Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh

“After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him, Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

There’s this cartoon I see on Facebook that cracks me up. It’s a picture of two kings talking to a third king. The one king says, “Right, we’ve picked up the gold and the myrrh…what on earth is THAT?!” He points to Frankenstein who is standing behind the third king. We don’t hear the word, frankincense a whole lot in this day and age, so the closest thing to it is Frankenstein. Now that, we know.

When I was a little kid I heard the Christmas story over and over again. I heard about the wise men coming to see Jesus and bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh. I never understood why those gifts. The only time I’ve ever heard of frankincense and myrrh IS through the Christmas story. Gold, I could understand, but what’s with frankincense and myrrh? What in the world is frankincense and myrrh? And why would those be considered gifts?

In our continued discussion of the symbolism in the Christmas season, we should discuss those three gifts given to the baby Jesus Christ. When I finally heard an explanation for those three gifts, it made SO much sense. And if you haven’t heard it before, I’ll tell you.

I always understood the gold. We give gold now as gifts in the form of jewelry. But the gold has a symbolic meaning. It’s not just a valuable gift, which I thought, and the only gift that makes sense. Gold symbolizes Jesus’ kingship. Gold represents power and glory because of it’s high value. When the wise men came to give Jesus’ gold, they were acknowledging His role as King.

Now frankincense, not Frankenstein, but frankincense. What in the world is frankincense? Frankincense was and is an “aromatic resin.” It was used by the priests in the Hebrew temple. They burned it as incense. It represented several things in the temple: “Divine name” and “emblem of prayer.”  So why give a child some frankincense? Because this baby was going to grow up to be our great High Priest. He was going to be the ultimate priest. We would need no other after Jesus Christ. The frankincense represented Jesus Christ as the future great High Priest.

Now we come to myrrh. Myrrh, when you say it out loud it kind of sounds gloomy and serious. It’s even spelled funny. So what’s up with myrrh? When you find out the meaning of myrrh, and you are Mary, you would probably not get too excited about the myrrh. You see myrrh was used as an embalming spice. Eeew. I know right. At your next baby shower, try showing up with some myrrh for the new baby and see how well that goes. But that is what they used it for. You know dead bodies can be really smelly, so you have to wrap them up in something in order to keep the smell down. And in fact that’s what they did with Jesus when He died. They wrapped His body in cloths and myrrh.

“Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds of weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.” John 19:39-40

Myrrh seems like the weirdest of all the gifts, but it might be the most meaningful. Myrrh was used as embalming spice. The wise men brought myrrh to Jesus Christ because He was going to die. He was to be the Savior of the world and the only way to do that was to die for the sins of the world. He was going to take our place upon the cross for our sins.

These wise men really did know who Jesus Christ was. Perhaps that’s why the Bible calls them wise men. Not wise guys, but wise men. They brought the gold, frankincense and myrrh to present to the baby Jesus Christ. They acknowledged that he was to be a king-gold, a priest-frankincense, and to die-myrrh.  The Christmas story is laden with rich symbolism. Again, as we celebrate this beautiful Christmas season remember the gold, frankincense and myrrh. Remember the wise men who knew exactly who Jesus Christ was.