Epiphany Frankincense

Ephesians 5:2, Isaiah 60:6-7

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Today we are going through the three gifts of the Magi in the season of Epiphany, and I’d like to share with you today the gift of frankincense. The Magi brought this special gift to Christ, the newborn king. And I have some frankincense with me today. This is incense of a kind we’re probably a little bit familiar with, at least. This is called stick incense. It says it’s premium quality. I don’t think it’s actual premium quality, but, hopefully we can still learn from it and enjoy it.

You typically put it in a holder and you light it and it burns as a sweet smelling incense. This is one of the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus, not in this form, but in a different form. And we see in this gift, like the other gifts that the Magi knew who Jesus was. They knew what his purpose was. And in particular, frankincense reveals that purpose to us. Frankincense was commanded for use in the tabernacle, in the wilderness, and then later in the temple, and it was placed in the Holy Place. That’s the part of the temple reserved just for the priests. And there it had the candelabra. It had the showbread for the 12 tribes of Israel. And inside the Holy Place was also the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. Now at the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of creation, there was this altar of incense. And in the book of Exodus we hear God commanded specific incense be used to burn at the entrance into the Most Holy Place outside that very curtain. And one of the main ingredients that we read in Exodus 30 is frankincense.

Now, this comes from a tree. I believe it’s the Boswellia tree. They take bark from that tree and they break it down. And then the pieces of the resin that are made from that bark become this sweet smelling incense when you heat it or when you burn it. And so it made the Holy place and the Most Holy Place have this very sweet scented smell. When they would burn this, this sacred incense that the Lord had commanded. The Magi bringing frankincense to Jesus indicate they know he’s going to serve as a priest. Not just any priest, but the priest of all priests, the priest who would fulfill all of that tabernacle and temple worship and work from the old covenant that all points to him as its fulfillment.

And so we know that in Christ we have that purification of all of our sins. We have that cleansing in his sacrifice on the cross, the sacrifice he not only offers as priest, but he himself is. Out of love for you, he gave up his life on that cross. He offered it up to his father in your place to cleanse you of all of your sins, to sanctify you with his own Holy Spirit that has been washed over you and poured into your heart in Holy Baptism. And through that, through that cleansing, that sanctifying, we too can enter that Most Holy Place through the sacrifice of Jesus, atoning for all of our sins. We too can go into the presence of God Himself, where he dwells with us in Word and Sacrament. And so we read from Ephesians chapter five.

Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2)

There we see Christ giving himself up in love for us so that we can be restored to God. We can be reconciled and purified, that we can enter that Most Holy Place of God’s gracious and loving presence in heaven. We see this fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah 60.

They [the Gentiles] shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. (Isaiah 60:6-7)

And in this beauty of the Lord’s house, this beauty of the work of Christ, the priest, done for us. We too are brought up to the altar, the holy altar of God, and we to rejoice in and share his gracious presence with us in Word and Sacrament.