To Redeem and Purify You for Life with God

Here and now, on this Fortieth Day of Christmas, the Lord has brought you once again to His Holy Temple, that you should receive and worship the Christ Child in His Body of flesh and blood. Everything unfolds exactly as the Lord has spoken, according to His Word and under the guidance of His Holy Spirit. For these events belong to the fulfillment of His promises of old.

Though not readily apparent, St. Luke has actually recorded the keeping of two specific Laws from the Old Testament, one concerning St. Mary and her purification after giving birth to her firstborn Son, and the other concerning that same Son, Christ Jesus, who is here called holy to the Lord.

It may seem odd that St. Mary, the blessed Virgin chosen by God, should need to be purified for giving birth to the Lord Himself, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. Of course the Holy Family keeps the Law received from God through Moses, according to the custom. But there’s more to it than that. For this Law, in particular, concerning the purification of a woman after childbirth, now finds its true goal and its fulfillment in this Mother who has given birth to this Son.

It goes back to that first promise of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden, following the Fall into sin, that the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent. You know that St. Mary is that Woman, and Christ Jesus, her Son, is that Seed who treads Satan, sin, and death beneath His feet.

At the same time, along with the promise of the Gospel, there was also the curse and consequence of sin, that Eve and her daughters would suffer pain in the bringing forth of children. Hence, both the curse and the promise are met together in the conceiving and bearing of daughters and sons.

In the light of God’s Word, notwithstanding the burdens and hardships of sin and death, it was the case that every son born of a woman — to Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Sarah, to the family of Isaac, Israel, and Judah, to the house and lineage of David, as the promise became more focused — every son born of a woman might be the Messiah; and every daughter might be the mother of the Messiah. Until, finally, there is this Woman who gives birth to this Son who is the Messiah, whose Body and Life shall be given into death for the redemption of all people, and whose holy and precious Blood will be shed upon the Cross for the Atonement of the sins of the whole world.

That is what the requisite offering for the purification of a new mother signified. It was for the atonement of her sins and the sanctification of her body and life, in view of the hope and promise of the Gospel. And all of those sacrifices pointed to the One who has now come, the Child Jesus.

So there is also the Law concerning Him, which is here fulfilled, as well. For every firstborn son who opened the womb was to be “called holy to the Lord.” This Law went back to the Exodus from Egypt; and, along with that, it also recalled the case of Abraham and his beloved son, Isaac.

You know that earlier story, when God came to Abraham and told him to take his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, and to sacrifice him as a whole burnt offering to the Lord on the mountain. Abraham proceeded in faith to do as he was commanded, painful though it was to comprehend. But at the last possible moment — his hand poised in the air with the knife, ready to slay his son as a sacrifice — God stayed his hand and provided the Ram, caught in a thicket, in the place of Isaac.

So, likewise, in the Exodus from Egypt, when the Angel of the Lord passed through Egypt and struck down all the firstborn sons of man and beast, the sons of Israel were spared because God provided a lamb in their place: The Passover Lamb, sacrificed at twilight, prepared according to the Word of the Lord, the blood of the lamb marking the door, the flesh of the lamb being eaten. Where the Lord beheld that blood, He passed over, and He spared the sons in those houses. So it was that all of those firstborn sons belonged to the Lord; and so were they called holy to the Lord.

Now, to be sure, all of Israel belonged to the Lord. Indeed, the whole of creation belongs to the Lord. But those firstborn sons, in particular, were spared and redeemed by the Lord through His giving of that lamb in their place. So every firstborn son, precisely in this way, belonged to God.

The way God worked that out was by taking the entire tribe of Levi to be His special servants. The Levites would serve in His presence, assisting the sons of Aaron (also from the tribe of Levi) in caring for the Tabernacle (later the Temple). For this sacred service the entire tribe of Levi was dedicated, consecrated to the Lord. By contrast, all of the other firstborn sons, from all of the other tribes, were redeemed for the price of five silver shekels, rather than being given over to serve.

This is the Law that God established for the firstborn sons of Israel, which Mary and Joseph came to fulfill in the Temple on this day. Notably, though, St. Luke does not speak of redemption. The Lord Jesus is not from the tribe of Levi, and we may assume that Mary and Joseph brought the five silver shekels that were specified as the price of His redemption. But that is not what St. Luke describes. Instead, he indicates that the Child Jesus was presented to the Lord, almost as a Levite would have been — in the way that Samuel (a Levite) was dedicated to the service of the Lord.

Of course it is true that Jesus belongs to the Lord, for He is the almighty and eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity. But here now, in the substance of human flesh and blood just like your own, He is presented and dedicated to the Lord on your behalf. He is given in your place, in the place of all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. His entire body and life are given up to God, to live and die for you and all people. He is not redeemed from sacrifice and service; He redeems you by His sacrifice and service. He is the Ram and the Passover Lamb given for you.

Now, then, what the Law actually required for the purification of a woman after childbirth was not two young birds, be they turtledoves or pigeons, but actually one bird and a lamb. But in the case of those who were poor, who could not afford a lamb, the Law made provision for a second bird in the place of the lamb. So it is that St. Mary and St. Joseph here bring the offering of the poor, that is to say, two young birds, for the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord.

And yet, for all of that, this same Mother brings in her arms the One who is the Lamb, the true Passover, the Lamb of God who takes upon Himself and takes away the sins of the whole world. She brings not just a couple birds but her own dear Son, and she presents Him to the Lord, that He should live and die as the Sacrifice of Atonement for Israel and all the nations; that He should redeem His people from their sins, and purify and cleanse them, by the shedding of His own Blood.

And He is the Atonement for all of your sins, as well. For by the sacrifice of His flesh and blood, He has liberated you from Egypt and redeemed you from the bondage of sin, death, and hell.

And that is not all. For He has become like you, not only to bear your sins, but to partake of blood and flesh like your own, that you might become like Him and partake of His divine nature in body and soul. So has He bound Himself to you, and He traverses the wilderness right along with you. His entire Body and Life are dedicated to God, and He lives that life in the flesh as the true Man, as the beloved and well-pleasing Son. He is a Babe in arms, a Toddler, a little Boy, a Twelve-Year-Old, a Teenager, and a full-grown Man. He lives the same human life that you are called to live in the flesh. He lives by faith, He lives in love. He lives unto God, that you might live in Him.

He traverses the wilderness with you, and He brings you into the Promised Land. He brings you into the presence of God. He brings you into the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens. He is not only the Propitiation for your sins, but He is your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God. By His sacrifice upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection and Ascension, He has not only entered the Temple of God, but His Body has become the true Temple, the divine, eternal Temple of God, that you might abide in the presence of God within His Body.

As He has given Himself into death for your sins, so has He been raised as your righteousness and holiness forever. And He ever lives to make intercession for you — in the human Flesh that He shares with you, and with the Blood that He has shed for you. As your own High Priest, not from the tribe of Levi, but according to the order of Melchizedek, forever and ever, He stands for you in the presence of God the Father, in the Holy Spirit, that you should be with Him where He is.

In the beautiful words that St. Paul has written, you have already died with Christ in your Holy Baptism, and so is your life hidden with Christ in God. You are seated with Him in the heavenly places. And here is the surety and guarantee, the sign and seal of that Life: As Christ is presented in the Temple in human flesh and blood like your own, presented to His God and Father on your behalf and in your place, so are you presented to His God and Father holy and blameless in Him, without flaw, without blemish, perfect in every way. You are holy and righteous in the presence of God, you are beloved and well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.

As He has partaken of your flesh and blood — as He has come in the fullness of time, the Seed of the Woman, the new and greater Adam, the Husband and Head of His Body and Bride — so are you here given to partake of His Flesh and Blood. And as you feast upon these Fruits of His Cross, the Body and Blood of the Lamb, you have the Life of God in yourself, in your body and your soul.

And in this one Lord Jesus Christ, your merciful and great High Priest, you have Peace with God — at all times and in all places. Peace even now, in this poor life of labor, as you go about your days in the world. As you lay down at night and get up in the morning, as you go about your work, as you care for your family and serve your neighbor, you have Peace that surpasses all human understanding. For you know that you are reconciled to God and acceptable in His sight.

And at the last, when the Lord shall call you from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven, you shall depart in Peace from this mortal life on earth, knowing that your death is but a slumber, and that, as your Savior Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, so shall you also rise and live with Him.

Then you shall see Him face to face with your own eyes, from your own body of flesh and blood. Then you shall behold Him, no less than Simeon did, but even more clearly, the One who is the Glory of Israel, the One who is your Light, your Life, and your Salvation, who sanctifies you with His own holiness and glorifies you in both body and soul with His own righteousness forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

The Gift of the Son for You and Your Children

You belong to the Lord your God by right, for He is your Creator and Preserver.  He is the One who has given you all that you are and have, your body and soul, your reason and all your senses.  And He is the One who still takes care of you, who feeds and clothes and shelters you and daily and richly provides you with all that you need to support this body and life.  Not because you are good or as though you deserve any of this, but entirely by His divine grace and mercy toward you.

You belong entirely to Him by right, and you have no life without Him.  But the problem is that, while you can’t live without Him, neither can you live with Him in your sins and native sinfulness.  Not only because you have broken God’s Law and earned His righteous wrath and displeasure; and not simply because you are doing this or that wrong; but because your sin is a disordering of your heart and life from the inside-out.  You are not in harmony with God but out of sync with Him who is the Author and Giver of Life; so you cannot abide in His presence, because you are odds with Him, at enmity with Him, until He saves you from sin and death and reconciles you to Himself.

Until He redeems you and reclaims you for His own, you are dead and dying in your sins, both now and forever.  But that is not His good and gracious Will.  He rather desires that you should have Life with Him; so He does not allow your sin to dissuade Him or prevent Him from saving you.

He comes, Himself, to do so.  For having become like you in every way, a Man of Flesh and Blood, conceived and born of St. Mary, He has taken the full burden of the Law upon Himself in your stead; and He has borne the full weight of your sins and the sins of the whole world in His Body, even unto death upon the Cross, whereby He has atoned for all of those sins with His own Blood.

The almighty and eternal Son of God, Christ Jesus, has come in the Flesh and fulfilled the entire Law of God for the justification, sanctification, and eternal Salvation of all the children of Man. Anyway, the Law always was about Him; not as a list of rules and regulations, but as a description of human Life with God.  He has lived it.  He has done so for you.  And in this is your Salvation.

The Law of the Lord that was fulfilled on this day, in particular, the fortieth day of the ChristMass, really gathers up the full scope of God’s Salvation, going back to the Garden following the Fall into Sin.  A woman must come to the Temple to be purified after giving birth, because labor and delivery, the birth of a child into the world, brings together both the curse and the blessing in one.

Here is new life, a precious gift from God; and yet, the gift is given and received in the midst of travail, blood and pain, and at least the risk of death for both mother and child, if not death itself. The first Woman and all her daughters suffer this because of the Fall into Sin.  And so do you also suffer in your body because of sin.  But even so, from out of the suffering God brings forth life.

So, the Law of the Lord commands that birth be acknowledged as sacred, but also as precarious, as the meeting of death and life, in the hope of the Son, the Seed of the Woman, who would be conceived and born to conquer death and establish Life forever.  From that first Promise of the Gospel in response to the Fall into Sin, every conception and every birth pointed forward to the One who would come in human Flesh to crush the devil’s head and thus remove the power of death that Satan held like a weapon over all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.  At the start, every daughter might become the Mother of God, and every son might be the promised Seed, the Savior.  Birth was therefore to be honored and sanctified by the Word of God, by sacrifice and prayer.

Over time it was revealed by the Word and promises of God that from the family of Abraham and Sarah, by way of Isaac, then Jacob, the Seed would come, the great Redeemer, the serpent-Crusher.  Thus, Abraham’s family was marked by God for this Salvation of the nations, for your Salvation.

And as such, the Lord was with that family and preserved them, even in their sin.  He blessed them, and He prospered them.  Yet, where did they find themselves?  Enslaved in Egypt.  Becoming a great nation, but in bondage, subject to Pharaoh, unable to free themselves.  Burdened by the Law.

But the Lord did not leave them there.  He brought them out of Egypt by His almighty arm, with  His powerful, outstretched hand.  With ten Plagues He manifested His glory over against Pharaoh, even to the point of that most dire Plague of all, when the Angel of Death passed through the land of Egypt and all the firstborn sons were claimed, both great and small, of both man and beast.

As you know, the Sons of Israel were spared that deadly Plague by way of the Sacrifice given in their stead.  The Lord God provided for Himself the Lamb in place of Israel’s firstborn sons.  Its flesh fed the people.  Its blood covered them.  And the Lord brought them out of death into Life.

Consequently, not only as their Creator, but as their great Redeemer, they all belong to Him.  Every firstborn son is His.  All of Israel is His by right.  And as such, He decreed that the children of Israel were obliged to sacrifice their sons to Him.  Only, He did not desire their death, but that they should be redeemed from death in recognition of Him; whereas the firstborn sons of Levi would be presented to the Lord and dedicated to His service, to work to the glory of His Holy Name.

So it is that, in the case of each and every firstborn son, Israel was reminded and taught that their life was from the Lord, and their life belonged to Him.  Indeed, the entire nation was the Lord’s.

And so it is, also, that Mary and Joseph came to the Temple to do for the Child — and for St. Mary herself — all that the Law of Moses prescribed, a sacrifice for each of them.  Except, St. Luke does not describe the redemption of this Son.  He is not a Levite, He is from the Tribe of Judah.  The Lord is not a priest in the order of Aaron; He is a unique High Priest among men, according to the order of Melchizedek.  So, we must assume that Mary and Joseph paid the redemption price for Him, the five shekels of silver required by the Law.  But as I said, St. Luke does not record that.  For Jesus is not redeemed from sacrifice and service; He is dedicated to Sacrifice and Service.  Though not a Levite nor a son of Aaron, Christ Jesus is and ever shall be a great High Priest over the House of God, speaking to God on your behalf, and serving you on behalf of His God and Father.  His Body and Life are given to be the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Hence, He is presented and dedicated to the Lord.  And He becomes the Passover Lamb, whose Flesh feeds you, whose Blood cover you.  And He becomes your merciful and great High Priest, crucified, risen, and ascended, who ever lives to make intercession for you in the presence of God.

What is more, He abides with His people as the very Glory of Yahweh, as the Presence of God in the Flesh, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us in this Son of Mary, Jesus the Christ.  He is here for you in the Temple of His Church, in order to save you and give you Life.  He speaks His Word to you, pours out His Holy Spirit upon you, and feeds you with Himself.

To be righteous and devout — to live by grace through faith in Jesus Christ — is to live and abide within His Temple, to dwell within His House, on earth as it is in heaven, and to wait upon the Consolation of Israel in the Liturgy of His Holy Gospel.  That is how Simeon and Anna lived — in the House of the Lord.  Thus, they heard His Word, received His Gifts, and beheld the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God in the Face of their Savior.  And so is He here for you now.

With Simeon and Anna, and so also with the Psalmist, “One thing I ask of the Lord, that shall I seek, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the Beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His Temple.”  This is the most central and important thing in your life on earth.  Not to the exclusion of your other vocations, to which the Lord has called you.  Nurse your babies until they are weaned.  Do your job.  Provide for your family.  And teach your sons and daughters to pray and confess the Word of Christ.  Speak to your neighbors in love.  Feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned.  Do all of this in faith and love, even as you are served and given Life by the Lord Jesus Christ here within the Temple of His Church.

Fathers and Mothers, this is the most necessary thing that you are given to do for your children.  You care for their bodies and educate their minds, of course.  But you must also present them to the Lord, that they may be served by His Word and Spirit.  He does for them what you cannot do.  From you they have inherited sin and death.  From Him they receive forgiveness and eternal Life.

It is the Lord who catechizes your children unto faith in His forgiveness of their sins.  It is the Lord who takes them to be His own, to live with Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  It is the Lord who feeds them with Himself, as He also feeds you.

You worry about your children.  You strive to care for them and protect them, yet you worry about their health and safety.  You worry about their education, whether they are learning what they need to know.  You worry about their future and how they’ll provide for themselves and their families.  But the Lord knows what they need, and He well provides their daily bread.  And He would give them something far greater than life on this earth.  He would give them Himself and His own Life.

The problem is that neither you nor your children can even receive this gift of Life from the Lord your God, except by His Word and by the working of the Holy Spirit through that Word.  But you are afraid, and you waver in unbelief.  It seems like such a dangerous proposition, and it surely is!

When you present yourself to the Lord, you offer yourself up as a living sacrifice, and you may well be called upon to die for the Name of the Lord, to give up your body and life for His Gospel.

So, make no mistake, and do not kid yourself: When you present your children to the Lord, when you bring them to Holy Baptism, when you expose them to the Word of God, and when you allow them to be fed with the Body and Blood of Christ, you commit them to the Cross which kills them.

This is a great irony.  You cannot see the Lord’s Christ unless you die; but having died with Him, thus do you live and not taste death forever.  Your instinct is to protect your children, that is right.  So, do not keep them from the One who alone can save them, but bring yourself and them to Him.

It is God the Holy Spirit who is actively present and at work in this place, in the Liturgy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  So, for example, Simeon and Anna were not in the Temple by accident.  As St. Luke makes plain, everything transpired according to the Word of the Lord — under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, working through that Word and in that Temple.  So, those saints were there because God had brought them there.  And there they were served by His Word, enlivened by His Spirit to behold that young couple with their infant Son, to believe and confess that He is the Glory of Israel and the Hope of the nations; and to know that, having seen this little Babe, their Life was as it should be.  They could live, or they could die, and they were at Peace either way.

So the Spirit does for you and for your children.  In Holy Baptism you and they were put to death with Christ Jesus; not to be dead and buried forever, but to be raised up with Him in body and soul.  And so does the same Spirit likewise work through the Word, calling to repentance, putting to death and raising to Life, exposing sins and forgiving them in the Name and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He enables you to behold in bread and wine that same Lord Jesus Christ, to receive Him unto yourself, to take His Flesh and Blood into your own mortal body, unto Life — to cling to Him who died, knowing that He is risen from the dead, and that you shall rise and live with Him.

That is why the Spirit has brought you here tonight, the darkness and weather notwithstanding.  And that is why the Spirit works through you to bring your children to this place, as well, to this Temple of the Lord on the corner of Milton & Dale in South Bend.  That you and your children should be purified of all your sins by the very Blood of Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb of God.  That you and your children should be redeemed by the Price that He has paid for you and for all.  And that you and your children should be blessed with His Peace through faith in His Holy Gospel.

Here, indeed, is the Consolation of Israel.  Here is your Comfort and your Solace in the presence of God, your Savior.  In the face of fear and anguish, in the face of sin, death, and the devil, here is your Life and your Salvation in the Face of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of the Living God.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Face to Face with God in Christ Jesus

Today we are diverted from the normal sequence of the Epiphany Season, as we take a giant step backward in the lifetime of our Lord.  Once more He is an Infant in the arms of His Mother, being brought to the Temple in Jerusalem, His Father’s House, on this Fortieth Day of the ChristMass.

As throughout Epiphany, so also in the Presentation of our Lord, the Almighty God here reveals Himself and His Glory in the flesh and blood of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  In this little Babe, the Son of Mary, the Lord your God has burst upon the scene and confronts you face to face.

Now, if you consider what that entails, you realize that confrontation with God surely ought to be a terrible and frightening encounter for you, a poor, miserable sinner deserving of punishment.  If you’ve got your hand in the cookie jar, the last thing you want is to come face to face with your Mom.  And if you mess up on the job, you don’t look forward to a confrontation with the boss.

But here the one true God, the Lord Himself, who commands you to be holy and perfect, as He is holy and perfect, but who already knows that you are not — who knows all your sins of thought, word, and deed, past, present, and future — He comes to meet you face to face — the same One who comes to judge the living and the dead.  But are you ready to meet your Creator and Judge?

On your own and of yourself, no, you are not ready to face Him, nor would you be able to stand in His presence.  No more than Adam and Eve were ready, when they’d eaten the forbidden fruit.  Remember how they tried to hide from God among the trees of the Garden?  Whatever newfound knowledge of good and evil they might have gained was more than enough to tell our first parents that they had sinned against the Lord.  And like yourself, having disobeyed the Word of God, they knew what they deserved.  They could not bear to look God in the eye, to see Him face to face.

And yet, when God the Lord confronted them there in the Garden after the Fall — along with the cursing of the serpent and the punishment of pain in childbirth — side-by-side with the cursing of the soil and the decree that man would return to that soil in death — Adam and Eve also received the promise of the Savior.  Face to face with God, and they received His mercy and forgiveness.

That’s what happened again when the same Lord God revealed Himself to Abraham and promised that by his Seed the nations would be saved.  With Father Abraham God established His Covenant, sealed with the blood of circumcision as a sign of the Lord’s ongoing presence with His People.

Then again, the Lord our God came face to face with Jacob as a Man, and He wrestled with him through the night, thereby teaching him repentance and training him in the prayer and confession of faith.  Though putting his hip out of its socket (like the bones of Christ Jesus on His Cross), the Lord blessed Jacob and bestowed on him the name of Israel, that is, “he who strives with God.”

Remember Mt. Sinai, when God spoke face to face with Moses and through him established His Covenant with Israel — the Covenant fulfilled and perfected in the conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Son, Immanuel, who is indeed God-with-us in the Flesh.  As we celebrate throughout Christmas and Epiphany, the Lord God has come down from heaven to tabernacle with you and all in His own Flesh and Blood.  So is He with you today in this Temple of His Church.

And so it is that we rejoice and give thanks along with St. Simeon and St. Anna, two of God’s holy and righteous people who have gone before us in the one true faith, who came face to face with their Savior in His Holy Temple.  In the Face of the Infant Christ Jesus — the promised Seed of the Woman, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — they beheld the Face of God Himself.

In that light, Simeon could not help but sing.  And his song of sweet salvation has gone out to all the ends of the earth, to every corner of the Church, and so also to you.  For the same Lord God comes to be with you in the Ministry of His Gospel.  Not with finger-shaking or scolding, but with tender mercy and forgiveness.  By faith you discern His great salvation in water, bread, and wine.  And in the Resurrection, with your own two eyes, you shall see Him face to face forevermore.

It was appropriate that Simeon should come face to face with God in the Temple, for he was no stranger to that sacred place.  Living in accordance with God’s Word and joining in the liturgical life of the Temple were an exercise of his faith and confidence in the coming Messiah.  The same thing is true for you.  In the Temple of the Lord, that is, within His Church of Word and Sacrament, Christ Jesus continues to manifest His divine glory in His forgiveness of sins and His gift of life.

The Prophetess Anna likewise clearly understood that blessing and benefit.  For St. Luke writes that she did not leave the Temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayers.

It’s not necessarily the case that Anna spent twenty-four hours a day at the Temple and never left, or that she lived in the building.  But it is certain that this devout woman of God faithfully took part in the worship life of Israel.  She was present for the daily services of the Temple, evening and morning, and for all the festivals and feast days of the Lord’s liturgical year.  She no doubt also used the Temple as a place of prayer, calling on the Name of the Lord to redeem His people.

St. Anna’s participation in the Temple’s worship and liturgy greatly increased her faith in the coming Messiah.  For there she heard the promises of God repeated daily from the Holy Scriptures.  There she sang with all the faithful the Psalms of promise and deliverance.  And in the sacrifices offered by the priests of God, St. Anna foresaw the Sacrifice of the Son of God for the forgiveness of all her sins.  So do you now hear and receive Christ Jesus in His Word and Sacrament here.

It was thus within the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem — where they had for so long and so faithfully stood in the presence of God and availed themselves of His Word and promises — that Simeon and Anna were, in the fullness of time, brought face to face with the Word-of-God-made-Flesh, the fulfillment of all those promises, to whom their worship, prayers, and fasting had always pointed.

This little Babe, just forty days old, is the very God who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, who spoke to Abraham concerning a son, who wrestled with Jacob through the night and gave to him the blessing of His Name, and who spoke face-to-face with Moses on the Mountain and wrote His Law on tablets of stone.  This little Lord Jesus is Immanuel, the God who is with His People.

St. Simeon was thus given the blessed privilege of taking the Christ Child into his arms, thereby cradling the flesh of His Creator to his own sinful flesh.  Looking into the eyes of Baby Jesus, he was face to face with God.  By this Child he would have life everlasting in body and soul.  Seized with joy and the passion of realized hope, that faithful man of God burst into song by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, thus giving to the Church that song or canticle we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

Yet, what Simeon perceived in his Savior was a fearful task.  “Behold,” he said to St. Mary, “this Child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a Sign that is spoken against.  A great sword will pierce your own soul, and the secret thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”

Christ Jesus is the Light of Revelation for the nations and the Glory of His People Israel, but His Peace and Salvation are costly beyond price — purchased not with perishable things like gold or silver, but with His own holy and precious Blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.

It is the Cross and Passion of the Christ that St. Simeon beholds and foretells.  For him, the joy that began in the Bethlehem manger would find its fulfillment on Calvary.  So do we also recall that the Salvation which first appeared at Christmas in the pains of Mary’s labor would be completed in the pains of her great loss.  For the joy of our salvation is found only in the grief of crucifixion — a grief St. Mary also suffered when she stood at the foot of the Cross witnessing her own dear Son die an agonizing death for us all, and the great sword of sorrow went ripping through her soul.

Gazing at the Baby Jesus, St. Simeon did not dwell on the color of His eyes or comment on how much hair He had.  He rather saw the shadow of the Cross, standing already above the horizon.  Even as an Infant, that cursed tree was the focus and goal of our Lord’s entire life.  For it is by the Sacrifice of His Cross that He redeems and liberates His people from sin, death, and hell.

For all that, St. Simeon speaks not only of the Cross, but also of the Resurrection.  For the Child, he says, is destined not only for the falling but also for the rising of many in Israel.  As He dies and rises for you, so are you put to death and raised to newness of life with Him, by way of Baptism in His Name, and by daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.  As you thus die with Christ Jesus, so do you also rise and live with Him, as well.  For Christ Jesus, having risen from the dead, will never die again.  And baptized into Christ, even though you die, yet shall you live!

In the meantime, it is true that you do not know the joy of holding Baby Jesus in your arms in the same way as Simeon and Anna.  But you do share with them the greater joy of forgiveness in the Cross of Christ.  And you join with them and all the saints of God in the Temple of the Church, in the Liturgy of the Gospel, week by week, year after year, awaiting the Resurrection of all flesh.

With St. Anna you gather day and night within the Temple to hear the Word and promises of God, to sing the ancient Psalms and hymns of faith, and to be presented with the Flesh and Blood of your Savior, Jesus — the same Flesh and Blood that St. Mary brought to the Temple in Jerusalem all those years ago, the same Flesh and Blood that were hung upon the Cross for your salvation.

And as surely as St. Simeon received the tiny Body of the Lord from the arms of His Mother, so do you also receive the Body of the same Christ Jesus from the hand of your pastors, and you are strengthened and sustained in peace and joy by that gift of the Word-made-Flesh.  Likewise, you drink the Blood of His forgiveness, which cleanses you from all your sins.  In the Lord’s Supper you come face to face with God, not for condemnation, but for everlasting life in body and soul.

Like Mary and Joseph, you will soon depart and leave for your own home.  But as you go your way, you do so with the Nunc Dimittis on your lips, as you also sing with faithful Simeon, “Lord, now let Your servant go in peace; Your Word has been fulfilled.”  For by faith you have seen the Salvation of God in the Light of Revelation which He shines upon you through the Holy Gospel.

You go home from this place as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God, holy and righteous in His sight, enlightened by the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.  And by His grace through faith in Him, you are clothed with compassion and kindness, humility and patience, and above all, clothed with love.  It is in your body and life, dear Christian, that God comes face to face with the world around you, as He enables you to be a light to those who yet live in the darkness of unbelief.  Above all, you live a life of forgiveness and love, as the Lord loves you and freely forgives you.

If you are married, show the face of God’s mercy and forgiveness to your husband or wife.  Be patient and long-suffering, and love your spouse, as Christ Jesus patiently and steadfastly loves you both.  If you are a father or mother, show the face of God’s love to your children; forgive them, as the Lord Jesus is daily forgiving your sins.  If you are a child, show the face of God’s love to your parents; honor your father and mother, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.  And all of you, show the face of God to everyone you meet — at work, at home, at school, and wherever.

Where does the strength to do it come from?  It is surely not from yourself.  The world comes face to face with God in you, because you come face to face with God in His Word and Sacraments, here within the Temple of the Lord, His Holy Church, which is the very gate of heaven on earth.

Earlier, I recalled how Jacob wrestled through the night with the Lord Himself.  Afterwards, he named the place of his confrontation, “Penuel,” which means, “the face of God.”  For, as he said, “I have seen God Face to Face, yet my life has been kept safe.”  I dare say it is no coincidence that the name of St. Anna’s father is that same word, Phanuel.  And so are you also given to approach and depart from the Lord’s Altar in this House of God with the same words of Jacob on your lips.  For this is your “Penuel.”  Here you come Face to Face with God, and here you are kept safe.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Receiving the Incarnate Lord in His Temple

St. Luke clearly states, no less than four times, that everything here happens according to the Law of the Lord.  Which means, on the surface, that everything is done according to the rules and regulations of the Old Testament ceremonial Law, which the Lord gave to His people through Moses.  In faith and piety, the Holy Family thus comes to offer the sacrifices required for the purification of St. Mary forty days after she has given birth, and to pay the redemption price for her firstborn Son, Jesus, since all of the firstborn sons of Israel belong to the Lord their God.

But there is something else and something more profound at work in these rites and ceremonies.  When St. Luke writes that all is done “according to the Law of the Lord,” it is the same as we confess in the Creed, that Jesus rose from the dead “according to the Scriptures.”  That is to say that our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets — as He Himself reveals and explains to those disciples on the Road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday.

In what is here accomplished “according to the Law of the Lord,” it is not the “Law” in contrast to the “Gospel.”  Here the “Law” refers more broadly and comprehensively to all the Words and Promises of God.  It means His Covenant with Israel as given on Mt. Sinai, including not only the Ten Commandments but all the rites and ceremonies of the Old Testament Liturgy.  The “Law” here means the entire Word of God, both His Law and His Gospel: His Self-revelation to Israel, and the implications of His presence among them.  As this very “Word of God” has become flesh in the Person of Christ Jesus, His entire life is lived “according to the Law of the Lord.”

In the time of the Baby Jesus, as in this Holy Gospel, the Law of the Lord — all His Words and Promises, His Covenant and Liturgy — were centered in the Temple.  So does St. Luke frame his record of the Holy Gospel with the Temple.  It is where Zacharias received the Word of the Lord from the Archangel Gabriel concerning the conception and birth of his son, St. John the Baptist.  And it is where the disciples of Jesus are gathered following His Ascension into heaven.

And so it is that St. Simeon and Holy Anna are in the Temple, because they are among the faithful children of God who watch and wait for the coming of His Christ.  Their hopes and expectations are found and focused in the Temple, “according to the Law of the Lord.”  For that is where His Words and Promises have been given to them, and that is where they are now fulfilled in Jesus.

As the fire and the cloud of God’s Glory once settled on the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and then upon the Temple in Jerusalem, so does the glorious presence of God now come to His Temple in the Child born of Mary.  And by the Word and Spirit of God, Simeon and Anna comprehend with faith what their human eyes cannot perceive; that this little Babe, just six weeks old, is the Lord their God in His own flesh, who has come to be with His people and to save them from their sins.

Born of the Woman, born under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law, He is Himself the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets.  Even from infancy, as you hear in this Holy Gospel, He keeps the Law perfectly for you and for all people.  He is ever and always obedient, even unto death on the Cross; for He has also come to sacrifice Himself in your stead.

Thus, St. Simeon prophecies that this Child is destined for the fall and the rising of many in Israel.  He comes, this Word-made-Flesh, bearing the grace of God and the Spirit of the Lord.  And yet, the world does not know Him, because the darkness cannot comprehend His Light.  Most of His own people refuse to receive Him; they hand Him over to be crucified by the hands of sinful men.  But it is for that Hour He has come: To sacrifice Himself in the stead of sinners, and to suffer all the punishment, death, and damnation that we poor, miserable sinners have deserved by our sins.

Thus does He obtain forgiveness and atonement for the sins of the world.  And in His Resurrection from the dead, He raises sinners in and with Himself, by and with His Word of Holy Absolution.

It is this precious Gospel of the Cross and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus that St. Simeon beholds in the face of the infant Christ-Child, by the Light of God that shines upon us in Him.  And as such, St. Simeon witnesses that this Jesus, in His own Body of flesh and blood, shall become the divine, eternal Temple of God.  For in His Flesh, all the Words and Promises of God are fulfilled forever.

“According to the Law of the Lord,” Christ Jesus comes to His people, to His faithful ones, to Simeon and Anna in the Temple.  And then by His Cross, “according to the Law of the Lord,” His own Body, crucified and risen, replaces and supercedes that Temple.  So it is that the Temple of God is truly found wherever the Word of Christ Jesus and His Body and His Blood are found.

Thus are you here today by the grace and Spirit of God: To wait upon the Lord Himself, and to receive His Body and His Blood according to His Word, here within the Temple of His Church.

Do not approach Him lightly, and do not take His presence for granted, but draw near and receive this dear Lord Jesus in the reverence and fear of repentance and in the joyful confidence of faith.

And as you come and go from His Altar, take your cues from Simeon and Anna, who received the same Lord Jesus Christ in His Temple, and held the same Body of Christ in their arms.  They did so with thanksgiving, praise, and blessing to His Name.  So join with St. Simeon in chanting his inspired song of praise, the Nunc Dimittis, and follow the example of Holy Anna in giving thanks unto the Lord with all your words and actions, and in speaking of Him to your neighbors.

There are no more important activities with which to serve your Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, both night and day, all the years of your life, and forever.  But as you receive the Lord here in His Temple, and as you return all thanks and praise to Him, so do you grow and increase in His Spirit, and so are you filled with His Wisdom.  Thus may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God the Father, and the Communion of His Holy Spirit, be and abide with you all. Amen.

The Redemption of the Lord

We have been returned, as it were, to Christmas once again—on this fortieth day of Christmas, which is really the conclusion of the Christmas cycle.  In just a few weeks, with the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, we will be turned toward the glory of His Cross and Passion, in the hopeful expectation of His Resurrection.  But for the moment, the Word of God has called us to behold and receive the infant Lord Jesus in the courts of His House, His Holy Sanctuary.

This festival day actually recalls and celebrates two different events, which coincided in the visit of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem.  In accordance with the Law of the Lord, there is the purification of St. Mary following the birth of her firstborn Son, and then also the redemption of the same little Lord Jesus, who was not a Levite but from the tribe of Judah.

We acknowledge that the Blessed Virgin Mary is indeed a saint by God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ Jesus, her Son, but that she was, to begin with, a sinner in need of such forgiveness—in need of cleansing and purification.  That much is simple and straightforward enough.  And yet, it is profoundly ironic that she would be required by the Law of God to undergo purification for bearing the spotless and holy Son of God!  She a virgin undefiled, who conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Savior of the world, had to be purified for that very reason.

To be sure, such requirements of purification were not unique to St. Mary.  They belonged to the ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God, whereby He sanctified and set apart His people (Israel) from the pagan nations of the world.  His Law, in this regard, dealt not only with sins per se, but also with other aspects of natural life.  This ceremonial Law drew strict boundaries between what was pure and clean, whole and complete, on the one hand, and what was flawed or blemished, diminished or incomplete, on the other hand.  And again, the purpose was to sanctify and set apart the chosen people of God, and thus to reflect the absolute holiness of God Himself.

In addition to these lines of purity, the ceremonial Law of God attached special and particular significance to bodily functions pertaining to procreation and childbirth.  It is in this category, of course, that St. Mary’s purification falls today.  To consider what this means, think back to the Garden of Eden and to the consequences of the Fall into Sin:

In the first place, God cursed the woman with pain in childbirth; but then He also promised a Savior Who would be the Seed of the Woman.  Thus, both the Law and the Gospel, the curse and the blessing, the consequences of sin and its forgiveness are all centered in the Woman precisely as Mother: centered in her ovaries and womb.

From Eve onward, then, especially among the chosen people of God, every aspect of a woman’s fertility and childbearing was both a proclamation of the curse of sin and a proclamation of the promise of the Gospel.  And in a very real sense, the bleeding that follows childbirth and continues for roughly six weeks (or forty days) is likewise both a consequence of the Fall into Sin and a foreshadowing of the blood that would be shed by the Woman’s Seed, that is, by the Savior Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who would bleed and die for the forgiveness and salvation of the world.

The same sacrificial blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was signified by the requisite sacrifice of a lamb—or, in a case of poverty, the sacrifice of a turtledove and a pigeon—for the purification of a woman following childbirth.  Indeed, like everything else in the Old Testament, the point and purpose of this ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God was to prepare the people for the coming of the Christ.

Therefore, if the fertility and childbearing of each and every other woman recalled the Fall into Sin and the promise of the Gospel, all the more so, the childbearing of this Woman, in particular, that is, the childbearing of this Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, was the ultimate fulfillment of both the curse and the promise of God in the Garden.  Through her, through the very pain and process of childbirth, God has given Himself to bear our sin and to be our Savior, to sacrifice Himself and to shed His own blood for the sins of the world.

Far from being exempt from the requirement of purification, St. Mary was the Mother, above all others, whom this Law of God was really all about.  Not as though she had sinned in giving birth to the Son of God, but because His birth encompassed and dealt with the whole reality of sin and its forgiveness, for the salvation of all sinners languishing under its curse.  Indeed, as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us!  In very much the same way that our Lord’s circumcision on the Eighth Day fulfilled the covenant of circumcision, so does St. Mary’s purification on this fortieth day fulfill the first promise of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden.  It is a declaration, in accordance with the Law of God, that the promised Seed of the Woman has arrived to crush the serpent-devil’s head.

Likewise, the same principle and significance are also at work in the Presentation of our Lord, which is the other ceremonial Law that is fulfilled on the fortieth day of Christmas.  It goes back, not to the Garden of Eden, but to the Exodus from Egypt.

Most of you will no doubt recall the devastating tenth plague, which the Lord brought against Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt: The Lord God sent the Angel of Death by night to slay all the firstborn sons of both man and beast, from the firstborn of mighty Pharaoh on his throne all the way down to the firstborn of the lowliest captive in prison.  The firstborn sons of Israel, however, were spared from this plague of death, because they were covered and protected by the blood of the Passover Lamb.  Where the Lord’s Angel saw the blood of the lamb, he passed over the home.

Henceforth, the Lord commanded that the firstborn sons of Israel (both man and beast) would belong to Him by right.  Indeed, it needs to be understood that all the Children of Israel belonged to the Lord, even as all the earth is the Lord’s and all the fulness thereof.  But even more so, the firstborn sons belong to Him, because He spared them from death and sanctified them for Himself in the Exodus.  Thus, all the firstborn animals among the people were to be sacrificed to the Lord, and all the firstborn sons of the people were to be given to the Lord for His service.

Now, as part of the Covenant that God established with Israel at Mt. Sinai, He set aside for Himself the entire tribe of Levi to serve Him as priests among the people.  And as such, He established that all of the other tribes would redeem their firstborn sons from service, for the redemption price of five silver shekels.  For the people to pay this price for the redemption of their firstborns served as a constant reminder that both they and their sons and daughters, and their animals, and all of their earthly goods, belonged in fact to the Lord their God.  And all the while, then, the tribe of Levi was responsible for the priestly Divine Service of God, including the offering of the many and various sacrifices that He had commanded, all of this in preparation for the coming of the Christ.

Which now brings us to the Presentation of that very Christ in His Temple on this day:

The Lord Jesus Christ, Who is not only the firstborn Son of Mary, but also, from all eternity, the “Firstborn,” the only-begotten Son of God the Father.  In Him we behold the love and mercy, the grace and peace, and the divine Glory of the one true God in the flesh.

In contrast to the Israelites in Egypt, this firstborn Son of God will not be spared the plague of the Angel of Death.  On the contrary, He has come to bear and suffer that plague in His own Body on the Cross.  Indeed, this one Lord Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of God, has come to be the Passover Lamb, so that His own holy and precious blood might cover His people from death and release them from the bondage of sin.  Accordingly, it is the very Body and Blood of this same Lord Jesus that are set before you and given to you as your Passover Meal, your Feast of Salvation.

What is more, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Mary’s Son, is the merciful and great High Priest who supercedes and replaces the Levitical Priesthood of the Old Testament, once and for all, by His own voluntary sacrifice (of Himself), and by His innocent suffering and death on the Cross.

In keeping with the Law, Jesus would have been “redeemed” by Joseph and Mary at the cost of five silver shekels, since He was not from the tribe of Levi.  Yet, St. Luke does not mention any such payment or redemption, implying instead that the true theological significance of our Lord’s Presentation was not a redemption from service but consecration for service unto God.

To say it another way, the little Lord Jesus, less than two months old, was consecrated to become both the Priest and the Sacrifice, and thereby, also, the Temple itself in His own flesh and blood.

Bearing all of this in mind, you may see that the Presentation of our Lord is the fulfillment of the Passover, the Exodus, the Priesthood, and the entire Old Testament Liturgy, for the redemption of all people—yourself included—from the slavery and eternal punishment of sin, death, and hell.  Not with any silver, but with His own body and life!

It is in that Body of Christ Jesus, here within His Church of the Gospel–Word and Sacraments, and especially in His sacrificial flesh and blood—in this, the New Testament Passover Feast—that you now meet the Lord Himself, as did St. Simeon there in the Temple.  In this Lord Jesus Christ, in His own flesh, you behold your Light and your Salvation, indeed, the Savior of the world.  And as you take Him up into your arms, as you receive Him into your own body, you also may depart in peace, according to His Word of the Gospel.

For He has become like you in every respect, save only without any sin of His own.  And He has taken all of your sin upon Himself, and carried it in His Body to the Cross.  He has suffered all that you must suffer; He has been tempted in every way that you are tempted; and He has borne the judgment of God and the damnation you deserve, so that you may be covered by His blood and spared eternal death.  Indeed, He has sacrificed Himself for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins; and here and now He gives to you Himself, His Body and His Blood, for Life and Salvation in Him.  And this true Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will strengthen you and keep you steadfast in the true faith, unto life everlasting.  Depart in His Peace.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.