12302020 – Luke 2. 22-40 “The Presentation”
Luke knew exactly WHAT he was DOING…and exactly WHAT he was SAYING. A “little creativity” being used HERE to meet his needs and purposes.
CIRCUMCISION always took place on the 8th day.
PURIFICATION offerings for the mother of a MALE child always took place on or around the 40th day after giving birth…it was twice as long after giving birth to a female child. During this period of time she was considered UNCLEAN and BARRED from all public worship.
The Presentation of a male child was often at his circumcision on the eighth day. He was given over to the Lord.
There was an ancient rite of the REDEMPTION of the SON, buying him back from the Lord…this was intertwined with the whole concept of the FIRST BORN MALE – who received a double portion of his father’s inheritance.
We are talking BIRTHRITE. Technical stuff! Primogeniture is assigning the legitimate heir. THE FIRST BORN. It was important! It was big! The first born SON received 2/3’s of everything. The remaining 1/3 being divided between all other male siblings. Girls got ZILCH!
In the ancient Semetic Writings we actually find the letters BKR – which means “early or first.” It was good to be BKR.
“Firstlings” even applied to the animal kingdom.
So, Luke is using a little “POETIC LICENSE” here and turning it all into ONE MAIN EVENT. Easy peasy! A lot less confusing…a lot less travel.
So, Baby Jesus, was still in pampers when his parents brought him to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
That’s when old-decrepit-Simeon spotted him. He KNEW. He JUST knew. He was CERTAIN. Positive, this kid was “IT.”
Years before he’d been told he wouldn’t die until he had seen the LORD’S MESSIAH. The clock was ticking away. Quickly. Simeon’s time was running out.
When “the big moment” finally came, one look through his cataract lenses was all it took. BUT JUST TO BE SURE, he asked if he could HOLD the baby in his arms.
The parents said, “Go ahead, support his head and DO NOT drop him!” (Parents can be so overly protective, can’t they?)
Mary was HOLDING HER BREATH!
“Lord, NOW lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,” he said in his best King James English.
Meanwhile, little LORD Jesus was tugging on and playing with the fringes of his shaggy-old-food-encrusted white-beard.
The parents were pleased as punch and so he blessed them too, just for good measure.
Then, something about the YOUNG MOTHER caught his cataract-covered-eyes. She looked so young. Just a child herself.
But what he saw in HER FACE…was DISTANCE…like she was there and NOT there…her thoughts were someplace else. Those thoughts were NOT happy thoughts. They were thoughts of concern. Thoughts of parental worry.
What he saw, he HAD TO comment on…he was old…and could get a way with it…so he just blurted it out, “A sword will pierce through your soul.”
“Forgive me,” he said. “I am old.” “I speak out of turn.” “I should be SILENT.” “I should KNOW better.” “No fool like an old fool,” he said under his breath. But it was TOO LATE. Words can NOT BE TAKEN back.
He would rather have BITTEN off his own tongue than SAID it. But, it just came out. He BLURTED it out. He really didn’t mean to. It just happened. He NOW felt foolish. REMORSEFUL, very SORRY.
There in the TEMPLE. He felt COMPELLED to speak “the TRUTH.” To say, what he SAW. It was like he had NO CHOICE.
Then he HANDED her back the baby and departed in something less than that he DREAMED OF…all the long years of his waiting.
The Messiah is going to suffer. Amen.