Paying homage: offering worship

Preached as a sermon at Croydon Minster on Sunday 5 January, 2020, kept as the Feast of the Epiphany, readings: Isaiah 60.1-6; Matthew 2.1-12.

‘On entering the house, they saw the child and Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage’ (Matthew 2.11)

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Familiar yet strange. The account of the journey and arrival of the Magi at the stable of Bethlehem, is both a very familiar scene and a rather strange one.

The very familiarity of the scene of the Magi entering the birthplace of Jesus, as represented in our crib, can make us miss some of the things that are going on and the things our imaginations add in.

For a start, the child is not a 10 day old new-born by the time the Magi arrive; the shepherds have long gone; St Matthew’s Gospel does not give us a number of how many Magi there were, although we know there were three gifts; the Magi are not actually described as Kings.

Being familiar with a scene also means we miss things that are there in the text. And tucked away in St Matthew’s account of the Magi is a little word that is really quite significant in the passage, appearing, as it does, three times.

The Magi say to King Herod: ‘Where is this child who has been born King of the Jews? For we have observed his star at its rising and we have come to pay him homage’ (Matt 2.2)

Herod responds: ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage’ (Matt 2.8)

St Matthew describes: ‘On entering the house, they saw the child and with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage’ (Matt 2.11)

The recurring word is homage. Homage is a rather strange word for us today. It tends not to trip off the tongue or be used in ordinary speech.

It’s a word that seemingly belongs to medieval novels or Arthurian legend, with liege men paying homage to their lord or king. It lingers on in the British coronation rite when the bishops and lords pay homage to the newly crowned Sovereign.

But, as is the way when we read the scriptures in translation, we find that the original word used conveys something different and, usually, something more.

The word in the original Greek text of St Matthew’s Gospel is proskuneo. St Matthew’s Gospel, like St John’s, uses it a great deal, in different contexts.

The literal root meaning of proskuneo is ‘to kiss toward’. From there the term developed the sense ‘to fall down or prostrate oneself’ (as in kissing the ground), and hence ultimately ‘to worship’ or ‘adore.’

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The Magi arrive in Jerusalem at a royal palace; the natural place to look for a king to whom to pay homage: except this is the palace of a tyrannical, sadistic, puppet king, Herod, not the newly born king of the Jews. They’re in the wrong place; their expectations are off beam.

There is no reason to assume they consider Jesus anything more than a king. The proskuneo they want to pay is homage in the sense of acknowledging a royal presence.

Herod’s expressed desire to perform proskuneo is not a respectful, stooping kiss towards Jesus; but rather than infanticidal lunge to kill him. The only echo of a kiss in Herod’s desire is akin to Judas’s death kiss that consigns Jesus to arrest and trial.

So far, then, the homage of the Magi and of Herod is an empty gesture of ingratiation and nothing more.

But there is a transformation. Something moves the Magi’s proskuneo from courtly homage to reverent, worshipful devotion.

And Herod gave the game away. He asked the scribes and priests about the Messiah. For the first time the Magi heard of the promise of the One True God - the King of kings and Lord of lords - as articulated in scripture by the prophet Micah. This was the promise that the Messiah would arise in Bethlehem. The star told them about a king, the prophet told them about a promise they had never known before.

The Magi were to find something for which they had not knowingly been looking, but which their hearts longed and ached for: the Hope of the Nations, of every race and people and not solely the people of Israel.

That’s why the Book of Common Prayer calls the feast of the Epiphany, ‘The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles’. That’s why today is a day when we should pray for spiritual seekers, that they may find the desire of their restless hearts in the Living God.

This is the attractive and attracting light of God, of which Isaiah speaks in our first reading: ‘nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isaiah 60.3). This light transforms; this light converts; this light warms hearts.

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‘On entering the house, [the Magi] saw the child and Mary his mother; and they knelt down and did him proskuneo’ (Matthew 2.11)

Entering a house, not a palace, and seeing a child with his unsophisticated mother, far from home and with no regal trappings, completed their transformation.

The expectation of the Magi, the spiritual seekers, is transformed. If they were seeking a king of the Herod mould, then Jesus was not it: courtly homage would be pointless.

So the Magi kneel, fall down, prostrate themselves, showering kisses before offering any of their gifts: of gold, frankincense or myrrh.

That is our primary proskuneo to open the treasure chest of our hearts. I know as I have got to know people here that there are many treasures to our Christ. For some it may feel that the lid hasn’t been opened for a while, is a bit creaky, but still we open it up. We open the treasure chest to give and to receive.

The Magi first give proskuneo to the King of kings. And so can we! As Christ, manifest in the sacrament, in bread and wine, is held before us we sink to our knees to receive him; receiving his offering of himself to, and for, us.

Falling to our knees in adoration, bending our hearts in devotion is not a transaction but an act of love. We don’t pay homage to Christ; we offer and give worship to him. It’s what prompts St Paul’s magnificent assertion that, ‘At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth’ (Philippians 2.10).

May we bend our knees and hearts in adoration, hope and love.