Today is January 6, Epiphany, when we remember the visit of the wise men from the east. 

I’m noticing this year the difference between the responses of people in Jerusalem and humble shepherds in Luke 2, who couldn’t get there fast enough. 

The shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go! Let’s hurry and find this Word that is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.” So they ran into the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in a feeding trough. (Luke 2.15, 16, Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

Jerusalem people were a different story. Jerusalem in this setting reminds me of Washington, D.C., where everything and everyone worth knowing are “inside the beltway.” How do the Jerusalem “elites” receive the news?

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2.1 – 3, ESV, emphasis mine)

Am I open to God’s working, maybe in unexpected ways or through unexpected people?  

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.45, 46, ESV)

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43.19, ESV)