They Brought Him No Presents

When Saul was first anointed king over Israel, certain wicked men scoffed "how can this man save us?" The text tells us that they brought him no presents.

Saul is a tragic figure, for he went astray, and God forsook him. Yet, he was used to save Israel many times in battle.

This shabby treatment of Saul foreshadowed the rejection of the Savior by Israel. "How can this man save us?" might have summarized their complaint against Jesus.

Some brought Him gifts - remember the wise men at His birth, who worshipped Him though He was but a babe. Yet Israel proper knew Him not, when they inquired as to His whereabouts.

His own people of Nazareth rejected Him as "just Joseph's boy."

When Christ described how He would give eternal life to everyone who trusted in Him, the Jews scoffed and murmured against His claims - how can this man save us? They rejected His sacrifice in their place, and insisted that were He to die, then He could never be their Messiah.

Praise God, there were those few who did bring presents to Jesus! The sinful woman, and Mary, Lazarus' sister, brought gifts of fine ointment and worshipped Him with those gifts, because they knew that Jesus had saved them!

Having concluded that Christ couldn't save, it was to be expected that traitors like Judas Iscariot would resent those presents given unto the Savior.

In the end, when Christ died on the cross, even His disciples were devastated. They wanted to believe that Jesus could save them, and yet they did not understand how it could be? "But we had hoped that it would be He Who would redeem Israel!"

Praise God, by dying for them, Jesus had already saved them when they uttered those sad words!