Epiphany Myrrh

John 19:33-37

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In the season of Epiphany, we are going through the three gifts that the Magi brought to the Christ child, and today we’re looking in particular at that gift of myrrh. We may not be familiar with myrrh in our daily lives today, but back in Jesus’ time it was very commonly used and it was used for a number of different purposes. One was medicinal. Myrrh has antibiotic properties that are very beneficial when it’s used as an antibiotic, the bacteria don’t adapt to resist it, and so it can be very powerful in that regard. It was also used in preservation and particular in preservation of bodies after burial. And it’s very sweet smelling, so it was sort of a method of embalming. It was not only very pleasant smelling to combat the smell of decay, but it also helped prevent decay. It preserved the body as well for a while.

And so I have some myrrh with me today. This is myrrh incense, and this is a kind of sweet myrrh. It might not look like the incense we’re familiar with. We might think of incense being on a stick form, that you burn the end of the stick and it burns down. But this is actually resin incense, and this is more accurate to what the incense in Jesus day would have looked like. The resin incense is usually put on a lighted charcoal that will burn the incense and make it smoke, and provide a very strong, sweet scent.

Incense, like myrrh, is gathered in a very unique way. The way that they get incense is from the bark of a tree, and what they need to do with that tree is they drill into the tree and then sap pours out from the wound where they drilled the tree. And so then they gather that sap and they let it dry into a resin. And then when you heat it or burn it, it produces this very sweet smell. And you can use it in oil form as well for medicine or for preservation.

But that’s a very interesting way to gather myrrh. We see in that gift of myrrh, it foreshadows the very work that Jesus would do. Just like myrrh is gathered by piercing into a tree and taking the sap that pours out from the tree. So also with our Lord Jesus. His body was pierced on a tree. Myrrh has been called the tears of the bleeding tree, and we can apply that to our Lord’s work for us, that in all that sorrow on the tree on Good Friday we find healing, we find peace, and we find life even in the midst of death. We read from the gospel according to Saint John.

When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it [that is, John himself] has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled… T”hey will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19:33-37)

Just as the wound on the tree pours out the sweet smelling myrrh, so also the spear wound on that sacred tree of the cross, from that wound in Jesus’ side pours out from his gracious and loving heart for you blood and water. And that is the healing and the sweet smelling myrrh that you have today in your own congregation. Your own pastor baptizes you with that holy water, the water of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Your very pastor ministers to you with that very blood in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, where Christ Himself and all that he has worked, and won for you comes directly to you, is placed upon your lips, and is yours. And the wounds from that tree cleanse you so fully, and preserve you so well that even death itself has no power over you. Your sin is forgiven.

By a tree, death is overcome and Christ is victorious and lives forevermore. And even in this season of Epiphany, we look ahead with joy, knowing that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.