I. In proportion to the obscurity which hangs about this story as a fact is its clearness and usefulness when considered as a symbol. To Christ and before His throne in heaven vain it were to offer the gifts of the Eastern magi, gold, frankincense, and myrrh; but as they brought of the best and richest things which God had made to grow or to exist in their, by nature, unyielding and barren earth, so we also should bring and should offer the best and noblest powers which God has implanted in our otherwise dull minds and helpless bodies. So that, whatever we have of precious gifts, whether of body or mind for the question is here rather of natural gifts than of spiritual graces these all should be offered to the service of Christ, as the only sacrifice of gratitude which it is in our power to render.
II. We can resolve beforehand to do all to the glory of God; but when the actual work comes, and interests us deeply for itself, and for its immediate earthly objects, then it is hard nay, without much habit, impossible that the spirit of worship and sacrifice should be at hand, together with the spirit of energy; and that we should, distinctly and consciously, hallow all our active thoughts and doings by devoting them to the service of Christ. It is hard, and without habit, impossible; and yet without it, who can be saved? For if the most lively portion of our life be not sanctified, if our best be offered to idols, and only our vacant hours and thoughts, or some little portion of them, be offered to God, what is it but to offer Him the lame and the blind and the worthless, in the spirit of a slave, who gives no more than what he is afraid to refuse? In all our different callings, Christ, in His goodness, allows us to glorify Him, and to benefit our brethren; in all we may offer to Him our gold, our frankincense, and our myrrh; whatever accomplishments of body or mind, whatever faculties, whatever affections He has given us most abundantly.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 140.
Those who know the habits of the Eastern mind will conclude, as a matter of course, that the gifts of the Magi were designed to be symbolic, and this symbolism is happily neither doubtful nor far to seek.
I. For gold is undoubtedly the offering to a king, the offering of the outer life and visible product of all human action. Gold is, in one word, concentrated power over the material and visible world, the world of nature and the world of human action. Now to the material and visible world very much of our life is necessarily given. The real question, therefore, is, how shall we use the gold of life? and what shall we do with it? We do not need to be taught that, except as a means of some further good, it is in itself worthless and unsatisfying. The Epiphany lesson says very plainly, "Offer the gold of life to God, in the Lord Jesus Christ."
II. So far for the outer life. But there is an inner life in the soul of each of us which the gold of the outer life may serve to influence, but which it can never satisfy. And what is to be done with this inner life? The gift of frankincense is the offering due to God only; it signifies the adoration of the soul within, and we offer it to God, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. Of the significance of the gift of myrrh there can be no question. Used to embalm dead bodies, myrrh is the symbol of suffering and of death. What is the significance of the gift as it applies to us? Surely it throws light on the one dark and terrible mystery of our human life. We cannot explain away the mystery of evil after the fashion of the shallow optimism of days gone by, and still less with the despairing pessimism of our day. We shall still hold the belief that it subserves the purposes of a righteous God, and that the myrrh that signifies it is the last and best offering to God. In the Lord Jesus Christ the Gospel consecrates suffering and death as a sacrifice, and it takes away the mysterious power of evil as the final and transcendent manifestation of the love of God.
Bishop Barry, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 17.
Whatever more there may be and there is much more in the visit of the wise men to the manger-cradle at Bethlehem, there is at least the lesson of consecration. These wise men prostrated themselves before this little Child. They did not keep their wisdom to themselves. They had no greater joy than in emptying themselves of their treasures, and bestowing them in humblest adoration upon Him. To every man there comes the old choice of the Greek mythical hero the choice between virtue and pleasure, between good and evil, between duty and frivolity, between consecration to Christ and subjugation by some other master. Think of a few of the ways in which this call for a choice is answered.
I. There is the answer which is no answer of simple indifference. A young man comes to the university, and never dreams cannot be brought to get so far as even to dream of the importance of this part of his career. He lives as if he had no gifts, no treasures. He simply wastes them; not necessarily, like the prodigal, in riotous living. With this form of no-consecration we cannot argue. We can but appeal to whatever of conscience or of nobleness may be yet alive, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
II. Another form of no-consecration is simple self-culture. It recognizes that we are endowed with a complex nature, every part of which is capable of being developed. We have powers of mind which can bring us into conscious contact with every form of greatness and beauty. And this development, this contact, are in themselves enjoyment of an exalted kind. Self-culture, even on a humble scale, will never disappoint. But this is short of consecration; and the Christian conscience tells us that it is far inferior to it. Consecration implies not only self-culture but self-surrender, and more than this, the joy of self-surrender. There may be consecration to a great cause, like justice or freedom. There may be consecration to an idea which we almost personify, and even deify, like truth or beauty. But it is to a person to some one greater, purer, better than ourselves that consecration is at once most passionately and most perseveringly rendered. And never does consecration of self take a nobler form than when a young man prostrates himself before the feet of his Saviour, and offers to Him, in their prime, the fulness of all his powers.
H. M. Butler, Cambridge Review,Jan. 20th, 1886.
References: Matthew 2:11. M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical,p. 54.Matthew 2:13. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 49; D. Davies, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 25; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons,vol. ii., p. 57. Matthew 2:13-15. W. Poole Balfern, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 6; W. G. Elmslie, Expositor,1st series, vol. vi., p. 401.Matthew 2:13-18. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 35.Matthew 2:14; Matthew 2:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1675.