will lose interest in personal dramas that once were a deep source of fascination and expended energy, and a voice will sound: ‘You are nobody without these dramas and narratives.  Cling to them for dear life.  Create the conditions in your life to re-enact the drama.’

“You will decide to begin a regular spiritual practice, and the distractions and excuses for not starting will gather in number and urgency.

“You will take action, and then be confronted by roadblocks and setbacks.

“You will be filled with conviction, and then, in the middle of the night, you will be filled with doubts.  Your project will seem hopeless; your dreams, grandiose; your strategy, ill conceived.  Maybe the whole journey has been an illusion.”

But then, Sanguine says: “’Fear not,’ as in, ‘Bring consciousness to your fears” but set them in the context of the sacred [journey toward Christ-consciousness],” that’s fueled by “your bigger, Christ-loving, Spirit-called, all-consuming passion for the Holy.”[10]

So I raise the question again:  Why are we here this morning?  Could it be that we’re here to journey on with the astrologers, to confront obstacles along the way, to deal with the Herod that is within us all, but then to experience an epiphany as we find ourselves imbued with the Christ-consciousness, transformed and becoming fully human and fully alive, through incarnation—God in the flesh—God in our flesh?  So dear friends, let’s journey on.  Let’s journey on, undeterred by the obstacles on the way. Let’s journey on with a passion for the Holy!  Let’s journey on!  Thanks be to God.  Amen.