Gift giving is a huge part of Christmas. I know that many struggle with how overwhelming commercialism can get, especially around Christmastime.
Even so, when I look at the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ birth it seems to me that our tradition of giving gifts to one another as part our celebration is altogether fitting.
Wise Men
One of the first things that generally comes to mind when we think gift giving in the Christmas story is the three wise men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Of course that’s a case of composite characterization for the sake of simplifying the telling of the story.
For one thing the wise men most likely didn’t arrive right when Jesus was born. Based on the fact that Herod killed all the boys in that region that were 2 years old and younger, it seems more probably that the wise men found Jesus when he was a toddler, not an infant.
Most likely there weren’t any wise men in the original manger scene.
Oh, and three is just an arbitrary number we put on the wise men because there are three gifts mentioned. The Bible just says there was more than one. What we do know is that their entourage was big enough that their arrival caused a stir that the entire city of Jerusalem to notice.
It’s unlikely that anyone would have noticed three guys on camels, much less that they would have been able to get an audience with King Herod. The Bible says the the whole city of Jerusalem was troubled when they heard the news the wise men brought.
So it is more likely they showed up with a huge caravan a couple years after Jesus was born rather than just three guys at a stable in the middle of the night like we usually portray them. But three wise men with gifts in the manger makes for easier story telling.
Three Gifts of Significance
There was some significance in the gifts that the wise men presented to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
- Gold – gold was the stuff of kings and it represented Jesus’ kingly role.
- Frankincense – Incense was used by priests and represented his priestly role.
- Myrrh – Myrrh was a spice used in embalming, representing Jesus’ ultimate sacrificial death.
Also those three things were pretty valuable. So Joseph could have sold them and the proceeds would have been enough to provide for the family down in Egypt as they hid out for a couple years or so down there from King Herod, who was looking to have Jesus killed.
An Even Bigger Gift
But there is an even bigger gift given at Christmas time that often gets glossed over, if it’s even acknowledged at all.
Luke tells us that the night Jesus was born there were some shepherds hanging out with their flocks of sheep in the fields outside of town. Imagine for a moment you’re with them there that night.
There’s no light pollution so you can see all of the stars in the night sky. You’re there with your coworkers, maybe sitting around a small fire when all of a sudden an angel from heaven is standing there in front of you.
Now keep in mind that we have sissified angels in our art over the centuries. Throughout the Bible the the first thing angels usually say to people is “don’t be afraid!” That’s because apparently at first glance they are pretty dang intimidating.
And this is exactly how this angel greets you:
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
— Luke 2:10-14
When we tell the Christmas story we tend to focus on what that single angel says about the baby down in that Bethlehem manger. But I want to take a closer look at that last phrase, “on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
Open Hostility
From the time of Adam down to when Jesus came on the scene there was an ongoing general hostility between heaven and earth. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden they caused a separation between God and mankind that often came across as animosity between both sides.
Because sin warped our perspective it seemed like God was always out to get us, just waiting for the slightest infraction to come down on us like a ton of bricks.
It was like God was at war with us. Only if we did certain things, and behaved in certain ways could we appease his wrath and keep the curse at bay. Basically there’s been a state of war between heaven and earth for thousands of years.
Peace Declared
Then along come these angels and tell the shepherds that “the war is over. God’s declaring peace with earth. Now instead of wrath, God’s good will and blessing will be available to all mankind.”
Misinterpretations
Some translations of the Bible have the angels saying peace “among” mankind rather than “to” mankind. One look at current events today makes it obvious that has to be a misinterpretation what the angels were saying. If heaven was declaring that all of mankind’s wars amongst themselves were over then heaven is pretty impotent. I’m just saying.
Other people take what the angels said to the shepherds to mean that moving forward God will be good with some people. But obviously there are a great many people still suffering, so God must still be mad with them.
But that flies in the face of what we know from other scripture. In what may be the most quoted verse in the whole Bible (John 3:16) Jesus said that it was God’s love for the whole world that caused him to give the gift of his son, not just a select group.
Then in one of his letters John says that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all “our” (meaning “believers”) sins. But then John takes it a huge step beyond that when he adds this: “and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.” — 1 John 2:2
God loves the whole world and has provided a solution to the sin problem for all of mankind. He is no longer angry at anyone on this planet.
God Declared Peace
Did you know that the Greek word that is used for angel can also mean messenger? God sent his angels to earth with a message of peace. The war is over. And they delivered it to the shepherds.
Instead of declaring war, God declared peace. His own son would be the way that peace would be legally put in the earth.
That night God removed any question of hostility from heaven.
Before anyone beyond Mary and Joseph new it even happened, God gave the greatest Christmas gift ever to all of mankind by unilaterally announcing that the war with humanity was finished.
That’s a pretty good precedent for us to continue to give Christmas gifts to one another, don’t you think?