Epiphany of our Lord
Matthew 2:1-12
The Gifts
2:1* ¶ Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,
2* “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”
3* When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;
4* and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5* They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet:
6* ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’”
7* Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared;
8* and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”
9* When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was.
10* When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy;
11* and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
12* And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ child. Amen
We are now entering .the Epiphany season of the church. That is a s strange word for most of us. It is the season of the church.year that follows the Christmas
season. The Day of the .Epiphany is the day that the wise.. men brought their gifts to the baby Jesus. We have in our modern-time combined the events of Christmas and Epiphany together. But in the Christmas story in Matthew’s gospel the wise men came after the Christmas night. They came 12 days after the birth of the’ baby .
The whole Epiphany season tel1s us of the events of Jesus before his ministry starts. In this season we are told of his journey to the temple where he frightened his mother by staying away so long and not coming home with the rest of the family. We are told of the baptism . of the man Jesus by John in the river Jordan. ’The rest of the Sundays of the Epiphany tells of the-miracles and glories power .that Jesus brought to earth to heal and restore mankind.
So the Epiphany’ season starts where the birth of Christ ends and continues his life after that. As we know the story of the wise men it is significant that even at this young age, Jesus .was already despised by one man namely Herod.. We know the wise men went to Herod first looking for the king of the Jews. Herod called together all the scribes and high priest to find out what these men from ,the east were ’talking about. The scribes quoted a verse from Micah 5:2 stating that a king would be born. We know that Herod asked the wise men to return to him after they had found )he baby so that he could come and worship him. We know that’ Herod was not telling the truth. He really wanted to kill the babe. For Herod was a very not very trusting of a person and didn’t want anyone to take over his throne. He was so jealous that he even had his wife, his mother in law and all 5 of his sons killed so that he wouldn’t have to worry about loosing the throne. We know that the wise men didn’t return to Herod but went home another way.
We also know that Herod became so angry that he killed all the male babes Bethlehem under the age of 1 so that he might kill the king of the Jews, Jesus. We know that
God told Joseph,to go to Egypt so that they wouldn’t have any trouble.
But back to the wise men. These were men that studied the stars and were. very religious men. They knew the scriptures and had read about a savior that was to be born. They wanted to come ,and worship him, in reverence and humility. They wanted to give glory to the son of God here on earth so they brought gifts befitting a king. They brought gifts to praise and glorify the king of the world. We know that the Wise men thought of Jesus as something special because the text says they worshiped him. They came in reverence to someone whom they knew was mightier and more powerful that they were. The wise men didn’t know what kind of ruler Jesus would be, but they knew that He wass a ruler. We know that Jesus ruled with love instead of power or force. That He came to earth not as an earthly king but as a king to save all men
from their sins.
The gifts that the wise men brought reflected the ideas they has about Jesus. One brought gold. We know that gold is the king of all metals. It is the
most prized of any element in the earth. It is a gift fit for a king. And since Jesus was a king, a heavenly king this gift fit him perfectly. We must remember that
Jesus is a king and we cannot meet him on equal terms. We must always meet Him on terms of complete submission and complete surrender. Jesus is the King of our lives but He rules with a loving heart.
The great ’sea admiral Lord Nelson was noted as a very gracious victory. He was always completely courteous to all of his captives. Well after one battle Lord Nelson was welcoming a captain that he had conquered aboard his ship. The defeat captain knew of Nelson’s kind ways so He approached him with his hand out for a friendly handshake, as a friend would approach a friend, not as a conquered enemy approaches the victor. Well Nelson didn’t extend his hand, He told the man your
sword first, then your hand.
This is the way Jesus treats us. He first wants us to know that He is the ruler, the king of our lives, then He will treat us with love an respect.
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Another gift that the wise men brought was that of Frankincense. Frankincense was used in the temple as a perfume in the sacrifices to God. The wise men by
giving this gift to Jesus looked at him as a priest. A priest means one who builds bridges. So Jesus as the priest of our lives, builds bridges between us and God.
It was Jesus on the cross built the ultimate bridge between man and God. For Jesus through his death and resurrection built an everlasting bridge between God and man. Jesus is our bridge only through him can we truly know the Father and the Father truly know us.
And finally the last gift that the wise men brought was that of Myrah. ’This was used to embalm bodies of dead people. I don’t know if they knew how Jesus was
going to die, but we can say that they foreshadowed his death. We know that Jesus came into this world to die for us. The task of Jesus ministry was to make us ready for his death and resurrection. Jesus had to die a miserable death on the cross so that you and I could have eternal life. So the gifts that the wise men brought Jesus were gifts that fit Jesus calling. Jesus is the king of our lives, the priest who makes bridges between us and God, and also Jesus had to die for us on the cross so that we might have eternal life.
But what gifts do we bring to Jesus. I think that the one gift we can bring to Jesus is the t gift of our lives. Jesus wants us to surrender our whole selves to his love and power. Jesus wants us to give him our lives so that He can give us a gift, the gift of eternal life. The gift that you and I can give Jesus when He come calling at our hearts is our live,. Jesus is calling each of us daily to surrender to him, to let him be in control. If you are like me this is a difficult thing to do. We find it very difficult to surrender completely to the power and love of Jesus. We so often want to do what we want to do, to be our own bosses, and not listen to the voice of Jesus calling to us to let Him be in control.
So we should try to surrender ourselves to Jesus. Let him have complete control of our lives. Let us give Jesus the greatest gift we can, the gift of our lives, the gift of complete surrender.
And a final accept of this day of Epiphany is the idea of the light of Christ coming into the world. The light of the star led the wise men to Jesus so the light of Christ lead us to His salvation.
Light is important to everything we do.
A pastor tells this story about moving to a new mission church and his experience with light. He said, I had made arrangements to spend a few nights in our new home before the family came with the furniture. I went to the power company and signed the necessary papers, and made the arrangements fer the electricity to be turned on.
But upon returning home, there was no power. The furnace couldn’t be turned on. The light didn’t work. I couldn’t use the range. It was like camping "in" instead of "put" and I was not pleased. He couldn’t do anything that we wanted to accomplish that evening, from typing on his electric typewriter to installing things around the house. The electric company said they were sorry about the problem the next day, they had forgotten to have him sign another paper.
Just as light was important to that pastor, Jesus as light of the world is important for us. He is the one that give us the power to live our lives to his glory. He is the power that allows us to live for him and to help others. Jesus is the power we need in our lives, period.
We need to surrender to Jesus and have his power, his light run our lives.
Amen.
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale December 31, 2007
