{"id":2598,"date":"2014-12-05T15:14:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T15:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:42:22","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:22","slug":"whose-birthday-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/whose-birthday-is-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Whose birthday is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"gold_frankincense_myrhh\"<\/a>“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh”<\/em> (Matthew 2:11 ESV).<\/p>\n

When I\u00a0asked the children at a Sunday service, \u201cWho gets gifts on your birthday?\u201d\u00a0Their answer was a loud, \u201cI do!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I asked them, \u201cSince Christmas is the birthday of Jesus, who should get gifts?\u201d<\/p>\n

They shouted in response, \u201cJesus!\u201d The logic was inescapable even for a child.<\/p>\n

The gospel according to Matthew reported that Magi came bearing gifts for Jesus. These men were probably Persian or Babylonian wise men, students of the stars and of ancient Middle Eastern writings. Perhaps they had access to the writings of Moses, that king Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon had acquired when he conquered Israel and looted the Jewish temple. Maybe the Babylonian wisemen who were their forefathers had been saved\u00a0by Daniel’s\u00a0interpretation of Nebuchadnezzer’s dream and ever since, the Magi had been students of the Hebrew writings which we call the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

Certainly, there is\u00a0a prophecy concerning a coming king found in the Torah\u00a0that said a \u201cstar will come out of Jacob\u201d and a \u201cscepter will rise out of Israel\u201d (Numbers 24:17). If the Magi were students of these writings, the appearance of a new star over Israel would\u00a0have led them to conclude that the prophesied Messianic King had arrived.<\/p>\n

It seems ironic that these foreigners would travel to the land of the people of the Book looking for a prophesied king, when those to whom the Book and the King truly belonged, failed to\u00a0recognize his arrival. The Magi traveled a great distance bearing gifts while the people of God went about their daily business unaware of the significance of the season. The Magi brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh while the people of faith brought him nothing.<\/p>\n

As people of faith today we often make the same oversight. We get caught up in the busyness of Christmas and forget to acknowledge the one for whom the season exists. It doesn\u2019t have to be this way. We can offer\u00a0Jesus the same three gifts that the Magi did centuries ago.<\/p>\n

We can offer Jesus the gift of gold<\/strong>. Gold is a gift fit for a king. We can acknowledge Jesus as the King, the Lord\u00a0of our lives. We can give him the gift of gold. How? Jesus said if you\u2019ve done it for the \u201cleast of these,\u201d then you\u2019ve done it for him. We can show that Jesus is king over our possessions by giving to the \u201cleast of these\u201d this Christmas. We can submit to Christ as Lord and King over our time, talent and treasure.<\/p>\n

We can offer Jesus the gift of frankincense.<\/strong>\u00a0 Frankincense is a gift fit for a priest. This aromatic resin was highly valued. The odoriferous substance was used throughout the Jewish temple as a main ingredient in the holy anointing oil, and was burned with the meat offering. Giving Jesus the gift of frankincense means that we acknowledge him as our divine priest, the one who mediates between God and men. We can recognize Jesus as the only mediator between God and humanity.<\/p>\n

We can offer Jesus the gift of myrrh.<\/strong>\u00a0Myrrh is a gift fit for a savior. Like frankincense this resinous exudate was prized for its aromatic qualities. While it had many uses it was especially known as a medicine to relieve pain and a spice employed to prepare the dead for burial. When we offer Jesus the gift of myrrh we recognize that he himself is our sin sacrifice and accept him as our Savior.<\/p>\n

Christmas is the season when we celebrate that God \u201cso loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.\u201d It is also the season when we can acknowledge God\u2019s gift by giving back to him. Wise men and women still offer him gifts fit for a King, a Priest, and a Savior.<\/p>\n

Will you include Jesus on your gift list this year? After all, it is His birthday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11 ESV). When I\u00a0asked the children at a Sunday service, \u201cWho gets gifts on your birthday?\u201d\u00a0Their answer was a loud, \u201cI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2328,2069,2015,2329,2095,2330,2182,2070,2331,2052,2332],"location":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-birthday","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-frankincense","tag-gary-combs","tag-gifts","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-gold","tag-jesus","tag-myrrh"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5021,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions\/5021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}