The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus – February
2, 2025Psalm 48; Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18St. Luke 2:22-32
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Forty days after the birth of our Lord,
Mary and Joseph bring Him to the Temple to be redeemed. At the same time, Mary
presents a sacrifice for her purification. Both are according to the Laws of
the Old Testament wherein the firstborn male of both humans and animals were to
be given to the Lord and women who have given birth must be purified from the
uncleanness inherent in giving birth.
In the case of some beasts, the
firstborn could be redeemed with the sacrifice of a lamb in its place. In the
case of the firstborn child, God commanded they always be redeemed. The
redemption price of a son or daughter was a lamb of the first year for a burnt
offering and either a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering.[1] If a lamb
was too expensive, two pigeons or two turtledoves would suffice.
To be redeemed means to be substituted.
It means giving one thing in place of another so that you might receive back
the first possession. Redemption is not quite the same as making a purchase.
Giving the checker money in exchange for groceries isn’t the same as redemption
because the groceries did not belong to you in the first place. Rather, if
you’ve ever been to a wedding reception or banquet with a coat check, you have
experienced redemption. You gave the clerk your coat in exchange for a ticket.
At the end of the night, you redeemed your coat by giving the clerk your
ticket. The coat is your property, and you willfully gave it to the clerk. You
then “bought back” your coat at the price of the ticket. This is redemption.
The redemption of the firstborn is
connected with the forgiveness of sins. God instituted the redemption of the
firstborn in relation to the final plague of Egypt, wherein the firstborn sons
of Egypt were killed by the Angel of the Lord but those of Israel were spared
by the blood of a lamb placed on the doorposts. The boys of Israel were
redeemed from the plague by the blood of a lamb. Their sins were passed over by
the Angel, forgiven in the shedding of the blood of a lamb.
The purification of Mary is an acknowledgment of sin. Giving birth is a bloody business and coming into contact with blood makes one unclean in the Levitical law. This is because there is life in blood and if you are in contact with blood, it means that life has been poured out. Life being poured out is a sign of death and death is the wage of sin. Being truly a man, even the birth of our Lord was attended by the usual events of giving birth. Therefore, the Blessed Mother of Christ needed to be purified. She, too, required the forgiveness of sins.
If these rituals pertained to the
forgiveness of sins, why did Christ, who is without sin, submit to them? Why
did Christ need to be redeemed? There are at least two ways to answer this
question. First, it is not Christ’s sins that need to be forgiven but ours.
Much like His baptism in the Jordan River, Christ’s redemption at the Temple
places Him into our redemption. Rather than forgiving His sins, it is placing
our sins on Him. He is being “bought back” by the human race, that His holiness
would be given to man and our sins would be given to Him.
Secondly, submitting to this ritual is
part of Christ’s active obedience to the Law of God. When the Second Person of
the Holy Trinity took on our flesh, He humbled Himself to be like us in every
way but without sin. That means that He also humbled Himself to be placed under
the same Law of God that had been placed on all mankind. He did not need to be
redeemed from His sins, He didn’t have any, but He humbly submitted Himself to
the same rigors and rituals that all mankind was expected to observe.
The significant difference is that all
mankind fails in some aspect of the Law. St. James tells us that to fail in one
tiny aspect of the Law is to fail in the whole Law, “Whoever shall keep the
whole Law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”[2]
And even this tiniest of stumbles in the Law is worthy of eternal condemnation.
And since the Law of God is eternal, it is necessary that the Law be kept
perfectly. With man this is impossible. With God, nothing is impossible. Thus
the necessity of the Law required that Christ not only submit Himself passively
to death on the cross but that He actively keep the Law perfectly His entire
life. Submitting to circumcision, the presentation, and the rest of the rituals
commanded in the Law is Christ actively keeping the Law of God on our behalf.
When the rituals of the presentation and purification had been completed, an old priest approached the Holy Family and took the Christ child into his arms. Simeon did not need to be told who this child was. Like the magi, he immediately recognized his Lord. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had beheld the Christ, the Savior. Led by the same Spirit, he went up to the Temple and found the Lord’s Christ returning from fulfilling His obligation to the Law. Taking up the child in his arms, Simeon said,
“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,
According to Thy word.
For Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,
Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples.
A light to lighten the Gentiles,
And the glory of Thy people Israel.”[3]
Simeon’s prayer is a prayer for death. The Holy Spirit had promised that Simeon would not die until he had seen the Christ. Since he was now holding the Christ in his arms, Simeon told God that he was ready to die. There was nothing left in this world for him to do; nothing to experience, nothing to long for. He had all in all. He had the Lord’s Christ in his arms and there is nothing more needful.
We sing this song of Simeon every
Sunday after receiving the Holy Communion and we ought to sing it with the same
vigor and intention of Simeon. What you receive in your hand or on your tongue
is the same Christ that Simeon held in his hands. It is the same body of
Christ, the same God become man who would forgive all your sins. So too, we
ought to recognize that having received the very Body and Blood of Christ, we,
like Simeon, are prepared for death. We have all in all, the thing most
needful, and there is nothing left for us to do, experience, or receive in this
world.
That is a radical thought. You might
piously share it, realizing that the forgiveness of sins is the most important
thing in this life. But at the same time, none of us is longing for death. You
want to see your granddaughter’s dance recital and your son’s basketball game.
You don’t expect to die on your way home today and I’m sure that you aren’t
hoping to die today.
On the one hand, those thoughts are bad
or sinful in themselves. You want to make use of the blessings and gifts that
God has given you. You ought to enjoy the many gifts God has given you in this
world.
On the other hand, you ought to be
prepared at all times for death. To live is Christ and to die is gain, St. Paul
says to the Philippians.[4]
To live in this world is to be the Body of Christ, to enjoy the things of this
creation, and to be stewards of God’s good gifts. It is to bear the light of
Christ to the nations and His glory to His people.
And yet to die is gain. It is gain
because it means freedom from the sin which clings to the flesh and the joy of
the nearer presence of Christ. We are sojourners in this world, it is not our
home, our final destination. For the Christian, to die is great gain because it
is one step closer to the resurrection of all flesh.
Therefore, every time we sing the Nunc
Dimittis, you ought to realize that you are prepared to die. At any moment,
should the good Lord call you home, you are prepared. Your sins are forgiven,
and Christ is prepared to receive you into His open arms. Will your loved ones
mourn your death? Absolutely. Death is separation and separation is painful.
But when a Christian dies, the Christians who mourn him do not do so without
hope. We mourn the pain of separation and the loss of the presence of our loved
one, but we also rejoice that they have conquered this world of sin. The
victory of Christ on the cross has been made complete for our loved one and we
now look forward to the reunion in the resurrection.
The Nunc Dimittis is a hymn of supreme confidence that the Body of Christ is the one thing most needful. It is a hymn of confidence that what Christ says is true and He has said that the death of a Christian is little more than sleep. Sing it boldly and confidently, believing that the words are true.
Should you find yourself doubting,
fearing death, then turn toward the promises of Christ. One difference between
us and Simeon is that he only had the word of promise from the Holy Spirit that
he would see the Christ. You have so much more. You have the Word of God, like
Simeon, but you also have Holy Baptism. You have the Holy Communion. You have
the Word of Absolution spoken by your pastor with his hands placed on your
head. You have God’s Word and His Word tied to physical means that the promises
of Christ are true. Make use of these means of grace for the strengthening of
your faith and the emboldening of your confidence that you are prepared to die.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
