A new star appeared in the sky, but only a few people on Earth noticed. It was a group of people who were searching; they were searching in the sky. They were seeking something special. They were seeking some kind of message from God. They wanted something in their lives, and they studied the sky. In order to notice that star, a new star rising, they had to have studied the stars for a long time. They had to spend every night looking and searching. Finally, a time came when they saw something new, something different, something that wasn’t from the world as they knew it, but led and suggested something more. So they packed up and left home and traveled. They traveled a long way.
These days you can get on a plane anywhere in the world and quickly go to Jerusalem. We don’t think of distances the same way they did back in the time of Christ. These Magi, these wise ones, traveled across deserts, through various lands, at a time when it was dangerous to travel. There were robbers on the roads, and they carried very expensive gifts. It was not an easy trip. But there was something about that star, that new light in the sky, that told them they had to follow it; they had to seek out whatever it was that it pointed to.
Finally, they came to Jerusalem and met Herod, the current ruler, and asked for directions. They got the information they needed, went to Bethlehem and found Mary and the child in a house. Matthew does not indicate that it was a stable nor that they had been traveling - this was their home. Jesus was not an infant in a manger. He may have been up to a couple of years old by this time. I know this can be confusing, but the birth stories of Matthew and Luke are quite different, we've just merged them together in our minds, in our carols and on our Christmas cards.
When they found Jesus, they saw something in this child that let them know that this was what they had been seeking. This child was what they had been searching the skies for. This child was what their hearts yearned for. So they paid him homage, their worship, and they left their gifts, great gifts.
The first gift was the gift of gold. Gold represents kingdom and royalty. Gold is valuable. Gold, even in our culture, it represents riches and money. They offered Christ the things of the world, material comfort and security.
The second thing they offered was frankincense. Frankincense comes from a tree in Arabia. If you cut it the sap oozes out, dries and becomes fragrant crystals. When you burn it, it creates a beautiful smell. Frankincense was also extraordinarily valuable. During that time period it was used as a major trading item. It was quite literally worth its weight in gold.
Frankincense is usually seen as representing worship, because frankincense was burnt in the temple. There’s a place in the Psalms that says, “May our prayers be like incense and lifted up to you.” So the incense represented worship, prayer – it represented the spiritual life.
Finally, there was myrrh. Myrrh was used for embalming; it preserved the body, so it is traditional to see the myrrh as looking ahead to Jesus’ crucifixion, to his suffering. But myrrh was also used in healing ointments. It was put with other oils on wounds or to treat pain. In fact, there was myrrh in the wine that was offered Jesus on the cross because it was a painkiller. So it also had medicinal qualities.
The Magi laid before the Christ child their pain and their suffering, their death, and their life. Then they got up and headed home, but they weren’t the same as they were when they came. They couldn’t possibly go back by the same road that they had come. They had to go back a different way. Life had changed. Everything changed with that encounter.
Tomorrow, December 6, is Epiphany, when the church remembers the visit of the Magi. The word Epiphany means a moment of sudden understanding, or sudden consciousness of, something that is very important.
These Magi, these wise ones, represent all seekers, all people who are searching for God. Part of the idea of Epiphany is that Christ was made known to all people; not just to Christians, not just to Jews, to all people. The wise ones represent everyone who is seeking, everybody who has that sense that there has got to be something more. Some people may actively be looking for God, but there are a lot of people in this world today who say they are just seeking, that there has to be something more.
Sometimes we start seeking and searching when things are really tough, when the world is falling apart, when we’ve got an illness, when we’re in grief, when we’re recovering from addiction, when we’re at our bottom and we realize there’s got to be more to life.
Some people start seeking when they reach the epitome, when they’ve accomplished all their goals, when they’ve gotten the job that they were working for, when they now have the house and the car and the family and the kids and everything that society told them that if they got those then they’d be happy. Then they realize that there’s still something missing, and they begin seeking, looking, wondering. All of us here have undoubtedly known a time in our lives when we were seekers, when we were looking for something more. Perhaps you feel that way right now.
The Magi looked and they saw a light.
Think back for yourselves when you might have been seeking. What was the light that you saw? Did you read a book? Did you talk to a friend? Did you go to a meeting? Did you have an “epiphany” in nature? What was the light? What was the star? What was that little something, or big dramatic something, when you said to yourself, “I’ve got to follow that. I’ve got to find out where that’s going to lead me”?
Now it can be a very long and complicated journey that goes in many directions. The journey is not always a straight line; it can go across deserts, and through dark places. We can’t make that journey alone. We have to ask for help. It might be from parents, or friends, or teachers. It might have come from strangers through a book, or the Bible, or a poem. We have to be willing to go to even Herod and ask for directions and get guidance, support and help.
Then eventually, if we keep putting one foot in front of the other, following that light is that is calling us, eventually we will find the Christ child.
You may encounter Christ in a song, on the beach, at church, who knows? Who knows when Christ will make Christ’s self's known? But you will encounter Christ. And it’s at that moment, at that moment when you have the most important decision of your life to make, because you can either bow down and worship, like the wise ones, or you can react in fear, like Herod.
When we encounter Christ, when we encounter the true king, when we experience the fullness of God's love, our egos can be terrified, because if we really worship and give ourselves to Christ, we’re not in charge anymore. It’s not about me anymore, and that can be pretty frightening. But if we can get past our fear, we can worship.
What we’re asked to do is to offer to the Christ child our gold, the material world, the focus on things, the focus on security. To give all that to Christ.
And we’re asked to give Christ frankincense; our worship, our prayers, our spiritual selves, our devotion.
And we’re asked to give Christ our myrrh; our pain, our sorrows, our heartbreak, our suffering and our very lives.
Christ, who already loves us more than we can imagine, will accept these gifts.
Once we’ve handed over our gold, then it’s up to Christ to take care of our needs. When we’ve handed over our worship then we can feel the joy of that relationship. When we hand over our lives and our suffering, our pain and our sorrow, the myrrh becomes a healing balm in Christ’s loving arms.
Of course, once we’ve made that choice and offered our lives to Christ, we can’t go back by the same road we came. We’re not the same person. The rest of our lives go in a totally different direction. Nobody outside might notice, but inside we know; we make different choices, we take different paths. Our life is transformed when we finally find that which we seek, when we find that which our deepest soul yearns for.
Or, more accurately, once that which we seek has found us.