The Gifts Jesus Wants - Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany is the day the Christian church celebrates the arrival of the wise men to the child, Jesus, and give homage to the newborn King. I say “wise men” – depending on the translation or the song, you might know them as wise men, Magi, sages or even kings. Usually they are described as astrologers but the term used in the Greek New Testament implies an interest in dreams, stars, and perhaps even magic. They were from the East, presumably the area of Babylon, the region where the Israelites had been taken into captivity 700 years earlier. How many wise men were there? We don’t know. Traditionally, the story says there were three men – it’s even on your bulletin cover - and this is taken from the three gifts they proffered: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

I remember, when I was a boy, listening to Mom’s record of A Little Drummer Boy. Biblically, there was no drummer boy – just so you know – but it’s a sentimental, romantic favorite whether sung by David Bowie and Bing Crosby, Johnny Cash, or Pentatonix. The song is simple: the wise men, on the way to see Jesus, conscript the Drummer Boy to come along. While the wise men offer their expensive gifts to the Child, this humble and poor boy has nothing to offer except his music.

“Shall I play for him? I’ll play my best for him, pa rum pa rum pum…”

His gift, given in poverty, stands in rather stark contrast to what the wise men actually brought Jesus. Gold, you know: a very expensive, precious metal, useful for the buying and selling of goods. You’re probably less familiar with the other two gifts. Frankincense is a tree resin that can be either dried into granules for burning or infused into an oil. Myrrh is a spice, either dry or added to oils to be used for both perfume and for anointing. Gifts from kings; gifts fit for a king.

What gifts are you giving to Jesus this year? What kind of gifts have you brought that are worthy for the Newborn King? Be careful how you answer…it’s probably not what you think.

It’s tempting to tap our wallets and checkbooks, thinking we bring Jesus our gifts of finances. No, those aren’t gifts – at least, not on the strict sense of the word. We are simply stewards, caretakers, of the financial gifts He gives to us. Our offerings are returning to the Lord a portion of what He has first given to us. That’s different than a gift.

How about our prayers and our praises? That’s a good, sanctified answer. While that is important, again, that’s not a gift. These are what owed to God in response to His gifts to us. Luther even includes at the tail end of the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed explanation, “All this he does out of Fatherly goodness and mercy…for all which it is my duty to thank, praise, serve and obey Him.” That’s not a gift.

So, perhaps we owe him good, Christian living. It’s the New Year, so we make our resolutions to do better. We’ll get up earlier to go work out; we buy the gym membership and the elliptical, we pick up the Keto cookbook and put down the Blue Bell. We take the Bible off the bookshelf and set it on the side table with the intention to read it daily. We promise to play ball with our kids or to call our parents. After all, we don’t want Jesus to see what we’re like on Tuesday morning at the weekly staff meeting, Thursday evening while doing homework, or Saturday night with our friends. Perhaps this idea of a gift we give Jesus is the most dangerous of all, because there’s an implication that one can save him or herself if the cleansing is thorough enough.

No. Jesus doesn’t you to bring to His crib your gold-plated, incense-infused, myrrh-scented self-righteous life. He doesn’t want your money. He doesn’t want your goodness. All Jesus wants from you is your sins, your guilt, and your shame.

That sounds backwards, doesn’t it? Why, the Wise Men brought gifts fit for a King – gold, frankincense and myrrh – shouldn’t we at least try to do the same, give Him our best?

If Jesus were an earthly King, an earthly ruler, then yes, this might be true. But Jesus is a different kind of King. The perfect, holy, sinless Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, announced by angels, witnessed by shepherds, whose name is Jesus, is a King who will save His people from their sins.

This is the only gift Jesus wants from you this Epiphany day: your sins, because that’s the entire reason He came – to save you from those damned – I use that word deliberately – and damning sins.

On this first Sunday of 2019, take all of the sins of 2018 and leave them here. Don’t carry them any further than the altar today. Your sins of cursing and swearing, dishonoring your parents, speaking ill of our elected officials, hating the ex, yelling at the kids, gossiping, lying, stealing time from our employers, holding grudges; of having emotional affairs, alcohol and drug abuse, failing to love, honor and cherish your spouse; failing to fear, love and trust in God more than all other things; thinking that you can make yourself better all by yourself… There are many more…those sins you try to bury deep within, but the guilt keeps dragging them to the surface; those things you try to shove into the dark corner of your memory, but the shame – the devil’s favorite lie that you should know better because you are a Christian! – keeps shining a light into those corners and illuminates them for you to remember. Of these, of all of these, give them to Jesus. Bring them to the Infant King in repentance, confess them, and believe that Jesus came to take them from you.

Those are the gifts that Jesus wants. You don’t have to wrap them up pretty; they don’t need bows and ribbons; they don’t deserve pretty wrappings. Give them to Jesus with all their ugliness and nastiness. He takes them from you and carries each and every one to the cross.

The cross… It’s always there, isn’t it? Even the wise men’s gifts foreshadowed it: Mary Magdeline anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume on the way to the cross. Jesus redeems us, not with gold brought by the wise men or silver used to purchase His own life, but with His blood; when the women go to the tomb early on Easter morning, they were carrying oils and spices for a proper burial, used to disguise and cover up the smell of death. Joy of joys – when they arrived, the spices weren’t needed to cover up death’s stink because Jesus was alive, the living and resurrected One.

Pilate had identified Jesus as King of the Jews. Epiphany means “revealing” and Jesus is revealed as King for Gentiles, too. Remember: the wise men were gentiles. The word Gentile in Greek means “of the nations” – and Israelites used it in a derogatory way as a term of exclusion. Gentiles were outsiders; they were not God’s people. If you were Gentile, you weren’t of the people of Israel, you were of the heathen nations. In the Epiphany of Jesus, it is revealed that His kingdom surpasses earthly boundaries; His reign is over all; His rule includes not only the Israelites but the Gentiles, too. That includes you and me.

Epiphany also reveals Jesus as the gift giver. He takes all of those rotten, nasty, ugly, sin-stained gifts that we drop at the foot of the cross, and in the empty grave, He delivers good, holy, and righteous gifts. He gives you the gift of forgiveness, destroying sin’s damning power. He gives you the gift of joy, that you are no longer burdened by the weight of your griefs and shame. He gives you the gift of peace, that the relationship with God is restored and whole. He gives you the gift of salvation, that eternity with God is yours. He gives the gift of love, that you are able to share with those around you. He gives the gift of faith that enables you to say, “This is most certainly true.”

If the Little Drummer Boy were here, this is what he would sing:

Come, they told me pa rum pa pum pum;
A newborn King to see, pa rum pa pum pum
My ugliest sins I bring, pa rum pa pum pum;
To lay at Jesus’ feet, pa rum pa pum pum,
rum pa pa pum, rum pa pum pum.

To you my sins I fling, pa rum pa pum pum;
To Christ I cling.

Baby Jesus, pa rum pa pum pum;
I stand forgiven, here pa rum pa pum pum
Before my Savior King, pa rum pa pum pum;
Your throne, a cross, for me, pa rum pa pum pum;
rum pa pa pum, rum pa pump um.

Christ has rescued me, pa rum pa pum pum; Eternally.

Amen.