Advent - Gifts for the King
This past Sunday Nick preached over the story of the wise men coming to seek the King and bring Him gifts. There’s a lot that goes on with that story, but a couple of significant points for us to consider for our personal worship this advent season is the fact that the world was seeking Him and that gifts were given.
The story of the wise men always has such a point of mystery about who they were and where they came from, but what we do know is they were labeled as Magi and wise men which means they were likely astronomers, highly educated, and gentiles. They were possibly God-fearers, or maybe pagan, but either way, they were paying attention and God used means that they would recognize to reveal truth to them and they not only recognized this truth of the promised King, but they went through great effort to seek out the King.
This is a significant fact in the Gospel account, because in Matthew’s account he connects the dots over and over that the King is for all people and for all nations, not merely Israel's next national ruler as many assumed, but the ruler of creation. And keeping in step with that truth, within the narrative of the incarnation, the lowly shepherds and the gentile nations come seeking the King. Fast forward to the end of Matthew, and the King sends out His kingdom citizens into all the world to point the hearts and minds of the nations to the King of Kings and to teach them the values of His upside down kingdom.
The other aspect to consider in our advent study is the gifts that were given. Nick pointed out the gifts that the Magi brought likely contained symbolic significance. The gold was an appropriate gift for a king, the frankincense was appropriate for a priest, and myrrh was appropriate for a burial symbolizing Jesus’ eventual sacrifice for our sins. The gifts, following the genealogy and the birth narrative show that Jesus is sent as the ultimate prophet, priest and king.
But how do we take this aspect of the incarnation and respond in our personal lives? What can we give? As Nick said on Sunday, our gift of worship is all of us, our whole selves. Good gifts are ones that are appropriate for the one receiving the gift, and Jesus gave us everything in descending to earth to take on flesh and pay for our sin, what else can we give in return for being saved from sin and eternal death than all of ourselves? That’s why the greatest commandment involves loving God with all your heart, sould, mind, and strength, and why Paul pointed out that the acceptable gift is yourself. Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The gift God gave us was His Son, the least we can do is to give of ourselves and live for Him. Even in the story of the Magi, the greatest gift they gave the newborn King was not the gold and spices, but their sacrifice in seeking him out and their worship (Matt. 2:11).