6th January in the Western church is known as Epiphany, the day when we celebrate the arrival of the wise men with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the baby Jesus.
With the help of our children, we looked at this story, found in Matthew 2:1-12:
Our star (in a snowflake costume…) led the wise men with their gifts on a long journey to the tune ‘Follow The Star‘:
Unfortunately, the route was not all plain sailing, and the wise men ended up visiting King Herod, who was not at all amenable to the thought of a new king… He discovered the birthplace of the king through his own advisers, but despite his apparent cooperation, was actively planning to get rid of the new king.
When the wise men finally arrived at the house to worship Jesus (probably considerably later than the shepherds, despite our Christmas cards’ scenarios!), they brought significant gifts which spoke of what this baby would become (though these were not the kind of gifts given at a baby shower nowadays!) They brought gold, symbol of wealth and kingship:
They also brought frankincense, a kind of perfume that was used by priests when they worshipped God made from the resin of a tree. Jesus was not only a king; he would grow up to be like a priest who would offer himself as payment for all the wrong things people do.
Their final gift, myrrh, was used as a burial spice (as well as being used as an antiseptic on wound and ingested to help with indigestion, ulcers or to treat coughs and colds). The myrrh the wise men brought is a symbol to us that Jesus was born to die for our sins.
These wise men remind us each year that we worship a baby who grew up to be a man who died for our sins, but who is also ‘God with us’, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.