“When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” ~ Luke 2:22
On the day my first daughter was born, twenty-one people visited us in the hospital. A dozen more came the next day. On the third day, when we arrived home, a blizzard was settling in, and I was ready to settle, too. My mother said, “Thank Heaven we’re having a blizzard so that nobody can stop by.” Just then, the doorbell rang!
In the Jewish faith, the mother and newborn baby were required to stay in seclusion for forty days, considered unclean after the birth. Can you imagine? On the one hand, what bliss! On the other, imagine no contact with anyone, no leaving the house, and no going to worship the Lord. This was the case when Mary arrived at the temple.
The First Presentation
On the presentation of Jesus, He was dedicated to the Lord in the temple, but this would not be His last visit. Like all Jewish children, Jesus would have gone to the temple with Joseph often and with both parents every year for the Jewish festivals. In scripture, we encounter Him in the temple when He’s twelve and again on many occasions throughout His ministry.
So why is this time so special that Luke recounts it in His Gospel?
Let us recall what Jesus told His parents when they found Him in the temple, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). His Father’s house. The presentation is the introduction of the Savior to the most sacred place in Judaism, the place where He would preach and reveal Who He was (numerous times, according to Mark 14:49), where He would celebrate all the feasts, where He would overturn the tables, and where He would proclaim that the temple would be rebuilt in three days after its destruction (referring to His resurrection).
The Prophesy
On this first trip to the temple, the first time Jesus is presented and identified as the Messiah, Simeon prays, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:29-30). For the first time, in the temple, someone knows who Jesus is and why He is here. Simeon foretold “the rise and fall of many,” and a sword would pierce Mary’s soul. Anna recognized the Messiah and told “all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).
Yes, this is Mary’s first public appearance after giving birth, but it’s the first public appearance of Jesus ever. And it takes place in the temple! The place where the Holy of Holies was, where the Pascal lamb was sacrificed, where people went to be in the presence of God! Like the Passover lambs, THE Lamb is being presented for sacrifice.
The Beginning of the End
When you hear the Gospel proclaimed today, picture this tiny baby, a little lamb in His mother’s arms. This is the beginning of the end of the temple, the beginning of the end of Jesus’s sacrifice, and most importantly, the beginning without end of the New Temple.
First published February 2, 2025 at https://catholicvineyard.com/the-lamb-in-the-temple/
You must be logged in to post a comment.