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‘And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord.’
Luk_2:22
I. Of the manifested excellences of the Virgin mother, let us think of—
(a) Her knowledge. Little or no information is given of the early years of Mary. Parentage, birth, and childhood are wrapt in mystery. We know her only in her maidenhood and lowliness. But that she was thoroughly familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures cannot be doubted in the light of her own sublime hymn. She was a type of those Bible-loving women of whom we have further examples in the mother and grandmother of Timothy.
(b) Her faith. This sprang from her scriptural knowledge, and the new life quickened in her soul in early days by the Holy Ghost. She implicitly believed the promise given to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. This was the grand distinction in her character, and the crown of her life.
(c) Her humility. In her noble hymn of praise she speaks of her ‘low estate’ and ‘low degree,’ referring, doubtless, to her outward condition, which, in the eye of the world, or in contrast with the throne of her father David, was one of meanness and poverty. The descendant of a line of kings, she was reduced to be the bride of a poor carpenter, and her village was so obscure that none imagined she would become the mother of the God-promised King of Israel. But she believed she should.
II. The ceremony in the Temple was indeed beautiful.—The presentation of Christ in that hallowed fane was the complement of the Epiphany. Instead of ‘Wise men from the East,’ there were present Simeon and Anna, with Joseph and Mary.
(a) The presentation was a joint action. It is said by Luke that ‘they’—His reputed father and real mother—‘brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord.’ Arrived at the Temple, Joseph takes part with Mary in His presentation. This guileless man accompanied Mary from the mean stable to the sacred shrine, and, while she carried in her arms the Divine Infant, he bore in his hands the pair of turtle doves. Verily, they were well matched! The faith and obedience of Joseph rank next to the faith and obedience of Mary.
(b) This joint action was typical. The turtle doves were intended for ‘a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord,’ and as such they were typical, not only of the perfect innocence of the Lamb of God, but also of His efficacious sacrifice; and just as they were accepted by the priest in the Temple, so was Jesus accepted by His Father in heaven.
FULFILLING THE LAW
I. Men should never think themselves so good, or so confirmed in goodness, that they can dispense with observing the rules of a careful and even scrupulous life. The people who are really firm in goodness are so busy in going straight forward on the path of life that they never think of breaking through. They keep all the rules of a careful, sober, godly life, both in church and out of church, in their prayers and in their business, and in all that they do and think of, just as the Blessed Virgin obeyed the Law of Moses, and as our Lord, Who knew no sin, was yet brought to circumcision and offered to the Lord in His temple like any other child of any other Jewish mother.
II. Children are God’s gift.—If they are to be a blessing they must be regarded as such. This was what was meant by God’s claiming the first-born as His peculiar property. It was by way of reminding parents that all children were not theirs, but His, and that if they wished them to be a blessing, the only way was to offer them to Him. What does offering them to God mean? What did offering them to God in their earliest babyhood mean? It meant that it was the parent’s duty from the very first to treat their children as God’s children, and to bring them up accordingly.
III. ‘All of Thee.’—It is not children only that are God’s gifts to men and women. All that we are and have is His gift. Our energies, our talents, our advantages, our positions in society, our gifts of knowledge, or powers of pleasing, or of gaining influence or of making money—all these are His gifts and must be ‘presented’ to Him.
Illustration
‘It is said that at least half a dozen festivals in commemoration of the leading events in the life of the Blessed Virgin have been celebrated in the early history of the Christian Church. Be this as it may, the English Church now celebrates only those of the Annunciation and the Purification; and these chiefly because they belong, in the higher sense, to the Christ of God. Bishop Sparrow speaks of the latter feast as “the double feast, partly in memory of the Virgin’s Purification, but principally in memory of her Son’s presentation in the Temple, which the Gospel commemorates.” The institution of this double festival was, according to Justinian, a.d. 541, and the popular name given to it was Candlemas Day, because “in the mediæval Church,” says Dean Hook, “this day was remarkable for the number of lighted candles which were borne in processions, and placed in churches, in memory of Him Who, in the beautiful words of Simeon’s song, came “to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel.” ’