They Presented unto him Gifts; Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

It is a lovely story and one which has shaped the Christian imaginary about Christmas. There is something exotic and strange about the Magi-kings from Anatolia, the wise men from the east, who come first to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem. They come on a journey seeking the one that is “born King of the Jews.” They come to worship him.

 

Only Matthew tells us this story and yet we know very little about the Magi, who they were, how many exactly there were, or even exactly where they came from. Anatolia is a pretty broad term for Asia Minor or modern Turkey, a land from which different civilizations and cultures have emerged, from Assyrians to Persians and many others. Tradition speaks of three wise men but only on the basis of the three gifts. Later legends provide them with names and cultural identities that embrace the peoples of the world. We would probably provide them with email addresses and TikTok or Instagram accounts, for how else would they be real for us in our digitally obsessed age?

 

The story is known as the Epiphany which marks not just the event but a concept or doctrine. Epiphany means manifestation, the idea of something being made known to us, like a light that enlightens and embraces us in its meaning and truth. As such it connects very much to the life of intellectual communities, to schools and colleges where things are made manifest to us as students and teachers. Thus, this story relates to the proper business of education, to the making known of the things that are to be known; in short, to the pursuit of learning. In a way there could be no schools without the idea of the epiphany, the idea that there are things to be known. In this sense, the magoi represent Plato’s eros, the passionate desire to know, and Aristotle’s idea that all people “desire by nature to know.” The story belongs to the truth of our humanity in seeking to know, no doubt in one way or another and in varying degrees of intensity.

 

The Epiphany story marks the end of Christmas and the beginning of a new focus, a focus on the things of God made known to us through the witness of the Scriptures and our reasoning upon them. There is a journey to Bethlehem but equally a journey away from Bethlehem. They return to “their own country another way,” as Matthew puts it. Yet with the magoi-kings, the Christmas mystery goes global and extends to omni populo, all people. It is not just a cultural festivity for one culture and people; it speaks to a universal desire.

 

They come seeking but they come as well to worship. They come bearing gifts. The story is the origin of gift-giving. What is that really about? Is it an attempt to buy someone’s favour? Is our gift-giving simply a political stratagem to gain an advantage for ourselves over others by manipulation and self-interest? Or is gift-giving about honouring and respecting one another? The gifts point to the very idea of epiphany. They are gifts that teach the meaning of Christ. The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh are “sacred gifts of mystic meaning” that signify Christ, in the Christian understanding, is King, and God, and Man. Myrrh is an ancient burying spice that points to Christ’s sacrifice. The cross is omnipresent in the Christmas story.

 

“They departed to their own country another way,” Matthew tells us, having been “warned of God in a dream … not to return to Herod” in Jerusalem,. Herod had told them to let him know where the child is so that he, too, can come and worship him. We know that Herod had other designs, namely, to destroy the child Christ, the king who seems to threaten his rule and reign. We saw last week what that means in the story connected to this one about the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. The poet, T.S. Eliot, intuits the deeper meaning of the departure of the magoi. They are, he has them say, “no longer at ease” in their return to their kingdoms.

 

This goes to an important and defining feature of the Epiphany in the idea of things made known to us. It is about transformation. They are changed by what they have seen. Thus, the story of the Epiphany is complemented by Paul’s words in Romans: “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Education is precisely about the possibility of that kind of change.

 

We sang Canada’s first Christmas carol, the Huron Carol, originally written in Wendat, the language of the Huron peoples. It places this story in the context of the indigenous cultures of Canada. But does that mean reducing the story to our lives and cultures or does it mean that our cultures and lives are gathered into this story in its universal meaning and truth? There is all the difference in the world between those two approaches. The journey and the gifts suggest the latter. We embark upon the journey of the understanding which embraces but cannot be reduced simply to one culture over and against other cultures. It is not the affirmation of our existential and personal lives and interests. It is not simply about ourselves but about who we are in the light of God.

 

One of the most outstanding scholars who ever came out of the School and College was Robert Darwin Crouse. I cannot think of the Epiphany without being reminded that this aspect of the Epiphany was one of his most favourite and most frequently quoted scriptural passages: “be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds” as opposed to being conformed to the world in its competing and divisive agendas. Epiphany opens us out to the radical teaching about God that speaks to the truth and dignity of our humanity as knowers and lovers, as those who seek the truth in the pursuit of learning. As such it frees us from ourselves and from the idolatry of worshipping ourselves by recalling us to the things of God made manifest to us. Such are the gifts of the Epiphany.