Gifts Of The Magi (Myrrh) Series

The Gifts of the Magi (Myrrh)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/24/2017

If you’re just joining us, we’ve spent the last two weeks talking about Christmas presents. Ever since the Magi arrived in Bethlehem bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, Christmas has been a time of giving, which, of course, means Christmas is a time of shopping!

If you’re still looking for a last-minute gift idea, Dave Ramsey put together a list of 10 extravagant Christmas gifts for you to consider. The list includes a pink Bentley with a price tag of $200,000. That’s what Paris Hilton bought herself for Christmas a few years ago. The dashboard is encrusted with diamonds, because who doesn’t love nicely built diamond-encrusted dashboards? For those with a flair for theatrics, Neiman Marcus can hook you up with a walk-on role in the Broadway musical Annie for only $30,000! If it’s a hard-knock life for you right now, then this isn’t the best way to spend your money. If you really want to go all-out for that special someone this Christmas, why not buy them an island in the Bahamas? For $15 million, the Caribbean island Sandy Cay can be yours. The island is a little more than 8 acres in size and includes four houses, a private harbor, five shipping vessels, two beaches, a fitness center and more. My favorite item on the list, however, is a trip to the moon. Excalibur, a start-up company in the United Kingdom, is planning to provide fly-by trips to the moon for $150,000. They say they have demand for 29 tickets over the next 10 years. You’ll need to put in for some vacation time, though, as you’ll need six months to train for the trip.

Unfortunately, those gifts idea are just a little outside most people’s budgets. According to a new Gallup poll, Americans plan to spend around $906 on Christmas gifts this year. That’s a Santa-sized bump from last year’s survey when $785 was the estimate. Of course, $906 represents the average. Some families will spend less and other families will spend more. But the truth is—the best gifts are not necessarily the most expensive. Rather, the best gifts are personal and meaningful. They take into consideration the uniqueness and individuality of the recipient. These kinds of gift often tell us something about the one receiving the gift.

This is true as far back as the first Christmas presents ever given—the gifts of the Magi. Once again, the story of the Magi is told in Matthew 2. There, we read:

“The star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:9-11 NLT).

As I mentioned before, these three gifts were valuable items intended to convey honor and great standing upon the recipient. But beyond that, many scholars think that these three gifts were specifically chosen for their special spiritual symbolism. In other words, these gifts tell us something about Jesus. They send a meaningful message about the baby in the manger and the man he would become.

Two weeks ago, we examined the gift of gold, which symbolized the Kingship of Jesus. Gold was a treasure befitting royalty and that just what Jesus was—the newborn King of Kings.

Last week, we discussed the gift of frankincense, which points to the priesthood of Jesus. Frankincense was a key ingredient in the incense burned by Temple priests as a fragment offering to God. According to the book of Hebrews, Jesus is our Great High Priest. His dual nature as God and man, allow him to perfectly represent God to the people through his sinlessness and sympathy and also represent the people to God through his once-for-all sacrifice, atoning for the sins of the world.

That bring us to the third and final gift of the Magi: myrrh. The most bittersweet of the gifts, myrrh carried an ominous message.

Like frankincense, myrrh was derived from the sap of trees and imported to Judea from distant lands, making it quite costly. And, like frankincense, myrrh had a pleasing aroma. However, unlike frankincense, myrrh wasn’t used in worship. Rather, in the Bible, myrrh is most frequently associated with suffering and death.

For centuries, myrrh had been imported to Egypt in droves as an embalming fluid. This practice filtered out through the surrounding areas because, even without the mummification process, the potent aroma of the myrrh would help mask the stench of a decaying body. A disheartening gift for a new mother to hold, yet beautiful in light of Christ’s purpose and plan.