I was listening to a Christian pianist several weeks ago and she was discussing the Bible and reading Scripture during her performance. Many of the carols that we traditionally sing come out of the narrative of Luke’s Gospel but Lorie Line camped on some Scripture from Matthew.
Traditionally, we turn to Luke for the most detailed birth narrative of Jesus in Bethlehem. We are told in Luke that the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. It was during this period of the birth of Jesus that we have the largest appearance of angels in Scripture. I believe that this is the case because God sent His Son to the earth which was considered the dominion of Satan. In fact, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan there is a reference to legions of angels that Jesus could call upon, but He denies the temptations without any angelic assistance.
When Zechariah was at the temple, an angel visited him to indicate that he would have a son and his name was to be John (John the Baptist). And an angel visited Mary announcing that she would have a child and she was highly favored by God. All of this goes to illustrate how the world was going to change with the entrance of Jesus and his mission to eventually be the sacrifice for all mankind on the cross. Of course, what separates us from every other world religion is that Jesus rose from the dead on what we celebrate as Easter. But that’s a different story…
But Matthew gives us an important detail in his Gospel that most of us know, but fail to dwell on. In fact, there is a well known Christmas song about this event. After the shepherds saw the baby Jesus, they spread the word throughout all the land (Go Tell It On the Mountain). And we are told that Magi, or Wise Men, came to see the newborn child, the newest King, destined to be the greatest King of all. While we don’t know how many Magi made the trek to visit the Christ child, we know that three gifts are mentioned in Matthew. In truth, there could have been as many as 300 Magi, but we won’t know for sure this side of heaven. The song “We Three Kings” memorializes the journey of the Wise Men.
Matthew tells us that the Magi brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. There has been conjecture about what these gifts signified, but many theologians believe that the gold signified the Kingship of Jesus, the frankincense denoting his Deity; and the myrrh a foreshadowing of his death years later. The gold would be a sign of wealth, frankincense was burned as an offering to God and myrrh was an anointing oil and herb used in the embalming process. These gifts summed up the importance that Jesus would eternally play in our lives.
But there could be more to it than these gifts. There is some theological opinion that the gifts given to the Christ child by the Magi, Wise Men and kings would have made the baby Jesus a very wealthy person. After all, these gifts were not given frequently and were reserved for very special people on very special occasions.
We know that later in life, Jesus did not have a place to rest His head at night. And we don’t know much about His childhood other than the story of the temple and the moneychangers. And do you realize that Joseph doesn’t utter a word in the entire New Testament? He must have been a quiet, thoughtful man. So what became of all this wealth that was undoubtedly bestowed on the baby Jesus?
Perhaps it was used by the family to finance their trip to Egypt to avoid the fate that Herod wanted to inflict on the newborn child. We don’t know… However, we do know that Jesus received at least three important, expensive gifts – and perhaps many more! Clearly, they were a part of God’s plan that must have served some divine purpose.
Our verse for tonight, as we enter the period of the Twelve Days of Christmas, moving toward Epiphany, celebrating the transitional arrival of the Magi, is Matthew’s announcement of the Wise Men coming to visit. Matthew tells us, in Matthew 2:11-12, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.” (KJV)
My encouragement this day after Christmas is to affirm that the beginning of the greatest story ever told, when God sent Jesus to live among us, came to pass yesterday. And every year, we have the chance to once again renew our dedication to Jesus and to celebrate his birthday! My prayer this evening is that we will always read the Scripture with attention to its detail and make a concerted effort to study the finer implications of what we are reading for use in our own lives. After all, there are many “nuggets” in the Bible that we gloss over – in part because we have read them so many times. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…