Wrapped In Spices. Raised In Glory | Easter | Pastor Derick Amsler

We have gathered today on this particular weekend. We have dressed up, we have planned brunch, we have called grandma. We have made special arrangements to be in God's house today to celebrate Christmas. Come on, tell the person next to you, Merry Christmas. Let them know.

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Matthew chapter 2. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked where is the one who has been born? King of the Jews?

We saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him. 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 treasure and presented him with gifts. Let's don't just read the text, let's live the text by throwing our biblical imagination back into the text.

The text says that when they came to the house, so this is not a stable, they saw a child. So this is not the baby wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger. Matter of fact historians say that these group of star scholars, this was a group of men who would speak into empires powers. They were advisors to the kings, the Caesars and the emperors. We call them the Magi.

They were probably Persian or living in Babylon and so it probably took them two years to trek all the way to Bethlehem. So in your biblical imagination, go with me not to a stable but to a small middle Eastern house in Bethlehem. Inside the Jesus is probably a two year old toddler. Mary is probably playing with Jesus in a way that a mom would play with a two year old. He is excited, he's laughing, he's talking, he's running around the house.

We know that Joseph was a carpenter. So in my mind he's over here putting together IKEA furniture and then maybe he's a little frustrated so he says omg. And Jesus says yes sir. And so he's over here putting together IKEA furniture and then maybe he just looks over at Mary and says Mary did you know that your baby boy. And she says for the last time, yes the angel told me, knock it off.

And maybe they're just talking, having a conversation, when suddenly horses hooves can be heard in the distance. Voices could be heard with a different accent and a different rhythm and tone to their speech. There's a knock on the door and immediate entrance into their house. The Bible says that upon entrance they saw Jesus and they bowed down to worship him, giving him gifts. The first magi walks up to the child.

This gift is valuable not just because of what's inside, but because of what it symbolizes. Power, authority, prestige, dominance, position, hierarchy. Gold. Gold coins that have the inscription Caesar is lord. So this isn't just a gift fit for a king.

This is in defiance against King Herod and the Caesar of Rome. He's declaring himself to be Lord. But I recognize a savior has been born. I give you the G of royalty. The second Magi approaches.

Jesus takes the live off his gift. And immediately the room is filled with a sweet, citrusy type of an aroma that just fills the room instantly. Matter of fact, this particular fragrance was reserved only for sacred places of worship. When dried out and lit, almost like a. Like a candle, it would fill.

Fill the room or the cathedral or the synagogue with a. With a thick smoke, almost like a haze. It was a visible reminder of this eternal truth. God is among us. And when we worship and praise and pray, God inhabits the praises of his people.

He is here and he is among us. This was the fragrance of frankincense. So gold, A gift for royalty. Frankincense, a gift for deity. And then the third Magi approaches the child.

And his countenance is different than his predecessors. He's probably not smiling. He's feeling a little uncomfortable. He's kind of fidgety. And he looks at Mary, looks at Joseph, looks at the child, looks at the Magi.

He uncorks his gift. And immediately the room is filled with a starch stench. Standing in contrast to frankincense, this aroma is almost nauseating. It smells like damp soil. It's dark, it's heavy, it's almost burnt, like.

And Mary recognizes it immediately. This is a burial spice. This is myrrh. Now can we just say that's a weird gift to bring to a 2 year old? Can we just say that like, who's showing up to a two year old's birthday party?

Hey, it's like this. It's like this. If you invited me over to your kids birthday party and I'm like, hey, little buddy. Pastor Derek got you a gift. What do you give me, Pastor Derek?

I got you a graveside. What's a graveside? A plot of land upon your death you shall occupy. That's just weird. That's so weird.

Think about this. Mary has no framework for myrrh. When the angel appeared to her to announce her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, there was no mer language. He said the angel told Mary his kingdom will have no end. He shall rule his people with righteousness, peace and joy.

Her mind goes back two years earlier. To the stable when the shepherds came in. Guys, you will not believe what happened to me. Me and the other shepherds, we were out in the field tending our flock by night when the angel of the Lord shone around us. And I'll admit it, we were terrified.

But the angel said, fear not. I bring you good news of great joy that'll be for all the people. Mary's framework for her son is a kingdom, not crucifixion. Righteousness, peace, joy. And then the Bible says that the magi left the gift remains.

And Mary treasured all these things in her heart. A poetic way of saying, I don't understand how all this connects to my boy, but I'm just gonna hang on to it. We fast forward scripture. Jesus is now 33 years of age, and he's walking down the streets of Jerusalem. Scholars say that probably anywhere between 500,000 and 2.4 million people from the north, south, east, and west has assembled upon Jerusalem.

They're celebrating Passover. Passover was this moment in Jewish history where. Where. Where the people of God were enslaved in Egyptian captivity for over 400 years. You know the story.

God called a man by the name of Moses and said, mo, go to Pharaoh. Tell Pharaoh. God said, let my people go. Oh. And Pharaoh said, no.

Oh. And so God began to send the plagues. The last plague was the death angel that would. That would come in and release divine judgment and justice upon wickedness and. And evil.

By the way. We want a God like that. We want a God who's going to right every wrong and going to bring justice to wickedness and evil that has. That has hurt and damaged your life. So God, a good, just judge, is going to bring judgment upon the earth.

But God is also a God of love and grace and mercy. So how does the God who needs to bring justice also remain merciful? Only God could come up with a plan like this. He said in an act of faith that you understand the punishment against God fits the crime, and you should die for your sins. But God is just but loving.

He's going to provide a substitute to die so that you can live. If you take a lamb and take its blood and spread it over the doorpost of your house, it symbolizes I should die. But in God's mercy, he provided a substitute lamb, the death angel. With the justice and judgment passes over our life and it goes on to someone else. That's what they're celebrating, the Passover festival.

But it's more than just remembering their history. They're also anticipating their future. And one day, God would send someone greater than Moses, greater than King David, and he would liberate their people. Their framework of thinking was God was going to send a greater Moses, not to deliver them from Pharaoh, but to deliver them from Rome and Caesar and King Herod, who were brutal leaders. So can't you see it?

Jesus comes walking into town. Ha ha. We call it Palm Sunday today. The place goes berserk. The place goes wild.

There's music, there's dancing, there's celebration. They started waving palm branches. It says that they started taking off their jack. They're throwing it on the ground. It's giving them basically what we would call today the red carpet treatment.

And they begin to sing. Hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna which means save now, save now Save now Save us the way Moses saved us Save us the way King David saved us Save us the way that only God could save us so picture this. The place is ablaze Hosanna, save now Hosanna save now they're beating the drums. They're playing the flute the children are dancing and laughing Hosanna, save now, save now Hosanna Save now, save now the momentum is rising.

Ha ha. The place is electric. Hope is in the air. Courage has reignited the hearts of God's people. When suddenly, before the end of the week, Jesus is hanging on a cross, dead.

Now, if we're not careful, we'll just assume the moment lived out was like many religious arts depict. Mary is just in the corner. Conservative, sorrowful, but yet somehow she's got that look in her eye where she still knows how all this is going to work out. No, I think she's crying in a way that only a desperate, scared, confused mom would. Seeing her baby die, I can almost hear her fatigued voice in her tired body.

Forceful, forcing language from her throat. Why?

Why? That's my baby up there. What did. What did he do to anybody? What did he do?

You yourself said that you find no fault in him. Never a coarse word, never a misaligned attitude or behavior. Even your religious leaders were willing to pay somebody to bring dirt before the court, and nobody could. You brought it all the way to Pontius Pilate himself. The governor, even the governor investigated his life and said, I find no fault in him.

He is innocent. Why crucify him? But caving into pure pressure, he handed him over to the Pharisees and the Sadducees to be executed because of their jealousy. Mary. Why, my boy?

And maybe she looks at the sign above the cross that says King of the Jews.

And something in her immediately connects to the house. Gold. She remembers the definition of his name. Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins.

Frankincense. And now she looks at his body and she moans. Myrrh.

This wasn't just an historic event of a man dying on the cross. This was God himself releasing the wrath stored up for evil and wickedness and sin. But in love giving us a Passover lamb in the person of Jesus so that it passes over us onto.

They eventually take his body off the cross. They laid his body in a tomb. They rolled a stone in place. Friday ends. Saturday sits in silence as the earth mourns not just its creator, but its king.

Gold. Frankincense.

Early Sunday morning Mark Chapter 16 says when the Sabbath day was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus and another woman named Salome bought spices. Everybody say bought spices. They bought spices so that they might go and anoint Jesus body for a proper burial. So again, in my biblical imagination, it would look something like this. It's early Sunday morning.

The streets are already crowded with people and with conversations. There's people laughing. There's people carrying on. After all, the market is very much alive and well. It's Passover season and we got to make a feast.

There's meals to prepare for. There's. There's the. There's the vendors. There's the people coming in.

Also, Rome is still scared. And so they're saying things like be careful when you talk about the rabbi who was cross crucified last night. We have sent soldiers out to to notice and spot any insurrection. Keep it down. Are you coming over later for the festival?

Are you coming over later for dinner? The market is alive and well. And here's what we're noticing. Somehow life goes on even when it feels like all of creation should stop. The Bible says that eventually these three women came to the market.

Here's my point. They did not go to the tomb looking for a miracle. They went to buy spices for a burial.

According to Jewish traditions, there's three types of spices used for a burial ceremony. The first one would be aloe.

Whenever you couldn't get rid of the stench of death or decay, your only hope was to overshadow its stench with a stronger scent. Aloe was such a stent. They would mix different herbs and spices together. Not to heal the body, but to. But to override the decay of the body.

We have the spice. In our day and age, we don't call it aloe. We would call it distractions. When there's something inside of us that is filled with shame or anxiety or paranoia, we just, for whatever reason, we just kind of feel like our soul needs to be cleansed, but we don't want to sit with ourselves long enough to bring it to the cross. And so we just distract ourselves with it.

More relationships, a different relationship. More scrolling. Another episode here. There, I'll move. It's just distracting us from this internal anguish that we don't quite want to deal with just yet.

The second ingredient used as a burial spice would be hyssop. Hyssop was used in the synagogues, in the religious spaces. It was an outside cleansing agent that was symbolic that my inside needs to be cleaned as well. And so hyssop was used in the, in the synagogues and in the tabernacles. You would, you would, you would, you would apply this to your hands, into your.

Into your. Your mind and your heart. Lord, in the same way that I need soap to cleanse me, I need you to cleanse my soul, cleanse my heart. And for many of us, if we're honest, we've been playing this play for years. If I can just keep going to church enough or pray hard enough or serve my community enough, if I could just be a good enough person, maybe that will make me good enough to get to heaven.

The problem with that philosophy is it always leads to comparison and pride. Because upon whose metric are you gauging your goodness? Like, I don't know about you, but if my good deeds get me into heaven, I'm not comparing myself to Mother Teresa. I'm comparing myself to a Stillers fan. Because we all know, we all know ain't gonna be much there.

Hyssop reminds us that religious activity doesn't necessarily clean you. It just gives you a better reputation. But what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The third ingredient they would use in burial spices in this day and age was called myrrh.

We've already talked about it, but it was a. It was the preservation of a body. It's not going to resurrect the body. It's not going to heal the body. It's just going to delay the inevitable.

It's. It's going to slow down decay. This is what we do with control. We call this spice control. If I was just more in control, if I would just hang on to my phone.

We both know hanging on the phone, having the phone in your hand at 2am Ain't gonna fix this anything. But just in case they text Me, I'll be ready. And we just keep this, we just keep control. This is what we do with offenses. Well, I can't take the chance that they're going to hurt me twice.

And so I'll hang on to this. It doesn't heal anything, doesn't fix anything. But it makes us feel better if we feel like we have control over it, if we're honest. We've gotten really good at carrying these spices because these spices help us manage it, cover it and go through the motions when confronted with our own disappointment, despair and undealt with sin. But it doesn't actually heal anything.

These ladies, the Bible says, went to the market early Sunday morning. They bought their spices, into the tomb they went again. They're not looking for a miracle, they're looking for a body to prepare for burial. They've given up hope, they've given up faith, they've given up belief. They arrive at the tomb and immediately they notice something is wrong, something is off.

They arrive to the tomb and the Bible says they stepped inside the tomb. And it's not what you'd expect. It's not what you'd expect if somebody stole the body in the middle of the night. It's too precise. There's nothing chaotic happening in the room.

Matter of fact, if somebody came in under the cloak of the midnight hours and shadows, you would think that either the linens would be gone because they stole the whole body or the linens would be disarrayed, throw it everywhere. But the Bible says that the linen cloths are lying there in the tomb. Almost. This is crazy, but almost as if a body just rose out of them. And then the Bible says that the facial burial cloth of Jesus is neatly folded and placed to the side.

Now if you're a grave robber, you're not going to take the time to fold the laundry. Can we just agree upon that? No one's being like, hang on Bill, let me just fold this up. Nobody's doing that. If you're giving, if you're snatching bodies from the grave, you getting in and out, the tomb is too precise.

That's because nobody stole the body. And Jesus didn't need to escape the tomb. He rose and he walked out. The tomb was his Airbnb only for a couple days. The stone was rolled away not to let him out, but to let humanity look inside and see there is no body.

There's a professor at Harvard, he spent the last eight years studying the evidence that surrounds the resurrection of Jesus only using non religious materials and he says there is more evidence for the physical, not emotional or metaphorical, the physical resurrection of Jesus. More. There's more evidence concerning the resurrection of Jesus than most of our world history. This thing actually happened. And so can't you see?

The women are inside and they're still holding on to their herbs and spices. They don't know what to do now. Their mind is confused. Their body feels something different. They don't know what to do.

Eventually, they come out of the tomb. And the Bible says that when they walked out of the tomb, there's an angel. And the angel says, why are you looking for the living among the dead?

He is not here. Here it is. He has risen. Suddenly everything makes sense, from Christmas to the cross to this conversation. The magi brought myrrh too early and the women brought spices too late.

That's because Jesus didn't come to manage death, and he came to defeat death. And Jesus didn't come to manage your sin or help you manage your sin and cover it up with different spices and herbs. He came to dethrone the power that sin has had over your life once and for all. The resurrection is a declaration. Our Savior is alive and well, and he didn't come to manage your pain and your depravity.

He came to heal you and set you free.

Hosanna. Save now.