Christians have given much thought to those aspects of Jewish culture which were included and preserved in the Gospel memories of Jesus’ life and ministry.  They also reinterpret their meanings and importance from Christian perspectives. Today’s feast, the Presentation of the Lord, is one such event, elaborated upon by the memories of early Christians, and told more for the purpose of Christian religious devotion and  inspiration, than for historical information.

Malachi, whose name means “My Messenger,” a prophet about whom almost nothing is known, ministered probably somewhere between 500 and 450 BC.  He had great respect for the newly restored temple worship in Jerusalem and for the covenant between God and the People of Israel.  Like others, he expected a “Day of the Lord” when God’s judgment would expose all truth, correct all wrong-doing, and restore Judaism to it’s rightful place of world importance.  To this expectation he added the idea of a forerunner or herald who would announce the arrival of the occasion.  This was a new idea in the apocalyptic expectation of Judaism.  Today’s first lesson described the messenger’s importance: to come “suddenly” and as a surprise to everyone; to be a  “purifying and refining” agent, i.e., to sift through people’s worthiness by judging and evaluating; and, to announce the end of the world as they knew it.  The newly rebuilt and re-established Jerusalem temple would be his stage.  These qualities would be attributed to Jesus in the Gospel by Christians centuries in the future.

In the letter to the Hebrews, i.e., to Christians of Jewish heritage, much attention was paid to the Jerusalem temple practices, including the role and function of the high priest.  He was the premier religious leader for Temple Judaism, the ritual successor to Aaron, the brother of Moses.  So valuable and important was he to the Palestinian society during the Roman occupation that imperial authorities kept custody of his high  priestly vestments.  He was required to specifically request permission to use them on each important Jewish liturgical occasion.  Of course, the Romans granted such  permission and use only when the high priest and all Jerusalem had demonstrated “good behavior.”  Indeed, the high priest was very important.  Hebrews asserted that the Risen Jesus was the great high priest, greater than any in history.  It taught also that Jesus was truly human (“blood and flesh”) and that his superiority gave him the authority over the power of death, personified as the devil.   But, in today’s reading the most important high-priestly quality of the Risen Jesus was that he stood “merciful and faithful” before God.  It was Jesus’ very experience of suffering in human life that made him so “able to help those who are being tested”, i.e., the rest of us!  This appreciation of Jesus being sympathetic, understanding and compassionate to human sinners was a major theme and an important Gospel truth in Hebrews because it balanced another characterization of God as the Just Judge, the one who meted out punishments and rewards.  It is safe to say that Jesus’ mercy and fidelity, his compassion and sympathy, his forgiveness and salvation were then, and are still today, his most attractive qualities.


Luke’s Gospel narrative describes the visit to the Jerusalem temple made by Joseph and Mary with their new borne infant, Jesus.  Since the birth occurred at Bethlehem, the journey was a short walk of only a couple of miles.  The occasion for the visit was the completion of the post-birth period required for ritual purification by each  mother of a newly borne male child.  Ritual purity rules were abandoned by Christians during the 1st Century, especially as the Church’s Jewish culture diminished and it’s Gentile culture increased.  In Temple Judaism, ritual purity rules were very important.  Mary and Joseph would have taken them seriously.  This presentation of the new mother and child in the temple would be appreciated and explained by Christian thinkers as the first occasion on which the Messiah, the Light to the Nations, had entered the Temple, harkening back to the message of Malachi.

Luke’s narrative described two encounters in the temple precincts, with Simeon and Anna, each considered prophetic characters and of advanced years.  They were portrayed as watching, hoping, and even expecting a sign from God of the arrival of the “Day of the Lord.”  Painted as slightly eccentric and constantly present in the temple, their purpose in the story was to foster religious enthusiasm and to stir the hopes of all the worshipers who visited.  The encounter with the Holy Family, hardly coincidental from Luke’s perspective, was the much hoped-for sign by which they discerned that “the Day of the Lord” was near indeed.  The evangelist placed a song on the lips of Simeon, we call it Simeon’s Canticle or the Nunc Dimittis (Latin for “Now you may dismiss [your servant]”).  Used in the Liturgy of the Hours at Night Prayer, it is the final prayer of the monastic day and a proclamation of gratitude for having heard the Gospel message.  It is also Simeon’s prayer of hope for the Gentiles and the Jews, a hope in God’s salvation for all.  No specific statement was attributed to Anna in the story, whose prophetic qualities were gratitude to God and raising hopes about the child Jesus.  The text used the phrase “the redemption of Jerusalem,” a phrase charged with hope and power for Christian minds and hearts.

The final sentence that “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” foretells the unfolding of the Incarnation in the years ahead.  Luke’s infancy narrative has a contemplative tone to it.  Mary kept and treasured memories of family events in her heart.  This observation, which is pregnant with theological hope, is almost an imperative challenge to later disciples of Christ who hear the Gospel to be thoughtful and reflective in all they (we) do.