We're approaching Epiphany, the date when we remember the visit of the wise men to Jesus. For us the celebration is 12 days after Jesus birth on 6th January, in reality the visit may have been up to two years after Jesus was born.
The gifts of the wise men to Jesus were no accident. They were planned with devotion and a depth of understanding that takes your breath away.
The wise men were deeply religious and had known that the Lord was sending a saviour to the world. They also knew the prophecies that he would come as a human baby in the land of Israel so when they saw the miraculous star, they knew his time had come.
When they saw the babe they worshipped him and offered gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Gold is used extensively in the Ark of the Covenant. This is the Ark that contained the ten commandments. It was overlaid with gold, both inside and out and the two angels above the mercy seat were made of pure gold. So gold represents God.
Frankincense was used in worship as a sweet perfume. When the Lord directed the offerings used in worship of him, he specifically said that frankincense was to be used only for God and never for man. It specifically represented the offering of Jesus' life and only Jesus' life was acceptable to God to redeem us from eternal death.
So the gifts of gold and frankincense offered by the Kings to baby Jesus declared their belief that Jesus was God and his life alone was an offering to the Lord for mankind.
Myrrh has another dimension; it represents the sorrow of sin and enslavement to sin. So when the wise men offered myrrh to Jesus, they showed that Jesus offered himself as a sin offering to God and that the life of Jesus was an offering for a world of sin. Jesus took the sins of the whole world and offered them to God in himself.
I often wonder, do we see in Jesus what the Wise men saw? Do we bow in worship and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh in the spirit of the wise men?
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