Christmas in February: The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

The Torah has something to tell us about the character of God and helps us understand more deeply who Jesus really is. The life and actions of Jesus, a circumcised Jew, are best understood in his Jewish context. How the death of a Jewish rabbi 2,000 years ago has any bearing on us Americans, Africans, Asians, Europeans in the 21st century cannot be understood without the Torah and the Prophets. Luke gets that. Jesus’ birth narrative isn’t complete until he’s explained how Mary and Joseph fulfilled the Law of the Lord.

So, let’s close this Christmas season by learning how Mary and Joseph were faithful. We start in Luke 2, verse 22:

²² 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 ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

What is this about?

There are two things happening here:

• “the time came for their purification”
• “they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”

Today’s feast day has multiple names in Church history. There’s Feast of the Purification of Mary. There’s the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. And then there’s Candlemas, which comes from combining what Simeon says about Jesus being the light to the nations and the seasonal fact that the days are lengthening. Today is “the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.” ¹ This is why on the other side of this fair state of Pennsylvania this morning, people gathered to see if a groundhog – coming out of his burrow – saw his shadow. ² Groundhog Day ³ began as a folk method of trying to guess whether the winter weather will continue, and the culture keeps it now as a silly, joyful tradition.

But we are gathered here today to consider a much more meaningful tradition rooted in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, the Son of the Living God, the essence of God in human flesh. When we begin to grasp that the most holy, all-powerful Creator God came down to us, not in wrath and condemnation but, mercifully robed in flesh and blood to contend with every weakness and temptation that besets us, we should shout for joy!

We know from Thomas’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus and from John’s description in Revelation 5 of the Lamb of God looking “as though it had been slain” that Jesus still bears the marks of his torture and crucifixion. When we see him, we will see where the nails pierced his hands and feet, where the crown of thorns cut his forehead, where the spear stabbed into his side.

So, then, if he is resurrected with the scars of his crucifixion, does he not then still bear the mark of his circumcision? On January 1, we gathered here to remember that Jesus was circumcised as the Law of Moses requires of Jewish males. We remember every January 1 – eight days after Christmas Day – that Mary and Joseph had Jesus circumcised. Every year we remember that our Lord and Savior is Jewish. He is Jewish forevermore. We’ll discuss more what that means for us as Gentile disciples of the Messiah. First, let’s look at the two acts of Torah obedience that Luke records in today’s Gospel reading.

So, there are two things happening in verses 22-24.

• “the time came for their purification”
• “they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”

It is odd that Luke says “their purification” because the only one that required purification was Mary. But some believe that perhaps Joseph also purified himself by ritual immersion before going into the temple. ⁴

So what was Mary’s purification about? In Leviticus 12, we learn that women were considered ritually unclean for 40 days after giving birth to a son.

Being unclean is not the same as being sinful. Being unclean meant you could not worship before God in the tabernacle and later the temple. Ritual uncleanliness was contagious, so that also meant that the ritually unclean should not be mixing in the community. But where did this uncleanliness come from? And what does it have to do with worship and community?

The God of Israel, the Creator God, the God we sometimes call Jehovah or Yahweh, is the God of Life. He is holy. We know that he cannot abide sin in his presence. Neither can death be in the presence of God.

So if a mother giving birth to a living child is unclean and in need of purification, how has she encountered death? It is obvious to us that touching a dead body or even roadkill could make us ritually unclean. Dead bodies are dead. Then there’s leprosy. Leprosy as described in the Bible is a skin disease that caused skin and eventually even parts of the body to just come off. The skin is dying and causing part of the body to die. So one could not go before God covered in death. And one could not be in the community where one might contaminate others with death.

OK… so where is there death in childbirth? In blood. When a baby is born, blood and water flow from the mother. How is blood a contaminate of death? Several times in Genesis and Leviticus, God states that the life of animals and humans is in the blood. Blood is life when it flows in our arteries and veins. But when blood is spilled, the blood dies. It no longer can give life. It becomes death.

So what’s happening here? In Numbers 18, God claims for himself all the first fruits of produce, livestock, and even children. This was all to be given in the tabernacle and later the temple. The wheat and the oil and the fruits, God gave those to the Levites to eat. The livestock of clean animals, those were offered on the altar, and the meat was shared among the Levites. However, the firstborn children were redeemed. Instead of leaving your firstborn child for priestly service (as Hannah does with Samuel), a family would pay the priests five shekels of silver. God, in turn, set apart the sons of Levi to serve him as priests. The first fruits of produce and livestock and the redemption money went toward providing for the living of the priestly families.

But the redemption of the firstborn is more than a practical way to provide for the Levites. The ceremony was meant to remind the Children of Israel of the Exodus, of how God took the firstborn of all the land of Egypt in the 10th plague but let live the firstborns finding refuge under the blood of the Passover lamb. ⁷

So as the Law required, Mary and Joseph ransomed Jesus from the priests for five shekels, five coins of pure silver. This ransom reminded Mary and Joseph of the Passover story, of God’s salvation in the Exodus. Their baby boy is named God’s Salvation… the baby boy that, when he is grown, is called The Lamb of God by his cousin John – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, chooses 12 students, “but one of you is a devil,” ⁸ he tells them. Yeshua, God’s salvation, is betrayed by his student Judas Iscariot. For what? For 30 pieces of silver… The priests pay Judas the redemption money of six firstborn children for giving up Jesus to them. Why? Why does God allow this? And as Passover approaches, no less! Because Jesus is the Passover lamb. He is the scapegoat and the sin offering of the Day of Atonement. He is the “faithful high priest in the service of God” ⁹ who covers our sin with his blood.

In a way, the corrupt priesthood gives Jesus’ redemption money back with interest. God has the priests give that money back so that Jesus can serve as our great high priest. He is the priest and the sacrifice all at once.

And we’ll affirm this in a few minutes when Father Michael will say: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” And we’ll respond, “Therefore let us keep the feast.”

We from the nations love that Jesus is the light of revelation for us Gentiles. We revel in that truth, especially in the current Epiphany Season.

How about the line “for glory to your people Israel”? Some would tell you that “Israel” here means only the followers of Jesus. They’re wrong. Simeon has already mentioned the Gentiles, the nations, the non-Jews. So Israel here must mean the Jewish people. How often do we consider that Jesus is the glory of the Jewish people?

Why did God choose to take on Jewish DNA? I don’t know. I’ll probably be pondering God’s call of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob until Jesus comes back for us or I go to him.

Here’s a more important question? How should Jesus’ Jewish DNA and his faithful Torah observance affect our walk as disciples of the Messiah?

People who share Jesus’ physical DNA still walk this earth. Have you ever considered that? Many of them are still trying to be as Torah observant as they can without a tabernacle or a temple. They revere the Torah scroll, touching it as it goes by in the synagogue, blessing the LORD before and after every reading.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the Torah scroll. We have the Bible because the Jewish people preserved it for us. Not just the Hebrew scriptures. Remember that all of the New Testament was written by Jewish hands. They have guarded the Word of God all this time, but they have yet to recognize he is the long-awaited Redeemer and that his name is Yeshua, Jesus.

Other DNA relatives of Jesus don’t believe God exists because of the Holocaust. How can a loving God allow one-third of the world’s Jews to be systematically murdered by the Nazis and their enablers? But they will claim their Jewishness and defend it. They may even celebrate Passover because they are Jewish. And in their nominal observation, they glorify God, they glorify the Messiah, to whom all the Jewish feasts point.

1. ^{“From Christmas to Candlemas: The 40 Days of Christmas,” Catholic Stand , 8 February 2019, https://catholicstand.com/christmas-candlemas-40-days-christmas/.}
2. ^{Laurence Hull Stookey, Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church  (Abingdon Press, 2011), 119.}
3. ^{“Legend & Lore | Punxsutawney Groundhog Club,”  https://www.groundhog.org/legend-and-lore.}
4. ^{David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary: A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament . 1st edition. Messianic Jewish Communications, 1992.}
5. ^{Aaron Eime, “Leviticus 12,” Leviticus: And God Called , Christ Church Jerusalem. https://www.christchurchjerusalem.org/sermons/bible-studies/leviticus-and-god-called/}
6. ^{“Parshat Tazria by Rabbi Pinchas Kasnett.” Ohr Somayach , 29 March 2014. https://ohr.edu/this_week/based_on_the_abarbanel/5788.}
7. ^{Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary: A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament.}
8. ^{John 6:70}
9. ^{Hebrews 2:17}