the presentation of baby jesus

Reflections for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Introduction:    This feast commemorates how Jesus, as a baby, was presented to God in the Temple in Jerusalem. This presentation finds its complete and perfect fulfillment in the mystery of the passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord. The  Feast of the Presentation of the Lord   is a combined feast ,  commemorating the Jewish practice of the  purification of the mother  after childbirth and the  presentation of the child  to God in the Temple and his buying back ( redemption ) from God. It is also known as the  Feast of the Purification of Mary , and the Feast  of Candlemas.  It is also called the  Feast of Encounter  ( Hypapánte  in Greek) because the New Testament, represented by the baby Jesus, encountered the Old Testament, represented by Simeon and Anna. Joseph offered two pigeons in the Temple as sacrifice for the purification of Mary after her childbirth and for the presentation and redemption ceremonies performed for baby Jesus.

Homily starter anecdote: “Four chaplains Sunday:  Julia Duin in the Washington Times Sunday, February 1, 2009 told this story. Just after midnight on Feb. 3, 1943, an act of extraordinary unselfishness by a group of men became a legend of martyrdom and sacrifice. When the Army ship Dorchester was torpedoed by the Germans just south of Greenland that night, its passengers and crew had 25 minutes to get off the boat. As 902 people went for the life jackets, it quickly was discovered there weren’t near enough. Of the 13 lifeboats, only two functioned. In the ship’s final minutes, Methodist senior chaplain George Lansing Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Dutch Reformed minister Clark V. Poling and John P. Washington, a Roman Catholic priest, were helping passengers leave the vessel. Then four men appeared all of them without life jackets. The chaplains quickly gave up their own vests and went down with the ship, perishing in the freezing water. Survivors saw them, locked arm in arm, praying and singing the Navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” just before the ship dove beneath the waves. It was a night as dramatic as the sinking of the Titanic but without a blockbuster movie to record the drama. “The Four Immortal Chaplains,” as they are now known, have been honored many times, including on a stamp issued in their honor by the U.S. Postal Service. Hence the first Sunday in February is known as “Four Chaplains Sunday” in some Christian denominations.  They presented and offered themselves completely for the wellbeing of others as Jesus was presented to God his Heavenly Father in the Temple of Jerusalem for the salvation of the world. ( http://frtonyshomilies.com/).

Scripture lessons summarized:   In the   first reading,  taken from Malachi, the prophet speaks of the Lord suddenly coming to Jerusalem to purify the lax, lazy and indifferent priests of His Temple as silver is purified by fire. Simeon saw the Infant Jesus as the fulfillment of this passage. He saw Jesus as the Lord Who has come to the Temple,  "destined to be the downfall and rise of many in Israel."    In the second reading,  St. Paul   proclaims Jesus as our Eternal High Priest of     the New Covenant (Heb 2:17), Who offered himself on the altar of Calvary, the only pure priestly sacrifice that could please God.    He replaces the former priesthood.  The Gospel  describes how Joseph, as the head of the Holy Family of Nazareth, presented Mary and the baby Jesus in the Temple of God for the mother’s purification and the Child’s “redemption.” It also describes the Holy Family’s encounter with the old prophet Simeon and the holy old widow Anna. In his prophecy, Simeon extols the divine blessings which the Messiah is bringing to Israel and to all men and predicts that Mary will play a crucial and sacrificial role in her Son's redemptive work by sharing in her Son's sufferings.

The first reading explained : Malachi prophesies in the first reading that the Lord is going to appear suddenly in the Temple of Jerusalem  to purify its priests and the people . The prophecy warns that nobody can endure the day of the messenger's coming because he will be like a refining fire, purifying the sons of Levi.  Led by the Spirit,  Simeon saw the Infant Jesus as the fulfillment of this passage .  Simeon, even if unknown to himself, foresaw Christ and His priests of the New Covenant who were ordained during the Last Supper. He saw Jesus as the Lord Who would come to the Temple,  "destined to be the downfall and rise of many in Israel."  In today's reading, Malachi prophesies that God will purify the lax, lazy and indifferent priests of His Temple as silver is purified by fire.  At the time of Malachi (around 460-450 BC), the priests were offering blemished (blind, lame) sacrifices and giving bad example (1:6-2:4).  The people were negligent in their support of the Temple (3:6-12). Israelite wives were being rejected by husbands who wished to marry foreign women (2:14-16). Social injustice was rampant (3:5), and the people doubted God’s love (1:2-5). Hence, Malachi reminds them that the Day of the Lord, a Day of Judgment, reward and retribution is coming. He describes the Divine intervention as a two-stage process. First God’s messenger will appear to prepare the way by purifying the clergy and refining the cult (v. 3). This purification will take place until they present offerings to the Lord in a spirit of justice and righteousness. Then, the Lord of Hosts will suddenly appear in the Temple (v. 1), to bring judgment and justice against unfaithful sinners (v. 5). The Psalm announces to Jerusalem that Jerusalem is about to receive a great visitor. The Psalmist identifies him as “The LORD of hosts … the king of glory.”

The second reading explained:  The second reading proclaims Jesus as our Eternal High Priest of the New Covenant (Heb 2:17), Who offered Himself on the altar of Calvary, the only pure priestly sacrifice that could please God. The  Didache  or the first catechism of the early Church (14:1-3), saw Malachi’s prophecy of a pure sacrifice and offering made from east to west as a prophecy of the sacrifice of the Eucharist.  Hence Malachi prophesies that the Lord will enter His Temple, there will be a renewed priesthood, and there will be a pure sacrifice offered worldwide and pleasing to God -- the Eucharist. Jesus became like us in all things except sin in order that He might offer to the Father perfect praise and glory.  Besides, since Jesus fully shared our experience, He is now a merciful and faithful High Priest on our behalf,  "able to help those who are being tested."   Jesus replaces the former priesthood. In keeping with the theme of today’s feast, namely, the presentation of the first fruits, this excerpt from Hebrews emphasizes Jesus’ dual role, as  first-fruits ,  par excellence , and as the  faithful High priest  Who presents the perfect gift of Himself to God for the expiation of human sin. By virtue of His Incarnation, Jesus became human in every way (vv. 17-18) except as regards sin. As representative of His brothers and sisters before God and as their Mediator, Christ perfected His service as both sacrifice and priest. By so doing, Christ was able to “rob the devil” of power (v. 14). As the first-fruits from the dead, as the conqueror of sin and death, Christ, in His person and through His mission, has set the course and cleared the way we are to follow; the decision to do so must be a daily and deliberate one.  It takes faith to see God's power at work in the death of Jesus.  Simeon hinted at this when he told Mary that she herself would be pierced with a sword.  Even knowing that her Son was the Savior of the world, it would be difficult for Mary to see him accomplish that salvation by being crucified.

Exegesis of today’s Gospel:  The birth of Christ was revealed by three kinds of witnesses in three different ways -- first, by the shepherds, after the angel's announcement; second, by the Magi, who were guided by a star; third, by Simeon and Anna, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Today’s Gospel describes the Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple. It was intended to ritually redeem Jesus who was the first born in the family and where Mary herself will have to be ritually purified. Mary and Joseph was a typical pious Jewish couple, who went to the Temple in obedience to do all that was required and expected of them by the Law.The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus is a combined feast , commemorating the Jewish practice of the purification of the mother after childbirth and the presentation of the child in the Temple. It is known as the Hypapánte   feast or Feast of the Purification of Mary (by the offering two pigeons in the Temple), the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (by prayers and a sacrifice offered in the Temple to redeem or buy the firstborn male child back from the Lord), the Feast of Candlemas (because of its ancient rite of blessing of the candles to be used in the church for the next year — a practice dating from the middle of the fifth century) and the Feast of Encounter (because the New Testament, represented by the Baby Jesus, encountered the Old Testament, represented by Simeon and Anna). Originally, there was no connection between today’s festival and the blessing of candles.    In the ancient East, this celebration occurred on February 14, forty days after Epiphany.   On February 15, pagans celebrated the festival of Lupercalia , a great “light” festival.    Perhaps this is an instance of the Church's “baptizing” a pagan custom.    At the principal Mass, the celebrant blesses candles, and people take part in a candlelight procession.    This should remind us that Jesus is our High Priest and the Light of the World.

Purification and redemption ceremonies : The Gospel describes how Joseph, as the head of the Holy Family of Nazareth, presented Mary and the baby Jesus in the Temple of God for the mother’s purification and the child’s “redemption.” According to Leviticus 12:2-8, a woman who bore a child was unclean  for forty days following the birth of a son or eighty days following the birth of a daughter.   Although Mary, the most holy of women, ever-Virgin, was exempt from these precepts of the Law, because of her miraculous conception, she chose to submit herself to the Law just like any other Jewish mother. Joseph and Mary showed their total submission to Law and obey the norms prescribed by the Old Testament.  The custom was practiced probably for the physical and emotional re-integration of the new mother into the community. There was a religious reason as well. Exodus 13:2, 12-13 prescribes that every first-born male belongs to God and must be set apart for the Lord, that is, dedicated to the service of God.  However, once divine worship was reserved to the tribe of Levi, first-born who did not belong to that tribe were not dedicated to God's service, and to show that they continued to be God's special property, a rite of redemption was performed. The Law also commanded that the Israelites should offer in sacrifice some lesser victim -- for example, a lamb or, if they were poor, a pair of doves or two pigeons.  The Book of Numbers 18: 15 taught that since every Jewish firstborn male child belonged to Yahweh, the parents had to “buy back” (redeem), the child by offering a lamb or turtledoves as a sacrifice in the Temple. The price of redemption for a human baby is five shekels of silver (Num 18:15-16). Jesus never needed to be "bought back," as he belonged wholly to the Lord, but Joseph kept these laws as an act of obedience to God. 

The encounter with Simeon and Anna :   By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the old, pious and Spirit-filled Simeon and Anna had been waiting in the Temple for the revelation of God’s salvation. The Greek Church celebrates the Hypapánte or Feast of the Encounter commemorating the encounter of the New Testament represented by Jesus with the Old Testament represented by Simeon and Anna. Simeon, who is described as a righteous and devout man, obedient to God's will, addresses himself to our Lord as a vassal or loyal servant who, having kept watch all his life in expectation of the coming of his Lord, sees that this moment has "now" come, the moment that explains his whole life.  When he takes the Child in his arms, he learns, not through any reasoning process but through a special grace from God, that this Child is the promised Messiah, the Consolation of Israel, the Light of the nations.  Simeon recognizes Jesus as the Lord’s anointed one, and in his prayer of blessing he prophesies that Jesus is meant to be the glory of Israel and the light of revelation to the Gentiles. Pope Francis: “Simeon took him in his arms and thanked God that he had finally “seen” salvation. Anna, despite her advanced age, found new vigor and began to speak to everyone about the Baby. It is a beautiful image: two young parents and two elderly people, brought together by Jesus. He is the one who brings together and unites generations! He is the inexhaustible font of that love which overcomes every occasion of self-absorption, solitude, and sadness. In your journey as a family, you share so many beautiful moments: meals, rest, housework, leisure, prayer, trips and pilgrimages, and times of mutual support… Nevertheless, if there is no love then there is no joy, and authentic love comes to us from Jesus. He offers us his word, which illuminates our path; he gives us the Bread of life which sustains us on our journey.”

Simeon’s prophecy: Simeon's canticle (verses 29-32) is also a prophecy.  It consists of two stanzas: the first (verses 29-30) is his act of thanksgiving to God, filled with profound joy for having seen the Messiah.  The second (verses 31-32) is more obviously prophetic and extols the divine blessings which the Messiah is bringing to Israel and to all men.  The canticle highlights the fact that Christ brings redemption to all men without exception -- something foretold in many Old Testament prophecies (cf. Genesis 22:18; Isaiah 2:6; 42:6; 60:3; Psalm 28:2). While Simeon blessed Mary, he warned her that her child would be “ a sign of contradiction, ” and that she would be “ pierced with a sword.” Simeon was prophesying both the universal salvation that would be proclaimed by Jesus and the necessity of suffering in the mission of the Messiah. Jesus came to bring salvation to all men, yet He would be a sign of contradiction because some people would obstinately reject Him -- and for this reason He would be their ruin.  But for those who would accept Him with faith, Jesus would be their salvation, freeing them from sin in this life and raising them up to eternal life. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph marveled, but not because they did not know who Christ was. They were in awe at the way God was revealing Him. 

The paradox of blessedness:  Mary was given the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God.  That blessedness also would become a sword which would pierce her heart as her Son died upon the cross. The words Simeon addressed to Mary announced that she would be intimately linked with her Son's redemptive work.  The sword indicated that Mary would have a share in her Son's sufferings. Her suffering would be an unspeakable pain which would pierce her soul.  Our Lord suffered on the cross for our sins, and it is those sins which forged the sword of Mary's pain.  Mary received both a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow.  But her joy was not diminished by her sorrow because it was fueled by her faith, hope, and trust in God and his promises.  Jesus promised his disciples, "no one will take your joy from you" (John 16:22).  The Lord gives us a supernatural joy which enables us to bear any sorrow or pain and which neither life nor death can take way.  Do you know the joy of a life fully surrendered to God with faith and trust? According to Dr. Scot Hann, the feast we celebrate shows a curious turn of events. The Redeemer is redeemed. She who is all-pure presents herself to be purified. Such is the humility of our God. Such is the humility of the Blessed Virgin. They submit to the law even though they are not bound by it.

Anna’s encounter with the Lord and her testifying to the Messiah:  Anna was an eighty-four-year-old widow who spent her days in the Temple in fasting and prayer, waiting for the promised Messiah. She was rewarded with the joy of seeing her Redeemer as a Baby. In her excitement, she praised God and introduced the Infant to others around her as the expected Messiah. Supernatural hope grows with prayer and age!  Anna was pre-eminently a woman of great hope and expectation that God would fulfill all his promises. She is a model of godliness for all believers as we advance in age.  Advancing age and the disappointments of life can easily make us cynical and hopeless if we do not have our hope placed rightly. Anna's hope in God and His promises grew with age. She never ceased to worship God in faith and to pray with hope.  Her hope and faith in God's promises fueled her indomitable zeal and fervor in prayer and the service of God's people. We grow in hope by placing our trust in the promises of Jesus Christ and relying not on our own strength, but on the grace and help of the Holy Spirit. After completing the presentation and redemption of baby Jesus and the ritual purification of Mary and the meeting with Simeon and Anna, Joseph and Mary understood more fully their responsibility before God to protect the child as they return to Nazareth

Life messages : 1)  Every Holy Mass in which we participate is our presentation . Although we were officially presented to God on the day of our Baptism, we present ourselves and our dear ones on the altar before God our Father through our Savior Jesus Christ at every Holy Mass. Hence, we need to live our daily lives with the awareness both that we are dedicated people consecrated to God and that we are obliged to lead holy lives.

2) We need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to recognize the presence of Jesus in ourselves and in others: All those who, like Simeon and Anna, persevere in piety and in the service of God, no matter how insignificant their lives seem in men's eyes, become instruments the Holy Spirit uses to make Christ known to others. In His plan of redemption, God makes use of these simple souls to do much good for all mankind. In other words, The Holy Spirit employs ordinary men and women with simple faith as His instruments to bear witness to Christ, His ideals and teachings, just as He used Simeon and Anna.  The Holy Spirit reveals the presence of the Lord to us when we are receptive and eager to receive Him.  Let us be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us to recognize the indwelling presence of the Lord with us and in others.  (Fr. Antony Kadavil)

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2:21-24 The presentation of baby Jesus

Luke 2:21-24 “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons’.”

When she was a little girl her mother brought her to church, but there was always a barrier she put up between herself and the congregation. At the earliest opportunity, when she was in her mid-teens, she stopped attending church. She got a job and lived like a modern girl, not keen on the institution of marriage or having a family. That was as old-fashioned as worshipping the living God, but then she fell in love with a kind man and she moved in with him. However, after a time that relationship of ‘living together’ didn’t satisfy them. They got married, and then when her sister had children and she saw babies close up her early opinions about not wanting to be a mother also changed, in fact her views about many things began to change as she matured. She watched her mother who had gone through a number of great crises and yet kept trusting in God. She couldn’t have got by, her mother told her, without knowing that Lord was in control and was helping her day by day. The daughter saw that, how her mother was given strength outside herself by the Lord, and she found herself praying, praying for motherhood in particular. Then she started to go to church each Sunday with her husband, and then they did become parents. A month or so ago she made a profession of faith that she had become a Christian and she got confirmed. I had sowed and watered for many years and in his time God gave the increase.

There is a longing in every heart to know God, and when this is joined with a longing for other great realities, like a life-long marriage to someone who loves you, and for children then your yearning after God grows. God has said that it is not good for man to be alone. When God gives you children you have enormous new responsibilities. How are you going to raise them? Are you going to put a barrier between them and their knowing the living God by your apathy and ignorance? Are you going to say to them, “God is unimportant and unknowable”? Or will you help them to know and serve God in a way you yourself have not been knowing him?

In our text we are told of the response of Joseph and Mary to the arrival of their new born baby boy, and that is what we are going to study today. What attitudes should be displayed by a young husband and wife to honour the Lord in dealing with their children? I am going to look at their attitude through the prism of four or five words and events mentioned in verses 21 through 24.

1. CIRCUMCISION: JOSEPH AND MARY HAD JESUS CIRCUMCISED.

We are told, “On the eighth day . . . it was time to circumcise him” (v.21). In other words the eighth day in Jesus’ life – as it was for every Jewish boy – was the prescribed day for circumcision. God required it; he had said in Leviticus chapter twelve and verse three, “On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.” So if Joseph and Mary were going to be God-fearing parents then they had to start right by doing everything that God said, trusting and obeying Jehovah. That was the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of blessed parenthood. So they had their darling baby boy circumcised, and Joseph himself would have had to do it; it was not for some centuries that rabbis took on the responsibility of circumcising baby boys. Eight days earlier young Joseph had had to assist Mary in giving birth to Jesus in the stable cave. There was no one else there but Joseph to help his wife in childbirth. Now he had to circumcise the baby; he had to do it. Think of it! You are holding in your arms your tiny adorable newborn son. Maybe you are twenty-one years of age, and now you are going to get the razor out and circumcise your son! Joseph had been told just how important this baby was – Christ the Lord, the Son of the Highest! Would you sleep the night before you were to do this? You’d pray together, your wife and yourself, and you’d ask God to help you, to stop your hand from trembling. You wouldn’t be aware of one interesting fact, that God has so designed the human body that around the eighth day of life the blood clotting factor is the highest, but you did know that circumcision was done to every single Jewish baby boy, with no fatalities, as it had been done to you, and God required it.

Why had it to be done? Jesus had to be circumcised for a number of reasons. It was a welcoming ceremony for every Jew; it said that this baby boy was welcome in the covenant community of Israel. A person circumcised was uniquely aware that he was of the seed of Abraham, and that Jesus was also the lawful, circumcised son of circumcised David. There were privileges that came from this; for example, Jesus couldn’t have been accepted as a teacher in Israel unless he’d been circumcised. There’d have been no possibility of him standing in the Temple courts and crying to the crowds of people hanging onto his words, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (Jn.7:37&38). An uncircumcised Jesus could have had no admission to any lawful Jewish assembly. He couldn’t have preached in a synagogue. He’d have been regarded by the Jews as an uncircumcised Gentile, an apostate from the faith of the patriarchs. By circumcision he had a right to the national privileges of Israel.

Again, submission to circumcision was saying that this child was born under the law of God, and as Jesus had begun so he would go on. Jesus’ whole life was going to be one of fulfilling all righteousness in keeping God’s commandments. Please grasp this, because it will be life for you; it’s going to be that righteousness of Christ, worked out in his daily obedience, which is going to save everyone who believes. The great champion of historic Christianity in the last century was Dr. J. Gresham Machen of Philadelphia and in the 1930s he was asked a couple of times to preach on the radio a series of broadcasts. In fact there were two series of messages, one called The Christian Faith in the Modern World and the other The Christian View of Man. Dr. Machen’s academic specialty was as Professor of New Testament, and he needed help in a better understanding of the theology of the Bible to broadcast it all over Philadelphia. He got this wisdom through a young Scotsman called John Murray. Dr. Machen was especially enlightened by Mr. Murray to understand how we are saved not only by Christ dying for us on the cross but by living for us, actively obeying God on our behalf. Of course our sin is imputed to Christ on Calvary, but also the daily righteousness of the God-man is imputed to us who believe in him; we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. Gresham Machen saw that truth as he had never seen it before and experienced the wonderful comfort it brings.

In late December 1936 Dr. Machen said good-bye to John Murray as he went out by train for a week to the freezing heartland of America, the state was north Dakota and it was mid-winter. Dr Machen went there at the request of a preacher who was trying to bring his muddled little congregation to understand and accept the teaching of the Bible and resist modernism. Dr. Machen was not a fit man going there but he couldn’t turn down this request for help and disappoint an old student. So he went, and as soon as he arrived there he fell ill with pneumonia and pleurisy. The day before he died, still only in his fifties, he sent a telegram to John Murray which told Mr. Murray what his hope was founded on as death was coming near. The telegram read, “I am so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” Our hope is that Jesus Christ fulfilled all the righteousness God demands from us. We are saved by his righteousness not our own.

Why am I telling you this moving story? Because we are seeing the very first evidence of Christ’s obedience to the law, and his fulfilling the righteousness which we fail to fulfil. We see it here in Jesus’ submission to the rite of circumcision. God said in his word, “On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised,” and we must notice that God’s law was kept by Joseph, Mary but especially Jesus who fulfilled the ceremonial law in our place. So in accepting this pain Jesus declared that henceforth his life was going to be one of fulfilling all our righteousness by keeping the law on behalf of every one of his people.

But there was even more significance to circumcising a baby boy besides it being a sign of his Jewishness, and that he was living under the law of Jehovah. Circumcision was a sign of regeneration; God was saying by this sign to the people of God during their state of childhood under the old covenant dispensation, “As a people your greatest need is a circumcised heart. Sin has put its roots down and down into your innermost beings and it’s stopping you loving the Lord with every bit of your hearts. Circumcision is a sign that that sinful attitude has to be cut out of your lives in a great definitive act of renewal.” We’d say that this sign of circumcision in the Old Testament period pointed to the fulfillment and reality of a new heart during the New Covenant. So the question we have to ask is obvious, why should Jesus – of all people – have to be submitted to this? He had no need of his heart being circumcised because he never had any sin – even as a baby. He wasn’t born in sin or shapen in iniquity. Mary did not conceive him in sin. He was from his begetting God’s holy child Jesus. So what spiritual need was there of his being circumcised? Doesn’t it deny his perfection?

No, it shows us Jesus’ mission in life from a week old. It shows us why he came from heaven to the womb of Mary. Circumcision declared Jesus’ solidarity with us. Christ has taken a sinner’s religion along with all the other baby boys who were submitted to circumcision that month all over Israel. Thirty years later our Lord will stand in a line of sinners waiting to be baptized by John in the river Jordan. Two people in front of him there stands a man who used to hit his wife. The man directly in front of him was a thief. The man behind him is a drunkard, and the man behind him is a liar, and the man behind him a blasphemer, and these sinners have all come to repentance for their sin, and now they are confessing their sins and they’ve known God’s forgiveness. They are waiting to be baptized by John in the river Jordan. And there in the midst of this long line of confessing sinners is the holy and sinless Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, the one who again is showing us that he has taken a sinners’ religion and is standing in solidarity with them.

There was a missionary working in the Hawaiian Islands named Joseph Damian. He preached to a colony of lepers, lovingly and faithfully serving and pastoring them for years. Then one day he spilt some hot water on his foot but he couldn’t feel anything. He touched his foot but his foot couldn’t feel his probing finger. Joe realized that he also had contracted leprosy. He went to church that morning and began his sermon not with the words “My fellow believers . . .” but, “My fellow lepers . . .” Now he could identify completely, utterly and totally with his congregation. I am saying that at the moment of our Lord’s circumcision we first meet Jehovah Jesus, the God of the Bible, identifying with us as one who has been made in the likeness of sinful flesh, humbling himself to death, even the death of the cross. God was willing to come so low to raise us, not a God pulling puppet strings, not a God simply spectating our agony but one who submitted to bloody circumcision, who sweated drops of blood and threw himself onto the ground and prayed in agony. That is the God who comes close to us and understands us.

So here is the week old baby Jesus bleeding after his circumcision, and crying with pain. When a hymnist wrote a Christmas carol with the line “but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes,” he surely was referring to the absence of petulant, selfish, ego-endorsing crying. When babies cry they can be communicating that they are in pain, or that they are hungry, or wet, or cold, and that isn’t sinful, it’s human. So Jesus at eight days was already into the pain and bloodiness of fallen human existence. The blood of Mary’s boy-child is being shed. His life begins with bloodshed. It ends with bloodshed. Down and down and down our Lord was willing to descend for our salvation. So the first thing we are told was Jesus’ circumcision.

2. IDENTIFICATION: JOSEPH AND MARY GAVE HIM HIS NAME JESUS.

We are told, “he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived” (v.21). My daughter and her husband have chosen the name for their unborn son and they’ve prayed for him by name every day for weeks ever since a scan revealed that the baby was a boy. His date of birth is not for another five or six weeks. When we ask them, “So what’s his name?” They say, “We’re not telling you that yet. We want to have something with which to surprise you in November.” Now you will remember that Jesus’ parents did not choose his name, that both to Mary (as recorded in Luke chapter one and verse thirty-one), and to Joseph on a separate occasion (as recorded in Matthew chapter one and verse twenty-one) they were told separately by messengers from God that the name of the child was to be ‘Jesus.’ It was God’s chosen name for his own Son. In a sense the name of every one of us was chosen by God, wasn’t it? He is the ultimate first cause for everything, and so, though some of you may not be very fond of your names, God did have some part to play in permitting your parents to make that choice, and it is good to think of your name, its choice and its meaning as one given you by God. Let me give you two illustrations of people considering their names. At a time when John Bunyan began to feel the power of the written word and his books were spreading all over the country he was rearranging the letters of his name. He came up with “NU HONY IN A B”. That was the effect of God’s grace in his life. The new sweetness of the divine mercy had totally transformed Mr. B.

Again the father of Mary Steele (a relation of the hymn-writer Anne Steele) gave his six year-old daughter a book and wrote inside the cover this acrostic;

My God, my refuge and delight,

Attend my humble cry;

Remember I’m a sinner great,

Yet Thou canst me supply.

So shall I love and live Thy praise,

Till I resign my breath;

Eternally adore Thy name,

Ev’n now and after death.

Lord, lead me by Thy Spirit still,

Ev’n guide me to Thy holy hill.

So God chose the name ‘Jesus.’ He could have given his Son the name ‘Moreh’ meaning ‘teacher’ because Jesus was the most inspiring teacher that this world has ever heard. Or God could have given him the name ‘Mehlech’ meaning ‘king’ because Jesus had power over creation, over men, over demons, over disease and over death itself. Supreme authority was his, but neither was he named ‘Mehlech.’ God passed by titles like that and he selected a name which speaks of deliverance, grace and help for lost men and women. He was named ‘Jesus,’ and that name means ‘Saviour’, or ‘He saves’, or ‘Jehovah the Saviour,’ or ‘the Lord saves.’ This is how he principally wants to be known, as the Redeemer of men and women.

There is no Saviour like him on earth or in heaven; there is no Saviour who has achieved what he has achieved; there is no Saviour who has earned the exaltation he has earned; there is no Saviour doing what he is doing today. He is the unique Saviour because he has done the impossible. By his life and death he has saved us (past tense) from the condemnation of sin by taking that condemnation in our place. He is saving us (present tense) from the power of sin by actually indwelling us and giving us strength to resist sin changing us year by year. He will save us (future tense) from the very presence of sin because when we see him then we shall be like him, totally freed from sin. He has taken the supreme responsibility for the salvation of all his people – and they are more in number than the stars of heaven – from the beginning to the end he saves. His name will always be ‘Jesus’ and so Charles Wesley says,

“Happy, if with my latest breath

I might but gasp His name:

Preach Him to all. And cry in death

Behold, behold the Lamb!”

Jesus is the one and only Saviour. There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. The folly of our human nature is that it wants to put something else alongside Christ in our salvation; “Jesus does a part, but I do my part too.” Our very nature itches to make some contribution to our salvation, towards what I call “Jesus plus.” But your name is not ‘Jesus’; that is his name uniquely. He alone is the Saviour. My salvation before God is not in the least dependent upon myself or anyone at all except Jesus only. All by himself he became the Lamb of God and he suffered and bled alone. When you stand before God in that tremendous day Jesus, as the only Mediator, will present your soul unblemished and complete to his Father. He will do it and he will do it without any assistance from man. Christ only for your salvation. Rest your confidence where it must rest. When you sin then grieve for it please, but don’t think that your grief must be added to Jesus’ salvation. When you witness for him speak wisely please, but don’t think that your boldness must be added to Jesus’ salvation. Remember that just as your righteousness can never make Christ’s righteousness any better, so your sin can never make Christ’s righteousness any worse. If you are clothed in Christ’s righteousness, even though you see yourself black with sin, you may stand now, and stand at the Judgment Day, and say I have a Saviour who lived and died for me, and that fact will see you through. Please be always abounding in the work of the Lord Jesus, and be happy to be a mere disciple of Christ, but don’t do those things to be safe. Your good works add nothing whatsoever to the work of Christ’s salvation. It is Christ who died. It is Christ who rose and now lives in heaven and in you. It is Christ who is at the right hand of God, and it is Christ who makes intercession for us and so saves us to the uttermost when we come to God by him. The parents identified their baby as ‘Jesus,’ the Saviour. Is he your Saviour? Let’s not be content to be church attenders, or admirers of Jesus, but let’s make sure that he knows us and we know him who is the Deliverer from the guilt and power of sin and Redeemer from Satan’s bondage. Let’s make sure we can say, “The Saviour from God is my eternal friend.” The third word, what is that?

3. PURIFICATION: JOSEPH AND MARY PURIFIED THEMSELVES.

We are told, “the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed” (v.22). What’s all this about? Again it was an Old Testament ceremonial requirement found in the book of Leviticus chapter twelve; “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites: A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over’” (Lev. 12:1-4). Now you may complain about this being in the Bible, that it is boring, that it is anti-women or demeaning to women, and that it is irrelevant to us today, but let me say a word in its defence and about its relevance to all of us.

By this law, and many like it, the children of Israel were being taught some simple lessons about living pure lives (remember that during this Old Testament time they were, as it were, in the childhood of their faith). “The God you serve is a pure God and he wants you to live a pure life.” That was the basic lesson. Those of you who’ve read the Old Testament through from Genesis chapter one onwards have often met these teachings about cleanness and uncleanness in the first five books of Moses. For example, there were rules about what happened if you had skin disease, or bodily discharges, or if you touched unclean things, or ate unclean foods. Then you had to purify yourself ceremonially, wash yourself and make a sacrifice because of this contact. So Mary had had a baby and Joseph had assisted her in the birth, and that might be the reason Luke writes about the time of their purification, not just Mary’s. Or Luke might be referring to Joseph’s involvement in the purification ceremony that he was the one who got the pigeons and sacrificed them for Mary. Paul explains in Colossians 2:16 and 17 that those laws are the shadow of Christ who is the substance. Every time a baby was born, or a certain time each month for women, or with other bodily discharges then Old Testament Christians had to relate them in their minds to the fascinating issue of living a pure life. If you took them in that way they became a divine teaching device. So you hear the prophet Isaiah talking to the people about their sin and saying, “But we are all as an unclean thing” (Isa. 64:6), and the people listened and they had a picture of living a clean and pure life which pleased God in all of life and everything, in what they ate, and wore, and how they washed themselves. Isaiah was exhorting them to always think of the purity of God and the pure Spirit.

So the people were taught during the Old Testament dispensation that after the birth of a baby, for forty days the mother was in this category of ‘unclean.’ Now there were some compassionate reasons for this law; it protected the woman for six entire weeks immediately after the pains and occasional tearing of childbirth from a demanding husband. He shouldn’t bother her. Let her heal! Then there is the reason of hygiene; let these weeks after the birth of the baby be a time when the mother enjoys washing and luxuriating regularly in her bath. People of two or three thousand years ago in the Middle East knew little about how essential cleanliness was when there were open wounds, but God here provides this good rule. Let the new mother spend some time washing and lying in warm water after the baby was born. God insists on this no matter if her boorish husband complains. That is the sort of God who reigns in heaven and in his church on earth, how kind and understanding he is to the needy and weak, the woman with child or to one just getting over having a child.

What is the big message of purification? Please associate our loving Lord in heaven with the fulness of life and wholeness and purity, not with death and defilement and disorder. God commands that all of life be lived under his direction, the food we eat, our monthly cycles, the birth of our children – it is all to be connected with honouring God. He was warning them at that time, “Don’t you or your husband run to the temple immediately with the newborn baby because that is what the priests of the fertility gods demand, claiming that it’s their idols who’ve caused this. Don’t give them publicity by parading a newly born baby in the temple of Baal. No! Let the weeks go by; there is no connection between worship and sex – in spite of what’s said by the Baals, the fertility cults in the nations all around Israel with their lurid priestesses. You children of Abraham are not to be like the Gentiles all around you; you are not to pick up their attitudes to women and child-bearing and their obscene temples.”

But the most important message conveyed by these laws about ritual purity is that God is pure, and man, conversely, is contaminated and unfit, in and of himself, to approach a holy God and only by the sacrifice can cleansing come to you. That is the main thrust of this teaching. Mary and Joseph needed to be purified, but they didn’t realize that the actual way of their purification lay in the baby they had circumcised, and named. So it was strange that one the one hand because of Jesus’ birth they needed to be purified, but on the other hand purification came to them only because Jesus had been born. We need purity for everything we do, and we find the mainspring of pure living in a living relationship with the Lord Jesus. What is the fourth word?

4. PRESENTATION: JOSEPH AND MARY PRESENTED JESUS AT THE TEMPLE.

We are told that after the days of purification had ended, and Jesus was six weeks old, that then, “Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (v.22). “Son we are taking you to your Father’s house,” Joseph might have said as he smiled down at his baby boy. They took him there that first definitive time, and they could have said to Jehovah, “Here he is, your blessed Son. Help us to care for him and put no stumbling block in the way of raising him to love and serve you.” Then to the feasts in Jerusalem a few times each year they took Jesus, and then their other children, so that Jesus became very familiar with the Temple, his true Father’s home, and knew it was his home too. You remember Hannah, the mother of Samuel presenting him at the Temple, how she had prayed long for a son, and then God heard her prayer, and soon she brought him, young as he was, to the house of the Lord and she said to Eli the priest, “‘As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he shall be given over to the LORD.’ And he worshipped the LORD there” (I Sam. 1:26-28). Hannah had said to the Lord, “If you should give a child to me, then I will give that child to you for all the days of his life.” That is the movement and model for every Christian parent. Children are an inheritance from the Lord, and we give them back to God to serve him all their days.

5. CONSECRATION: JOSEPH AND MARY COMMITTED JESUS AS HOLY TO THE LORD.

We are told, “(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons’” (vv. 23&24).So here we are told the last step that these two young Old Testament parents took in presenting their first born child to God. On the fortieth day of the life of Jesus he was consecrated in the Temple to the Lord. You may not remember this, that every single firstborn son in Israel was considered to belong to the Lord, to spend his life working for the Lord in the Temple. But exemption was obtained for those firstborn by paying at the Temple five shekels’ redemption fee (except in the case of the tribe of Levi whose firstborn did give lifelong service in the Temple). That redemption price for Jesus was paid by Joseph and Mary. He was consecrated to the Lord but not to work only as a priest in the temple but to work as a prophet preaching the word all over the land, and to work as a king showing his power over creation, demons, sin and death, and especially as a priest and sacrifice laying himself on the altar of Golgotha. Here is the incarnate eternal Son of God, Jesus, and yet he was born under the law in order to redeem us from the curse of the law. That means he was born under sentence of death and he bore that sentence absolutely and voluntarily and he also satisfied the law’s demand for perfect obedience. The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for many.

Then Joseph and Mary finally purchased the purification sacrifice for cleansing from their own impurity, and the sacrifice was the very cheapest, the kind of sacrifice poor folks bought, a couple of pigeons. What an elaborate business! Five great acts that every godly family under the Old Covenant should have gone through to present Jesus Christ to a life, not of being served, but to serve. But having children and raising a family is enormously influential. Raise up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

30th September 2007 GEOFF THOMAS

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The Feast of the Presentation

According to the Church’s liturgical calendar, the feast held on Feb. 2 each year is in honor of the Presentation of the Lord. Some Catholics recall this day as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary because such was the feast day named until the 1969 changes in the Church’s calendar.

In fact, according to Luke’s Gospel, the presentation of Jesus and the purification of the Blessed Mother took place in the Temple on the same day, and both are remembered during Mass on Feb. 2. Also, in several countries, Candlemas is simultaneously celebrated on this day and involves a candlelight procession that was popularized in the Middle Ages. Until the Second Vatican Council the feasts on Feb. 2 ended the Christmas season. Today, the season ends in January on the feast of the Baptism of our Lord.

As early as the fourth century Christians commemorated the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, but, at the time, there was no feast name attached. In seventh-century Rome, the Church named the celebration the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother Mary, and it remained that way for nearly 1,300 years. In the reforms after Vatican II, the feast was given a stronger focus on Jesus (by stressing the Presentation of Jesus), but clearly the events of purification and presentation that took place when Jesus was 40 days old (see Lk 2:22-39) are tied together and thus commemorated together.

Purification and Presentation

Under Mosaic law found in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, a Jewish woman who gave birth to a child was considered unclean (see 12:1-8). The mother of a newborn could not routinely go out into public and had to avoid all things sacred, including the Temple. If her child was a male, this exclusion lasted for 40 days. If the child was female, the period lasted 80 days. This was a ceremonial seclusion and not the result of sin or some kind of wrongdoing on the part of the mother.

At the end of the 40 or 80 days the woman presented herself at the Temple to be purified. If the baby was her firstborn male child, the infant was brought along to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord. The law in Exodus specifies that the first male child belongs to God (see 13:2-16). This law is a tribute to God for His sparing the firstborn Israelite males during the time of the Exodus from Egypt. The firstborn Egyptian male children, of course, were not spared.

The mother’s purification ritual obliged her to bring, or purchase at the Temple, a lamb and a turtledove as sacrificial offerings. The lamb was offered in thanksgiving to God for the successful birth of the child; the turtledove was a sin offering. Families that could not afford a lamb could bring two pigeons or two turtledoves. After these animals were sacrificed, the Temple priest prayed over the woman and she could once again resume her normal role or status.

Mary, the ever spotless Mother of God, certainly did not have to comply with this ritual, but did so to honor God and observe all the rules handed down by Moses. She was the holiest of all women, but she still submitted to the humbling requirements of the law. She remained at home for 40 days, denied herself all association with sacred things and on the day required walked the five miles from Bethlehem to the Temple in Jerusalem. Arriving at the Temple, Mary likely stood in line and waited her turn to see the priest.

Nunc Dimittis

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus, Mary and Joseph go to the Temple offering two turtledoves for Mary’s purification. Along with Mary’s willing submission, Jesus is presented into the hands of the priest and thus to God. In accordance with the Old Testament, the child was blessed and then bought or ransomed back by the family who would pay five shekels into the Temple treasury. The Savior of the world is ransomed in the manner of every other Hebrew boy. “When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord’”(Lk 2:22-24; see Nm 18:15-16).

The Gospel of Luke explains that the old prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna were at the Temple that day (see 2:22-38). They, like many others, had spent their lifetime waiting, longing for a Messiah, and the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Savior. Among all the children and mothers coming into the Temple, Simeon recognized Jesus as the Christ Child; he held Jesus and exclaimed this hymn of thanksgiving, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (2:29-32). The hymn has traditionally been termed the Nunc Dimittis , from the Latin, “ Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace .”

Like Mary, Jesus the Divine Son of God did not have to undergo these rituals, but His parents willingly complied in order to pay tribute to Jewish laws, to avoid any possible scandal and in so doing demonstrated profound humility. They acquiesced to the law like all poor Jewish families.

The Holy Family must have experienced great joy, even wonder at all that had happened to them. Consider the events of the previous weeks. First, the shepherds miraculously arrived to adore and praise Jesus on the night He was born. And now, Simeon, another stranger, singles out Jesus as the Savior, not only of Israel but of the world. Someday all the other children being presented will know Jesus as their Savior. But here in the Temple there is also pain. The old prophet, moved by the Holy Spirit, tells Mary that she will experience unspeakable grief because of the outrageous way the world would judge and treat her Son. But Mary remained always committed to God’s will and to her Son.

Feb. 2 is on the liturgical calendar as the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, but in addition to the presentation, the Mass recalls Mary’s humble submission to the purification ritual.

D.D. Emmons writes from O’Fallon, Ill.  

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The Presentation of Jesus

Upon the eighth day following His birth, the Lord was Luke ii. 21. circumcised, and the name Jesus given Him. Forty days after the birth, Mary presented herself with the child Luke ii. 22-38. at the Temple in accordance with the law, and after the presentation returned again to Bethlehem.

The order of events following Christ's birth to the time He went to reside at Nazareth, is much disputed. The chief point of controversy is respecting the time of the visit of the Magi. If this can be determined, the other events may be easily arranged.

An early and current tradition placed the coming of the Magi on the 6th of January, or on the 13th day after His birth. 3 This day was early celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany, or the manifestation of Christ, and originally had reference to His birth, to the visit of the Magi, and to His baptism. It is now observed both in the Greek and Roman Churches with reference to the latter two events, of which the adoration of the Magi is made most prominent. This is also the case in the English and American Episcopal Churches. But the tradition did not command universal assent. Eusebius and Epiphanius, reasoning from Matt, ii. 16, put the coming of the Magi two years after His birth. And others have thought the 6th January selected for convenience, rather than as having any direct chronological connection with the event. The apocryphal gospel of the birth of Mary puts their coming on the forty-second day, or after the presentation, but some copies on the 13th. 1

If we now ask the grounds upon which, aside from this tradition, the coming of the wise men is placed so soon after the birth, and before the presentation in the Temple, the more important are these: first, that the words Tov 8c Irjcrov yevvrjOevTos, " Now when Jesus was born," (Matt. ii. 1,) imply that the one event speedily followed the other, the participle being in the aoristandnot in the perfect; second, that directly after the presentation Jesus went with His parents to Nazareth, (Luke ii. 39,) and that therefore the presentation must have been preceded by their visit; third, that at the coming of the Magi Herod first heard of the birth of Jesus, but if the presentation at the Temple had previously taken place, he must have heard of it, as it had been made public by Anna, (Luke ii. 38.) But none of these reasons is decisive. There is nothing, as asserted, in the use of ytvvYjOevTos, " now when Jesus was born," that proves that they came so soon as He was born, or that an interval of two months may not have elapsed. 2 The opinion of many of the fathers that they found Him still in the manger, or stall, in spelunca ilia qua natus est, may be true, if the manger was in a cave in the rear of the house. (See Matt. ii. 11.) The statement of Luke, that " when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth," has often been interpreted as affirming that they went directly from the temple to Nazareth without any return to Bethlehem. 1 But this interpretation is arbitrary. It is apparent that Luke does not design to give a full history of Christ's infancy. He says nothing of the Magi, of the murder of the children, of the flight into Egypt. Whatever may have been the motive of this omission, which Alford, in common with many German critics, ascribes to ignorance, nothing can be inferred from it to the impugning of Matthew's accuracy. His statement respecting the return to Galilee is general, and does not imply any strict chronological connection. Elsewhere in Luke like instances occur, as in iv. 14, where Jesus is said to have " returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," whence it would appear that this return followed immediately upon the temptation ; yet we know that an interval of several months must have elapsed. It is the fact that His childhood was.passed at Nazareth, which Luke brings prominently forward, not the precise time when He went thither, which w^as unimportant. It is not inconsistent with his language that Jesus should have returned to Bethlehem from the Temple, an afternoon walk of two hours, and have gone thence to Nazareth by way of Egypt, though had we this gospel alone, we could not infer this. Besides, it is apparent from Matthew's narrative (ii. 22-3) that Joseph did not design upon his return from Egypt to go to Galilee, and went thither only by express divine direction. Plainly he looked upon Bethlehem, not Nazareth, as the proper home of the child who should be the heir of David. 2 And finally the fact that Anna " spoke of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem," by no means shows that her words came to the ears of Herod.

Those who thus place the visit of the Magi before the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus, are by no means agreed as to the time of the latter events. If the visit of the Magi was on the thirteenth day after His birth, and the murder of the children and the flight into Egypt took place immediately after, the purification must have been delayed till the return, and so in any event after the legal time on the fortieth day. 1 To avoid this, some suppose that, although the suspicions of Herod had been aroused by the inquiries of the Magi, yet he took no active measures for the destruction of the child, till the rumor of what had taken place at the Temple at the time of the presentation (Luke ii. 27-38) reaching his ears, stirred him up to give immediate order for the murder of the children. 2 Others still, making the departure to Nazareth to have immediately followed the purification, are compelled to make Nazareth, not Bethlehem, the starting point of the flight into Egypt. 3

The obvious difficulties connected with this traditional view of the coming of the wise men on the thirteenth day after the Lord's birth, have led most in modern times to put it after the purification on the fortieth day. Some, who hold that Jesus went immediately after that event to Nazareth, suppose that after a short sojourn there He returned to Bethlehem, and there was found by the wise men. 4 But most who put the purification upon the fortieth day, make the visit of the Magi to have shortly followed, and prior to any departure to Nazareth. 5 And this order seems best to harmonize the scripture narratives. The language of Lukeii. 22, compared with v. 21, plainly intimates that as the circumcision took place on the eighth, or legal day, so did the presentation on the fortieth. Till this day, the mother was regarded as unclean, and was to abide at home, and it is therefore very improbable that the adoration of the Magi, and especially the flight into Egypt, should have previously taken place. Doubtless, in case of necessity, all the legal requisitions could have been set aside, but this necessity is not proved in this case to have existed. That the purification was after the return from Egypt, is inconsistent with Matthew's statements, (ii. 22), that after Joseph had heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea, he was afraid to go thither. If, then, he dare not even enter the king's territory, how much less would he dare to go to Jerusalem, and enter publicly into the temple. The conjecture of some, 1 that Archelaus was then absent at Rome, is wholly without historic proof.

1 Friedlieb, Bucher. a Augustine, Sepp, Alford. 3 Maldonati.

4 Epiphanius, and now Jarvis, and Patritius. 6 Robinson, Teschendorf, Wieseler, Lichtenstein.

That Matthew puts the flight into Egypt in immediate connection with the departure of the Magi, (ii. 13.) is plain. 2 No interval could have elapsed after their departure, for it is said, v. 14, that he " took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt." He went so soon as the angel appeared to him, apparently the same night. We cannot then place the history of the purification after their departure, and before the flight into Egypt, as is done by Calvin and many. Nor could Herod, after his jealousy had been aroused by the inquiries of the Magi after the new-born King of the Jews, have waited quietly several weeks till the events at the purification awakened his attention anew. He doubtless acted here with that decision that characterized all his movements, and seeing himself mocked by the wise men, took instant measures for the destruction of the child.

The fact that Mary offered the offering of the poor, (Luke ii. 24,) may be mentioned as incidentally confirming this view; for if she had received previously the gifts of the Magi, particularly the gold, we may suppose that she would have used it to provide a better offering. 1

We thus trace a threefold adoration of Christ: 1st, that of the shepherds; 2d, that of Simeon and Anna ; 3d, that of the Magi; or a twofold adoration of the Jews, and then the adoration of the heathen.

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What’s Happening at the Presentation of the Lord?

Forty days after his birth, Christ was presented at the Temple. Why?

Feb. 2 is the Feast of the the Presentation of the Lord.

We read about the presentation of the Lord in Luke Chapter 2, but the text can be a little mysterious.

What is actually happening there?

Some claim that Luke himself didn't know...

What Luke Says

Here is what Luke (2:22-24) actually says about the event:

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ’Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’

He then records the encounters with Simeon and Anna the prophetess, but at the moment our focus is what Luke refers to as “their purification.”

What is he talking about?

The Purification of the Mother

The first thing to note is that Luke is not talking about the time of Jesus' circumcision. That occurred on the eighth day after his birth . Luke has already talked about that and is now referring to a later time.

Specifically, he's talking about the 40th day after Christ's birth.

We know that because of he quotes from Leviticus 12:8 (“a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons”), which refers to the purification ritual that a Jewish mother needed to perform to become ritually clean again after childbirth.

In the case of a boy, this was on the 40th day after childbirth (which is why this feast is on Feb. 2 — 40 days after Christmas, counting Dec. 25 as the first day).

In the case of a girl child, the purification was later.

This leads to a question ...

Why “Their” Purification?

Leviticus only mentions the purification of the mother, not anybody else. So why does Luke refer to the time of “their” purification?

Some have thought Luke was fuzzy on how all this was supposed to work.

That seems unlikely to me. Luke may have been a Gentile Christian, but he was living amidst numerous Jewish Christians, and in keeping with his habit of investigating things thoroughly, he would have been able to find out precisely how these things worked.

I think another explanation is more likely, and there are several possible ones.

One is that Luke is just speaking in a general way. The rite of purification was something that the whole family was present for. They all made the journey to the temple together, and so it was in some sense “their” effort, even if it was Mary in particular who was being ritually purified.

If a modern family goes to a restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of it’s members, it is in one sense “their” party, even if in another sense it is the party of the one having the birthday.

In the same way, if the whole family goes to the temple for a purification, Luke can speak of it as “their” purification, even if they aren’t all being purified.

A Poor But Obedient Family

There are a couple more things to note about Mary’s purification.

The first is that the offering she made indicates that the Holy Family was poor. The ordinary offering was a lamb and a dove, but in cases where a family was too poor for that, two doves were used instead.

Despite its noble lineage, belonging to the line of David, Joseph’s family had fallen on hard times and was among the poor.

They were still obedient to what the Law of Moses required, though. This is the reason why Mary offers the second dove as “a sin offering” (see Leviticus 12:6), though she herself was immaculate.

This act does not indicate that she was a sinner any more than Jesus' circumcision, baptism, or participation in other sacrificial rites indicates that he was a sinner.

And there is more happening here ...

The Redemption of the Firstborn

Luke also quotes Exodus 13:2, which deals with the redemption of firstborn males.

The idea behind this ritual was that every male firstborn — whether human or animal — is holy to God, the same way that the firstfruits of a crop were holy to God.

Consequently, they had to either be given to God in sacrifice or redeemed — bought back from him.

Since human sacrifice was illegal and immoral, all firstborn boys had to be redeemed, which was done by their father paying a priest five shekels.

Luke Confused Again?

Again, people accuse Luke of being confused about this. It is argued that the redemption of the firstborn didn't take place at the Temple, and so there was no reason for the Holy Family to bring Jesus there.

Again, the criticism is misplaced.

While it may have been possible for a boy to be redeemed anywhere, it was natural for this to be done at the temple, and we know — in fact — that there was a tradition of doing so.

We read about that in Nehemiah 10:35-36, where the people took an oath, saying:

We obligate ourselves ... to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law.

No Mention of Redemption?

Interestingly, Luke does not mention Joseph paying the five shekels to a priest. Why not?

It could be that he simply takes this act for granted, just as he doesn't go into the details of the rite of Mary’s purification. He has cited the Old Testament passages referring to these rites, and he takes that as sufficient indication they were performed.

But some have thought there may be a deeper significance to his failing to mention Jesus being redeemed.

Why might that be?

Still Consecrated

The obvious answer would be that Jesus was considered as still consecrated to the Lord.

Two reasons suggest themselves. First, as the Jewish Encyclopedia notes :

Not only priests and Levites, but also Israelites whose wives are the daughters of priests or Levites, need not redeem their firstborn . 

Joseph was the husband of Mary, and Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, who was “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke 1:5), so perhaps Mary's lineage didn't require her to have her Son redeemed.

In that case, he was presented at the Temple in acknowledgement of his consecration to God.

Or, if the redemption was done, Luke may meant to suggest, on a literary level, that Jesus remained totally consecrated to God.

Benedict XVI comments:

Evidently Luke intends to say that instead of being ‘redeemed’ and restored to his parents, this child was personally handed over to God in the Temple, given over completely to God. ... Luke has nothing to say regarding the act of 'redemption' prescribed by the law. In its place we find the exact opposite: the child is handed over to God, and from now on belongs to him completely. (Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives: 3)

This article originally appeared Feb. 2, 2014, at the Register.

• presentation

Jimmy Akin Jimmy was born in Texas and grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant pastor or seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith. Eventually, he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, “A Triumph and a Tragedy,” is published in Surprised by Truth . Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine , and a weekly guest on “Catholic Answers Live.”

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The presentation of Jesus in the temple in Luke 2

The lectionary reading for Epiphany 4 in Year C is Luke 2.22–40 as we celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem; this is also celebrated as the feast of Candlemas(s) and in many churches it marks the formal end of the Christmas season. (In the Church of England lectionary, we have this reading both for Epiphany 4 and the Presentation, though other versions of the RCL continue reading in Luke 4 for Epiphany 4. In Years A and B, the readings for Epiphany 4 are from Matthew 5 and Mark 1.)

If you are following Luke in the lectionary, this will all feel slightly odd; last week we heard about the beginning of Jesus’ teaching ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, and have already reflected on the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus’ own baptism, as well as the miracle in Cana . So this is a step back in the narrative before we move on to the catch of fish in Luke 5 and then loop back again to the temptations of Jesus at the beginning of Lent. It feels a bit like playing gospel narrative hop-scotch!

James Blandford-Baker and I discuss the passage in the video here; below it you can find the usual article discussing the text in detail underneath it.

This section in Luke 2 continues Luke’s unique nativity material; Matthew moves straight from the events surround the birth, including the visit of the Magi and the flight to Egypt, to the ministry of John the Baptist. But, in keeping with first-century expectations of a ‘life’ of a significant person, Luke offers (brief) descriptions of Jesus’ upbringing, including the episode in the temple when he is 12 years old.

The narrative once more includes three characteristic emphases of Luke’s work: the importance of Jewish pious devotion as the context for all that happens; the active role of the Spirit in directing events; and the understanding of Jesus as the fulfilment of eschatological hopes.

1. Jewish pious devotion

The whole narrative section begins and ends with an emphasis on pious devotion in fulfilment of the requirements of the law; the ‘requirement of the law of Moses’ in Luke 2.20 is matched by ‘required by the law of the Lord’ in Luke 2.39. We have already been told that Jesus was circumcised (and named) on the eighth day in the previous verse, and now Luke describes two important acts that follow on, the purification of Mary and the dedication of the child, interleaved as   chiasm:

A    ‘purification rites’ B     ‘present him to the Lord’ B’    ‘as it is written… “every male is to be consecrated..”‘ A’    ‘to offer the sacrifice…’

The regulation cited in the outer theme A–A’ is set out in Lev 12.1–8; a woman who has given birth is ceremonially unclean (which, note, has nothing to do with sin) for different lengths of time (depending on whether the child born is a boy or a girl) in this case, for 33 days, so we are a month on from the date of circumcision.  It is often noted in preaching that Mary and Joseph offer the more affordable of the two possible sacrifices as a concession to poverty—but in fact Luke makes nothing of this, and the emphasis is not on this, but on their compliance with the requirements set out in the Law. And we need to beware of projecting our own socio-economic framework on a different culture, where even skilled craftsmen might still be not far from subsistence living.  Like other aspects of the birth narrative, this doesn’t really suggest that they were particularly poor ; it just identifies them as ordinary .

The inner theme of Jesus’ presentation comes from the offering and redemption of the first-born sons (and animals) set out in the Exodus narratives. This offering and redemption appears to have two explanations. The first is in connection with the Passover deliverance itself; in Exodus 13.1–16, the firstborn are to be dedicated to and redeemed from the Lord in parallel with the loss of the firstborn of the Egyptians when the angel of death passes over.

This offering of the firstborn is reiterated in Num 18.14–16, though now in the context of the priestly role of the the tribe of Levi. This goes back to the incident of the Golden Calf in Ex 32; whilst those in the other tribes committed idolatry by bowing down to the calf, the tribe of Levi alone kept themselves pure, so that we read in Num 3.11–12 that the tribe of Levi now has this priestly task .

Originally, God intended that the first-born of each Jewish family would be a kohen – i.e. that family’s representative to the Holy Temple. (Exodus 13:1-2, Exodus 24:5 Rashi) But then came the incident of the Golden Calf. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and smashed the tablets, he issued everyone an ultimatum: “Make your choice – either God or the idol.” Only the tribe of Levi came to the side of God. At that point, God decreed that each family’s first-born would forfeit their “kohen” status – and henceforth all the kohanim would come from the tribe of Levi. (Numbers 3:11-12)

What is striking in Luke’s narrative is that, though Jesus is dedicated to the Lord in the temple, he is not redeemed and thus exempted from priestly service. Like Hannah’s dedication of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1.24–28, Jesus remains dedicated to the Lord, which makes the episode in the temple when Jesus is 12 seem to follow on quite naturally. It also signals that Jesus’ ministry will restore to God’s people their priestly role, an idea that is picked up in Revelation as one of its points of connecting with Luke’s gospel. In Rev 1.5–6, Jesus is the one who has ‘freed us from our sins’ and ‘made us to be a kingdom and priests’ to serve God, taking up the pre-Golden-Calf language of Ex 19.6. In Rev 7.3, God’s people are sealed on their foreheads with the seal of the living God, which turns out in Rev 14.1 to be the name of the lamb and God, and by Rev 22.4 this turns out to be the high-priestly adornment as they do priestly service in the presence of God in the New Jerusalem which is shaped as a cube like a giant Holy of Holies.

The integration of these two rites serves to emphasise Mary and Joseph as pious observant Jews, which has two effects. First, it undoes the common claim that Jesus welcomed the outsider, but rebuked the religious; throughout Luke it is both the religiously observant and the ‘sinner’ who hears the good news. Second, it contributes to a consistent assertion that God honours the devotion of his people, a theme continued in Acts as the early followers of Jesus continue to worship in the temple.

2. The role of the Holy Spirit

The emphasis on pious devotion is interweaved in this passage with the importance of the role of the Spirit, just as it has already been in the case of Mary (humbly devoted and then clothed with the Spirit and power) and will be in Jesus’ temptations (disciplined obedience which leads to being filled with the power of the Spirit).

Simeon is ‘righteous and devout’ ( dikaios kai eulabes ); the term for ‘devout’ here only occurs in Luke’s writings (Acts 2.5, 8.2 and 22.12) but its cognates also occur in Heb 5.7, 11.7 and 12.28 to describe Jesus, Noah and the gathered followers of Jesus in worship. Although the ‘righteous’ are contrasted with the ‘sinners’ Jesus has come to call to repentance, it is clear in Luke (and especially in Matthew) that being ‘righteous’ is a positive quality to be desired and pursued. But along with this, there is a threefold emphasis on the Spirit: the Spirit is ‘upon him’; the Spirit has ‘revealed to him’ that he will see the Messiah; and the Spirit ‘moves him’ to go to the temple at that moment. It is safe to assume that the Spirit has also moved him, like Mary and Zechariah before him, to utter a prophetic oracle often now known by its opening line in Latin translation, the Nunc Dimittis (‘Now you dismiss…’). Given the juxtaposition of pious devotion and the Spirit, it seems fitting that Simeon’s prophetic utterances now finds its place in Anglican pious devotion as part of Night Prayer in Common Worship (previously in Evening Prayer in the BCP).

The description of the prophetess Anna provides a parallel with the description of Simeon, as one of Luke’s many male-female pairs. Her pious devotion is expressed in narrative terms, as she prays and fasts in the temple in her widowhood. The detail on fasting reflects a special interest of Luke; he offers us detail that the other gospels omit, namely that Jewish devotion involved ‘frequent’ fasting (Luke 5.33), and that this took place on two days a week (Luke 18.12) which we know from the Didache happened to be Mondays and Thursdays. Luke makes much of meals and eating, as symbolising messianic rejoicing; as its converse, fasting symbolises both sorry for sin and exile, and a longing for the messiah to come. Thus here is is connected with Anna’s anticipation of the ‘redemption of Jerusalem’ (the city serving as a metonym for the whole nation). Luke doesn’t mention the Spirit explicitly in relation to Anna, but like Simeon she offers a prophetic comment on the child.

We might say that, for Luke, the disciplines of pious devotion form the vessel into which he pours his Spirit, and without the Spirit such a vessel is empty. On the other hand, the work of the Spirit issues in these devotions of discipline, and without such disciplines the work of the Spirit is incomplete.

3. The fulfilment of God’s promise

The statements of both Simeon (recorded in detail) and Anna (offered in summary) are saturated with the theme of the eschatological fulfilment of the promise of God, as have (in their different ways) the first two of the three canticles in this part of the gospel. This theme will be repeated again in both the ministry of John the Baptist and the teaching of Jesus in Nazareth. There are some important things worth noting about the nature of this fulfilment.

First, Simeon follows Mary in seeing God’s promises already fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Where Zachariah, in the Benedictus, retains a future sense, Simeon (with the Magnificat) uses the language of realised salvation. Even though all that was promised has not yet happened, the confidence in the person of Jesus is such that it is as if we already have all the answers to the hopes that we longed for.

Second, this fulfilment is rooted in Scripture . Every line of the  Nunc Dimittis echoes one of the promises in Isaiah 40–66.

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. (Is 40.5) I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. (Is 42.6) Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. (Is 60.1)

(See also Is 46.13, 49.6, 52.10 and 56.1).

Thirdly, this biblical pattern of promise is also personally fulfilled . Just as God has promised something to his people, which he now fulfils in Jesus, so God has promised something to Simeon (that he will not die…) which he now fulfils in Simeon’s encounter with Jesus (…until he has seen with his own eyes). The Spirit of God in Simeon has brought the word of God to Simeon, just as the Spirit has brought the word of God to his people in scripture.

Fourth, all these announcements are marked by joy and wonder , as have all the events around Jesus’ birth, both for those bringing the word of disclosure and for those who hear those words. The theme of joy continues to be a significant part of Luke’s account, both in the gospel and in Acts.

Fifth, and in some contrast, they also include warnings of division and pain . This will affect both the nation (‘the rising and falling of many’, Luke 2.34) and the individuals involved, especially Mary herself. The ‘sword that pierces her heart’ (Luke 2.35) might refer to the demotion of Mary in importance for Jesus as she takes second place to the imperative of gospel ministry, but it surely reaches its clearest fulfilment in her witnessing her son’s excruciating death on the cross.

Joel Green, in his NIC commentary on Luke, notes the wide number of themes in this short passage which interconnect with themes already present from the beginning of the third gospel.

There is much to learn from the individuals in the narrative, but if we are going to focus on the most important thing in preaching (not what we must do but what God has already done) we might note in this passage that God honours pious devotion, God sends his Spirit to guide, reveal and speak, and God fulfils all his promises in the person of Jesus.

(The artwork at the top is The Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple by Philippe de Champaigne , 1648.)

We will look at: t he background to this language in Jewish thinking;  Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24 and Mark 13; t he Rapture—what is it, and does the Bible really teach it; w hat the New Testament says about ‘tribulation’; t he beast, the antichrist, and the Millennium in Rev 20; t he significance of the state of Israel.

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10 thoughts on “The presentation of Jesus in the temple in Luke 2”

Ian, One of the striking aspects concerning Jesus to be found in these early chapters of Luke is the stress on his authority and power : “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” [1:16] ; “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit —and was led by the Spirit in desert”[4:1]; and “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit —–and he taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” [4:14]. And yet – in Nazareth? They too recognized this authority and power, but if we allow Mark to contribute to this scene, it compliments what Luke is declaiming: “He could not do any miracles there — — he was amazed at their lack if faith” (ESV -“unbelief”) [Mark 6: 5-6]. Jesus did not acquiesce in this atmosphere of outright hostility and venom. He did not try to placate his detractors. On the contrary he went on the offensive (not, I hasten to add, by his attitude and demeanour, but by employing the Tanach to devastating effect)! There are (at least ) two conclusions to be drawn from this:- First, This passage illuminates the forcefulness, the singlemindedness and the refusal to compromise the truth of the Word of God; something that is clearly exhibited, not only in Christ’s preaching/teaching , but in his whole being. Secondly, this encounter begins a train of events (and continued in The Acts) which reveal that being empowered by the Holy Spirit does not neseassarily lead to unalloyed bliss. On the contrary, it led to persecution and death. And it is no different for this generation!

Yes, I would agree with you. I note quite often in the texts on Luke that he specifically makes reference to power, sometimes where the other gospels omit it.

I think this continues through Acts—the apostles exercise a spiritual power which is at odds with the institutional power of the Jewish leaders.

Than you Ian. You put a lot of work into these posts.

Does Jesus not being ‘redeemed’ also point to his sinlessness; there was no need for him to be redeemed?

You speak of Jesus’ priestly role. I agree. Christ acted as a priest but was not formally a priest. Sometimes we lose sight of the book of Hebrews – if Jesus were on earth he would not be a priest. He came from the wrong tribe. And so his priesthood comes through Melchizedek. It functions from heaven as part of his enthronement and his indestructible life.

Your point that all God’s people are now priests is intriguing. We are all kings too. I’m wondering if the Bible comments on the democratising dynamic. Christ has made us a kingdom of priests. Is this the work of the indwelling Spirit that equips us for a priestly role?

Ian Paul – that was a very nice post – many thanks for putting it up and all the work you put into it.

One issue that arises is pious devotion. Some of the things you mention were clearly prescribed in the Pentateuch; they are meticulously following these things, but they belong to the ceremonial law which was fulfilled and no longer plays any role (circumcision, the length of time one is ceremonially unclean after birth, what one is supposed to do at the end of this period, etc …).

Other things don’t seem to fall into this category. Is there any mention in the Pentateuch of fasting, specifically on Mondays and Thursdays?

So I’m wondering – what would constitute `pious devotion’ which is pleasing to God for Christians living in the 21st century? Clearly the Pharisees thought that their rigorous lifestyle corresponded to `pious devotion’, but Jesus only has condemnation for them. So – what should we be doing?

” – the apostles exercise a spiritual power which is at odds with the institutional power of the Jewish leaders”. Absolutely true! However let’s bring this up to date. “In the last days —- there will be times of difficulty ——–“. There will be those who have “the appearance of godliness but denying its power”. Without entering into a debate on the meaning of the last days, we are now witnessing a Westernised Christianity (not least within Anglicanism) which possesses a form of institutional *authority” – but with a growing declivity in *spiritual power* ; a manifestation I would suggest of a desire, among other things, to recreate a Jesus Christ who somehow conforms to the ever present need in some quarters for *relevancy* (conformity?) to secular values; a Jesus, perhaps, who in response to the question ” Is this not Joseph’s son ?” would probably have answered: ” That doesn’t matter really. I’m only here for you”.

Colin – perhaps true where you are. Right now, I’m living in a Catholic country, where the regime panders to the ultra-religious head bangers. They’re certainly not trying to recreate a Jesus Christ who conforms to secular values – quite the opposite.

How does one comment regarding a situation where information regarding the country is non-existent and where the ecclestical information is sparse – except to say that I have a long- standing, working knowledge of a European country with a Catholic majority. As far as I am concerned, what you have presented Jock is the exception; not the rule!

Colin – yes – I think you hit the nail on the head there.

Apologies for giving “ecclesiastical” short shrift!

Colin – absolutely no problem – you’re right about it being the exception. I’d simply prefer not to go any further down that road and give details, since Ian Paul put up a very nice post – and I don’t want to be responsible for taking the comments section `off topic’.

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Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary ; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham ; Managing Editor, Grove Books ; member of General Synod. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo

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Sunday Connection

The presentation of the lord.

God speaks to us in many ways, including through the Sunday Scripture readings. The Sunday Connection provides useful background and activities to better understand the upcoming Sunday's Scripture readings, helping you to connect the Scripture to daily life in a meaningful way.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

• Readings & Background

First Reading Malachi 3:1–4 The Lord you seek will come to the temple. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 24:7,8,9,10 The Lord is the king of glory. Second Reading Hebrews 2:14–18 Jesus became like us in order to save us. Gospel Reading Luke 2:22–40 (Shorter Form: Luke 2:22–32) Simeon recognizes the infant Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Background on the Gospel Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. The Presentation, which is celebrated 40 days after Christmas, is not mentioned in the other Gospels. Only Luke tells the story, most likely because he writes for Gentile Christians who are not familiar with the Jewish rite of presentation and purification. In addition, the intent of Luke’s Gospel is to show that God’s promise to Israel, fulfilled in Jesus, extends to Gentiles.

Luke recognizes Joseph and Mary as faithful Jews who bring Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. Here they present their firstborn son to the Lord. Jesus is thus consecrated as required by the Law of Moses. Present in the temple at this time are Simeon and Anna. Both are awaiting the restoration of God’s rule in Israel.

Simeon had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would see Christ the Lord, the Messiah, before he died. The holy man immediately recognized the infant Jesus as the promised Savior, a “light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” Anna also recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of the promise of redemption and spoke about him to all.

Gospel Reading Luke 2:22–40 (Shorter Form: Luke 2:22–32) Simeon recognizes the infant Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Making the Connection (Grades 1, 2, and 3) Children at this age like to receive gifts. Simeon and Anna and the people of Israel waited hopefully for the greatest gift of all—a Savior. We too must prove ourselves faithful followers of Jesus by being “gifts” to all we meet. Materials Needed

• Presentation written on a sign or chalkboard
• Symbols of Baptism, such as holy water, candle, oil, white garment, and/or baptismal certificate

Preparation for the Scripture Readings

• Say: In the Gospel Reading for the Presentation of the Lord, we hear about Jesus’ Presentation. Does anyone recognize inside this long word a shorter word that would help us understand the reading? (present) Surely we know what a present is. Raise your hand if you’ve ever received a present. What’s another word we use to describe a present? (a gift) That’s right. Jesus is the greatest, the greatest gift we have ever received.
• Explain: The Gospel for this feast day is long so we are going to read only part of it. Listen carefully and then we’ll talk about it afterward. Read aloud Luke 2:22–32, omitting verse 23 if desired.
• Say: Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple to be presented to God. Your mother and father also brought you to church to be presented to God. Look at the items in the front of the room. What are they a sign of? (Baptism) That’s right. Your parents presented you to God in church just as Jesus’ parents presented him to God in the Temple. Baptism is the first sacrament we receive.
• Continue: When Mary and Joseph arrived with baby Jesus, a holy man named Simeon was in the Temple. He was waiting for someone who would save him and all the people of Israel. He was waiting for a savior. Who is our Savior? (Jesus) Simeon knew the minute he saw the baby Jesus that he was the one he was waiting for—a Savior for all people. Simeon recognized the birth of Jesus as a great gift.
• Say: We recognize, just as Simeon did, that Jesus is the greatest gift ever given. All of us who are followers of Jesus are also asked to be “gifts” to others by caring for them. What are some ways we can show we care? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
• Conclude by praying the Glory Be to the Father with the children.

Making the Connection (Grades 4, 5, and 6) At this age, children are familiar with their parents or other adults introducing them to people they have not met before. Explain that Jesus, too, was “introduced” by Mary and Joseph to God. Materials Needed

• Collection basket of “play” money
• Say: This Gospel is probably not familiar to most of us. It is read on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which is celebrated yearly on February 2.
• Ask: What do you understand by the word presentation? (Accept all reasonable responses.) A presentation can be the introduction of a new product or a new idea or a new person. Let’s listen to this Sunday’s Gospel. Think about which definition applies.
• Read aloud Luke 2:22–32, omitting verse 23 if desired.
• Continue: In today’s reading, who or what is being presented? (Jesus) Who is presenting him? (Mary and Joseph) What was the name of the man in the temple? (Simeon) Whom did he recognize Jesus as? (the promised Savior) What was Simeon’s reaction? (He broke into prayer.) What had God had promised Simeon because of his great faith? (He wouldn’t die before seeing the Savior.)
• Say: I didn’t expect you to remember all the answers after hearing the Gospel only one time. The important thing to remember is that God kept his promise by sending his Son to be our Savior.
• Ask the children why there is a collection basket with “money” up front. Remind the children that in the Gospel story, “[Mary and Joseph took Jesus] to present him to the Lord . . . and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. . . .”
• Explain: Everything that we have comes from God. From the beginning of time, people have offered sacrifice to pay homage to God and to thank him for his great gifts. Mary and Joseph offered turtledoves or pigeons. At Mass we offer gifts of money to support the spread of God’s Word and to care for people in need. As I pass this collection basket, take one “dollar bill” and write on it one thing you will do to show your love for God. Then put it in your pocket or in a drawer at home as a reminder until you do your good deed.
• Say: Now spend some quiet time with Jesus—your Lord, your friend, and your Savior. After a few moments, pray the Sign of the Cross together.

Making the Connection (Grades 7 and 8) At this age, young people are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities. Remind them that the Gospel, too, is a call to action. We read and study the Scripture to become better acquainted with the ways we can serve God. Materials Needed

• Copies of Luke 2:25–40 (one per student)
• Canned goods and other nonperishable food items

Preparation for the cripture Reading

• Explain that this feast day’s Gospel is a reading for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which is celebrated on February 2.
• Pass out copies of the Scripture reading and ask a volunteer to read aloud verses 25–28 and 33–34a; another to read Simeon’s words: verses 29–32 and 34b–35; and one to read about Anna: verses 36–40. Encourage the readers to speak distinctly and reverently; ask the other young people to follow along silently.
• When finished, ask the young people: How did Luke describe Simeon? (devout, anxious for the redemption of Israel) What promise did the Holy Spirit make to Simeon? (that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah of the Lord) How was Simeon able to recognize the baby Jesus as the Savior? (through the power of the Holy Spirit) Anna also recognized the infant Jesus as the Savior. What enabled her to do so? (She worshiped night and day, fasted, and prayed.)
• Say: Both Simeon and Anna were holy persons whose lives were focused on the coming of the Savior. Even though Jesus was only a newborn, they recognized him because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
• Point out the canned goods and other items in the front of the room and ask why they are there. (Accept all reasonable answers.) Then say: We are also called to recognize Jesus. We will find him in others. Sometimes they simply need a kind word or acknowledgment; often they may need food or clothing.
• Pray aloud: Let us pray that, like Simeon and Anna, we too will be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can recognize the goodness and holiness in all the people we meet and have the courage to help where needed. Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with compassion and kindle in us the fire of your love. Amen.

Family Connection Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Discuss with the family the persons of Simeon and Anna as they meet Jesus. (Luke 2: 25–40)

Because Simeon and Anna lived lives of prayer and fasting in the Temple, they were filled with the Spirit of God. That is why they were able to identify Jesus as the Savior even though Jesus was only a baby. To these two holy people, he was recognizable as the Redeemer who had been promised. Simeon described Jesus as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

We too are called to recognize Jesus as Lord. Together as a family discuss ways to recognize Jesus as Lord by praying and attending Mass, fasting, and serving others. As a family, decide on one specific sacrifice you can make in order to alleviate the suffering or need of someone you know.

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• Lessons From the Presentation of Jesus Christ

Read Malachi 3:1-4, Ps. 24:7-10, Luke 2:22-40  

“As it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’, and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:23-24)

The fact that Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple to do for him what the law prescribed is very instructive. Mary and Joseph knew already that Jesus is God yet they decided to obey the law thereby presenting God to God. In other words, they knew there was no need to bring the baby Jesus to the temple but in humility, (that is, not wanting to appear like the special ones in their community), they followed the law.

From his very birth, Mary and Joseph trained Jesus to always follow the law. In fact, this was the same attitude of Jesus when he presented himself to John the Baptist for baptism. John the Baptist protested but Jesus insisted. “Let it be done to fulfil all righteousness.” All through his public ministry, whenever Jesus cured the sick, he also insisted that they follow the laid down procedure in the Jewish law.

We live in a country where people feel that since they are wealthy, powerful or influential, the laws of the land no longer apply to them. We must learn from Mary, and Joseph to follow due process. Don’t get carried away with pride, the higher you become, the humbler you should be.

Secondly, in the Presentation of Jesus Christ, we see a kind of epiphany playing out, that is, a manifestation or revelation of the identity of Jesus. While Mary and Joseph were trying to appear like every other regular couple, the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that this child was the one about him God had promised him to see before going to join his fathers. Simeon spoke gloriously of Jesus. Anna also began to sing praises to God in acknowledgement of Jesus’ divinity.

Thirdly, Simeon was courageous enough to tell Mary the truth about Jesus Christ and also added the phrase about a sword piercing through her heart. Simeon’s prophecy came to pass when Mary had to behold her beloved son, Jesus, on the cross. Like the symbol of myrrh at the epiphany, Simon’s words once again point to the cross. Indeed, we can say that Jesus did not come to live but to die.

Unlike Simeon, we have so many prophets; men and women of God today who find it so difficult to tell people the truth. Prophecy in our day and time has been reduced to simply telling the people what they like to hear rather than what God really wants them to hear.

Fourthly, the fact that the Holy Spirit also revealed Jesus’ identity to Anna the prophetess who spent all her time in the temple praying and fasting teaches us one very important truth: The more we encounter God in daily prayer, the more God reveals Himself to us. Never neglect your daily prayer, and never rush prayer. If you want to know God, you need to spend more time in his presence.

Fifthly, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus ends with the line that summarizes the hidden of Jesus Christ. It says: “When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:39-40). If we want our children to grow strong and wise, we must, like Mary and Joseph constantly present them to God.

Never neglect to bring your children to church. Let them attend catechism classes. Let them be at Sunday School. It is very important. Do not assume that your children will get to know God or make the right choices in life on their own. Bring them to God. As the book of Proverbs says: “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.” (Proverbs 22:6) 

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, I present my entire household to you today, free me from all inclinations to evil. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (The Presentation of the Lord – Feast, Bible Study: Malachi 3:1-4, Ps. 24:7-10, Luke 2:22-40).

@Rev. Fr. Evaristus Abu

Christmas Bible Lessons: Baby Jesus Presented in the Temple

This Sunday School lesson is based on the story of Simeon and Anna when Joseph and Mary present Jesus in the Temple. It was prepared for a class of 3rd and 4th graders, but could be modified for any elementary aged class. Feel free to print it out or adapt it for your children’s church. The schedule for this class is that during the period of time (about 30 minutes) we are waiting for all the students to arrive we have different activities set out to engage the student before the Bible Lesson takes place.  For this particular lesson since it is the Christmas season the students can choose from a coloring page/activity sheet for the Bible Lesson, use some Christmas flannel graphs and place them on a board as they tell the Christmas story to each other and play dough with nativity cookie cutters.  In our class each week we place a notebook on a table with that day’s prayer requests that students may have.  We also provide 3 sets of cards that have been made in advance (Praise, Thanks and Prayer Requests) for the children to select if they are not comfortable praying their own sentence prayer for each of these areas during our class time of prayer.  During this 30 minute of time the students write their prayer request, take their cards and choose an activity that they are interested in.   At the end of this lesson are some additional resources that maybe useful for your class. Learning Objective(s):

• Students will be introduced to the ministry of the Holy Spirit by playing a game called who am I?
• Students will be encouraged to live a life that pleases God and be ready when Jesus returns.

Memory Verse: Romans 8:9 “ You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”

Bible Lesson Jesus is presented in the Temple

The blessing of teaching a Sunday School class is that each class is unique.  Teaching God’s Word requires teachers to rely upon Him to minister to the group of students He has given the privilege to teach.  This lesson was prepared after prayer and reflection upon what He wanted to teach our current class.  This lesson is provided as a guide to anyone who desires to use it.  After reading God’s Word, praying and reflecting on the needs of your class, read the following lesson to see if there are any truths that you may want to incorporate for your class. Game: Who am I? Teacher preparation before class.  Place Who am I questions on strips of construction paper.  Place those strips of paper in a colorful gift bag.  Have a student take a slip out of the bag and read it to class.  Allow students to guess who they think the person is.  You are looking for the answer Holy Spirit and most answers may be God/Jesus.  Have the student write on the board the answer the class believes it to be.  God through each slip and at the end if the students haven’t already figured it out explain that God is 3 persons and each of these slips of paper refer to the Person of the Holy Spirit and does each of these things. Here is a list of the questions used for this class:  I convict you when you sin.  Who am I?  John 16:8, I am the Gift God sent when Jesus returned to heaven.  Acts 1:4, 2:38, I teach you when you study God’s Word.  Who am I?  John 14:26, I help believers know what to say.  Who am I?  Mark 13:11, Luke 12:12, Acts 4:8, I descended in the form of a dove at Jesus’ baptism. Who am I?  Luke 3:22, I speak to believers. Who am I?  Acts 13:2, I live in believers’ hearts.  Who am I?  2 Timothy 1:14, 1 Corinthians 6:19, I am hurt when believers sin.  Who am I?  Ephesians 4:30, I help believers when they are weak.  Who am I?  Romans 8:26, I help believers pray.  Who am I?  Romans 8:26b, I give believers peace.  Who am I?  Romans 8:6, I lead believers in the way they should go.  Who am I? John 16:13 and In the Old Testament I came upon people and would depart.  Who am I?  1 Samuel 16:13-14.

Baby Jesus Presented in the Temple Bible Lesson

This time of year we hear a lot about gifts. As Christians the greatest Gift ever received is the Gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ. In the game we just played we learned that every believer has also received the Gift of the Holy Spirit the moment he/she believed in the Lord Jesus as Savior. The Holy Spirit comes inside a believer’s heart and stays there. How many of you have heard the name Emmanuel? Does anyone know what the name Emmanuel means? (God with us) Believers have God with them wherever they go because the Holy Spirit lives inside of them and wherever they go, God goes with them. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Luke 2:21 . Mary and Joseph took God’s Son when He was 8 days old and had Him circumcised. At that circumcision ceremony babies were given their name. Before this baby was born an angel named Gabriel told Mary what to name Him. Who remembers the name Gabriel told Mary to give God’s Son? ( Luke 1:31 ) When Jesus was 40 days old Mary and Joseph traveled to the temple in Jerusalem for another ceremony. Many, many years before Jesus came to earth as a baby, God had given Moses laws for His people to obey. One of those laws was that any family who had a firstborn son had to take that son and have him dedicated at the temple. To dedicate someone means to offer him to God. The parents of the firstborn son had to take an offering with them as they dedicated their son to God in the temple. The offering needed to be a lamb. If a family didn’t have enough money to bring a lamb, God allowed them to bring 2 birds called turtledoves. Mary and Joseph loved and obeyed God. They obeyed His laws regarding the Firstborn Son. This little baby, Jesus, was God’s Son. Mary and Joseph began their travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem bringing the only offering they could afford 2 young doves. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem there is a man named Simeon. (Have a student read Luke 2:25 .) Whenever we read that someone is righteous in the Bible it means that their faith was in God’s promise to forgive their sins. In the Old Testament people were declared righteous by God when he/she believed by faith that God was going to send a Savior to take away their sins. In the New Testament people are declared as righteous when they believe in Jesus, the Savior God promised to send to take away their sins. Simeon was a man who loved God. He lived a life that pleased God. In the days that Simeon was living not many people heard God’s voice. It says in Luke that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. Remember from our game earlier how the Holy Spirit came upon believers in the Old Testament but did not live inside them? After Jesus died on the cross and rose again the Holy Spirit comes to live in the hearts of people and He does not ever leave. Simeon listened and obeyed God’s voice. Earlier in Simeon’s life God told him that he would not die until he had seen with his own eyes the Promised Christ (the Messiah). We don’t know how old Simeon was when God made a promise to him but the Bible tells us that Simeon believed the promise and was looking for the day to come for God’s promise to happen. This must have been an exciting promise to Simeon. Each year as he worshiped and served God he must have kept his eyes open for God’s promised Savior. As time passed, it may have been hard for Simeon to understand how he would ever live to see the Savior because as the years passed he was not getting any younger. Faith believes in something that a person cannot see. ( Hebrews 11:1 ) Even though Simeon could not see or understand how he would see the Savior he believed God would do what He said. One day as Simeon was going about his day he heard God’s voice speaking to him. The Holy Spirit was urging him to go to the temple. Simeon may have been busy doing things he wanted to do but he chose to listen to God’s voice and obeyed. He went to the temple and went inside. “I wonder why God wanted me to come to the temple today” He must have thought. As he stood in the temple trying to listen closely to what the Lord wanted him to do next he heard some footsteps coming over the temple stairs. A young woman holding a baby in her arms and her husband walked through the temple doors. God’s Spirit told Simeon that this baby was the Promised Savior. Immediately, Simeon went to Mary and reached out to hold her Baby Boy. He held him in his arms and began to praise God. Listen to what Simeon said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation” Mary and Joseph were amazed at Simeon’s praises to God. He was thanking God for sending the Savior and allowing him to see him before he died. Simeon was praising God and speaking words of the Messiah’s future to Mary and Joseph. As this was taking place there was another person in the temple that day. Her name was Anna. At this time she is 84 years old. Anna was a widow. She had only been married 7 years before she became a widow. As a widow she began serving God in the temple. She was known as a prophetess. A prophetess is a woman prophet. Who remembers what a prophet does? (Tells the people God’s Message.) Anna stayed in the temple everyday praying and fasting. Because she had a close relationship to the Lord, she knew that God had promised to send a Savior. An amazing thing takes place in the life of a person who walks closely with the Lord. A person is able to hear and obey what God is telling them and be where He wants them to be. This is true of Anna in our story. The very day the Savior is presented in the temple she is there. Perhaps she heard Simeon’s praises and she came to see what was going on. As soon as she saw the Child she immediately thanked the Lord for sending the Savior who was going to take away the sins of the world. Simeon and Anna saw and believed that Jesus was God’s promised Savior. Because they had a close relationship with God they were exactly where they needed to be to see with their own eyes God’s promised Savior. Imagine what they would have missed if they chose to do what they wanted to do and not what God wanted them to do that day. After Simeon and Anna met the Savior of the world on that day they chose to praise and thank Him for allowing them to see His Promise come true. Just by you being here in Sunday School this morning you have been allowed to meet the Savior. You have heard that God has kept His Promise to send His Son into the world to take away our sins. You can be like Simeon and believe by faith that Jesus died and rose again so your sins can be forgiven. It is faith because none of us were living when Jesus did this for us. We have to believe it even though we didn’t see it. Once we believe by faith that Jesus is our Savior we need to live our lives day by day by faith. We need to have a close relationship with the Lord. We need to listen to God’s voice so we can obey, even when we don’t understand why God is asking us to do something. Did you know that this morning believers have a promise that they are looking forward to? A promise God has given in His Word that has not happened yet is that Jesus is going to come back and take all who believe in Him back with Him to heaven. After He does that all of those who did not believe in Him and have their sins forgiven will be left on this earth to face a very terrible punishment from God. This is an exciting promise for those who believe in Jesus because at any moment believers could hear the trumpet of God and in a twinkling of an eye go up to meet Jesus in the air and live forever with Him.  ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ) Just like Simeon and Anna all of us who believe God’s promise for Jesus’ return are waiting and watching for that promise to come true. How are you and I going to wait for that promise? Are we going to live each day learning more about God by studying and reading our Bibles? Are we going to pray for our friends and family that don’t believe in Jesus who would be left behind to be punished? Are we living our lives in a way that is pleasing to God? Since Jesus could come at any moment we should always ask ourselves, is this what I want to be doing if Jesus were to come back right at this moment? Let’s be like Simeon and Anna and live with an attitude of worship and listening to God everyday. Let’s have an attitude of praising Him and thanking Him for all that He has done and will do for us as we believe Him by faith. ( Hebrews 11:13 ) Questions (If this lesson is being taught during the Christmas season you can play a game for review.  On a poster board make a Christmas tree with ornaments with number values on it.  Provide a small bean bag.  Divide the class into teams and when the answer is correct the team gets a turn to toss the bean bag on the ornaments.  Add up points and the team with the most points recites the Memory Verse together.  If time allows ask more questions so they can continue to play.)

• Why did Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple? To dedicate Him to the Lord.
• What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
• What did God promise Simeon? That he would see the promised Savior before he died.
• How did Simeon know that he should go to the temple courts that day? The Holy Spirit told him.
• How did God keep His promise to Simeon? He saw the Savior before He died.
• What did Simeon do when he saw Jesus? Praised God and spoke of Jesus’ future.
• Who was Anna? A widow, prophetess, someone who worshiped daily in the temple.
• What did she do when she saw Jesus? She gave thanks to God
• What do we need to believe by faith? That Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that He was raised from the dead.
• How should we live our lives as we wait for God’s promises? Living a life to please God every day.
• What are some ways you can stay focused on worshiping God while in church?
• What are some other promises God has made that we haven’t seen yet?
• What is the best time for you to set aside to read your Bible and pray?
• What is one thing about your family that you can thank God for?

Additional Resources:

• Drama Lesson
• Mission Arlington Lesson
• Coloring Page

Need More Ideas? Then browse all our free kids Bible lessons for Christmas or see our Advent ideas for Children’s Ministry .

• Sunday School Christmas Crafts
• Where's the Line to See Jesus? [Video]
• "Who's This All About?" Christmas Script
• How to Organize a Christmas Mom's Day Out
• Advent Action Interviews… The Unsung Heroes of the Nativity Teaching Skits
• Sunday School Lesson (Matthew 2) King Herod the (NOT) Great
• Bible Craft Ideas (Luke 2:41-52) Boy Jesus in the Temple

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Timeline Between Presentation in Temple and Flight to Egypt

Then, according to Old Covenant law, Mary had to wait an additional 33 days before her purification and presentation of her Son in the Temple (Lev. 12:1-7; Luke 2:22-24).

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Celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ

By: fernanda pierorazio.

This celebration is marked by two biblical events, which are the presentation of the baby Jesus in the temple and the purification of the Virgin Mary

Mary Shovlain

Fernanda pierorazio, our sunday visitor.

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Children’s Presentation

The Presentation of a Child is a thanksgiving ritual for a child who is forty days old or three years old.  Although this celebration is followed as part of a tradition in various Hispanic countries, the event has a historical connotation.

The Presentation of a Child ( Las Presentaciones ) is a ritual in honor of the Virgin Mary’s presentation at the temple at the age of three, and the Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the temple 40 days after Christmas. The child is dressed in a gown or elegant suit and is accompanied by parents and godparents.

The presentation of a child is stronger in the Mexican community.

To schedule one (at least a month in advance) or for more information call the office.

• اللغة العربية

• Messianic Version

Simeon and Anna – Jesus presented in the temple

by truewaykids | Jan 5, 2024 | Bible Lesson , New Testament | 0 comments

This week, we will learn about Simeon and Anna, who waited for God’s promise of a saviour. Our Bible text is found in Luke 2:22-38.

Some of the main point we will explore are:

• Children are a gift from God,
• God keeps His promises,
• We should listen to God,
• Jesus is our Saviour.

Simeon and Anna – Lesson Guide

There are some helpful animated videos and song ideas included in a youtube playlist to go along with this lesson.

Begin this week’s lesson by reviewing the Christmas passages, Jesus’ birth and visits from the Shepherds and wise men. Explain to the children that between the visit of the shepherds and the visit of the wise men, there is another event that Luke tells us happened about 40 days after Jesus was born.

Explain that the Jewish law said that the parents of a new baby needed to do some special things to present/dedicate the child to God and say thank you for the child. If you dedicated or baptised your child while they were a baby, you could show photos. Remind your child that you thank God for them and pray that He will look after them and help you to teach them His ways.

Ask your child what It feels like to wait for something? You can reflect on Christmas, ask them how they felt after opening the presents? Think about some passages from the Old Testament that show God always keeps his promises. Explain sometimes God answers our prayers quickly, sometimes in weeks, months, or years but he always answers perfectly and keeps his promises.

Share how God promised Simeon that he would not die until he saw the promised Messiah with his own eyes. Say how we do not know how long he had to wait, though we know he trusted God to keep his promise.

Explain to your child at the Holy Spirit told Simeon to go to the temple.  Simeon may have been really busy doing things, but he obeyed God and went to the temple. Share how it is important for us to listen to God and obey what he tells us to do.

Read Luke 2:30. Explain it as soon as Simeon saw Jesus, he recognised that He was the saviour.

Introduce Anna. Explain how there was another lady in a temple that day. She was 84 years old and was known as being a prophetess. Say how she loved to be in the temple, in the House of God. She prayed and fasted there day and night every day. Share how she also saw Jesus and recognised the He was the Saviour.

Reflect on how Simeon and Anna responded to meeting Jesus. Remind your child, Jesus still wants us to meet him and recognise Him as Saviour.

Think about how Simeon and Anna had to wait for Jesus but didn’t know when He would come. Remind your child that Jesus promised He will come again and even though we don’t know when, we must be ready for His arrival.

Pray together, thanking God for always keeping His promises and sending Jesus to save us.

Free Printable Bible Story

Jesus is presented in the temple – Games and Activities

Eye-spy is an easy game to play anywhere. If your child is learning to letters, you can play “I spy something starting with (letter). If your child is younger, play using colours.

Speak about the things we see. Speak about situations where we can see God at work in our lives and the lives of others.

Ambiguous images

Search for some Ambiguous images online. They are pictures that show two images as one. Some of the most famous are the candlestick/couple kissing, duck/rabbit.

Ask your child what they see and then show them the other images.

Talk about how some people in the temple only saw a baby, but Simeon and Anna saw the Saviour. Explain how we should see Jesus as our Saviour.

Year planner

Sit down with your child and write some important dates into a calendar. Birthdays, Christmas, Holidays, etc. Count how many days, weeks or months you’ll have to wait until an event.

Reflect on how Simeon and Anna had to wait, but without knowing how long they had to wait.

Bible Coloring pages – Simeon and Anna

Memory Verse Glasses – Includes free template

What you need:

• Template on white card
• Colouring pencils

What to do:

• Adult: Cut out the template and holes for eyes.
• Colour in the glasses.
• Glue on the arms of the glasses.

Download the lesson

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Litany to the Infant Jesus

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.  Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear us.  Jesus, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven,  Have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world,  Have mercy on us.  God the Holy Spirit,  Have mercy on us.  Holy Trinity, One God,  Have mercy on us.   Infant, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.  Infant, true God, have mercy on us.  Infant, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.  Infant, Son of the Virgin Mary, have mercy on us.  Infant, strong in weakness, have mercy on us.  Infant, powerful in tenderness, have mercy on us.  Infant, Treasure of grace, have mercy on us.  Infant, Fountain of love, have mercy on us.  Infant, Renewer of the heavens, have mercy on us.  Infant, Repairer of the evils of the earth, have mercy on us.  Infant, Head of the angels, have mercy on us.  Infant, Root of the patriarchs, have mercy on us.  Infant, Speech of the prophets, have mercy on us.  Infant, Desire of the Gentiles, have mercy on us.  Infant, Joy of shepherds, have mercy on us.  Infant, Light of the Magi, have mercy on us.  Infant, Salvation of infants, have mercy on us.  Infant, Expectation of the just, have mercy on us.  Infant, Instructor of the wise, have mercy on us.  Infant, First-fruit of all saints, have mercy on us.  Be merciful, spare us, O Infant Jesus.  Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Infant Jesus.  From the slavery of the children of Adam, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From the slavery of the devil, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From the evil desires of the flesh, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From the malice of the world, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From the pride of life, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From the inordinate desire of knowing, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From blindness of spirit, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From an evil will, Infant Jesus, deliver us. From our sins, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most pure Conception, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most humble Nativity, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy tears, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most painful Circumcision, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most glorious Epiphany, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most pious Presentation, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy most divine life, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy poverty, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy many sufferings, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Through Thy labors and travels, Infant Jesus, deliver us. Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,  Have mercy on us, O Infant Jesus.  Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,  Graciously hear us, O Infant Jesus.  Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,  Have mercy on us.  Jesus, Infant, hear us. Jesus, Infant, graciously hear us.

From the living room to the vault: the story of a painting that no one knew was a Van Dyck

The museum of fine arts of seville has shown interest in a canvas by the flemish painter that a family had in their home for several generations, unaware of its value or who painted it.

The painting The presentation of the baby Jesus to Saint Barbara , by the Flemish painter Anton van Dyck, remains secure in an insurance company’s safe deposit box in Seville waiting to find out what its next destination will be. For several generations this canvas, measuring 130 by 92 cm, has been hanging in pride of place at a family home in Jaén (southern Spain). The family always looked at it with admiration, but little did they know that every day they were sitting under a masterpiece .

To the astonishment and disbelief of the family, a Madrid art company authenticated the painting as a work by Anton van Dyck (1599-1641) last year. Along with Rubens, the artist is considered the most important of the Flemish painters. The heir to this family legacy, who has been inundated with offers from famous auction houses, has the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville at the top of his list of buyers. Managed by the Junta de Andalucía, the museum has already shown its interest in adding the painting to their art collection.

The Andalusian Ministry of Culture confirmed to EL PAÍS that the family wrote to them in July to inform them of the existence of the canvas, but now they are waiting to resume contact to delve deeper into the matter. “If, as it seems, it is a Van Dyck, anything that enriches the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts is of interest to us, of course it is,” says a spokesperson from the Ministry. The painting is kept under lock and key and the owner, at the moment, has not allowed photos to be taken.

“The owner of the painting has no intention of speculating, but he does have a special interest in it staying in Seville, the city where the family now lives and with which he has a special connection,” says Luis Baena, the lawyer representing the painting’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous for the moment. Van Dyck is a key painter in the development of the Sevillian baroque due to the influence he had among 17th century artists.

It is thought that the painting might have reached the home of this family in Jaén through Seville (where part of the family lived) in the 17th century. This was when more than a hundred Flemish families, mainly merchants and bankers, settled in the Andalusian city. After its authenticity was certified, the canvas, which showed obvious signs of deterioration as it was a painting from the first third of the 17th century, was restored by a workshop of renowned Andalusian professionals.

At the moment, The presentation of the baby Jesus to Saint Barbara does not have an official appraisal, although its owners anticipate that they will ask for “a fair and reasonable price.” In any case, it is known that, after coming to light, this work of art will be significantly revalued. Just this year, art collector Albert B. Roberts bought an oil sketch of Saint Jerome with an angel that had been found in a shed in upstate New York for over $600. After offering the work to Sotheby’s auction house , he sold it for more than $3 million. Part of those profits went to the Albert B. Roberts Foundation, which provides financial support to artists and various charities.

“It is very difficult to specify an approximate value of this type of work of art. Each painting has its own features,” says Consuelo Durán, who manages the Durán auction house. In any case, up to more than €9 million ($9.4 million) have been paid for Anton van Dyck’s works in the past. That was the amount that Alfred Bader and Philip Mold paid in 2009 at an auction at Sotheby’s in London, which set a record for works by the Flemish painter.

In a case similar to what occurred with the Andalusian family, a priest from the county of Cheshire in the United Kingdom bought a portrait for £400 ($482) in 2014. It was later revealed that it was a sketch of one of the magistrates that the Dutch artist portrayed in 1634. The resulting painting decorated the walls in Brussels city hall until it was destroyed in a French attack on the Belgian capital 61 years later.

Anton Van Dyck became the first court painter in England after a long stay in Italy. He is universally known for his portraits of the Genoese nobility and of Charles I, king of England and Scotland, his family members and his court. In addition to portraits, for which he was highly appreciated, he also dealt with biblical and mythological themes, introducing some notable pictorial innovations.

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Luke 2:25-35 New Living Translation

The prophecy of simeon.

25  At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26  and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27  That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28  Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

29  “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,      as you have promised. 30  I have seen your salvation, 31       which you have prepared for all people. 32  He is a light to reveal God to the nations,      and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

33  Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. 34  Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. 35  As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. , Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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