A Christmas Countdown – Day 17

Behind Day 17 of my Advent Calendar are:

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

It’s August 1983 and a teenage lad is waiting anxiously for his O’level results. Eventually the postman arrives and with his hands all a tremble the youngster manages to peel open the tightly sealed envelope and unfold the single slip of paper that he finds contained within.

It turns out the ‘boy done good’ and his pleased as punch mother asks the young man if there is anything he’d like her to buy him to mark his achievement.

It turns out there is. As an already proud only of one moderately trendy T-shirt, the lad imagines himself to be quite the New Romantic and so, without a moment’s hesitation, he replies that he would very much appreciate the new album by Spandau Ballet.

I know this much is true. Because, dear reader, I was that boy.

One of the tracks on ‘True’ was called ‘Gold’. This is highly fortuitous for me since it brings us rather tortuously to the subject of today’s post – namely the gifts that the three wise men brought the Christ child.

Now it is sometimes jokingly suggested that those who had travelled so far to see Jesus must have been men as only men would have brought such impractical gifts. But in fact the gifts that they brought reveal that the wise men were…well, very wise indeed actually. And here’s why.

The first gift was gold which back then was, just as it is now, very valuable. Gold was a gift fit for a King and so it was wholly appropriate for the wise men to offer some to the one who had been born king of the Jews. More than that it fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah which describes how this king would be worshiped by all nations.

‘And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you…
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.,
[Isaiah 60:3-4a,6b]

Frankincense is also mentioned in Isaiah’s prophecy. As a fragrance that was used for the purposes of worship, it had a distinctly priestly connotation making it a highly appropriate gift for Jesus too.

‘But why?’ I hear you ask – well the answer is found in the Old Testament. Back then priests acted as mediators between God and man and offered animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of the sin. But whereas it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins [Hebrews 10:4], the blood of Jesus, the lamb of God, can. [John 1:29].

And so, when Jesus sacrificed himself he too was acting as a priest [Hebrews 14:4] and the only mediator between God and man [1Timothy 2:5]. And so frankincense is an entirely appropriate gift to bring the child who would one day be our great high priest [Hebrews 14:4]

And then there was the myrrh, a fragrance used in the preparation of the dead for burial. And since ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ [1 Timothy 1:15], a task he achieved through his death, burial and subsequent resurrection, myrrh too was an entirely appropriate gift for the wise men to bring.

So gold, frankincense and myrrh were in fact wisely chosen gifts that point us perfectly to a king who, acting as a priest, would die for his people.

But more than anything else, what marked out these travellers from the east as wise was the fact that, recognising Jesus to be somebody so much greater than they were themselves, ‘they fell down and worshipped him’. [Matthew 2:11].

And, to cut a long story short, we would be wise to do the same.

*****

So what shall we have as today’s song? Well I suppose the obvious choice would be ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet but sadly the young man of our story is no longer young, and neither is he now a New Romantic. Please don’t take this to mean that he is now old and somewhat disappointed in love, rather that over the years his musical tastes have changed. So by way of a nod to the second of the wise men’s gifts I’ve chosen a song from the film ‘Young Frankenstein’. I know, I’m pushing it, but it’s Christmas and this song always makes me laugh. Perhaps it will you too!

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Previously from ‘A Christmas Countdown’:

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 16’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 15’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 14’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 13’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 12’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 11’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 10’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 9’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 8’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 7’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 6’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 5’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 4’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 3’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 2’, click here

To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 1’, click here

To read ‘An Advent Calendar – Complete’, click here