Song of Solomon 5:5

Is there such a thing as sweet tears as well as bitter? And can both flow, mingled together at the same time? What is more bitter to the taste than myrrh? What is more fragrant to the smell than sweet-smelling myrrh?… Myrrh means flowing, or weeping. The bride's answer to the patient love of her bridegroom is now clear and real. "I arose to open to my beloved." She is recovering from her spiritual laziness. The sense of her sin in not opening the door when He knocked is bitterness in her soul. Yet it mixes with great affection for the one she slighted. Reaching the door where He stood so long, she finds the whole place filled with the fragrance of His person.

He withdraws himself again; he could not act otherwise, for she needed to feel her own coldness. Yet he wanted to assure her that his love does not change. She might change or grow cold — he could not. She opens the door, but he was gone. Was that all she found? … He had anointed the handle of the door with this perfume. It was a sign of his unchanged affection, even while she was cold towards him. What proof could she give of her love? His withdrawal was evidence of her carelessness. What proof he had left of his!

Myrrh is a fragrant resin. It is the life sap that oozes out through the wounds of a desert plant of the East. So it reminds us of Christ suffering even to death for us. There was also an eastern custom. When a young man was courting a young woman and she rejected his love, he would go and anoint the handle of her door lock with myrrh. It showed how real and deep his love for her was.

In the New Testament, myrrh was one of the gifts brought by the wise men (Matt. 2:11). A man named Nicodemus brought it, mixed with aloes, to embalm the body of the Lord when He was laid in the grave (John 19:39).

The bride would not respond when he drew near. So now he withdraws — but only to quicken her affections by his absence. And how effective the way he takes! The bride is fully awake: "I arose," "I opened to my beloved," "I sought him," "I called him" — this is the language of her heart. Every expression declares the renewed energy of her affections… Had the love of the Bridegroom changed then? Had he given up his bride? No — it was not the love, but the way of expressing the love, that had changed.

Love deals in the same way with the slow hearts of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. They wandered, but the Lord followed. Having awakened their affections, He vanished from their sight. The One who sought them withdrew from them, and in doing so left behind Him two seekers after Him instead of two wanderers from Him.

She arose to open to her Beloved. At once she discovered how much she had lost, for He had left the fragrant traces of His presence behind. Her hands, placed where His had been on the handles of the lock, dripped with myrrh… He was only teaching her a needed lesson and seeking the restoration of her soul by stirring up the energies and desires of her heart… The enjoyment of the presence of Christ can go in a moment. It may, and often does, take days to recover it. Forgiveness comes at once when we confess our sin. But recovering communion is only gradual, and takes time.