This sermon was preached on Sunday 28th January 2024 at All Saints Church, Oakham.

Readings: Malachi 3:1-5; Luke 2:22-40

Prior to this year, I don’t think I had ever taken much notice of Candlemas. I know that Candlemas remembers Jesus’ presentation in the temple, but I’d never really thought much beyond. However, this year I decided to put some more thought into it and I must say that I have been amazed by the depth of this story. I’m surprised at how much of an impact that it has had on me. It was only when I stopped to look deeper at this story that more started to jump out at me.

Let’s start by looking at why Jesus was presented in the temple. Luke tells us that it was to follow the instructions of the law of Moses, that is the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Mary and Joseph were good, law-abiding Jews and therefore followed the required Jewish practices.

Now there are two laws at play here. One about Mary’s purification following childbirth, and the second about the consecration of the firstborn male. In Leviticus 12 it says that women are considered ceremonially unclean after giving birth. Please note the use of the word ‘ceremonially’ unclean. Women are not spiritually unclean because they have given birth. It says that women are unclean in the same way that they are as if they were menstruating. To clarify this relates to the cleaning that takes place for periods in a practical sense, i.e. changing sanitary pads.

Leviticus specifies that forty days after giving birth to a male child, the mother will come to the entrance to the tent of meeting, which became the temple of meeting so to speak after Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. So, Mary came to the temple to be made ceremonially clean. Not only that, but this time of ceremonial uncleanliness is used as a time to remember our separate spiritual uncleanliness, and so at the same time, they bring forth offerings to the priest who offers them as a burnt offering and sin offering for the atonement of her sins. It’s a way in which a point of ceremonial washing becomes a time for spiritual washing too. I remember someone said to me during Covid that one way to make sure you clean your hands thoroughly enough for the advised twenty seconds was to say the Lord’s Prayer while you washed your hands. In the same way, your act of physical cleaning becomes a time of spiritual cleaning too.

The second law at play was the consecration of the firstborn. In Exodus 13, following the Exodus from Egypt, God instructed the people to consecrate every firstborn to him, human and animal. If it was an animal, it was redeemed by a sacrifice. Moses says if you had a firstborn donkey then you redeem it with an offering of a sheep.[1] But with every firstborn son, God says that he will redeem them. It follows on from the story of the Passover, where the tenth plague of death passed over the Israelite firstborn males who were protected by the blood of the lambs.

The firstborn male was designated as holy because it reminds people of the Passover, when God saved the Israelite sons from the tenth plague that killed the firstborns. It was the Passover that led to Pharoah finally freeing the Israelites and thus God brought his people out of slavery into freedom. This holy act of consecrating the first male to God remembers that God saved his people and brought them out of slavery into freedom. This link to the past is also a prophetic foretelling of the future as Jesus comes to free people from the slavery of sin and give them the freedom of new life in God.

I tell you all this not to take you on a tangent, but to provide you with the background to this visit to temple and to highlight the themes of redemption, salvation and cleansing from sin that are present in this story. All these underlying themes point to what Jesus is going to do, things that Simeon sees in Jesus when he comes into the temple.

We often forget and overlook that when Jesus comes to be presented in the temple, he is coming as God to the temple of God. As Malachi prophesied, ‘The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.’[2] Simeon, however, could see this and knew that what was taking place before his eyes was the culmination of God’s promises to save and redeem the world from the slavery of sin and bring them new life and freedom in God to live as we were meant to be: for us to be God’s people, and for God to be our God.

When Simeon saw Jesus, he took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’[3] Simeon could see that Jesus was the promised Messiah and Saviour who would be the ultimate atonement for sin, the redeemer for all sin, the perfected lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Simeon’s words are amazing and powerful because of the perfect salvation they prophesy. And Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, were amazed at what was being said about him. This was amazing stuff, shocking stuff. I wonder if what was most shocking about what Simeon says is that within the context of the Jewish story of Passover and purification laws from the Torah – both of which point to redemption, cleansing and salvation for the Jews – Simeon prophesies that Jesus will be the salvation for the whole world, including the non-Jewish world of the Gentiles.

This was probably the most amazing, shocking, and radical thing that Simeon said. That Jesus was to be the salvation for the Gentiles. No longer was the story of Passover and the story of Israel about God redeeming and freeing only the Jews, but God was expanding his saving work to include the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles.

There is a reason why Candlemas is the last point of the Christmas season. It’s because Simeon confirms the Christmas hope, that Jesus has come to be the light of the world (not just the light of Israel). Out of the story of Israel, God has brought out a glorious light that will free and save all those held in darkness. The Church has used candles throughout the centuries to remember this story to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world, that is he is the light for us. He is here in our lives as visible as the light of the candle before us (as we will see at the end of our service). My prayer today is that at Candlemas you will know the great joy of Jesus as your light, the light that has come to free you from the bondage of sin to see and live in his glorious life of freedom he has for us.

As I was writing this sermon, I was struggling to think of what to give as the application and takeaway from this sermon. But I don’t think this story needs overthinking. Come and see how Jesus’ presentation in the temple shows how he has come to be the saving redeeming light in our lives. You don’t need to walk in darkness or feel trapped in sin, hurt or pain. Jesus has come to be the light of the world, to be the light in your life that lifts you out of all that holds you down. And like Simeon, I hope that seeing the light of Christ before you in your life brings you his saving peace.

Amen.  

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[1] Exodus 13:13.

[2] Malachi 3:1 [NRSV].

[3] Luke 2:30-32 [NRSV].