Why does the Church use Incense?

"Incense is mentioned over 150 times in the Scriptures; whether in reference to worship practices, or in reference to eternity. We're going to talk a little bit about incense today, because regardless of how you feel about incense being burnt in church, according to the Scriptures: you're going to smell a lot of it in heaven.

Eastern Orthodox Christians use a lot of incense. Now, I'm not trying to single us out as the only ones that do this, but even other Christians that use incense will point out that Orthodox really like it. At many points in our services, the priest, or the deacon, will move around the church swinging this censer (not haphazardly, there is an order and method to it) and this will release a smell of beautiful, fragrant incense. Inside this censer is burning hot charcoal, and on top of this charcoal is placed incense. Traditional Christianity, and Orthodoxy today, seeks to engage every single one of our senses in the worship of God, and incense is how it engages the sense of smell. And it is the one most closely associated with memory. So just as the smell of a delicious food might remind you of a beautiful moment in your childhood, so the smell of incense for a Christian reminds them instantly of Church. In that one smell they remember Christmas, Easter, every single Sunday they've ever been to church, every little service. It places them straight back in there. An Orthodox Christian can walk into any Orthodox Church on Earth, instantly have their senses engaged in the same way, and instantly remember that they are in the house of God. Incense represents our worship, our prayers, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is a smell that permeates us, and stays with us, even as we leave the service. But all of that is to say what incense does, this isn't saying why we use it.

It can be said that in Old Testament times there were three basic forms of sacrifice: sacrifice of praise, sacrifice of incense, and sacrifice of blood. All three forms of sacrifice continued to exist, and can be said to continue to exist, in the Christian church to this day. Now sacrifice of praise is an easy one to see, this is the sacrificing of time, the sacrificing of a Sunday, the sacrifice of time to worship God. It is the sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice of blood has continued in the full completion of the bloodless sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist; the body and blood of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. This leaves the sacrifice of incense, which is just incense once again. It has continued since the Old Testament times. Jewish people throughout the Old Testament used incense as instructed by God.

The first recorded description of incense being offered to Jesus Christ happens in the first century, in Matthew chapter 2. Here, the three kings come to Jesus bearing gifts. One of them is frankincense. Now each of these three gifts has a specific reason for being there, both prophetic and explanatory, of who Jesus is. Frankincense is used by priests, and Jesus is the high priest. But each of these gifts is also so given TO someone. Frankincense is given to God, and Jesus is God incarnate. Actually all three gifts of the wise men tend to be present in the incense in Orthodox Churches. The censer tends to be either gold-plated, or painted gold, and the incense that is burnt is a mix generally speaking of frankincense and myrrh. Incense is still offered to Christ by wise men around the world. Now this is actually prophesied in the Old Testament, centuries before Christianity has come on the scene, in the Book of Malachi. He quotes God as saying that "My name shall be great among the Gentiles, in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering for My name shall be great among the nations". This straightforward prophecy has come true. Incense is being offered to God everywhere.

Apart from the presence of the gifts of the Magi in the censers in most Orthodox Churches, there are other forms of symbolism that will vary from church to church between east and west. But there are a few often recurring ones. So for instance, the censer tends to have four chains for the four Gospels. Sometimes it will be three for the Holy Trinity. On the censer there are 12 bells for the Twelve Apostles, but the bells have another significance. And that is, in the Old Testament, the robes of the priests also had small bells attached to them, so that when they were behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies the people could still hear them moving around with the little bells making a slight noise. They would know that the priest was okay. Bells, and the sound of these small bells, can still be heard to this day in places of worship of God. The base of the censer is said to be representing the Church, because from the Church the incense rises up to heaven as our prayers rise up to heaven.

Zechariah's use of incense in the gospels shows that it was familiar to Christians of that first century. Two references to incense in John's Book of Revelation seem to imply an early Christian use and familiarity with incense. The incense in these cases is also closely linked to heaven and eternity, showing the presence of the beautiful fragrances of incense in Paradise.

Three of the oldest Christian liturgies make many references to incense. The Liturgy of Saint James, which many scholars date back to the first century, contains 10 references to the burning of incense through the service. Incense is also mentioned in the Liturgy of Saint Mark, and the Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles, dating back to the second or third centuries. The text of the apostolic canons also references the Christian use of incense. Eusebius in the third century references the Christian use of incense, and at the start of the 4th century incense is casually mentioned as being present in a Christian funeral. Note that every single one of these mentions predates the formation of the New Testament canon in the 4th century, and its wide establishment in Christianity by the 5th century, because Christians have been burning incense unto God longer than they have had a Bible to read.

There are several other mentions of incense in the early days of the Church, and at first glance some of these seem negative. But, when you look closer at them, the negativity isn't to incense itself but to the burning of incense unto pagan idols, and this is idolatry and Christians rightly stood against that. This wasn't a problem with incense itself, or the burning of incense, because God instituted the use of incense as we can see in the scriptures. Christianity didn't suddenly come up with it; we have been burning incense since the days of the Old Testament.

For me the story of the Magi giving incense to the baby Jesus is a wonderful reason for why we continue to do so today. It is nice to know that these gifts are still being offered to our Savior. King David says in the Psalms "let my prayer arise before You as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice". This is one of the most repeated verses in Orthodox Church services when we offer incense to God, and this image is continued in the Book of Revelation in a powerful way. That the incense, the prayers of the Saints, rise before the throne of God. It is a powerful image. There will be incense in Heaven, a lot of it, but our journey into Heaven has already begun. We are on that journey now, because heaven begins here in the Church, in our relationship with Christ on Earth.

Thank you for watching our introduction to incense. We were very excited for that episode. There is obviously a lot more that can be said about incense, the traditions of incense, the designs of the censers, and all of the things that go around it. But this is our short introduction."