Church of the Holy City

Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh, and Herod

Gold, Incense, Myrrh, and Herod
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 16, 2011

Isaiah 60: 1-6 Matthew 2:1-13 Psalm 72

Our Bible readings this morning suggest two ways to respond to Jesus: spiritually and earthly. And our Bible passages suggest two ways to feel about Jesus. We can feel adoration and gratitude for the gifts of God. Or we can feel threatened by God–yes, threatened. The prophet Isaiah is all about the glory of God, and the Magi from Persia brought gifts to baby Jesus as tribute to His spiritual glory. These passages suggest adoration and gratitude. Our Psalm reading is one of the royal Psalms. That is, it is about a mighty king. And the birth of a new king, from an earthly perspective, is what King Herod felt threatened by. I suggest that we may respond to Jesus in both these ways, when we consider the inner sense of these passages. Jesus can be worshipped in spiritual glory, or Jesus can be seen as a threat to us, surprising as this may seem.
King Herod saw Jesus as a political threat. Herod was king of the region of Israel in which Jesus was born. He certainly had ample reasons for seeing Jesus as a political threat. First, the Magi ask Herod where the king of the Jews had been born. Herod was supposed to be king of the Jews, so these words would not have been well received by Herod. He then asks the chief priests and rabbis where the king would be born. They tell him that out of Bethlehem, “will come a ruler.” More threatening words. So the birth of Jesus was seen by Herod as the birth of a potential king who would threaten his rule over Israel. For this reason, he asked the Magi to tell him where Jesus was after they had found Him. As Matthew tells us, it was Herod’s intention to kill Jesus.
But in Isaiah’s prophesy, we do not find words about an earthly king, but rather we find words about the glory of Yahweh, the God if Israel. This prophesy talks about the time of Christ’s incarnation. Isaiah says, “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.” But the glory of God will shine in this thick darkness,
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of Yahweh rises upon you . . .
Yahweh rises upon you
and his glory appears over you (60:1, 2).
The Gospel of John echoes these words, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5, 9). In Isaiah, the glory of Yahweh brings spiritual elation: “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy (60:5). John echoes this, too, “To all those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1:12). These passages tell us about receiving the Christ spiritually, and how that will illuminate our lives and make our hearts throb with joy.
The gifts of the wise men symbolize people who are filled with devotion to God. The gold, frankincense, and myrrh symbolize all the things in a regenerate person.
By gold, frankincense, and myrrh are signified all things of the good of love and of faith in the Lord, by gold those of the good of love, by frankincense those of the good of faith, and by myrrh those of both in the externals (AC 9293).
These three qualities are the three levels of our personality. The highest level is called celestial, or heavenly. The second level down is called spiritual. And the lowest level is called natural, or external. The heavenly level is concerned with love for God. The spiritual level is concerned with a love for truth and a love for our neighbor. And the natural level is concerned with our actions that flow from love and truth. When our actions flow from love for God, according to the truth we learn from the Bible and other teachings, then our natural level, or external, shines with the spiritual life God gives us from on high. Then, the celestial and spiritual levels shine through our external behavior with divine life. The three gifts of the Magi signify a condition when all three levels are opened up and we give thanks to God for the joy and peace He gives us. This is what is symbolized by the gifts of the wise men. We have all three levels in our soul. But it takes spiritual cultivation to realize them all. There is a process by which we come into this condition, and it doesn’t happen instantaneously.
We may think that this is the way we all want to live. We may see Jesus as a glorious gift to our lives. Jesus may feel great to us. We may think that, of course, we want to have that life symbolized by the gifts of the wise men. For most of us, this is true–some of the time, perhaps a lot of the time. But then there are times when we may feel differently. Believe it or not, there may be times when Herod’s ghost arises in our souls, and we don’t feel good about Jesus.
The problem for us comes at that lowest level of our personalities–the natural or external level. Our lowest level is where our actions reside. Our lowest level is where we confront the world. Our lowest level is that level where we meet the world, other people, and where our survival instincts are. When spirituality meets with a love for worldly interests we may find conflict. This is when Herod appears, and Jesus is seen as a threat.
The reality of God can be a threat to our ego, or our self-hood. Recognizing that there is a God means that we are not God and our way isn’t the only way. We can be attached sometimes to our own way of doing things and don’t want to see things done differently. Sometimes, maybe often. The reality of God means that we aren’t the most important thing in the universe. It means, indeed, that we aren’t even the most important thing in our own lives. Our external level, the level adapted to life on earth, struggles hard to keep us oriented to ourselves. Yet the reality of God means that we need to become humble, open to other people’s needs, and to recognize that everything we have is a gift from God, not our own power. I once heard it put this way. “There is only one thing you need to know about spirituality–there is a God and you’re not it.” Easier said than done. When we want the world to go our way; when we want material things in the world that we don’t have, when we want more money than we have, when we aren’t content with our lot in life–we are playing God. We are supposing that our way is better than God’s way. Then we want God out of the way so we can do things according to our whims. Then King Herod is ruling in our souls.
But we are all here today in church. And for us, there is a God. We are here because we recognize that we are not the final masters of our destiny. We are here to give thanks and to worship. But we are also here to learn. The spiritual and celestial levels of our soul are the first ones that are formed. The two of them are also collectively called our internal level. Our internal level is the first level formed when we are in the process of spiritual growth. Our internal level is where our knowledge about God and God’s laws reside. This internal level is above our lowest level. It is the internal level that gives direction to our behavioural level. It gives direction to our external level, in other words. Our internal level tells us how to live. That is the struggle that I would guess we all are going through in our lives. We need to learn what God’s will for us is. We don’t have this information imbedded in us from birth. Then, as we learn more and more about what God’s will for us is, we need to implement that into our lives and do it! This isn’t always easy, depending on the habits we have learned early in life and due to our natural tendency to think of self first. This struggle to live according to spiritual laws is called temptation. It is a struggle to bring into action and life what we have learned about God’s will and love for our neighbor. It is that struggle to realise that there is a God and I’m not it.
But as we wrestle with these currents in our soul, we will ultimately gain ground. Our internal will more and more shine forth in our external. The love and truth that we know within will become love and truth without. Our external will shine with internal light. In the land of thick darkness, a light has dawned. Opening our celestial and spiritual degrees mean letting God into our heart, mind, and ultimately our behavior. We only know true joy when we have God with us. Joy is love in act. And God is the source of all love. Even in the very deeds of our lives in this world, we will know heavenly joy. The light shines in the darkness. Does the darkness comprehend it? More and more, it does. Cracks in our ego and self-interest break open and God’s light shines through. Our external begins to look like our internal. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are brought to God as a thank-offering. Our hearts throb with joy. And in our joy, with overwhelming gratitude, we give thanks to God.