Why did the wise men bring those gifts in particular?

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. We’ve known of them since our first nativity plays in primary school when we all sang tunelessly: “We 3 kings of orient-ah, one on a bicycle, one in a car, one on a scooter, blowing his hoo-oo-ter, following yonder star….”

But apart from gold, what is frankincense, and what is myrrh? And also – why those gifts?

Mary’s just given birth, she’s in a dirty room that frankly, must stink because of the animals, and she gets brought three things that don’t seem to have any real purpose or value apart from the gold. Would it have killed them to bring a bassinette and some fluffy blankets?

In Matthew 2:1-2 it says “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

And then in Matthew 2:10-11 “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 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, frankincense and myrrh.”

You might think that’s just the kind of thing that wise men carry around with them. Or you might think that’s the sort of thing you give as gifts in ancient Israel.

But nothing in Jesus’ story is by accident. The gifts symbolise things about Jesus.

The gold symbolises kingship. But why is Jesus a king? We’re in a dusty room not a palace. And how do these wise men from far away know about the birth? And that he was KING of the Jews?

This is because a king, a saviour, had long been prophesied – for hundreds of years. People had been waiting for a King to save them. He was going to be like King David, God’s chosen king of the Old Testament. It had long been foretold that a king from the line of David would come to save the people of God. We see it in 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Ezekiel 37:22-25 and Zechariah 9:9 to name just a few.

The wise men know the prophecies. They have been given a sign – the star – and they have come to find whoever the star is pointing to. And that is a newborn baby. In a muddy room with animals.

King David hadn’t been that impressive either. He was a kid and he was a shepherd. But he was chosen. And the book of Isaiah tells us that the future coming saviour will have no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He’s not the king because he looks like one. He’s the king and saviour because he is.

Which begs the question – why do the people need a king and a saviour?

Because God is real. And he made us to be with him. And he created us with a will. Which is a risky move for a creator. He gave us a will so that we could choose him with all our hearts. But the risk is we can also choose to not follow him. And that’s what we did from the get-go. Adam and Eve listened to the voice of temptation to not follow God. We listen to the voice of temptation. We give in to sin. We go our own way.

So there’s a divide between us and God that we can’t bridge. And God said that he would send a saviour to bridge it for us. And that’s where our King, our saviour, comes in. The saviour that will form a bridge across the gap between us and God. We can’t bridge the gap. There’s nothing we can do – we can’t earn it or find some clever way of climbing across. Only God can provide a way to bridge that gap. And the saviour was his son Jesus.

So then Myrrh. Its an embalming oil. It symbolises death. This is how God is going to save us. There is a penalty for sin. There is a debt to be paid. The penalty is death. So someone has to die. Either we pay the price for our sin or someone else does. God came to earth to save us – and the way he did it was to die in our place. He took on himself the punishment that we were supposed to have. This is how the gap will be bridged. By taking the punishment meant for us, the gap between God and us is closed.

Frankincense is what you burn in an offering to God. It symbolises Jesus’ deity. And God had said there is no God but him – so this is not an offering to A god, this is an offering to THE God. Jesus is God.

Because being a king is actually not enough. Not to save all of humanity. To save a country, you could probably do with a king. But to save all of humanity, God himself came down in the form of this little baby. He had to be human so that he could be sacrificed and physically die. But he also had to be God to be a perfect sacrifice sufficient for all people. This means that all people that believe that Jesus is Lord, will be saved to eternity with God. The gap is gone.

All that from those 3 gifts. King. Man. God. The wise men knew it. And its recorded in the nativity story so that the rest of us can know it.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:18-19

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 1 Peter 1:3-4

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11