Epiphany

Happy New Year! I am sure that, like me, most of you will start back your classes after the celebration of Epiphany. However, this year I have developed a lesson on that special celebration that I really want to share with the children, so we are going to do it a little bit late.

Opening song: God Is Listening http://www.youtube.be/watch?v=6yHMgMKUEfc&feature=related I love to use this song with the children after a break because it really gets them fired up when they can scream and shout! :-) Plus, the motions are super easy, and ease us all back into the action!

Today's lesson is based on a simplified version of a story by Henry Van Dyke called The Other Wise Man. My talk went as follows:

Boys and girls, before we left for our Christmas vacation, I told you a true story about Saint Nicholas, and about how he got his start as a young man. We know this is true, and so we call it "biography". Another source from which I tell you true stories is the New Testament, the stories of Jesus's life and times. Now the stories that Jesus sometimes told, called Parables, were not always true stories, but they were used to teach lessons. Today I am going to tell you a story that is more like a parable because there is an important truth for us to learn from the story. I would like you to be good listeners as I tell this story, and at the end, we will talk about what you think that truth is.

At Mass on Sunday we celebrated the Epiphany, which is the special celebration of the Three Kings. You've all heard of the Three Kings, and we even sang a song about them, didn't we? Do you remember what gifts they brought when they came to visit the baby Jesus? (Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh) Well, today I am going to tell you the story about a FOURTH Wise Man! Yep, according to this legend there was a FOURTH Wise Man who never made it to the baby Jesus, and this story is all about him.


The fourth wise man was called Artaban, and he lived in ancient Persia, which is now Iran. He was a member community of people called Zoroastrians, or Magi. Zoroastrians
were big on astrology, which is studying the stars. The three wise men and
Artaban had studied the stars and the scriptures for a long time, and they had
determined that a miraculous birth was about to take place: the birth of a savior who was to be king of the Jews. Since they didn’t live in the same town, these four men planned to meet
up at a temple in a certain city and from there they would set out together to
witness the birth and bring gifts to the new king. We all know what the first
three wise men brought: gold,frankincense, and myrrh. Artaban decided
to sell his belongings and purchase three very valuable, expensive, and precious
jewels to set before the new king: a ruby, a sapphire, and an exquisite pearl. He planned the journey very carefully. He knew that it was a ten-day ride, so he set out ten days before the time for the meeting. Across the mountains he rode, and across the plains of Persia until finally on the tenth day he crossed the Tigris river with plenty of time to make it to the temple and meet
his friends. He was riding hard down the final stretch when his little horse came to a dead stop. Artaban looked down and saw a lump, a large lump, in the middle of the road. He got off his horse for a closer look and discovered that the lump was actually a body. With a big sigh
he started to drag the body off to the side of the road where the vultures
could take care of it, but, as he did so, the body let forth a deep moan. The
body was alive! Artaban was not happy. He had an important appointment to keep,
and here was this nearly dead person on his hands. He thought to himself,
“Well, this man is going to die anyway. Maybe I’ll just head on out and let
nature – and the vultures - take its course.” Is that what you would do?
Artaban found that he could not leave the man in the road. He took out his water bottle and gave him some water. He had some medicines in his backpack, and he found some that
helped enough that sick and injured man could sit on the horse. They rode into
a nearby town and Artaban took the man to the local healer (like a doctor)
where they waited around for quite some time. It turned out that the man was a
Jewish named David. When Artaban was pretty sure that David was going to be ok,
he turned to leave. David then said to him, “You have saved my life, and I have nothing to
give you in return. I can, however, tell you this. The child you seek will not be born in
Jerusalem like the other Jewish kings. Look for him in the town of Bethlehem,
for that is where our prophets say that he will be born.” Artaban thanked David
for his advice and rode at top speed to the temple. Alas, when he arrived there, all he found was
a note from the three other wise men that said they had gone ahead without him, but he could meet them there. Artaban was crushed. Here was a great desert between him and the newborn king, and he had nothing but an exhausted horse for transportation. Artaban knew what he
must do in order to reach the newborn king. He found a merchant and he sold the
ruby, which allowed him enough money to buy a new horse and go to the little town
of Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, the first person he ran into was a mother with a baby in her arms. He asked
her, “Is your baby the king of the Jews?”
She said, “A baby a king? No! The king of the Jews is a full-grown man named Herod, who lives in Jerusalem. He’s a very bad man, and even if I were his mother, I wouldn’t admit it.”
“No, no,” said Artaban. “You have a new king born in Bethlehem. Surely you must know.”
“Oh, “she said, “You’re with those three men that passed through here a few days ago. They came to visit some poor woman from Nazareth who had to give birth in a stable outside of town.”
“Yes, yes. Where is this stable?”
“Just outside of town on the Jerusalem road, but they left here three days ago, all of them, the mom, the dad, the baby, and your three friends. The only thing you’ll find in that stable
is livestock.”

Just then, a man came running up to them and said to the woman, “Wife, get that child indoors right now! Hide him and don’t let him make a peep. Herod’s men are going house to
house putting every boy baby to the sword.” The woman ran into her house while her husband ran on to warn others, and Artaban followed her inside. Just as her husband had said, an Israeli soldier came to the door. Artaban, who was a pretty big man, blocked his path and said, “No one here but me, sergeant.”
“Well”, said the soldier, “If you don’t mind, I’ll just take a look for myself.”

Artaban, thought fast about what he could do to keep the soldier out of the house and away from the little baby boy. Quickly he took out the sapphire he was carrying and held it out to the soldier. “You don’t understand. There really is no one here but me.”
“Oh, riiiiight,” said the soldier as he took the jewel, “There is no one here but youuuuu.”
Artaban was upset about giving away the second of the three valuable stones when the woman slipped out of her hiding place and said to him, “Bless you, bless you! God will bless you a thousand times for saving my baby. I have nothing to give you for your kindness, but I can tell
that the family you’re looking for is headed for Egypt. You may be able to catch up with them if you start now because they had nothing but one donkey to carry them all.”

So, Artaban set out for Egypt, but he never did catch up with the holy family. He wandered Egypt
and the surrounding countries for years, always searching, never finding, but clinging ever to the last of his three gifts, the priceless pearl. An old Hebrew scholar in Egypt told him to look among the poor and the downtrodden for his savior, because the king of the Jews was not destined to live like a regular king. So Artaban lived among the poor and the sick, doing the best he could to
feed and heal them. He even made it his habit to visit the prisons, where he made a good many friends among the prisoners.

After 33 years of searching, Artaban, then an old man, found himself in back in Jerusalem at the time of Passover. It was a time when every Jew who could be there would come to
Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday. Artaban met a group of Jews who were in Jerusalem
for the celebration. One of them said, “Come! Have you heard? We’re going to see the criminals! They are going to be crucifed (hung on the cross) today!” “Who’s being crucified?”
asked Artaban. “Two robbers and a man called Jesus who has been doing a lot of preaching. He told Pontius Pilate that he was king of the Jews, and that was enough to earn him a death sentence.”
“What?” said Artaban, “What did he say he was?”
“King of the Jews;that’s what he said.”
“King of the Jews! At last I have found him. And I have here a pearl worth a king’s ransom, and
that’s what I’m going to use it for. I will pay it to someone who will release Jesus in exchange for this great and valuable pearl!”
“You’d better hurry. He’s already on the cross.”
Grasping the pearl in his hand, he made his way through the throng looking for anyone who would accept it in exchange for Jesus’ life.

As he was looking he saw a small girl running through the crowd with a troop of soldiers chasing
her. She took one look at Artaban, ran to him, grabbed him by the clothes on his back and hung on for dear life. As the soldiers surrounded them, she said, “Please help me. You must!”
“I can’t right now. I’m on a really important mission!”
“Please, please, please. My father just died. Our family is in debt up to its ears, and I’m to
be sold as a slave. I don’t want to be a slave for the rest of my life.”
“I can’t help right now! You must find someone else,” Artaban told her.
“No, no, you have to help me.”
He looked at the child, and at the soldiers about to drag her away, and almost without thinking,
pressed the pearl into her hand. As he turned away, knowing he had failed in his mission and in his attempt to bring a gift to the King of the Jews, something terrible happened. An awful
storm swept through Jerusalem shaking the very foundations of the buildings and sweeping the tiles off the roofs. It was because Jesus was dying on the cross. During this terrible
storm, one of these tiles struck Artaban on his head, and sadly, it was an injury bad enough to kill him. But just before he died, a strange thing happened. A shimmery stranger glowing in
white approached him and said, “You’re Artaban, right? I believe you’ve been looking for me, and I just came by to thank you.” Artaban was confused. “Lord? Is that you? I have been looking for you since you were born, but I never found you! I no longer have any gifts to give you! What are you thanking me for?”
“For feeding me when I was hungry and taking care me when I was sick and giving me comfort in prison.”
“I’m sorry, Lord, but you must have me mixed up with someone else. This is the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on you.”
“No, Artaban, you’re wrong. In all these years, every time that you’ve fed, the poorest of my people, you’ve fed me. Whenever you’ve cared for or comforted the poorest of my people,
you’ve done it for me. We go way back, my friend. What you have done for me all these years is far more valuable than gold, frankinsence and myrrh. It is more valuable than rubies, sapphires and pearls. And what you have given me is what I treasure more than anything.”
With these words, the stranger faded into the mist and Artaban’s life slipped away.

So, boys and girls, that is the story of the fourth wise man. And although he never made it to the baby Jesus, it sounds like Jesus met him in the end. It also sounds like Jesus tells him that his gift was more valuable than anything like gold, or rubies, or pearls. Who can tell me what they think that Artaban's gift was, and also what our lesson is?

I lead a discussion with the children, then, recalling our previous lesson about "whatsoever you do for the least of my people." The lesson to us is that we ALL have the most precious gift that we can give to Jesus any time: the gift of our love. If we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc., that is what Jesus values the most. I close by asking the children to make a New Year's resolution with me that we will try to give Jesus that gift as much as we can this year, not just at Christmas time.

After the story, we wrapped up with a fun Minute to Win It game. I selected my participant by asking who remembers the big, fancy word that means the feast day celebrating the Three Kings (epiphany). The game we played was Hoop de Loop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbEae3Eu24

I hope you are all off to a great start to the new year! See you next week!