Gifts for the Magi

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Santa Claus is not part of Christmas—in Italy. 

Instead, children look forward to the visitation of the three kings: the Magi, the Three Wise Men. Children try to keep awake to catch a glimpse of these Three Royal Visitors. They listen for the cadence of their song in the distance, the sound of camels’ hooves crushing the frozen snow, and the tinkling of silver bridles. Children send toy requests to them, and, anticipating their arrival, leave water and snacks for them and their camels to help sustain them on their long journey.

Apparently, there is a certain universality to what happens in the Christmas season, regardless of where people live. Even if they have no Santa Claus. 

That universality is our connection to this week's scriptures. The Gospels tell us Jesus came for us all. This is so clear in the selection from the Gospel of John where, upon seeing Jesus again, John the Baptist declares to his own disciples "Behold the lamb of God" who was, even as John spoke, "taking away the sin of the world."

Did you catch that? The sin of the world, not just of the Jews. Many of God’s people couldn't quite wrap their heads around it—that their Messiah would somehow also belong to non-Jews. Their thinking was a bit Israel-centric, much like ours is in our own countries. That was never the way God saw it. 

God always pictured an entire world rejoined in harmony, a planet of people who chose God just as God had chosen them.

This week's Isaiah passage tells of how the restoration of Israel to God is, by itself, too easy a thing for the Savior. He would also be a light to the nations so that salvation would reach to the very ends of the earth. That universality is there in this week's Psalm, where the writer declares he has proclaimed God's faithfulness and salvation to the “great congregation.” We see it in 1 Corinthians, where Paul greets them “along with everyone else, in every place” who claims the name of Jesus. 

Jesus comes not just to one town, but to every village, town, city, and metropolis. Jesus comes to every farm, every vessel on the waters, every mountaintop, every valley, and every crevice. Jesus comes not just to our country, but to every country; to every person in China, in Europe, in Russia, in Australia, in Israel, in the Middle East, even to each of the very few people in the Antarctic. Jesus is universal. He comes not just to one person, but to all persons. 

Every one. In every place. 

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BONUS MATERIAL

A free read of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi story from the Gutenberg Project

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Epiphany continues. We're in this season until Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday falls on February 17th this year). Gather with us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast as we continue to marvel at how God planned for our salvation. Find us on Zoom* and at Our Breakfast Place. Join us at 8:00 to peruse the menu, eat, pray, read the Bible, and kick around what we discover there.

Blessings,

Steve

*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here

Print them here

Isaiah 49:1-7

Psalm 40:1-11

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

John 1:29-42

Second Sunday After the Epiphany (January 18, 2026)