Presentation Of Christ In The Temple
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Readings: Malachi 3: 1-5 and Luke 2: 22-40
I know the snowdrop is known as the Candlemas Bell, but until this week I didn’t know the story behind it. According to legend, so reports Sally Welch, the Vicar of Kington in Herefordshire, when Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden, as they trudged out into the snow, holding hands and shivering with cold and despair, an angel took pity on them. Breathing gently on the falling snowflakes, the angel transformed them into snowdrops, whispering to Eve that these fragile flowers – the first to bloom in the cold depths of winter – would be a reminder of brighter days to come, and a reassurance that it would not be winter for ever. I like that story, suggesting as it does that there was a way back from Adam and Eve after their fall from grace.
Legend aside, we celebrate Candlemas, or The Presentation of Christ in the Temple today, because this was the ceremony in Jesus’ time that took place forty days after a child’s birth. Somebody has said that today’s festival is rather like coming across a Christmas present some weeks later that one had forgotten about. The themes of Candlemas are the age-old ones of light conquering darkness; of patient hope in times of struggle and hardship; and of the moving aside of the old to make way for the new. Today we’re called on to ponder again the significance of Jesus as God’s greatest gift to the world.
But first, let us note that although he was divine, Jesus conformed to the traditions and rituals of his day. Circumcised on the eighth day, presented in the Temple on the fortieth in accordance with the custom for every first-born male. Throughout his life he was a regular synagogue attender. And we’re told he advocating the paying of taxes to Caesar. So, in some ways, Jesus conformed in his human life. Christians may stand out from the world in many ways, but Jesus’ example shows us that to break with a formality purely for the sake of change is not the way of God. We can say, too, that Joseph and Mary could not have been well-to-do, since they made the alternative offering in the Temple: a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons, which was an offering allowed for those who couldn’t afford the year-old lamb prescribed in the law.
Jesus was destined to be the true Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. What happened to Jesus had happened to countless thousands of other first-born males, but he was not like any of these. Jesus was the gift of God; in Simeon’s words, a gift of salvation and a light for the whole world. The redeemer once promised through the prophets had now appeared. The prophecy of Malachi had been fulfilled, “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple.” In bringing Jesus to the Temple, Mary and Joseph thankfully presented back to God the gift God had given them. This gesture of generous thanksgiving is the pattern of salvation and the way of all Christian living. The life that Jesus received, the very life for which his parents gave thanks, is the same life Jesus offered back to the Father. To free us, Jesus had to become one with us.
Two faithful God-fearers had the joy of seeing the infant Jesus. Simeon, we are told, looked forward to the consolation of Israel, and had been promised that he would see the Messiah before he died. Anna, who never left the Temple, stands for all who love Jerusalem and seek its peace. Both Simeon and Anna disclose a knowledge that they have discerned by the depth of their watchfulness and prayerfulness. Their example stands in marked contrast to the times we live in, where we have largely forgotten how to wait fruitfully.
We assume Simeon was an old, or oldish man, though we are not told that. Anna’s age we are told – 84. They were amongst those who were known as ‘the quiet in the land.’ It was not for them to ‘rage against the dying of the light’, as Dylan Thomas put it, as their death approached; but rather than bewailing light’s departure, they awaited its dawn. Simeon saw that Jesus was to be a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to God’s people Israel.
But it was not to be all joy, sweetness and light. Simeon predicted that Jesus would become a sign that would be opposed; he would cause the falling and rising of many in Israel. Mary, too, would not escape the suffering, for Simeon warned her, “And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” Mary will suffer the agony of watching her son die on the cross. And there will be other times when Jesus will bring her anguish.
It prompts one writer to observe that in our Christian life, as in our private lives, there will be sorrow amidst the joy. Our families and close friendships can be the source of great happiness, but because we invest so much time and emotion in them, and because we are flawed human beings, they can also cause us heartache. We often think we should enjoy perfect relationships all the time, but life is just not like that.
In the same way, our relationship with God needs to be realistic. If we turn to Christ expecting instant cures, an untroubled path, as new Christians very often do, what happens when we find that we still have doubts, or that life’s problems have not all gone away? We either suspect that we have failed and are not ‘good Christians’, or that God has let us down. Neither is true. In this life we are bidden to take up our cross and follow the one who was tested as we are. We trust him to walk with us through sorrow and through joy, until we enter into his light and share his glory. As we have often said, salvation is both now and not yet; already present in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as we celebrate in this Eucharist, but still to come when he returns, however that may be, in God’s good time.
So there is a ‘bitter-sweet’ element to this festival of the Presentation. Wonderful things said about Jesus, and great prophecies about his future ministry, but disturbing words about some woes ahead. I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt as they returned home.
But notice the final verse today [40]: ‘The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon him.” Just an afterthought? No. An added detail maybe, but a reminder of the great responsibility of raising children well, for those blessed enough to have them. Even Jesus needed to be encouraged and nurtured to grow in body and mind.
Today marks the end of the Christmas cycle, and we shall conclude the service with some appropriate words, as we begin to turn our attention to the Cross – with Ash Wednesday just over two weeks away. Malachi celebrates the Lord coming suddenly to his Temple, but asks ‘Who may endure the day of his coming, and who may stand when he appears?’ So we ask for Jesus’s light to invade every part of our being, helping us to grow into his likeness. We pray, as we shall sing in the next hymn, “Come to thy temples here, that we, from sin set free, before thy Father’s face may all presented be.”