“It’s a highway to heaven! None can walk up there but the pure in heart. I am walking up the King’s Highway. If you’re not walking start while I’m talking. There’ll be a blessing you’ll be possessing, walking up the King’s Highway. “
Traditional Epiphany is January 6, but we celebrate this Sunday, tomorrow.
It centers on the visiting of the Magi to the baby Jesus. Epiphany is from the Greek from Koine Greek (ἡ) ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia "appearance", "manifestation", and this is when God manifests as human. So amazing that God enters his own creation. We know the story of them, their travels, meeting with Herod. We don’t know how many of them there were.
When they find baby Jesus, they prostrate themselves. At the time such a thing was a religious exercise, and I can’t help but notice they had to know that this was God incarnate or they wouldn’t have done such a thing. The three gifts they brought carry such a profound message.
Gold represents our possessions. They give this, a symbol of our own laying of our possessions with God. Frankincense is the symbol of prayer and worship, and we should do this at all times; keep His name on our lips. Myrrh was a burial ointment. Jesus will die for us later in this story, and so we must let ourselves die to Him, and have His spirit dwell fully in us, and inform us in all we say and do.
By giving our possessions into His keeping and trusting Him, by praising Him and worshiping Him constantly (I repeat the ‘Jesus Prayer’ as often as I’m mindful), and surrendering ourselves to Him completely, then we will live better lives, others will live better lives as a result of that, and then we’re on the highway to heaven, and maybe, through discipleship, bring some people along.
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