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Gifts of Christmas3. Myrrh: The Gift of a Lamb Dan Bidwell, Senior PastorIsaiah 53:3-7 18 December 2022 My wife, Joanna, was at her work Christmas party this week, and they each had to bring a gift for the White Elephant game, that game where you open a present but the next person can steal it if they like it more than their present. Anyway almost half the gifts were scented candles, so there was a lot of negotiating about who wanted French Oak, and White Bergamot, and Carmel Spice. So as we start, a question for the people sitting around you. If you could only burn one scented candle for the rest of your life what would it be? ~ I bring up scented candles because the Christmas gift were talking about today had one use as a perfume. Over these three weeks leading into Christmas, we are thinking about the gifts that the Wise Men brought Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. And particularly the significance of the gift, beyond just being valuable and useful. Last week we talked about frankincense, which was a gift pointing to Jesus as the High Priest. Today we are going to talk about the gift of myrrh. So what do you do with a gift of myrrh? What was myrrh was used for? It's unusual one again. Myrrh is actually quite similar to frankincense. It's another aromatic resin. Like frankincense, myrrh comes from a tree that grows in the Arabian Peninsula. It grows on a bush with lots of thorns and they cut the bark and the sap comes out and they use that to make the myrrh. In the ancient world it was used as an antiseptic, and even today apparently myrrh is used in some mouthwash and toothpaste. It's also used as a light analgesic to relieve pain from small injuries, or mixed into a topical skin product that you can rub on bruises and sore muscles. The word in the original language means bitter. Compared to a frankincense which has a very sweet smell, apparently myrrh smells kind of woody and earthy but a little bit medicinal. But it was also used as a perfume. And as you read through the Bible, myrrh is mentioned 17 times, about 10 of those references are in the Song of Songs where myrrh is described almost like an aphrodisiac. But when you come to the crucifixion scene of Jesus, myrrh is referred to twice for a different purpose. Look Mark 15:22-24 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of the skull). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. (Mark 15:22-24) They were offering Jesus this wine mixed with myrrh as a kind of pain reliever to help him with the pain before they crucified him. But Jesus wouldn't take it. We assume that Jesus wanted to be completely lucid as he went to his death. And then after his death we see myrrh again in John chapter 19 at verse 38 38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilates permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.(John 19:38-42) Myrrh plays this big role in the crucifixion scene of Jesus. And so when we think about the significance of this gift to the baby Jesus, the gift of myrrh actually points forward to the end of his life. There's a kind of tragic irony that this gift given to Jesus at birth becomes the same thing that he's wrapped in in his death. One commentator wrote: the die is cast early in Jesus life, pointing ahead to an early death. So why do I bring this up as a Christmas sermon? I've been asking myself the same thing. Well partly because the wise men brought this as a gift to Jesus. And partly because we cant separate Jesus the baby from Jesus the savior. I think God intended this gift to remind us that the die was cast but not by the Wise Mens gifts. The die was cast by God, in a plan that was announced some 700 years before the birth of Jesus. And so Ive called the sermon today: the gift of a lamb, based in Isaiah 53:6. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) But why dont we pray that God would teach us now, as we open the Bible. Heavenly Father, will you speak to us today as we open your word. Will you teach us about your son Jesus, and his significance in our lives. Will you grow us in faith, trust and obedience to him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen 1. The Gift of a Lamb I want to start by talking about sheep. As an Australian I grew up seeing sheep in fields. Thats because Australia has almost 3 sheep for every human. 25 million people, 70 million sheep. (Only 5 million sheep in the US explains the price of lamb!) Sheep are not very clever. Sheep are one of the only animals that need a shepherd. Most animals can manage themselves in the fields but sheep need protection. The mainly stick together in a flock, but occasionally a sheep will wander off on its own (just like in the Bible stories). Even when sheep are together, if wolves come, or if a bear comes, or if a lion comes, the sheep just huddle together and hope that they are not the one who gets eaten. And thats why they need a shepherd. Sheep are not very clever. There was a story from 2005 somewhere in Turkey where 1500 sheep wandered off a cliff together. Only 400 died because the first 400 made a big pillow for the other sheep. Back in Australia we have friends who are sheep farmers. One day we were on their farm, driving through the fields, and we approached the dam (which I think you call a pond or water reservoir). Anyway it was a very dry year and most of the water had evaporated out of the dam so there was thick mud. And there's this sheep up to his neck in mud, completely stuck. There's no way he could move and so my friend takes off his boots and he just had to wade in and drag his sheep out to safety. Thats what shepherds will do for the sake of the sheep. They go to rescue the one, because they're all valuable. So sheep get themselves into trouble. And Isaiah 53 six says we are all like sheep. We all wander off. We all go astray. We to go our own way. We turn to whatever we feel like doing. And just like sheep end up in danger, we end up in danger. We're endangered by what we do, and where we walk, and where we go, when we wander away from God. But the problem is we're different from sheep. Unlike sheep, were not stupid or innocent in our wandering. This is made very clear in verse 6, where it says our wandering results in iniquity. Iniquity is one of those strange words from the Bible. It means something like gross injustice or wickedness. So our wandering is not trivial. Its actually something that's very offensive to God. Another definition of iniquity is something that is disrespectful. Our wandering away from God is disrespectful to him. We talked about that last week as sin. And so God tells us in Isaiah 53:6 that we wander away from Him into gross injustice, wickedness, and sin that leaves us open to death. But here's the gift in v7: And the Lord has laid on himThe iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:7) God lays our iniquity, he lays our wickedness, he lays our sin and he lays our wandering unto Jesus. And a couple of verses later in v10 it will say that the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, and in v12 that he bears our sin. Thats why we keep the cross in the church all year long. This feels like an Easter sermon but the cross reminds us that Jesus death is the reason that we're forgiven, and the cross is where Jesus takes on our sin. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) There's this great exchange that happens. Jesus takes on our sin so that we can become righteousness. Isaiah describes how it happens in verses 5 to 7. BTW remember this is a prophecy that was written 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Look at vv5-7: it says He was pierced for our transgressions Do you remember when Jesus had died on the cross, the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. He was crushed for iniquities I think of the way the soldiers beat Jesus, how they mocked him, how they scourged him with whips And the punishment that brought us peace was upon him Jesus allowed himself to be punished. Punished in our place. He was wounded: And by his wounds we are healed. And then if you have a look at verse 7: 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Jesus goes to the cross like a lamb, and we're like sheep and wander away. So Jesus becomes a sheep for us. We wander, and he becomes a sheep, he becomes a lamb in our place. Last week we saw that Jesus was the high priest. This week we've seen that Jesus is not only the high priest but also the sacrificial lamb. At the beginning of John's gospel, when John the Baptist sees Jesus in chapter 1, he says: Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) And again were reminded of the Passover when God asked his people to kill a lamb and paint the blood on the doors. This lamb that would mean that God's wrath would pass over his people, that Gods wrath is averted, that God's judgment won't fall on us. The lamb protects Gods people. So thats why our first gift is the gift of a lamb. The myrrh reminds us that Jesus will die for us, so that we can be saved. 2. The Gift of Peace Here's the bigger gift. Maybe not the bigger gift, but here's the gift that you get to open today. And its the gift of peace. You know the holiday season is meant to be a season of love and joy and hope and peace; and that everything is supposed to be merry and bright, and holly and jolly. But the older that we get, the more we realize that Christmas is not always holly and jolly. It's not always full of love and joy and peace and hope. Sometimes it feels the opposite. It might be filled with sorrow or hurt or turmoil or despair or hopelessness. For some of us this might be one of the first Christmases after a loved one has passed. Or it might be a number of years, but still the holidays remind you of what you're missing. For some it's divorce. For some it's estrangement with your kids. For others it's illness or mental health. The holidays often bring back the feeling that something is missing, and that it is not all love and joy and peace and hope and holly and jolly and happy and merry. And you're not alone. If you feel that, you're not alone. Actually Jesus understands your pain. And Jesus understands your pain because (and this I think was what was missing in the sermon last week) because when Jesus comes to earth, he is God in human flesh. God the son steps down out of heaven, and he steps into our world, and he steps into our pain, and he steps into our suffering, and he bears our suffering. Have a look at v4 there in Isaiah 53: Surely he took up our painAnd bore our suffering (Isaiah 53:4) Jesus takes up our pain and he bears our suffering. He entered into our pain so that he could deal with the root source of our pain. He came to deal with sin. So many people think that sin is not very important. But sin is the root cause of all of the pain and all of the sorrow and all of the suffering that we experience on earth. It's the root cause of death. Sin is behind it all. Sin is like a decay that goes all the way through creation, and until it's dealt with, we'll always have sorrow and suffering and pain. We'll have moments of peace and joy and hope and love, but it will always tempered with moments of pain. But Jesus deals with this problem of sin by taking the only course of treatment that can deal with sin. Jesus takes all of the pain, and takes all of the suffering, and he takes all of its effects and he takes them upon himself until sin is exhausted, until there's no more power of sin and Jesus lays dead. He dies from bearing sin. It kills him. And then hes embalmed in the spice that was the same gift that he received as a baby. I think this was a film, the director would do a flashback to the motif of myrrh, and you would go oh wow I see what happened. Theres a tragic irony in the myrrh. But the biggest surprise, of course, is that Jesus death isnt a tragedy. His death isnt the end of the story. Because we know that three days later Jesus rises to life and the grave clothes are abandoned and the myrrh is left behind because they arent needed in a world where Jesus is. Jesus rising to life shows that the grave is no longer the ending of the story. It tells us that in a world with Jesus, pain won't always have the last word in your life, and suffering won't always have the last word because on the cross Jesus says it is finished. It's finished. Sin is dealt with and we can find peace. Look at v5 The punishment that brought us peace was on himAnd by his wounds we are healed Because of Jesus death we find peace. Not World Peace or the absence of all conflict. Not that kind of peace, not yet anyway. What we find is deep peace with God, knowing that our sins are dealt with, that we'll be with him forever. And by his wounds we find healing. We find healing and forgiveness and the promise of justice. That the things that have hurt us will one day be dealt with. And for the hurts that we have caused others, his promise is that we will find forgiveness, and that peace will be restored one day I love that promise going into the holiday season when so many of our relationships are wounded in one way or another. Jesus promises peace, perhaps not perfectly in this lifetime, but in his kingdom which lasts forever. In that world, there will there be no more suffering and no more tears and no more death and no more pain because the old order has passed away, because Jesus dealt with it as the lamb. And that means right now in the midst of our pain and in the midst of our suffering, we don't need to suffer without purpose. We don't need to suffer without hope. In fact we can look forward to the end of it, to something better. And in the middle of our pain and our suffering, even as it happens, we can point ourselves to Jesus, and we can point others to Jesus, to the hope of healing and peace. The gift of a lamb really changes our story. It means that even if you're having a difficult year, Christmas can be full of peace and healing and hope. And that's the hope that we find in the gift of myrrh. We find a lamb who dies a sacrificial death on our behalf, so that we can find peace and healing. Shall we pray? Heavenly father we thank you for this message of healing and hope thank you for the gift of the lamb and this little spice called myrrh that points us to Jesus death and resurrection. We pray that you would fill our hearts with resurrection hope, that you would be with us in our suffering and in our sorrow. We pray that you would bring us joy and healing and peace. We pray that we would be able to point others to Jesus and to healing and hope in him as well. We ask you to be with those who are missing a loved one this year, with those who are facing family troubles, with all who are suffering from illness and loneliness. Help us to bring healing and peace into those situations, wherever we might find ourselves this Christmas. And Father, we pray for all our Christmas services: for the concert tonight, for the traditional service on Tuesday, for our Christmas Eve services and our Christmas Day service. We pray that you would fill this house with people who need to hear about the hope of Jesus. We ask you to provide everything we need, so that in all things we bring glory to the Lamb, Jesus our savior. Jesus, we praise you, and we honor you, and we thank you for your gifts to us, at Christmas and everyday. In your saving name we pray. AmenWatch at: https://youtu.be/UKzIRctqMzA File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2023/01/11/08/53/48/95fcab73-8cca-4f39-98ab-f2b72274901d/12.18.22%20Sunday%20Srmon%20Transcript.pdf