Sermon Based on : Luke 2. 22-40; Malachi 3. 1-5; Hebrews 2. 14-18
Preached on: The Presentation of Christ in the Temple 02.02.2020
Prayer:-
Today’s Feast has no fewer than four different names. Each name recalls a different aspect of this Feast. What are they?
First of all, today’s Feast is called the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. “as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’)‘” (v. 23). The law in question is Exodus 13:2, where Yahweh says, “Sanctify to me all of the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine” (see also Exodus 13:12, 15). This is in commemoration of the Passover, where firstborn Jewish males were spared death. This Feast is yet more proof that the Son of God truly became man. Today an infant, not a spirit or an angel, is brought to the Temple. This meeting between the Righteous Simeon, Anna and the Saviour is why this Feast has another, very common name: ‘The Meeting of the Lord’.
According to the Old Testament, Leviticus 12, after a woman gives birth to a son, she is impure for forty days. At the end of that period, she is to bring an offering to the temple, which the priest offers as a sacrifice, effecting her purification. Mary and Joseph take him to the Temple in Jerusalem, forty days after his birth, He is ‘redeemed to the Lord’, as the firstborn male child. His family is too poor to afford a lamb for the sacrifice, so they offer two turtledoves or pigeons ( Lev. 12:8). This was to give thanks to God and pray for the purification of the mother and health of the child. This is why this Feast has yet another name: ‘The Purification of the Virgin‘.
The Presentation, the Meeting and the Purification are then all names given to today’s Feast, but there is yet a fourth name – Candlemas. This name was given to this Feast in memory of the Roman custom of lighting candles at it, which recalls the lights in the Temple at Jerusalem and represent Christ as the light of the world. The custom spread from Rome even to western parts of Russia.
The presentation of Jesus in the temple is unique, as it is marked by the strange witness of two old people in the Temple, Simeon the prophet and Anna the prophetess. They surely were aware of Malachi’s prophecy, “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Simeon and Anna were mature, older, faithful believers, nearer the end of life than its beginning. Clearly they had hard lives. Luke tells us that Anna had lost her husband many years before. Yet for all the difficulties of life they were both extremely close to God, praying in the Temple daily and waiting patiently for the one who had been promised: the Messiah, the Christ. When I think of Simeon and Anna faithfully living out their religious vocations in the Temple, year in, year out, this verse from psalm 27 which we said responsively last Sunday springs to mind:
There
is one thing I ask of the Lord,
for this I long,
to live in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my life,
to savour the sweetness of the Lord,
to behold his temple (Ps. 27:4).
These two extraordinary figures were richly rewarded for their fidelity. Simeon and Anna savoured the sweetness of the Lord as they beheld the living Temple which is Christ (cf. John 2:19). They saw the wonderful new beginning which God had long been preparing in Israel; the dawn of a new covenant was breaking. This Messiah would bring light, not only to the chosen people Israel, but even to all the nations.
The joy and peace of God, which had been announced at Christmas, was now confirmed by Simeon to be a gift to every human being, regardless of origin or ability. In our own particular way of life, we can all behold Christ and love Christ.
That day in the temple Simeon saw more than what physical eyes could perceive. Physical sight would see Jesus, a forty day old baby. But that’s not what Simeon says he saw. He says, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” What is it? Is it a baby or is it salvation? The answer can only be, “Yes.”
It is not just “yes” for Simeon. It is also “yes” for you and me. This is not simply an event in history. The presentation of our Lord in the temple is happening all the time. The invisible is seen, the intangible is touched, the unspoken is heard and the uneaten is tasted.
Simeon saw with faith, not by what Jesus looked like. We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is “Being sure of that which we do not see.” God calls us to have our eyes of faith opened by him. To see others, not by our sight which might lead us to criticise or dislike, but by faith to see them as children of God loved by God.
The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple brings the celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany to a close. For us who worship and follow the Christ today, it is a tipping point. We begin to turn from the joy of Christmas to the wilderness journey of Lent and the horror of the cross: from the wonder of the Incarnation to the agony of the Passion.
Today’s feast is tinged with sadness, too. What Simeon saw was a long way off, but it was there so plainly he couldn’t pretend.Simeon hails the Christ-child as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles”. Yet his prophecy ends on a stark note, as he tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus is “a sign that will be opposed”, and that a sword will pierce her soul. Simeon’s prophesy echoes that of Malachi, who declares that the Lord will come to his Temple “like a refiner’s fire”. The mission of Christ will only be achieved through great suffering and division, and his mother Mary would not escape these sorrows which would take her to the very foot of the Cross. At the cross, the sword that pierces Jesus’ side surely will not be as painful as the sword that pierces Mary’s heart. What could be more painful than a mother seeing her son executed as a common criminal?
Dear Friends…
As Jesus is presented in the Temple, he is presented to us, his body the church.
Jesus brings serenity, peace on earth, goodwill to all. And while we can affirm that the coming of Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, is good news of great joy for all people, this does not mean that Christ’s presence demands nothing of us or leaves us unchanged. Like a refiner’s fire and cleansing soap, the arrival of Christ in our midst calls us to reverent obedience and faithful praise. The good news is indeed that we will not be left unchanged but will be reformed, transformed and refined to become like Christ.
In
the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen