The Gift of Myrrh!

With Christmas today, a lot of folks are thinking about and sharing gifts with family and friends.  As I was thinking about the birth of Jesus, the aspect of the Magi and the gifts they brought comes to mind.  There are so many great aspects to the birth of Jesus…fulfilled prophecy, the virgin birth, the mystery of the gospel at the time, the paradox that the Creator of life is given life by a woman that He created.  That is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Gospel of Matthew 2:11 tells us that the wise men  came with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  When you look at what these gifts represent, I think it is a fascinating telling of who was, and is, and is to come.  Now if you have ever gone to a baby shower and taken a gift from a Babies R Us registry, you probably did not have an option to bring the gifts that baby Jesus would receive.  The information you had was that the child was either a boy or a girl.  Consider that as you read about these gifts because the wise men had more information as they made their journey to bring gifts.

Gold was the first gift mentioned, symbolic of royalty and here presented to the King of Kings (Rev. 17:14, 19:16, 1Tim. 6:15).  I think the gold speaks to the divinity of Jesus and the unsearchable riches of God.  Frankincense is an expensive incense that would be used in special Temple sacrifices as an aroma pleasing to God symbolizing a desire to be in communion with God.  Much more can be said about these, but I want to talk about myrrh.

Myrrh had several different uses and is spoken of in several places throughout the bible and I want to speak to a few of them.  I believe that the myrrh points to the humanity of Jesus and the atoning sacrifice.  In the Old Testament, myrrh was used in holy oil to anoint priests (Ex.30:23) of which Jesus was the High Priest (Heb.4:14) and a King Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb.5:1-10).  Myrrh is also described as bitter and sometimes used as an antiseptic according to Vine’s.  I find this very telling as Jesus would later drink from the bitter cup for the sins of the world (Heb.5:7, Matt.26:38-46) to be an antiseptic for humanity to cleanse us of our sin (Is.1:18) and be the sole source of salvation (Matt.1:21, Heb.5:9, John 3:16-18, Acts 4:12).

This last use of myrrh fascinates me.  Myrrh was also used for embalming dead bodies and would later be used on Jesus after the crucifixion (John 19:39).  Who would ever think of giving a baby embalming fluid as a gift, seems a little mean!  This aspect of myrrh, in conjunction with the priestly anointing, points to the atoning sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross (Rom.3:24-25) and fulfilling the unique role as the only path to salvation (John 14:6, 1Tim.2:5).  All of this together point to the Advent of Christ, the Incarnation, the Perfect Offering, and the victory over sin by the Atoning Sacrifice.  The significance of these gifts is magnified in the Second Advent, the coming of Jesus to be joined to His bride and set up His Millennium Kingdom.  In a prophecy of the coming Kingdom, we see the nations of the world gather back to Israel.  In Isaiah 60:6, we see those who come to gather in Israel bring gifts including gold and frankincense.  The gift of myrrh is not included and rightly so.  It is not needed as our High Priest is already anointed, He died once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous on the cross, Jesus said “it is finished.”

God’s Word, the Bible, never ceases to amaze me.  It amazes me how God would use this one little obscure gift, myrrh, to tell us so much about Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas and how the absence of myrrh is a great comfort for those of us who await His coming.  As we consider the gifts of the wise men while we prepare to exchange gifts this week with those we love, I think you should know that God loves you and would like to exchange gifts with you as well.  He will give you eternal life and all He wants is your heart:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16