Song of Solomon 1:13 + John 18:1-19:42
Good Friday
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
In the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite woman says of her beloved, “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts” (Song 1:13). Myrrh was a valuable resin, as aromatic as it was useful. Since ancient times people have used it for health and the healing of wounds, and for the preservation of dead bodies to prevent decay. This is how the Shulamite woman thinks of her beloved Solomon. The thought of him is a bundle on her necklace, lying between her breasts, close to her heart. The thought of his love is like an aroma that fills her nostrils like an ever-present perfume. She keeps her beloved in her heart always, and the thought of His love is vivifying for her.
You, dear Christian, like the Shulamite, have a Beloved who is a bundle of myrrh, that you ought to keep in your heart and treasure. For in the Song of Solomon, the beloved is Christ. The Shulamite is His church, the Bride of Christ, of whom you individually are members. And as Christ’s bride, you, like the Shulamite, eagerly await His arrival to come and take you into the heavenly nuptial hall of everlasting life. And so that you might keep Christ in your heart as a bundle of myrrh, which is able to heal the wounds sin has inflicted upon you, fill your nostrils with the aroma of His love, and preserve you—not from bodily putrefaction—but from the decay of everlasting death, tonight you hear of the care and preparation that went into making your Lord Jesus Christ a bundle of myrrh for you.
We could skip to the end when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus show their great love for Christ. Joseph, in approaching Pilate and asking for Jesus’ body, Nicodemus, in bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Both men, who had secretly held Jesus in their hearts by faith, now make their love for their Beloved public, regardless of the ramifications. St. John tells us, “They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.” These two formerly-secret disciples of Jesus literally make Him a bundle of myrrh and aloes. Joseph contributes a brand-new tomb which had never been used. Nicodemus contributed about a hundred pouts of myrrh and aloes. With all the care they can muster as they work against the clock—for they had to bury Christ before sunset when the Sabbath would begin—they prepare their beloved for burial.
But the preparation of this bundle of myrrh began long before Joseph and Nicodemus began their labor of love. It began the day before Palm Sunday when Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair (Jn 12:3). Jesus tells the disciples that she has kept this for the day of My burial (Jn 12:7). How long did that fragrance cling to Jesus’ flesh, so that everyone around Him, especially His disciples, would smell His coming death, yet still not fully believe as Mary did?
The preparation of this bundle of myrrh continued on Palm Sunday and throughout the week as the Jews plotted Jesus’ death, accepted the traitor’s offer to hand Him over to them, and finally on Thursday night arrested Him, bound Him, and tried Him themselves. He is falsely accused and struck. To secure the death penalty they send Him to Pilate because the Jews did not have the authority to put anyone to death under Roman law. Pilate prepares the bundle of myrrh by having Him scourged. The soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they mock Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and strike Him with their hands. Pilate wants to free Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times He declares to the Jews, “I find no fault in Him” (18:38; 19:4, 6). He tries to employ a standing custom of freeing one prisoner to the Jews during Passover, only to find His cowardice matched by the Jew’s hatred of Jesus. He prepares the bundle by handing Him over to Jews to be crucified. The Jews continued this preparation by crucifying Him. After hours of suffering, knowing that all things were now accomplished, He receives the sour wine and says, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
All this, the Christ endures for His bride. Not only does bear excruciating physical pain, but during all of it He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned away, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” says the prophet. Every wound should have been ours. Every bruise belonged to us. He endured the wrath of God towards sin. All of God’s hatred for evil—that which is contrary to His will—is poured out on His Son. God the Father laid on Him the iniquity of us all, so that Christ on the cross is the sinner, even sin itself. And it pleased the Lord, the prophet said, to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made His life an offering for sin. Christ submits to all this, bears all of it, endures all of it, for His bride. For His apostle tells us: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her,that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25–27).
This (pointing to the crucifix) is love—Christ giving Himself for you, to pay for every single one of your sins. Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your words. Your deeds. Every single one of them that contradicts the thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds God wills you to have. This is love—Christ enduring the hell of God’s wrath against your sins—even the sins of the entire world—so that you do not have to. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). This is what makes Christ the soul’s true Beloved. For in His innocent, bitter sufferings and death, He gives Himself to you as a bundle of myrrh, the most valuable treasure, the precious possession you can own. For the thought of Christ crucified for you is health. Faith in Christ crucified—His merits earned upon the cross—is given to you in the gospel for the healing of your wounds, even the wounds you have inflicted upon yourself by your sin. Christ crucified for sinners—for you—is a balm of myrrh that preserves you, not for bodily decay, but from the decay of everlasting death, by preserving you unto life everlasting.
With the Shulamite, Christ’s bride receives this great love and says, “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts” (Song 1:13). Christ was foretold by the prophets, prepared by Pilate, crucified for Your sins, wrapped in myrrh and buried so that He might be for you, a bundle of myrrh which you wear around your neck, between your breasts, in your heart. He dwells in your hearts by faith to daily give you the blessings He earned for you on the cross, forgiving you of the sins of which you are not aware, and the ones of which you are aware as quickly as you repent of them. Christ is that bundle of myrrh which fills your nostrils with the aroma of His great love for you, that He would take your sins and give you His righteousness. Christ is that bundle of myrrh which fragrances you, so that as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2[:5}, You are to God the fragrance of Christ, for God the Father sees all who believe in His Son and trust His death as clothed with Christ’s perfect merits and righteousness.
Christ is the bundle of myrrh which God has prepared for you, so that you might keep your Beloved, your Lord Jesu Christ, between your breasts, deep in your heart by a true and lively faith. For faith is how you wear Him around your neck and have Him in your heart. Faith is how you breathe deeply of His love, how His fragrance fills you, and how you receive all the good He has earned for you. By faith, with hearts fixed upon His great love for His bride, you join the Shulamite, and all the faithful, saying, “I am my beloved’s, And my beloved is mine” (Song 6:3), for Christ has suffered and died to make me His own. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
