English-speakers call it “The Epiphany”, but the Germans say Heilige Drei Könige: the Three Holy Kings. And yet St Matthew doesn’t tell us that they were kings or even that there were three of them. “Kings” comes from the prophecy of Isaiah 60:3, read on the feast: “Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
What Matthew does tell us is that these were wise men – probably astrologers – and that they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Three gifts suggest that there were three bearers of gifts, and so Three Wise Men or Three Holy Kings.
Whether they are of astrologers or kings, the pictures of wise men on Christmas cards always seem to me to be premature. By Epiphany – when the Twelve Days of Christmas are over – we can assume that the Christ Child has moved from lying in a manger amidst the animals to more comfortable accommodation.
The most striking of the Epiphany pictures is one by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in the National Gallery in London. It’s the faces of the kings and the onlookers that are so wonderfully portrayed. Here is human malice and cynicism. There is simple bewilderment in the picture and some very ugly faces. But all of them are gazing – one or two of the soldiers goggle-eyed – at what is going on.
In front of a poor stable, three kings – Eastern potentates in splendid robes – are giving the most sumptuous gifts to a little baby and his mother. Somebody in the background is bending Joseph’s ear: perhaps asking him what’s going on; perhaps telling him a joke, like people do in the middle of solemn ceremonies.
But the really lasting mpression that the picture leaves is of a baby and his mother at the mercy of a cruel and difficult world and of cruel and difficult people. The lavishness of the gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – somehow points up the squalor of much human life.
Turning from pictures to music, amongst the most popular Christmas carols is Christina Rossetti’s In the bleak midwinter, set to music by both Gustav Holst and Harold Darke. It’s a very beautiful poem and, in either setting, a very lovely piece of music.
What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part. Yet what I can I give him—Give my heart.
Of course I must give my heart. But I think Rossetti could have gone further. Far more important than what we give the Lord is what he gives us. Heilige Drei Könige misses something important. Others refer to the feast as the Epiphany, the “manifestation”: God showing us himself; God appearing in our midst.
What is on show are not gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh but God’s love for us and the light of the world. “Arise, shine; for your light has come!” Our gift to God is not just our heart – though, in one sense, that is everything we have to give – but the gift to God of our gold, our frankincense, our myrrh.
Thanks to We three kings of Orient are we know what gold, frankincense, and myrrh mean. Gold is kingship; frankincense is divinity; myrrh is suffering. That’s what the gifts of the Wise Men meant. But what about our gifts – our gold, our frankincense, and our myrrh? Let us ask ourselves once more what our gold is, what our frankincense is, and what our myrrh is.
Each of us will have a different answer, but here are some suggestions. The gold we bring is our money, our time, our talent. God is asking for all of these in response to the gift to us of the baby Jesus, the light of the world. He is asking us to shine; not to hide our light under a bushel but to hold it up for everyone to see. He’s asking us to give him of our very best.
The frankincense we give is prayer, spirituality and worship: taking a full part in the worshipping life of the church; saying our prayers and reading the Bible. The myrrh is taking up our cross and following Jesus, the Saviour of the world: putting others and their needs in front of us and our own needs; accepting whatever suffering life gives us and offering it up to God in union with the cross and passion of Jesus.
If we take this seriously – this offering of gold, frankincense and myrrh – then we shall make a lasting impression, in a cruel and difficult world, with its cruel and difficult people, to the honour of a baby and his mother. The lavishness of our gifts – our gold, frankincense and myrrh – will not only, as in Bruegel’s painting, contrast with the squalor of much human life, but also begin to change things for the better.
As we do our little bit, each one of us, we shall be living up to the call: “Arise, shine, for your light is come!”
Mgr Andrew Burnham is a Prelate of Honour to his Holiness.
Photo: Epiphany in Bethlehem, 2019, THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images.
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