11On 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 and of incense and of myrrh.
Gifts. We are all out purchasing them now. Already it is becoming difficult to get a parking space at the mall! Have you finished your gift buying yet? Have you started?
I could not read through Matthew 2 without commenting on the gifts given to the King of kings. The gifts of the magi: gold, incense and myrrh. And (although not mentioned in Matthew) the gifts of the shepherds: sheep. Each brought what they deemed to be their best. Each brought what they had been given to look after or to manage.
I wonder, as Mary and Joseph moved from the stable, how helpful and financially beneficial it was to have a sheep or two. They were far from home, far from the support of family, without a lot of supplies. What would a sheep have meant to them? Does a sheep produce milk they could have consumed? Did they recieve a small flock they could have sold or killed for food? Did they use its coat to provide wool during those few years before the wise men came? At first glance, compared to the wise men's gifts the sheep seemed, well, not much of a gift; the best they could have given but not really very useful. I have found myself thinking on occasion, "Those poor shepherds what else could they have contributed?" But when I think about it ... and take into consideration that God told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem to find Christ ... it seems that God was not only allowing the least of society to witness this amazing miracle first hand, He was providing for His son.
Provision. The wise men too brought gifts that would have provided practical income for the little family as they had to suddenly leave their home in Bethlehem and travel to Egypt. Their gifts were costly and scarce. Michael Green gives insight into these gifts. He writes,
Gold is the gift fit for a king - and the king in baby clothes was there. Frankinscnese was in constant use by the priests in the temple, and the ultimate priest, the one who was to make final reconciliation between God and humankind, lay before them. Myrrh was used to embalm the dead. The man born to be king was the man born to die. In those three gifts we see who he is, what he came to do, and what it cost him.
The gifts given in worship to the King, given by God to provide for His son, were symbols of God's provision for us. Through Christ, the Lamb (symbolized by the shepherd's gift) of God, God has provided salvation for the world; forgiveness from sin, reconciliation with Him!
And in response to God's great gift what do we give? What would we have brought to give the Christ child? Within the carol, "In the Bleak Midwinter" Christina Rosetti gives us a good place to start.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
1 comment:
I don't think that I have ever stopped to think about the gift the shepherds brought. It seems like we always focus on the wisemen. But the gift of the shepherds is just as significant in that they gave of what they had - they gace from there heart - a lamb for the Lamb of God
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