Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:1-11, 1 John 4:7-21
Extravagant, sacrificial gifts were what the wise men brought to the Christ child. The wise men bore precious gifts hundreds of miles to give to a king they had only read about, led by a star that no one else seemed to care about. These seemed like such unwise gifts and sacrifices.
As we read their account in Matthew 2 our eyes rest on verse 11: On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
They left home and family for this! These seemed to be very unwise gifts. Why in the world would magi travel such distance and with such expensive offerings?
The answer to this question is love—the wisest and most sacrificial gift of all.
The magi loved, but perhaps out of that hidden desire buried in all human hearts—to know love in return. Their pursuit and intent was to worship. And we only worship that which we love. So somewhere in the dark night of their souls they found a distant object of love on which to pin their hopes. Then, when they were in his presence, they did not hesitate to respond in worship. So sacrificial! So unwise!
Where did that kind of love come from?
All truly sacrificial loves have but one source.
That source is the superlative, sacrificial gift of God’s love that makes all other loves possible. 1 John 4:19 states, “We love because he first loved us.”
That’s the gift of God’s extravagant, unearned, splendid, grace-filled love. It is a gift far better than any gift the Magi could have sacrificed to give. It is the gift of love through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Question of the Day:
Since Christ Jesus loves us so sacrificially,
how can we then make “unwise, sacrificial” gifts of love to others?
Copyright M.R.Hyde 2011
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