Readings:
Sermon:
It was the fortieth day after his birth – just as today is around forty days after Christmas. So, in accordance with the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple.
They were taking part in a ritual which their ancestors had been undertaking since the time of the Exodus.
God had spared the firstborn children of Israel, when he had killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians as a warning to Pharaoh to let the people go. So in return, the Book of Leviticus spelled out how firstborn baby boys were to be brought to the Temple and offered to the Lord. But they could be redeemed by the appropriate sacrifice – a pair of turtle-doves.
And that’s what was happening today. And it means that Jesus – who had already been circumcised on the eighth day – was now thoroughly embedded as one of the Jewish people, those God had chosen as his own.
At the Presentation, the incarnate Son of God chose not just to be human, but chose specifically to be an Israelite – a Jew. His willingness to share in this ritual confirmed once again God’s choice of Israel to be the people through whom his presence would be shared with the world.
But the Presentation also foreshadows the great paschal mystery of Good Friday and Easter. Because in his suffering and death Jesus will make his own sacrifice, his own redemptive offering, in which the whole of humanity is offered to God and is reconciled with God. In Christ’s passion, God is revealed as one who is willing to forgive, even to the extent of placing himself in the place of the sinner.
So one way of understanding today’s readings is to see them as pointing to the revelation of Jesus as our great high priest.
The prophet Malachi foretells the presence of God coming to his temple. When this happens, God becomes once more the ruler of Israel, restoring his people and restoring their right relationship with him. In his incarnation, Jesus Christ is this divine presence, and his entry into the temple is what happens at the moment of his Presentation.
The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that the sacrifice Christ makes for us is to take upon himself our human nature and unite to his divine nature. He does this for our benefit. Through the Incarnation he makes himself a gift for us. Jesus is a priest – he offers himself as a sacrifice, and the benefit of his sacrifice is for us.
And Luke portrays the Presentation in the Temple as another of those great epiphanies or revelations.
God’s presence is revealed in the Temple. Jesus Christ is the high priest who comes to his temple to offer sacrifice. But he is also the divine presence, forever present in the temple and in the world.
This is the beginning of a new age, both for Israel and for the Gentiles – the age of the Messiah.
Simeon and Anna both see this revelation. For them it is profound, but also bittersweet. With the dawning of this new age, the previous era has ended and their mission is complete. The covenant with Israel – the prophets, the Law, the temple and the kingdom – has been brought to fulfilment. All those gifts foreshadowed the greatest of all divine gifts – Jesus Christ, God with us.
The gifts of Israel are now given to the world, transformed in and through Jesus and becoming his Church.
There’s an ancient tradition of blessing candles on this day – the candles that will be used in worship over the coming year. The candles are a reminder of the coming of Christ, the light to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. And so the feast of the Presentation is also known as Candlemas.
The candles remind us of the divine presence, manifested to Israel at the time of the Exodus as a pillar of fire – leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.
In the same way, Jesus is the pillar of fire who leads humanity out of slavery to sin and death to the promise of resurrection and eternal life. Jesus Christ, the light of lights, the light of the world, leads us still.
Questions:
- What difference does it make to our worship, our theology or our practice to think of Jesus as our great high priest?
- Apart from at Candlemas, when else do we use candles in our worship to symbolise the light of Christ leading us to salvation?