I've said that we're able to bring nothing to Christ, who is our Savior, but we must come with our faith. We must come believing. Moreover, there's a sense in which, by faith, we too may present the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
We looked at the spiritual significance of each of the three gifts given to Jesus by the wise men: gold, frankincense, and myrrh—gold for royalty, frankincense for the purity of his life, and myrrh for suffering. And yet the study would be incomplete unless I were also to take you to one other verse that bears upon the gifts of the wise men.
Yesterday’s closing quotation leads naturally to the last of the gifts. For just as gold speaks of Christ’s kingship, and frankincense speaks of the perfection of his life, so does myrrh speak of his death.
It's often been pointed out by commentators that when the wise men brought gold to Jesus, it was actually being used by God to provide the funds necessary for Joseph to take the young child and his mother to Egypt to escape Herod's attempt on his life. This is probably true, but although it is true, it is overshadowed by the significance of the gift itself. Jesus Christ was a king. The wise men knew this, and hence their gift of gold pointed to his kingship.
In the second chapter of Matthew, we read that some time after the birth of Jesus Christ, perhaps as much as two years after the event, wise men came from the east to worship him. This simple story has always figured largely in most celebrations of Christmas, both in this and in other countries, because it's an event upon which the imagination may easily take hold. It has been used widely, both in literature and in art.
