(Matthew 2:1-12)

The wise men came to Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh. The assumption has always been that because there were three gifts mentioned then there were three wise men. There is no indication in the text that this is so and there might have been any number in the group. Gold, Frankincense and myrrh each have their own significance.

Gold was the material used to make a crown. This was the respect that they were giving to Jesus as a king and a man of authority. As the story of his life unfolded it would be evident that Jesus had no need of a Gold crown to demonstrated for the world his kingship - as the ‘King of Kings’ he would wear a crown - a crown of thorns. The idea of authority demonstrated through service is what is intended when the husband is described as having authority over his wife. This does not suggest that he should be able to tell her what to do. Instead it means that he should serve his wife as Christ served the church.

Frankincense was used in worship. It was made from the sap of the frankincense tree. In Old Testament Judaism it was used in a number of different ways to worship God. It was one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:34). It was also burnt as part of the cereal offering (Lv. 6:15) and placed on the showbread in the tabernacle (Lv. 24:7). Not only will this child lead people to worship God. He himself will also be worshipped.

Myrrh was the strangest and most shocking of all the gifts - used as embalming fluid mainly for anointing the dead. Even as a child in the manger it was being made clear to Mary that her son Jesus had also come to die.

There is something of the gold, Frankincense and myrrh and in how God wants each of us to live our lives.

Gold is authority: The Kings travelled across the known world to honour Jesus, but those in his own back yard failed to recognize him. The Jews had supposedly been watching for the Messiah for hundreds of years. Equally for us we can miss out on the power and significance of what we have right here under our nose. It is easy to underestimate the authority we have as Christians. It is a fabulous thing to have a sense of our place in eternity rather than simply needing to find our place in the struggle of day-to-day living. It is easy to ignore the fact that sometimes when people want our opinion they are actually looking for our help. It is easy to use the idea of humility to duck our responsibility for a situation. Remember that humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking less about yourself.

Frankincense is worship: We are not put on this earth to work but to glorify God. The trouble comes when we work too hard and our faith becomes a part of our working week rather than an expression of our creativity. Not only are we making our own lives the object of our attention but also we are not able to lead other people to worship God. There are four written gospels in the Bible. The fifth is the gospel written on our hearts and this is often the only gospel that people who do not come to church will have an opportunity to read.

Myrrh is death. Death is not a one off event at some unspecified time in the future but it is a way of living our lives here and now – putting ourselves out for other people, listening rather than talking, giving money to the church and to other good causes. There is a lot of hidden poverty in Shepherds Bush. We (as a gathered group of people) can help and make a difference in a disjointed fragmented community. What we know by faith is that our pursuit of death is in fact a pursuit of life and God takes the little pieces that we have to offer and makes them fabulous.

Appendix (Notes)

• But what does the Bible really say about the star of Bethlehem? First of all it does not say that is was bright. In fact there is reason to believe that it was not very bright. There is no indication that anyone saw it other than the Wise Men. Actually from Matthew's report it would seem that the star appeared twice. It appeared a first time in the sky and based on its position they concluded that it signalled the birth of a king in Israel. So at first they did not follow the star as one would follow an arrow pointing the way, but they followed the meaning of the star. When they arrived in Israel they went straight to the King, Herod, to see the new prince that the star signalled. It was only after they left Herod that the star appeared again. It was then that the star appeared to lead them to the Christ Child.
• Herod killed hundreds of innocent children - The appearance of the star would have coincided with Jesus' birth. So when Herod wants to kill Jesus he orders all the children two years and under killed "according to the time that the had learned from the Wise men."(Matt. 2:16)
• It's like we have forgotten that the light is here. The wise of the world come to us and say, "Where is the one who is born the light of the world, the king of the Jews." And we say, "The what of the who?" To make matters worse some Christians are so involved in their own petty battles and sinful ambitions that they try to hide the light. And they try to use and abuse the seekers for their own ends.