STRANGE GIFTS FOR A NEWBORN KING
Matthew 2:1-12
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Today is that wonderful day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus into this world.
A.) This morning we have exchanged and opened gifts.
aa.) I’m sure that this morning has been a very hectic and exciting time for those with children to open gifts.
ab.) It is a time when there is as much joy at watching the expressions and reactions of the children as they opened their gifts.
B.) Certainly the giving and receiving of gifts is something which we enjoy, and though it may be costly it shows that we hold a special place in our hearts for those we hold near and dear to us.
C.) Today, I want us to look back 2,000 years ago to another time of giving gifts on the occasion of the first Christmas.
ca.) We could even go so far as to say that events of the first Christmas also resembled a baby shower to honour the one who had been born in Bethlehem.
cb.) Today when we have a baby shower there will be gifts of diapers, bottles, toys, receiving blankets, and other such gifts as those.
cc.) What kinds of gifts would be given to the baby Jesus?
-- Matthew 2:11
I. THE MAGI BROUGHT GIFTS OF GOLD.
1.) Gold was a symbolic gift for a king but it was an unusual gift for a newborn baby.
A.) Yet even as a baby, Jesus was recognized as being a King.
aa.) The Magi went to the palace of Herod asking the question “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?”
aaa.) Matthew 2:1-2
aab.) It was only a natural assumption to conclude that the King of the Jews would be born in the palace, and a child of the one who was ruling as a King.
aac.) Yet Jesus was not born in the Palace.
.01) The palace was high on a hill overlooking Bethlehem.
.02) Jesus was born not there, but in a barn or perhaps a cave where the livestock would be kept.
B.) None the less these Magi acknowledged Jesus as being a King.
ba.) Gold was a gift that would be given for a king.
ba.) When the Magi from the east placed a gift of gold at the feet of Jesus it was a gift but also a prophecy declaring that Jesus was or would be a King.
C.) Herod recognized Jesus as a King to the point of trying to kill him.
ca.) Herod was not a full Jew.
cb.) Herod was an Idemean.
cba.) As one without a full claim to the kingship, he felt that one born of the Jewish people would be a challenger for the throne and more likely accepted by the Jewish people, so he tried to kill this baby of Bethlehem.
.01) Matthew 2:7-8, 13
D.) Over three decades later when Jesus was nailed to the cross the Roman governor Pilate recognized Jesus as a king and placed that title above Jesus on the cross.
da.) Perhaps Pilate recognized more of the Kingship of Jesus than did the Jews.
daa.) Perhaps Pilate grasped even a little bit of the words of Jesus that His kingdom was not of this world.
dab.) How amazing that one who was outside of the Jewish faith might actually have had a better understanding of the person and ministry of Jesus than the very people he came to.
E.) Truly the gift of gold was a strange and yet a prophetic gift to give to the Christ-child.
ea.) The other gifts these magi gave to Jesus were every bit as strange, yet also prophetic of the person this baby would become.
II. THE MAGI BROUGHT A GIFT OF FRANKINCENSE.
1.) Like the gift of gold, Frankincense would not usually be in our list of gifts to give to a newborn baby.
A.) It was a gift we would not consider suitable for a baby.
B.) It was like the gold a gift we would consider too extravagant to give to a baby.
ba.) Not only was it too extravagant, but it was just not a suitable gift for a newborn baby.
2.) Frankincense was a commodity used by the priesthood.
A.) According to Wikipedia Frankincense is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, and comes from slashing the bark of the trees which produce it, and allowing the resin to bleed out and harden.
B.) It was one of the consecrated substances used in perfumes and incense that only the priesthood was to use and this in their service to God.
C.) It was therefore a very symbolic gift to be given to this child in the manger.
ca.) It was a gift that by its very nature was prophetically declaring Jesus to be a priest.
3.) This babe would later go and forgive sins in Judea as a priest.
A.) The book of Hebrews lists him not only as a priest but as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
aa.) Strange as this gift was from the Magi, it declared Jesus to be a priest, and ultimately Jesus was and is the priest who could bridge the gap between man and God through his own sacrifice.
ab.) As strange as the gifts of Gold and frankincense were to give a baby the third gift was even stranger.
III. THE MAGI BROUGHT A GIFT OF MYRRH.
1.) Picture the scene of gift-giving at a baby shower.
A.) This may be an image that is easier for the women to imagine than the men.
B.) None the less picture the excitement as that new mother unwraps each of the gifts from those who had brought gifts for her new baby.
ba.) Certainly there are many wonderful gifts that are unwrapped, examined, and passed around as gifts for the new baby.
bb.) As the final gift is opened everyone’s mouths drop open, and there are gasps that go out through the crowd as you look at the final gift and read on the labels of these jars the words “embalming fluid.”
bc.) Certainly as a parent if you received a gift of embalming fluid at a baby shower as a gift for your new baby you would be shocked, horrified, insulted, and probably completely angered.
bd.) It is a picture that is so out of the realm of an acceptable gift that we cannot even imagine it as a gift for a new baby.
bda.) Yet as these magi opened their gifts for the baby Jesus, they had given him the gift of myrrh.
bdb.) Myrrh, like frankincense is an expensive and aromatic resin from a tree or shrub.
.01) It did have medicinal benefits (such as when Jesus was offered Myrrh mixed with wine to deaden the pain on the cross -- which he refused.)
.02) Yet the main purpose for myrrh was seen as a fragrant spice to wrap a dead body in to keep the smell down as the body would decompose.
.021) You will recall that when Jesus died that Niccodemis brought spices to wrap the body of Jesus in for burial.
.022) The myrrh would have been one of those spices.
be.) When these Magi brought baby Jesus a gift of myrrh they were prophetically declaring that Jesus had been born for the purpose of dying as a sacrifice for mankind.
bea.) Yet ultimately that is the fullness of the Christmas message that Jesus came to be offered as a sacrifice so that God could give us His very best for all of eternity.
CONCLUSION:
1.) Certainly each of these gifts given to the baby Jesus was to say the least strange and peculiar.
2.) What about the gifts we give back to Christ ourselves?
A.) Christmas is the time for giving.
3.) Today you have likely already opened gifts.
A.) What is the gift you and I will give to Jesus today?
B.) I hope it will be the gift of our time, our love, and our very lives to Him who gave His all for us.
C.) May this be truly a Merry Christmas for each one here and for your families.
ca.) May it also be a time when we are open to the greatest gift that God has given, and may we be given to Him in love and life.
