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The Sermon for the Festival of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
The Lessons: Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 84; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40
The Text: Luke 2:22-35
INTRODUCTION
Today’s Festival is given two names in our Prayer Book: “The Presentation of Christ in the Temple” and “The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin.” The two names reflect two requirements of the ancient Jewish Law. The first was that every first-born child belonged to the Lord (Exodus 13:2, 13-15) and had to be consecrated to him, redeemed with an animal sacrifice or with an exact price in money. The second name of this Festival reflects the requirement of the Law that a sacrifice had to be made to the Lord for the ritual purification of a woman forty days after giving birth to a male child or eighty days after giving birth to a female child (Leviticus 12:2-7). The prescribed offering was a year-old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering (Leviticus 12:6), but for those who could not afford a lamb, two turtle doves or two pigeons could be offered. Mary and Joseph were poor, and hence our text quotes the latter offering and omits the former (Luke 2:24). Therefore, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple for two purposes, to offer the sacrifices required for Mary’s ritual purification after childbirth and to present Jesus to the Lord as their first-born child.
PRESENTATION TO THE LORD
Mary and Joseph came to the temple to do for Jesus what was required according to Jewish law (Luke 2:27), but the Holy Spirit spoke to them there about Jesus. Simeon was a devout and just Jew who looked forward to the consolation of Israel, that is, to the coming of the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit was upon him and had shown him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah, or Christ (Luke 2:26). Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Simeon entered the temple at just the right time. The Holy Spirit directed him to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Taking Jesus in his arms, he blesses God that he can leave this life in peace because he has seen the salvation God has prepared for all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of God’s people Israel (Luke 2:32). Simeon’s words we know now as the Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32) or by its Latin title Nunc Dimittis, which stands for the first two words of this song in the Vulgate, “Now you let go” or “now you let depart.” This is used as the second canticle at Evening Prayer. But why is the Song of Simeon so memorable? These were not just Simeon’s own words, but a prophetic description based on prophecies of Jesus Christ from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. For example, in Isaiah 52:10 (KJV), we read:
The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Again, in Isaiah 42:6 (KJV), we find these words:
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.
The Holy Spirit emphasized yet again the Messiah’s role as light to the Gentiles in another verse from Isaiah:
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
(Isaiah 49:6, KJV)
What the Holy Spirit was doing for Mary and Joseph and for any bystanders who heard Simeon’s words, was to alert them to the fact that the prophecies about Jesus as God’s Christ were to be fulfilled in this child, so that salvation and consolation would come not only to Israel, but to all the nations of the world through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Song of Simeon highlighted the Old Testament prophetic witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here when Joseph and Mary were presenting their son Jesus to God, God, in return, was opening their understanding to the spiritual greatness of Jesus as the salvation of not only Israel, but all the Gentiles, people of all nations in the world.
But Simeon not only prophesied the salvific significance of the Lord Jesus Christ but also predicted the cross by referring to “a sign which shall be spoken against” (Luke 2:34c, KJV). The “fall and rising again of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34b, KJV) hints at the effects of Jesus’ preaching of the Gospel and his teaching. Some would find salvation through it, and “rise again,” that is, receive Christ’s new and eternal life, whereas others would fall and stumble, because they took offence at his teaching, fulfilling the Lord’s own prediction interpreting Psalm 118:22:
And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
(Luke 20:17-18, KJV)
Simeon warns St. Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul also (Luke 2:35a), and this is her grief as she observes the passion and death of her son Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ life, passion and death on the cross have another powerful effect besides bringing salvation for all humankind. This effect is expressed in the last few words that Simeon speaks to Jesus’ parents: “that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35b, KJV). Jesus reveals and exposes the thoughts of many people because He is the Word of God, who searches out and penetrates every human secret, whether good or bad. We are reminded of Hebrews 4:12-13 (KJV):
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Through all sorts of people, the Lord Jesus Christ still speaks words that reveal people’s thoughts or deeply question their motives.
For example, Frances Ridley Havergal, the British musician and devotional writer, left us such classic hymns as Like a River Glorious, Who is on the Lord’s Side, I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, and Take My Life and Let It Be. One day in January 1858, while visiting the art museum in Dusseldorf, Germany, she sat down wearily opposite Domenico Feti’s picture of Christ under which was this caption: “I Did This For Thee! What Hast Thou Done For Me?” Deeply moved, Frances scribbled some lines that flashed into her mind, writing in pencil on a scrap of paper. Reading them over, she was not satisfied with them and tossed them into the fire, but they fell out untouched. Some months later, she showed them to her father, who encouraged her to preserve them. Being a musician himself, he even wrote a melody to accompany them. The resulting hymn, “I Gave My Life For Thee” was first published in 1860, and launched Frances Ridley Havergal as a serious composer of hymns:
I gave My Life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead.
I gave, I gave my life for thee;
What hast thou given for Me?[1]
CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION
Since Jesus Christ was presented to God in the temple, God calls every disciple of Jesus to offer himself to God daily as a living sacrifice:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(Romans 12:1-2, KJV)
We offer ourselves to God like this, so that we may find out and do the perfect will of God. But just as Mary and Joseph, in presenting Jesus to God, discovered through the prophetic ministry of Simeon that Jesus would be the source of salvation for Israel and for all nations, so, when we offer ourselves wholly to God, God will reveal to us the real meaning and purpose of our lives.
[1] Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal by her sister M. V. G. H. (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co, 1892), 65. Quoted on p.169, Robert J. Morgan: Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Sermon Illustrations. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007.