I am in awe of people like my wife, Olivia, who are just so good at giving thoughtful gifts.

Seriously. I don’t know how they do it. It takes me so much mental effort to figure out what to give people. Even at Christmas.

If I don’t have a wish list to go off of, I’m hopeless. “Hey, I got you this… garlic press? You like garlic, right? Oh, you’re allergic. I knew that! I remember. You told me that last year when I got you a… garlic press.”

Meanwhile, my wife is like, “Hey, I know it’s your dog’s birthday, so here are the lyrics of your favorite song engraved onto the branch that once held your childhood rope swing.”

Out of curiosity, how many of you are like my wife and are super good at giving gifts? And how many are like me and you’re pretty much hopeless? Ok, good. I’m in good company!

Well this Christmas Eve, we’re talking all about giving gifts. But not just any ol’ presents. The gifts we’re talking about this Christmas aren’t just thoughtful… They’re profound.

We’re talking about the gifts of the magi.

All month we’ve been exploring Matthew’s account of the “wise men from the east” who show up in all our Christmas nativity sets. As we’ve seen, this story works on so many different layers to point to some deep truths.

We’ve seen how the arrival of the magi begins to fulfill Old Testament prophecies, such as Isaiah 60, which envisions a day where all the nations - including the Gentiles! - will stream to Jerusalem to worship God.

Isaiah 60:3,6

All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance… The people of Sheba will bring gold and frankincense and will come worshiping the LORD.

These foreign magi are just the first of many outside of Israel who will bow to Jesus and join in the kingdom of God.

We also saw this past Sunday how Matthew uses the story of the Magi to undermine the Roman propaganda of his day. The values of the “upside-down” kingdom of God are nothing like the values of our world.

Today, as we prepare our hearts for Christmas morning, we’re going to explore one final detail in this amazing story: the specific gifts these magi offer the newborn king.

So please grab a Bible and turn with me to Matthew 2, Page 800. While you’re turning there, I’ll pray for us.

Let’s read the story one more time.

Matthew 2:1-2

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Now, King Herod is rattled by this news of a rival king, and thus begins the drama of Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt, which Matthew depicts as a second Exodus. But let’s read what happens when the magi arrive in Bethlehem.

Matthew 2:9-11

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

As I mentioned before, magi were a hybrid of priests, sorcerers, and wise men who advised kings. Think Jafar from Aladdin, but not evil.

We don’t know where these specific magi came from - Persia? Babylon? Arabia? - scholars disagree. We don’t even know how many there were. Could have been 3; could have been 50.

All we really know is that they are Gentiles - foreigners - and they are absolutely overwhelmed with joy when they arrive.

The New Living Translation says in verse 10 that they were “filled with joy.” But in Matthew’s original Greek, it is far more extreme. It’s more like, “They rejoiced exceedingly with an extreme amount of joy.”

They’re overwhelmed. Clearly so. Because the next thing they do is bow with their faces to the ground and give extravagant gifts to a baby. Gifts fit for a king.

So this Christmas Eve let’s talk about these gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What were they to ancient people, and why these three gifts instead of, I don’t know, a garlic press or something?

We’ll start with gold. In our modern world, gold is shiny, beautiful, and expensive. In the ancient world, however, gold was shiny, beautiful, and expensive.

Actually yeah. That one hasn’t changed. Gold was (and is) the epitome of wealth and luxury.

So the magi offering gold to Jesus wasn’t just a nice gesture. It was an extremely costly gift that still makes sense to us today. You give gold to a baby, and you’re making a statement. (We’ll get to what that statement is in a minute.)

Now, frankincense and myrrh are not as familiar to most of us.

Put simply, they were costly spices which came from southern Arabia. Both of them required painstakingly extracting a resin from very specific plants, letting it harden into lumps, which could then be shipped around the world. Frankincense was burned to create fragrant smoke as a part of ancient worship of the gods.

Myrrh could also be burned as incense. The name myrrh itself means “bitter.” It had a very intense smell. So it could be burned, but more often in Israel it was included as a part of sacred anointing oil for priests or kings.

In Jesus’ day it was also used as a burial spice. They’d put it on dead bodies to make them not smell as bad.

So each gift had a different purpose. But they all had one thing in common. They were extravagant.

Actually, these gifts echo pretty closely a story from the Old Testament, when the fabulously wealthy Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon.

1 Kings 10:2

She arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious jewels.

My point is, gold, frankincense, and myrrh is the kind of stuff you give to kings. You don’t throw around gifts like these as baby shower gifts for Judean peasants.

Clearly the magi are making a statement here. They see this newborn infant as something more than just a baby.

DEEPER MEANING

So what are they trying to say? Well, here’s where we get into another fascinating layer of this story.

Very early on in church history, Christian theologians started to realize that these gifts weren’t just nice. They represented far deeper truths about the identity of this baby. The identity of Christ.

The first person to write about this was Irenaeus, a bishop in Roman Gaul in the late second century. He believed the magi brought Jesus

“gold, because He was a King…”’

Think about it. They’re not bringing gold to King Herod or Caesar. No. They’re bringing it to an impoverished infant born to a peasant family in a geographical backwater. They’re making a statement that this is the true king of the world.

Irenaeus goes on. He says they brought

“…frankincense, because He was God…”

Remember, burning frankincense was a part of ancient worship, but now God has come in human flesh. This gift of incense is a statement that this baby in a manger is the God of all creation.

So that’s gold and frankincense. But I think their third gift is the most profound of all. Irenaeus says they gave him,

“…myrrh, because it was He who should die and be buried for the mortal human race...” -Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Remember, myrrh is a burial spice (and the gospel of John tells us that it is precisely the burial spice later used on Jesus’ body).

So, this baby is the king of the world. God in the flesh. And the one who would die for us all. Suddenly these gifts are telling a profound story.

Think about it. Humanity, to this point, has done nothing but corrupt creation. With sin, with injustice, with violence. We have rebelled against the good purposes of God, and we have broken the world.

And yet God never abandoned us to our own destruction. No! He moved into our mess and became one of us.

That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. That the true king of the world - God incarnate - has been born - Into poverty! Into obscurity! - Born into our brokenness to make our broken world right again.

And how would he do it? Not through power like Herod. Not by the sword like Caesar. But through his jaw-dropping willingness to go to the cross. The Son of God himself would choose to die for our sins so that we could come alive.

These gifts of the magi aren’t just gifts. They’re a profound statement of truth that starting on Christmas morning the world would never be the same.

The one worthy of holy incense became a peasant baby in the gutter. The one worthy of all the gold in the world willingly accepted the bitter myrrh.

Jesus Christ - the savior of our broken world - has been born and now all nations - Jews and Gentiles alike - have come to worship our Lord.

These magi brought baby Jesus gifts that declared his true identity: King of the world, God with us, and Savior of us all.

No wonder they “rejoiced exceedingly with an extreme amount of joy.” They were heralding the arrival of a love that would change the world.

WHAT GIFTS WILL YOU OFFER THE KING?

So what do we do with this today? Are we supposed to just step back and say, “Huh, Neat.”? Or is there something more here?

Well, as I’ve said multiple times in our series about Matthew, this gospel is a discipleship manual. And I think that even here, we are being invited to consider our own posture toward Christ.

The magi can be an example to us, and their gifts - laden with meaning as they are - can guide our own faith.

Let me put it this way: If what they gave baby Jesus declared the truth of his identity, then: What gifts will you offer the King?

What things of value can you offer Jesus this Christmas that tell a story of how you see him? For example, like the magi,

Will you give Jesus your treasure?

As I said before, these gifts of the magi were extremely valuable. And they should be! They gave him gold because they were bowing to the King.

What treasures in your life - your time, your energy, your money - can you give away to declare that Jesus is the King of your life?

Volunteer your time to serve others. Donate to support churches and ministries. Pray for those suffering in our world.

All of that is costly, because we’re busy and money is tight. And yet Christ is the king of our world and he was born to heal it. How can you invest in the things He cares about by giving up some of the precious things that you do?

Will you give Jesus your worship?

Remember, by offering baby Jesus frankincense, the magi were declaring his divinity.

What would it look like for you to start living like you were in a vibrant relationship with the Creator of the Universe? Not some religious figure. Not a bumper sticker slogan. But God himself. Right here!

What if you started taking that relationship more seriously than ever before? Make Church a priority. Study Scripture. Pray. Meditate on his love.

Our God has come down to walk among us. To live within us. Will you give him the worship he deserves? Finally,

Will you give Jesus your heart?

Remember, the bitter myrrh given to Jesus at his birth was a sign pointing directly to his death. God himself stepped into our story, became one of us, and died… for you and me. Then he rose again, defeating death once and for all so that we can join him in his resurrection.

Maybe you haven’t yet surrendered your life to Jesus. But he surrendered his life for you. Perhaps it’s time to give him your heart and discover the new life and healing he longs for you to experience.

This Christmas, will you give Jesus your treasure? Your worship? Your heart?

The magi understood that their world had changed with the birth of Jesus. This Christmas, perhaps it’s time for your world to change as well.