Myrrh: The Gift of a Savior
“God knew we needed more than words. We need more than intellectual assurance. God knew we needed him to come to us. Jesus is God – with some skin. Jesus came to live the perfect life that we could never live. But the primary reason why Jesus came was to die for our sins.” – Tony Walliser
Read Matthew 2:9-12
Myrrh: The Gift of a Savior
Whether you have no children, have young children, or all of your children are now adults, I’d like you to play “Let’s Pretend” for a moment. Pretend you’re expecting a new addition to the family very soon and someone is hosting a baby shower. Friends come with a variety of things – blankets, disposable diapers, infant toys, a mobile, sippy cups, stuffed animals. Everyone’s smiling at the cute gifts.
Then you open a gift that turns those smiles upside-down. Inside the shiny, colorfully wrapped package is…embalming fluid. How would you react? Confused? Angry? Horrified?
Okay, end of Let’s Pretend. In the very real story of Jesus’ birth, that’s the scenario new parents Mary and Joseph faced. The Magi – wise men probably coming from the distant Persian empire – had arrived to locate and worship the Messiah that was prophesied. And with them were gifts they deemed appropriate for the young King.
Matthew 2:11 informs us, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”
The first gift – gold – was certainly fitting for royalty. And the frankincense was well-suited as well for someone destined to serve in a priestly role. But the third gift was myrrh, which historians describe as a gummy resin from a small tree, covered with thorns. Since it had a strong smell, it often was used in perfume. But most commonly, some societies also used it as an embalming substance.
We have no way of knowing whether the wise man who brought the myrrh recognized its significance. Why would someone choose to bring a gift to a young child that represented death? But 2,000 years later we know why. Because Jesus came not only to teach and give an example of how to live a righteous life. He also came to die – to become the atoning death, once and for all time, for our sins.
Hebrews 9:12 tells us Christ’s death on the cross put an end to the animal sacrifices the Israelites had practiced for many centuries to atone for people’s sins: “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”
One of the realities of life is that one day everyone will die. The human mortality rate is 100%. However, the primary mission of Jesus – God incarnate – was to die. To be our Savior. As someone has said, He died the death we could not die to pay the debt He did not owe – all to make it possible for us to have a right relationship with the Lord and offer us life eternal.
This time of year, Nativity sets and Christmas stories present serene, sentimental images of the baby Jesus with His earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, surrounded by docile farm animals, curious shepherds, glowing angels, and the Magi. These are happy, heart-warming scenes. However, even from the moment of His birth, a grim shadow was cast: the shadow of a wooden cross upon which the Lord Jesus one day would be crucified.
That day the gold and frankincense meant nothing to Him. What was needed at that moment was the myrrh, for anointing His broken, bleeding body. As He hung from the cross, Jesus’ death might have seemed like the greatest tragedy in the history of the world. But we know the Good News: three days later He was resurrected, conquering death and the power of sin.
In the New Living Translation, Romans 6:10 states it this way: “When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God.” And because of that, we too can live for the glory of God. As the chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” reminds us repeatedly, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Praise God!