✠ Psalmody: Psalm 48:9-10, 1; Psalm 48:9-10a, 48:8a;Psalm 45:2b; Luke 2:26
✠ Lection: Malachi 3:1–4; Hebrews 2:14–18; Luke 2:22-32
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We think, on this 40th Day of Christmas, upon the infant Lord Jesus again and the precious life that God gives from the point of conception. It was at that point in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary that the Holy Son of God entered into Creation unlike ever before. Indeed, there were theophanies throughout the Old Testament, that is, instances of God revealing Himself as He walked with our First Parents in the Garden of Eden, visited Abraham under the oaks of Mamre, spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and brought His people up out of the land of Egypt as He Himself led them in pillars of cloud by day and fire by night. Take heed of the Lord’s actions toward man and how He has mercifully come down from heaven to guide us, to shine His light upon us, to interact with us to bring about our redemption.
For our redemption was the Son’s mighty purpose from the foundation of the world. Yet, what does it mean that He, in the flesh, an infant in Mary’s arms, was brought to the temple? We call it His “Presentation”. To Whom was He being presented? It was to neither Simeon nor the chief priest, scribes, Pharisees, nor was it to King Herod. Simeon, the one well-prepared and waiting for the Consolation of Israel to come, was simple benefactor of the Christ Child’s presentation; an action required of parents instituted by God centuries prior. Remember Hannah committing her son, Samuel, into the service of the Lord. Yet, Jesus’ being presented at 40 days old has even deeper roots and meaning when it comes to our history upon the earth and the history of God’s salvation shining upon us.
Recall the Exodus, the ultimate Old Testament story of God’s deliverance of His people out of slavery. It is ultimate because of the eternal reality to which it pointed the Israelites and all who would hear of the story. The Lord does not abandon us to the darkness of the devil, the world, or our own hearts regardless of the trials allowed in this wilderness. He has freed us from slavery to sin and death by sending forth the one true Light of His only-begotten Son. The presentation of our Lord in the temple stems from the events that took place in Egypt’s captivity as the Lord had Moses and Aaron demand that pharaoh allow the people to go three days into the wilderness to worship Him.
Pharaoh repeatedly refused, which was a stubborn evil that God used to then pour out His holy, good, and just judgement on all the false gods of Egypt through the plagues, showing that He alone is the Lord in the midst of the earth. There is no other god. The tenth and final plague finally struck pharaoh himself so severely that he told all Israel to go. It was the plague death to which he finally yielded; death of all the firstborn male children, the primary heirs, the one-day-to-be heads of families. For pharaoh, his firstborn son was certainly meant to be his successor as king. Only one very specific ritual founded upon the word and promise of God would avoid the destruction of this plague: the blood of a sacrificed lamb covering the household by means of spreading the crimson-colored life upon the doorway. It was the first Passover.
Without the covering of a sacrificed lamb, horrific death came to the homes that were not covered; to the homes that did not fear the Lord. There was a great cry throughout when the Lord struck down all the uncovered firstborn in the land of Egypt. This was not only a judgement against the king, his land, and all its false gods, but it was a foreshadowing, a pointing ahead to the Lord striking down the curse of eternal death, eternal darkness. The strong man of the earth would be overcome by the Stronger Man of Heaven, both in this plague and in the ultimate fulfillment of it on the cross outside of Jerusalem.
The death of the firstborn in the Passover is the connection to Jesus’ presentation as an infant in the temple. For it was immediately after the tenth plague of death in Egypt that the Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.” (Exodus 13:2) God delivered all the firstborn by the blood of the passover lambs so that we may be delivered by our Pascal Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
In order to rescue sinners from death, in order to atone for your sins, a firstborn from among you must die in your place, for the blood of a lamb will not suffice to rescue you from eternal darkness. Your sins are too grievous and too numerous. The Light from above must come to lighten you, for your redemption could only come through One like you, through One without spot or blemish, a guiltless sacrifice for you, the guilty. This is why St. Simeon blessed God when He saw the very Light of Life held in the Blessed Virgin’s arms being presented in the temple. The Promised Consolation had come! The eternal Passover promise was being fulfilled in the Firstborn of all creation, that is, in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, the Son of God. Your perfect Paschal Lamb was being presented to His Heavenly Father in the temple as the perfect sacrifice needed by you and all peoples. A Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. All that the Passover pointed ahead to, all that it demanded, all that it promised, resided there in the 40-day old flesh of the Christ Child. He came to fulfill what had been promised about Him. He came to feed you with Himself as you grow ever closer to your own Exodus out of this world into the one that is to come.
And so our great celebration today is to remember the Light of Candlemas, the name of the Christian feast in which, for the past fifteen hundred years, the Church has traditionally gathered all its candles that would be used in the coming year in order to bless them and commend them to the service of dispelling the darkness, being a very real, visual symbol of how the Light of Christ dispels the spiritual darkness into which we are all born; further demonstrated by lighting handheld candles off of the altar candles, the place from which you come to find relief in the forgiveness of your sins in the Lord’s Supper. We celebrate Candlemas because the magnificent truth is that the glory of God’s people Israel is the Light that shines into the darkness beyond the borders of Jerusalem, into all nations, unto all people. Jesus is the Light to lighten the Gentiles. He is the Light that has now revealed to you His glory as God in man made manifest. He is preparing you to depart in peace from this service, from this church, from this life, knowing that you will do so in Him into Whom you have been baptized into death, and better so, into life. Draw to the temple with Simeon to see and believe that the glory of God was no longer dwelling in a grand structure, but tabernacled in the 40-day-old flesh made without hands. Your stage is set. Epiphany is drawing to a close; soon time to turn your eyes toward Jerusalem once again, journeying through the Lenten wilderness to where the Light was extinguished on the cross for you. But only by His perfect life snuffed out was the darkness shattered once and for all. The Light of the World is He Who fulfilled the Torah in order to save you from all the sins you commit in failing to keep it. The Light to enlighten you is the One you recognize by faith as you approach His table and receive the Consolation Who Simeon held oh so long ago. Christ is the One that darkness has not overcome, granting you sight to see Him for forgiveness, for salvation, for hope, for life that will never end, for glorious light that will never fade even as you close your eyes for the final time in this short life. Rejoice always that Christ, the True Light that comes into the world, shines brightly upon you!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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