The gifts of the Magi

The Epiphany, a holy day observed on January 6 each year, is an important event for Christians everywhere. It commemorates the day when Jesus was revealed to the Gentiles.

Jesus' earthly family and and His visitors until this time, had been Jews. Mary and Joseph were Jewish, as were the shepherds and others in Bethlehem who may have visited the Baby during His early days. The Messiah, after all, had been promised to the Jewish people.

The Wise Men, or Magi, were astrologers from faraway eastern lands who had noticed a bright new star in the sky, and knew that it signified the birth of a king. The Bible does not specify how many kings there actually were, but tradition has placed the number at three, because three gifts are mentioned in Matthew's Gospel.

Each king assembled a caravan and set out from his own country, following the brilliant new star. As the Wise Men journeyed, their paths converged and they traveled together towards Bethlehem.

The gifts they brought to the Infant Jesus were highly symbolic of His true nature, and of the course His future life would follow. These gifts were as follows:

Gold

Gold is a bright, shiny, yellow metal valued for its lustrous beauty and scarcity. The gift of gold presented to Jesus by the Magi acknowledged the fact that He was indeed a king. The precious metal was ordinarily found as a part of the wealth and treasure found in the store houses of earthly rulers. This gift of gold may have been used by Joseph to help finance the Holy Family's flight to Egypt.

Frankincense

Frankincense is obtained from the Boswellia tree which grows in India, Arabia. and northern Africa. When the bark of this tree is cut back, the resin bleeds out and hardens. These hardened resin drops are called tears. The tears can be ground and burned as incense.

In the days of Jesus, frankencense was widely used for rites in the temple in Jerusalem. As frangrant smoke from the incense rose toward heaven, the Jews imagined it carried their prayers and sacrifices to God. The gift of frankincense to the infant Jesus symbolized His divinity.

Myrrh

Myrrh got its name from the Arabic word murr, which means bitter. The myrrh tree can be found in the Middle East, India and Northeast Asia. In Jesus' time it was applied to dead bodies before burial to preserve the bodies in the hot climate. It also symbolized suffering.

These three gifts were the wise men's way of saying to Jesus, "One day, although you are a king, and will be worshipped, you will also suffer".

The Magi could not have known that their long journey and the gifts they brought to Jesus would be remembered and celebrated more than 2,000 years later, by the more than 2.1 billion Christians now living on Earth.

The Magi were important because they were the first non-Jews to approach the stable in Bethlehem to worship the new-born King. Their presence heralded the good news that the Savior did not come to Earth for the Jewish people alone, but for each and every person in the human family.

Reference:

The Bible: Matthew 2: 1-12