Faithbase

The third gift of the wise men. It's probably going to take me more than a couple of minutes to explain this one. The gift, what it means, its significance, its usage in its culture, all speaks to who Jesus is. Now we've seen the gold, which represents royalty. Jesus is the king of kings. We've seen the frankincense that's used by the priest in worship, that Jesus is our high priest. But then myrrh. Myrrh was very specific in that culture and in that time. Myrrh was basically used for burials. You would give it to somebody whose loved one had passed away. And the equivalent today would be to give somebody embalming fluid. One of the jobs that I have as a pastor that I love is I get to go to the hospitals and I get to see and visit with families when they have a baby. And I love doing that. I find out some of the interests that the family has and take them a gift, take them something for the baby. Now, how odd do you think it would be if I go to my local hospital and I go visit a family that just had their first child? It's a little boy. And I say, congratulations, here's a jar of embalming fluid. That would be extremely odd to do. But that's exactly what these wise men did when they visited Jesus. Because myrrh was used in that culture because the Jews didn't do embalming. The Egyptians had parts of that. Other cultures had parts of that. That's not how they did it. They would wrap their loved one in different spices and in different traditions of their culture. And part of that, long story short, a part of that was myrrh. And it was a big part of the burial process. So we have to think and wonder why in the world would these guys who are trained, who understand the significance of who that baby is, why would they bring him something that only is used to bury somebody in? Well, the answer is pretty clear if you read the Gospels. That Jesus was born to die. The whole reason Jesus came into the world was to be our sacrifice on the cross for our sins. To do what we couldn't do, no matter how righteous we are, no matter how smart and talented we are, Jesus came to die. I say all the time around here that the birth of Jesus is the second most important event in history. Because the first most important event in history is the death of Jesus. But we couldn't have a death and resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the most impactful event in human history. But right behind that is the birth of Jesus. Because we couldn't have a death and a resurrection without a birth. And I often wonder, as we read in the Gospels, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other ladies were coming to the tomb to finish the burial process of Jesus after the Sabbath was over, if she still had some of that myrrh that these wise men gave her that morning, or more than likely that afternoon a few years after Jesus was born, did she hang on to that? We don't know. That's just me thinking out loud. But the reality is that baby was born to die. He was born to die for me and for you. To be able to purchase salvation, to be able to fix what was broken in the garden, to be able to bridge that gap between us and a holy God that we could never bridge. So when you look at your wise man, think of the gold as the royalty, that he is the king of kings. The frankincense is our high priest, that he leads us in worship and he's there to be able to intercede for us. But oddly, but most importantly, they brought him myrrh because that baby was born to die. And he was born to die for me and you. So let's live for him today. Because he died for us 2,000 years ago, let's live for him today. Let's find a way to love somebody and serve somebody today because of what he's done for us. And may our lives exist to bring him the glory. Listen, God bless, have a great day. If I can do anything for you, shoot me a message, let me know. Have a good day.