Epiphany

As we progress through the liturgical calendar, we have remembered with eager anticipation Christ's second coming, and we continue our twelve day celebration of His birth. Tomorrow is the day on the calendar called Epiphany. Epiphany is celebrated by remembering the coming of the Magi and the three gifts they gave to Jesus. The Magi did not meet Jesus until he was a toddler, so we wait until after the birth celebration to remember their coming.

Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, the men who wrote the song In Christ Alone, also wrote a song called Joy Has Dawned about the Christmas story. The third verse says "Shepherds bow before the Lamb, gazing at the glory. Gifts of men from distant lands prophesy the story. Gold, the King is born today. Incense, God is with us. Myrrh, his death will make a way; and by His blood He'll win us."

The first time I ever heard this song, I had not thought too much about the prophetic significance of these three gifts; but hearing their meaning, even in an abridged fashion, gave me such a deeper understanding of the significance of the coming of the Magi. It also inspired me to dig deeper into the issue.

When I started thinking about other accounts of gold and incense in the Scriptures, I found some interesting connections. Gold is primarily mentioned in the constructions of the Tabernacle, the Temple, and Solomon's Palace; while incense is primarily mentioned in rituals for the Tabernacle and the Temple.

The Temple and the Palace would eventually be destroyed by Babylon, and all the gold would be stolen. The nations of Israel and Judah would fall, but would one day be restored. This restoration, though, would be incomplete. The most visually obvious evidence of this incomplete restoration is the absence of the smoke of God's presence in the rebuilt Temple.

It has been said that during the second Temple period, priests would burn an incredible amount of incense to make it feel as if the smoke had returned, if only for ritual appearance. Eventually, the second temple would also be destroyed by the Romans, and the nation of Israel was never again be united by a single place of worship.

Jesus received a gift of gold, something reserved for the King and for the Temple. Jesus received incense, something used in worship to signify a closeness to God. But Jesus also received myrrh, a burial spice.

Jesus referred to his own body as a temple that would be destroyed, and when it was destroyed, burial spices were placed in his tomb to mask the smell of decomposition. On the first day of the week after Jesus' death, a group of women were on their way to the tomb with burial spices when they discovered the tomb to be empty.

The first temple had been destroyed and robbed of its glory hundreds of years before Christ's birth, and the second temple would be destroyed 70 years after His birth and would rob the Israelites of their basic religious traditions. But Jesus could not be destroyed. He died, but death was not a strong enough captor.

I believe the Magi knew exactly what was to come. They knew enough from the Jewish Scriptures to find Jesus, and I believe they understood the 300+ prophecies about Jesus birth, life, and death much more than any Jew at the time. I believe that this intense study of the Scriptures was a large contributing factor to their delay in finding Jesus, as they wanted to honor Him with the most appropriate of gifts. These foreigners understood that the King had come, that He was God incarnate, and that His death would bring salvation to all the world.