The Presentation of Christ, February 2, 2025
Readings: Malachi 3.1-5; Heb. 2.14-18; Lk. 2.22-40
Theme: A Light to the Nations
Even though we may have put away our decorations several weeks ago now, today marks the liturgical end of the Christmas season. Candlemas, the feast of light which takes place forty days after Christmas day, since around the sixth century, is the time when we look back on this season and reflect on its implications both for the Jewish people and for all the nations. St Luke’s gospel is the sole source amongst the gospels for this passage and this tells us that its meaning is skilfully woven into the theology of Luke. Luke is a great re-reader of the Old Testament, the ‘Scriptures’ in New Testament terms. This passage of the Presentation in the Temple is his re-reading of the early story of Samuel and his parents, Hannah and Elkanah who offer the infant Samuel to the priest, Eli, at the sanctuary of Shiloh in 1. Sam. 1-2. It is echoed in both our passage for today, and also in the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah, narrated earlier in Luke’s gospel in chapter one.
The heart of the passage is that wonderful canticle of Simeon narrated in verses 29-32. The name Simeon literally means ‘God has heard’ and Simeon, a steward in the Temple represents for St Luke the people of Israel who have heard the message proclaimed in the prophets, such as we have in the first reading from the prophet Malachi. This passage is set during the time of the Persian Empire when the peoples had returned from the Babylonian deportation and had started to grow tired of the practices of the law and the worship in the Temple. But now, Luke re-reads these passages for the people at the time of Jesus as the hour when the Lord has returned to his Temple. This is the moment when the long awaited salvation will dawn on God’s people and shine for all the nations.
And, that notion of shining for all the nations is a key motif of the gospel of St Luke. St Luke recovers a strand of universalism that the tradition had downplayed due to its representing a beleaguered people who were often oppressed and captured by foreign rulers at many times during their history. However, this incident is not only for the people of Israel. It is also meant to be a light to the Gentiles. In other words, the revelation of God in Jesus is not to be confined to the peoples of Israel. They are the first to hear the message and it is through their particular history that the universal message of salvation will be proclaimed to all the nations.
Moreover, St Luke also introduces what we would today call a gender balance to the story. Anna, whose name literally means ‘grace or favour’, a prophet who resides in the Temple, is one who together with Simeon proclaims the redemption of Jerusalem that is now inaugurated in the Christ child. In other words, both men and women have an equal place in the proclamation of salvation that is brought by the advent of the Christ amongst his people. It is a gender pairing that is also found in Zechariah and Elizabeth at the story of the visitation and represents a view of human beings as made male and female to give equal worship and praise to God.
Again, we have the word ‘glory’ used in the gospel which we encountered a few weeks ago in the gospel of St John at the wedding feast of Cana. This time, the notion of ‘glory’ is applied to the whole people of Israel. In other words, this, just like at the wedding feast of Cana recounted in John’s gospel, is a moment of transformation. In Luke’s terminology, it is a moment of ‘fulfilment’. The purpose of the people of Israel has now been made fully clear. They are the ones chosen by God to be the bearers of the light of revelation to the Gentiles. This is the glory of Israel. It is nothing less than to have been chosen by God to have been the historical theatre on which the drama of salvation will be proclaimed and fulfilled. This transformation of Israel is to be a fulfilment of the prophecies of long ago that one would be born amongst God’s people who will bring the light of salvation to all the nations. Israel is thus the exemplar who, like the intimations of a messianic kingship spoken of in the Book of Deuteronomy, will bring the law and the prophets to their fulfilment.
This is why this feast is called Candlemas. It is a Christian festival of light in which the symbol of light overcoming darkness is used to celebrate the advent of the messiah, the Christ child. But as we hear in verses 34-35, it is a light that will be a sign of contradiction that will be opposed because it will reveal the inner thoughts of many as being more about themselves than about God. Mary here is the one who represents the just of Israel. She is the one who with her Son will suffer this rejection as a sword will pierce her own heart too. It is the same sword that Ezekiel 14. 17 uses to calibrate both the individual and corporate responsibility of the people of Israel. Each one is to be responsible for their actions, for their inner thoughts and to follow their conscience as a guide and not simply to go along with the group. Such a proclamation of the importance of the individual is something which has had massive ramifications in the world. It speaks of the freedom, of the liberty of the conscience of the individual in the face of all forms of repressive regimes and ideologies. You might even call this the Protestant principle of protest, or more biblically understood, of prophecy, in the face of corrupt structures which deform the gospel.
So, on this feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple let us rejoice and be glad that the light has come into the world and though still opposed by many it is a light which no darkness can ever overcome.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.