What kind of gift would you give to a little boy under two years of age? --Perhaps some toy especially engineered with safety in mind? --Maybe some article of clothing? --or perhaps an educational toy of some sort? When we choose a gift for someone, we usually go to great lengths to select something that is appropriate--something that expresses our thoughts and feelings about that person. When choosing a gift for a small child the task can become even more difficult. We want to give something which will let that child know that we love him and that we want him to be happy, and yet at the same time we are also careful to give him something that he can use and appreciate.
With these thoughts in mind we might conclude that the wise men from the east certainly brought strange gifts to the Child Jesus. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are hardly the kind of gifts you would expect a toddler to get excited about. As a matter of fact, in our culture most adults would have a little difficulty appreciating gifts like these (or at least two-thirds of them!). I’m reminded of a cartoon I saw a few years back, in which a mother had just put her little boy to bed and read him the story of the wise men’s visit to Bethlehem. The little guy just gazed at his mom with a confused look on his face as he said, “Gold, frankincense, and myrrh?! I’ll bet He really wanted a puppy!” Strange as they may seem, these Epiphany gifts that were brought to the Infant Jesus are wonderful gifts, because they say a great deal about who Jesus is in relationship to the givers.
The first gift mentioned in the Epiphany Gospel is gold. Gold may be something that we appreciate as a substance of great value, but I doubt that we really have a handle on its significance as a gift brought to Jesus in Bethlehem by foreigners. Gold is the metal of kings. Up until recent times it was the standard of trade among nations and the backing of every currency in the world. Gold is not just valuable; it’s important. In giving gold to Jesus, the wise men were acknowledging Him as their King--the most important Influence in their lives. They were saying that Jesus is their Ruler and they were indicating their willingness to submit to Him in obedience. This act of homage becomes even more incredible if you bear in mind that this gift was presented to a Child not more than two years old, according to our best estimate. This royal gift was given by respected eastern sages to a poor Jewish Child. The gift of gold recognized this little One as King.
The second gift that we hear about is frankincense. Maybe you’re not quite sure what that is. If you ever had the opportunity to attend the Spanish worship services that we had here at Bethel a number of years ago, you may have seen and smelled frankincense on occasion as it burned on a piece of charcoal. The burning of incense has always been associated with worship. The smoke of the incense rising into the air symbolizes the prayers and worship of the people rising to heaven. One of the things that got the early Christians into so much trouble was their refusal to burn incense to the Roman emperor. The reason why they refused was because they believed that the burning of incense was an act of worship, and therefore that burning incense to anyone or anything other than God Himself was an act of idolatry. The burning of frankincense is still done today in the public worship of the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Episcopalians, and some Lutherans. What does all of this mean? It means that the wise men who brought frankincense to Jesus were in fact worshiping Him as their God. They were attributing to Him the kind of worship that is due only to God, and to no one else. In this second strange gift we see that Jesus, and He alone, is worthy of worship and praise.
Perhaps the strangest Epiphany gift of all was the gift of myrrh. I myself have never seen real myrrh in my life, and I doubt that many of you have either. We hear about myrrh later on in the New Testament, at the burial of Jesus, when we are told that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes” (John 19:39) to perfume the dead body of their Lord. I said that myrrh was the strangest of the Epiphany gifts because in ancient times myrrh was used as a type of embalming fluid--a deodorant used to ward off or delay the inevitable unpleasantness that comes when a lifeless body begins to decay. Now who in his right mind would give a two-year-old boy embalming fluid for a gift? The answer is: one who understands and appreciates how important that Child’s death would prove to be. These Gentile men, who had every excuse to be ignorant of the Jewish prophecies about the Savior that God had promised, nevertheless expressed their faith that this little Child was the One who would later give His very life for them and for their salvation. By giving this strange gift of myrrh, the wise men were letting it be known that they found in Jesus not only their King and God, but also their Savior from sin.
Just what are these strange gifts? They are the response of grateful sinners to God’s Christmas Gift of His Son. The Creator and Ruler of all came into this miserable world to save sinners. That kind of grace always provokes a response. It didn’t matter to the wise men that they were foreign to God’s chosen people. It didn’t matter to them that they had to travel a long and difficult road to come to the newborn Savior. It didn’t matter to them that the gifts that they brought were rare and expensive. The only thing that mattered to them was that their King--their God--their Savior--had been born on earth. They had to respond to this grace of God. What about us? What kind of gifts are we to bring to our Savior? I don’t think very many of us have any spare gold lying around. I have some frankincense in my home, but I’m not so sure we would all agree that that’s a good idea (my wife won’t even let me burn it!). And I seriously doubt that any of us have any myrrh around the house. But none of that matters. We can still respond to God’s grace in Christ just as the wise man did: by acknowledging Jesus as our King, by worshiping Him as our God, and by trusting in Him as our Savior. What other response can there be to One who is everything He is--to One who has done everything that He has done for us. And so we join that grateful response, fulfilling in our day the words we just heard just a little while ago:
“Glorious now behold Him arise,
King and God and Sacrifice;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Earth to heaven replies.”
Amen.
May the God who caused light to shine out of darkness cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all people, as His love abounds for us; and may the glory of His Son be manifested to you and in you, that you may be witnesses to all nations now and until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.