In a culture where the first born had special rights and privileges, Jesus was no exception. At 8 days old, he was taken to the temple to be consecrated to the Lord. The act of consecration separates something from a common and profane use to a sacred use or, when it comes to a person, the person is dedicated to the service and worship of God. In Exodus 13:2, God told the Israelites that every firstborn of their people and their animals belonged to him. They were to redeem them with the offering of sacrifices. This was in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. The last of the plagues on the Egyptians was the angel of death killing all the firstborn in Egypt except those who had painted the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in which case the angel passed over. God had saved their firstborn and they were to consecrate them to him as part of the remembering what God had done for them.
Here, thousands of years later, Mary and Joseph continued the practice of consecrating their firstborn. This was a special day and God had two special people waiting at the temple: Simeon and Anna.
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’” Luke 2:25-32 Here is another moment that could have gone by unrecognized, but I think God was so excited about what he was doing – working out his plan of salvation – that he had to make sure it wasn’t missed even in the common and ordinary events. He wanted others to know the time had come and prophecies were being fulfilled.
Simeon had lived his life pleasing God and now God was blessing Simeon in a special way. He let Simeon know before he died that the Christ had come to the world, just as promised. Not only that, but he let Simeon hold Jesus in his arms. And Simeon confirmed for Mary and Joseph that they were indeed privileged and entrusted with the responsibility of caring for the Christ. But he also spoke a prophecy directly to Mary: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul to.” Luke 2:34-35 I don’t know what Mary thought about this, but it would have been frightening to me – cause for a lot of anxiety. Mary must have pondered these words a lot through the years of raising Jesus. But I think God knew just what he was doing in choosing Mary. She trusted him. She did just what God needed her to do – gave Jesus a loving home and trusted God to care for his Son.
Then there was the widow Anna. She had lost her husband very early in life and had spent her life in the temple fasting and praying. God noticed and he also gave Anna a special moment with Jesus. “Coming up to them in that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” Luke 2:38 Mary and Joseph had not one, but two confirmations that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, within days of his birth.
Sometimes, because we know the sequence of events regarding Jesus life and ministry, we take for granted what Mary and Joseph lived with. They had a special son whose Father was actually God. They had seen angels and had confirmations from shepherds, a prophet, and a prophetess, and they had the prophecies in the Scriptures. I’ll take a guess here that they suddenly became very interested in the prophecies and studied them carefully. But still, they did not know how everything was going to play out. It took a tremendous amount of trust in God for them to get through those years. Most of us would have needed a lot of psychological counseling. But Mary trusted. She simply trusted from the time Gabriel came to talk to her through her entire life.
My three worst fears are that I will lose my spouse, my children, and my parents. I know that any one of such events would leave me devastated. But then I look at Mary and Joseph and realize that with prophecies in hand, they knew they were in for some hard times. And yet they trusted. They trusted God to care for his Son and for them no matter what happened. Can I trust God to care for me and for my family no matter what happens? Do I only trust God when he is making my life easy? Or can I trust him even when things aren’t so happy? Is my trust in God conditional on him giving me what I want? Or can I trust him even when things are rough believing that in those difficult times, I will learn to trust him more?
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