Jesus Is Presented In The Temple
JESUS IS PRESENTED IN THE TEMPLE
LUKE 2:21-35
Simeon was the first to recognize who Jesus was by the Holy Spirit, rather than by being told by an angel.
Verses 21-24. The theme of the previous paragraph resumes. Joseph was a simple man whose whole life and religion consisted of doing what he ought to do—honestly, faithfully and uncomplainingly. God needs more men like him. The Law prescribed certain obligations, and in its mercy brought the requirements of sacrifice within the reach of God’s poor (Exodus 13:12; Numbers 8:17; Leviticus 12:8). Jerusalem was on the way home, a fact for which the good man, no doubt, thanked God. He traveled north over the hills to Jerusalem, saw the fine view of the city and its temple from the high ridge of the Mount of Olives, went in through the gate which was to be called Saint Stephen’s gate, after Christ’s first martyr, and brought the Child to the temple. The consecration of the firstborn was a provision of the Law designed to cut at the root many foul practices of child sacrifice in the cults of paganism. It was a moving moment when the Lord came thus to his temple. He was to come again “like a refiner’s fire.”
2:25-35. One sensitive soul penetrated God’s secret. Faith was not dead in the land, for all the cynical commercialization of religion by the Sadducees, for all the cluttering of simple things by man-made regulation by the Pharisees. The remnant of the Old Testament is a theme for study. God has always had his few. We have already met Mary and Joseph, and the parents of John the Baptist. The religion of pomp and ceremony turned on Christ, and sought to carry on Herod’s work of destruction. The faithful, undistinguished and unrecognized of men received him. Simeon was one of the honored few. He was familiar with the Scriptures. Note his quotation of Isaiah (Isaiah 42:6-7), which puts him in the tradition of John the Baptist. It is also a fact that the people of Qumran, the wilderness sect who hid the Dead Sea Scrolls, were devotees of Isaiah. The insight of Simeon flowed from his knowledge of the Word. Such insight always will.
Note 2:25: the image is that of a servant bidden wait through the darkness and announce the day—cf. Isaiah 60:1-2; Malachi 4:2. 2:35: the challenge of Christ causes men to reveal their true attitudes. Think of the trial scene and how it revealed the secret selves of every actor in it.