
Heatherside Advent 2024
..that means Christmas is coming!
Heatherside Celebrates Advent 2024
Kings? Wise Men?
Whoever they were, whatever their role and however many of them there were, we can be certain that the visitors from the East did not have an easy journey: after all, they didn't have a clue where they were going (and no satnav declared 'You have reached your destination'), but they did believe they were experiencing an important moment in history.
Theirs was a journey of faith.
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Had they made the journey today there would be all kinds of political considerations - borders to be crossed and visas needed. Would their gifts get through Customs?
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They probably came from somewhere in what we now call the Middle East, the Gulf, the Arabian peninsula. They would have passed through places we now know as ruined cities like Petra and other trading centres.

The Journey of the Magi revisited
So we got there, - eventually,
Delayed by issues at the border crossings,
strip searches, sniffer dogs, suspicious officials flanked by hard -eyed young men totting guns.
They questioned us: Were we smugglers?
Might the costly spices we’d brought as gifts
be banned substances?
And what of the gold?
Was it to finance arms smuggling, insurrection or business bribes?
Did we stick by this cock and bull story about following a star?
Why didn’t we use satnavs?
Why this obsession with astrology?
“A star portending the birth of a Jewish Ruler!”
That alone nearly got us arrested.
But they let us go, their racial prejudices trumped by their conviction
that we were harmless crazies bent on a wild goose chase.
Finally, we reached journey’s end, despite
that last unnerving interview with Herod,
honey tongued, but with ill disguised murder seething in his eyes.
Was it all worth it to discover by starlight
a poor couple’s boy child in a tiny shack?
Well, let me say this: On our first entering in
we glimpsed majesty in his piercing gaze,
an awesome moment compelling worship.
He needed no court flunkies,
no smooth talking press secretary,
no trumpets, hype, or cameras.
A human child, he manifested a wisdom welling from the depths of the eternal silence.
Here, we sensed, we had touched divinity;
Now for us life would never be the same.
Home we went another way and found another life.
©Don Dowling
With apologies to T.S. Eliot.
Click on the arrow to hear the poem read
Matthew (in whose writing Jesus is seen as King of the Jews) describes the visit of the kings. And the way he describes it makes them seem like a State Visit from one kingdom to another. As would happen now, the visitor brings gifts for his host. They set out from home expecting to find a king in a palace, not a baby in a manger!
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Gold represents wealth.When the magi brought it as a gift to Jesus, it was most likely symbolic of their acknowledgment of his authority as king.
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Frankincense is a sweet smelling herb often used to burn at the altar symbolising prayers being offered up to God.. In the old testament, frankincense is mentioned as one of the four components of the sacred incense burned by Jewish priests in the Sanctuary. The gift of frankincense to Jesus by the magi would have signified his divinity and his future as high priest. Its great value also made it an excellent gift for the new king.
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Myrrh is used by embalmers after death. Ancient people sometimes burned myrrh in the rooms of the sick. It was even given as a medicine to Jesus as he was dying. It was used on Jesus’s body after he died, a custom that was also used by the Hebrews as well as the ancient Egyptians, who used it in embalming. Scholars believe that myrrh was given to Jesus by the wise men because its bitter taste represented the hard times he would have in his life. It may have also foreshadowed his death. Some also believe that its medicinal properties symbolize his role as a healer.
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Both frankincense and myrrh are also used in traditional Chinese medicine.
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