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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
The purification of Mary and the presentation of our Lord matter to you! The significance of the purification and presentation to you is why this day, forty days after the Son of God’s birth in human flesh, is set apart by our current hymnal Lutheran Service Book as a “principal feast of Christ”, like the day of Jesus’s circumcision and naming, the day that His birth was announced to Mary, the day that Mary and He visited Elizabeth and John the Baptizer, the day of John the Baptizer’s birth, the feast day of St. Michael and All Angels, and All Saints’ Day (see LSB xi). Pilgrim does well, as much as possible, to observe these principal feasts of Christ on their respective days with a Divine Service, offering the Sacrament of the Altar to those who wish for it, after they have been examined and absolved (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIV:1).
The Gospel Reading that Lutheran Service Book appoints for The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord is sometimes also heard on the First Sunday after Christmas, when there is a First Sunday after Christmas, not superseded by another festival, as was the case this Church Year. And, the content of this Gospel Reading certainly has implications for the season of Epiphany into which it falls, referring, as it does, to Jesus as Light for revelation to the Gentiles. Yet, to some extent this feast day stands apart from the season of Epiphany, and we do well in this observance of this feast day to consider not only what Joseph and Mary did but also what Simeon said and did and how Anna responded.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely-inspired St. Luke essentially emphasizes Joseph and Mary’s performing everything according to the law of the Lord, both regarding the purification of Mary (Leviticus 12:1-8) and regarding the presentation of our Lord (Exodus 13:2‑12), whether that “presentation” be understood as a “redemption” of the firstborn and-or as a “consecration” of the firstborn, even for some special service, as was the case with Samuel in tonight’s Old Testament Reading (1 Samuel 1:21-28), even though Jesus clearly did not stay at the Temple the way Samuel did, but Jesus returned with His mother and adoptive father, eventually to the territory of Galilee, to the town of Nazareth. Jesus’s fulfilling the law of the Lord certainly matters to you, even if Joseph and Mary’s obeying these particular provisions of the law seems to be somewhat simply the occasion of Simeon’s words and deeds and Anna’s response.
Today’s Gospel Reading tells us both that Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel and that Anna spoke of Jesus to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. In general, “the consolation of Israel” and “the redemption of Jerusalem” are the same, as are “the Lord’s Christ”, Whom the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would see before his death, and the Lord’s “salvation”, Whom Simeon sang to the Lord that his eyes then saw. You see, as devout as Simeon and Anna and others were, they were, as we are, sinful by nature, deserving of temporal death and eternal torment, and so in need of consolation and redemption. They were, as we are, righteous only by grace through faith in the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. As Simeon told Mary, over Jesus some would fall speaking against Him and others would rise speaking for Him, as the thoughts of all hearts ultimately are revealed, whether they be un-repentant and un‑believing hearts or, by the work of the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word and Sacraments, they be repentant and believing hearts, and so hearts completely forgiven of their original sin and of each and every one of their actual sins, forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sharing God’s eternal splendor, Jesus Christ our Lord was presented on this day in the temple in the substance of our human flesh and revealed by the Spirit as the glory of Israel and the light of all peoples (LSB: Altar Book, p.237). As we heard in the Gospel Reading, the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon Him. Jesus’s birth miraculously may not have violated Mary’s virginity in the traditional sense, but in another sense He did “open her womb” as her first-born Son. Yet, as Holy God in human flesh, He needed no sacrifice to make Him holy, but rather He sacrificed Himself to make you holy. Jesus both kept the law that you fail to keep, and He paid the price for your failure to keep it. He died on the cross in your place, the death that you deserved. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 2:14-18), He partook of your flesh and blood in order to make propitiation for your sins, a sacrifice that atones for your sins, that satisfies God’s righteous wrath over your sins. As we heard Simeon say in the Gospel Reading, this salvation is prepared in the presence of all people, Jew and Gentile, and this salvation is universally available to all people, Jew and Gentile, even though some people refuse to receive this salvation, while other people with repentance and faith receive this salvation through God’s Word and Sacraments.
The Old Testament requirement for the purification of a woman who had given birth to some extent survived for a time in the New Testament Church as the optional rite once known as “the Churching of Women” (confer The Lutheran Liturgy, p.291), what we now have as the “Blessing of a Mother after Childbirth” (LSB: Pastoral Care Companion, pp.59-61). Yet not those rites or any rites other than Holy Baptism “purifies” or “cleanses” us from our sin. There at the Font, the Lord Jesus receives little children of all ages into His arms, as it were, and blesses them (for example, Mark 9:36-37), as Simeon once had received the Child Jesus in Simeon’s arms and blessed Him. And, like Simeon, we, in the Sacrament of the Altar, receive both in our hands bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and in our mouths wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us and that so give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And, from the Lord’s Altar, as from the freeing of sins in individual Holy Absolution, we depart in peace (see LSB pp.199 and 293).
Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and Anna spoke of Jesus to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. In large part, their waiting was over, for in even the 40-day-old Jesus Whom they physically saw with their eyes, by the power of the Holy Spirit they also spiritually saw, as if they were completed, their consolation and redemption. How much longer they had to wait before they departed in peace from this life, we do not know: we are not told either how old Simeon was or when he died, nor are we told how much longer even the eighty-four-year-old (if not older) Anna lived. Yet, in some sense, even now, as souls in heaven, they are waiting for the full and complete consolation and redemption that will come with the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come (confer Revelation 6:9-11). We are waiting for that full and complete consolation and redemption, too, at least to see it physically with our eyes (confer Job 19:25-27), for by the power of the Holy Spirit we already now also spiritually see, as if they were completed, our consolation and redemption, in water, ritual, bread and wine (confer Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII:4-5).
We may be “Waiting” for full and complete “Consolation and Redemption”, with its deliverance from all of our trials and tribulations (confer Schmitz, TDNT 5:798-799), but we do not have to wait for the forgiveness of sins and the comfort, peace, and joy that come with that forgiveness already even now. Here at Pilgrim, this Feast of The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord tonight gives us, who “daily sin much” (Small Catechism III:16), the opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness in what is, today at least, our “daily bread”. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +