Matthew 2:1-12

12/21/08
Matthew 2:1-12
Hudson UMC

Giving gifts has become a part of our culture, something that we all do. The most obvious gift giving at this time of year is on Christmas, a time that we give each other gifts to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world. We don’t only give gifts at Christmas time, though, do we? We also give gifts for birthdays, for anniversaries, for housewarming parties and going away parties and all kinds of other special events. The point is that giving gifts is something that is important to our way of life.

When we give gifts, however, we do not just get any old thing for the other person. We do our best to find a gift that will be the kind of gift that the person wants, to give them something that they will appreciate and cherish. In other words, we want the gifts that we give to have meaning. We want our gift to be something more than money spent for an object, but something that will make a difference, even a small one, in the life of another person.

We have all heard the story of the wise men who presented gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus, but what you might not have known is that these gifts were not random, but were very intentional and were very meaningful. I want to spend a bit of time this morning explaining these three gifts and how they are meaningful and how they impact our lives.

The first gift that is given is a gift of gold. Now, I don’t need to tell you what gold is. Though we do not use gold for our common currency, we all know what gold is and we could probably recognize it if we saw it. It is a gift of high value; indeed, gold could be described as symbolizing wealth itself. Most of us would not give a gift of gold, partly because it is not particularly useful to us in our culture today. We cannot spend it in its raw form, so we might have a hard time understanding why the wise men gave a gift of gold to Jesus.

We sometimes talk about how difficult it is to get a gift for those who “have everything”. The problem is that, if someone like that needs something, they probably already have it. Gold would have been a present that would not have been common among peasants, but for kings. It is a symbol of subjection, that the ruler is given gold by the ruled that the rulers glory might increase. Surely this was an unusual gift for a peasant child, but it was given and it was not given by accident.

What does it say about Jesus that He was given a gift of gold? It means that He is a king. Indeed, the fact that He received this gift from wise men from the East shows us that He is not just a king over the people of Israel, but a king over all the world. The kingship of Christ was not only recognized by those who were the so-called “people of God”, but pagans from far away as well. It is a tremendous gift. If anyone had seen this taking place, they would have been very confused indeed. This young child, a descendant of David, who was not even welcomed with hospitality in David’s city was being visited by wise men from far away and receiving kingly gifts from their hands.

The real question we need to ask ourselves about this is, “What does the kingship of Christ mean for us?” What difference does it make that Christ is a king? After all, we live in America, what do we have to do with kings? Though we do not trust earthly leaders to rule us justly and we have established a system of checks and balances to make sure that those with political authority cannot do us wrong, Christ is an absolute monarch. The decisions of God are not subject to a vote, we do not hold veto power, and we are not invited to serve in an advisory capacity. Christ insists on ruling with supreme authority. What this means for us is that, this world is ruled by God. This does not mean that everything that happens is the perfect will of God; after all, sin is never God’s perfect will. What it means is that no violation of the law of God goes unnoticed. God can be trusted to look out for us and to comfort us, even when things seem unbearable. When the world seems intolerable, we can trust that there is still a king on heaven’s throne.

The next gift is somewhat interesting. I did not grow up in the church, but I remember singing songs about these gifts and I never understood what in the world frankincense was. In my elementary school mind, I tried to find other words that sounded like it to see if they were related. Unfortunately, the only word I could think of that sounded anything like frankincense was Frankenstein, which, as you might imagine, is way off. Frankincense is a special type of incense of particularly high quality.

What we might have trouble understanding is what it means for frankincense to be given as a gift. Not everyone in this room likely burns incense on a regular basis. In fact, cultural trends in the last hundred years might have even prejudiced you against incense in general. And yet, the burning of incense has had a long tradition within the Christian church. Eastern Orthodox churches are known for their burning of incense, creating a multi-sensory experience of worship. Some Roman Catholic churches do the same kind of thing, and you can probably find a few Anglican churches that do so as well. However, we United Methodists seldom, if ever, burn incense in our worship services so this imagery might be lost on us.

Throughout the Bible, incense is used as part of the worship of God. It is always offered with the sacrifices in the Temple and God provided a recipe for a very specific type of incense that was to be used for no other purpose. In the book of Revelation, there is a description that the twenty-four elders all have a harp and a bowl of incense, which it describes as the prayers of the saints. Incense has always been used as a symbol of prayer. When the wise men gave Jesus a gift of incense, they were not suggesting that he set up his own church service where they could burn it, nor were they saying that his house needed to smell better. They were making a prophetic statement that Jesus was going to be a man of prayer.

We read throughout the Gospels that Jesus prayed for all kinds of people. He prayed for the sick to get well, He prayed for His disciples that they might not lose their strength, He prayed to be given the strength to endure crucifixion, and He prayed as a way of keeping close to His heavenly Father. Over and over again, we read that Jesus went off by Himself to pray. His prayer was vital to His existence. Jesus shows us an example of what it means to be God’s child and it means that we are to pray.

However, the fact that Jesus was a man of prayer once upon a time does not help us much today other than it gives us an example to follow. The fact of the matter is that, though Jesus has died, been raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, He has not stopped praying for us. We read that, “He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” And “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” And, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” We have all heard of stories about people who have really felt the prayers of others. You may have even shared some of your own. Always remember that it is not only your brothers and sisters in Christ who are praying for you, but Christ Himself is praying on your behalf. He is rejoicing when you rejoice, He is grieving when you grieve, and He cares deeply about your relationship with Him.

The last gift that was given to Christ at this time was a gift of Myrrh. Myrrh was a particular type of ointment that was commonly associated with death. Myrrh is a bitter herb that was often applied to dead bodies to prepare them for burial. Now, we tend to like the idea that Christ would be given gold, partly because we understand that such a gift displays the kingship of Christ and reminds us that, when all is said and done, we are royalty, sons and daughters of God and co-heirs with Christ. In the age to come we will reign over the earth alongside of Christ, and it will be a time of great joy. We like the idea of a gift of frankincense because it reminds us that God is near and that the only one who is both God and Man is praying for us, is indeed the greatest prayer warrior of all time. We know that to follow a Christ that prays is to pursue a life of prayer. Even when we are not as dedicated to prayer as we know we should be, we take courage that Christ has paved the way.

This gift of Myrrh, though, is not as pleasant to us, is it? It is a gift that is being given to a baby that symbolizes death. It seems to be a completely inappropriate gift to make, and yet we read about it here. What does this gift say about Christ? It says that this baby, who is so meek and mild, will not remain a baby long. This baby, who is so cute, will one day become a man; a man who will lay His life down for you and for me. Here, even at the beginning of the Gospel story, is its conclusion. Christ has come to love us and to transform us and, in order to do this, He must die. The manger is covered with the shadow of the cross, birth and death are side by side in this story. The gift of gold and the gift of frankincense are logical and pleasing gifts, but the gift of myrrh is somewhat troubling in the midst of this hope and joy.

Why should I say that the gift of myrrh is troubling? Is it not a symbol of the atonement, of the love of God, of the triumph of grace and the transformation of lives? How could such a gift be troubling to us? The gift of gold tells us that, since we follow a Christ who is divine royalty, then we are also divine royalty. The gift of frankincense tells us that, since we follow a Christ who is close to God in prayer, that we are also close to God in prayer. The gift of myrrh tells us that, since we follow a Christ who suffers and dies, that we will not be able to entirely escape suffering and death. Any hope that faith in Christ will deliver us from all the troubles of the world is founded on shifting sand, for we are not greater than our master who suffered greatly. If we think that being a Christian will put us into favor in the eyes of the world, we are mistaken. It puts us into favor in the eyes of God to be sure, but human beings have never liked a true follower of Christ. It is a sobering thought, but one that is not without its own kind of hope.

You see, if we become despondent or discouraged when we hear that to follow Christ is to bear, in its own way, a death sentence, it is only because we have not yet understood the rest of what God has to teach us. You see, though we follow a Christ who suffers and dies, this same Christ is not afraid to suffer and die; He is able to face suffering and death without fear, He is able to hope in the Lord and stand strong even when the entire world unites against Him. What does this say about us? It means that, though the world will not love us for loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves, it will not matter. The goal of Christians is to become like Christ, not only by learning to do the kinds of things that Jesus would do, but learning to think the kinds of things that Jesus would think and feel the kinds of things that Jesus would feel. God has promised to renew us into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That means that we can also be so renewed and transformed by the power of grace that we also might not be afraid of the things of this world, but hope eternally in the provision of God, knowing that Jesus, our elder brother knows our condition and has paved the way for our hope and joy.

As we exchange gifts next week, let us remember that gifts have meaning. We have the opportunity to touch the lives of others in ways we cannot imagine. Let us also remember, that there is a gift that is both greater and more meaningful than any other gift in the history of the world. The Father gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, to live for us, to die for us, and to be raised for us. Always remember that the reason we have hope and joy is not something we have earned or something that we deserve, but something God has done and has graciously invited us to participate in. Let us pray.

AMEN