The crowd milling about the scene this morning in Punxsutawney, PA waiting for Phil reminded me of a scene that might have happened in the temple when Jesus was forty days old. Everyone in the temple was concentrating on something, beggars were begging for alms, money changing stalls were busy, and marketers had set up convenience stores featuring whatever visitors needed the necessary product for a proper sacrifice.
Everyone was busy with meeting someone, or with prayers or putting temple money (couldn’t have a picture of Caesar in the temple) in the offering boxes. Out of all the milling crowd the Holy Spirit was only able to break through to two people, Simeon and Anna. They saw the couple with the six week old baby for who they were. They saw the six week old baby for who he was.
It was thirty two days after Jesus had been circumcised and named. It was the time for Mary’s purification as mandated for mothers by the Law of Moses. As the firstborn, son Jesus belonged to the Lord. He certainly was the firstborn, not only of Mary and Joseph, but of the Lord. He certainly did belong to the Lord because he was the Lord. Mary and Joseph had bought either two turtle doves or two pigeons from the marketer’s. To buy a lamb for the sacrifice was a bit out of their range. Of course there was no need for Mary and Joseph to buy a lamb since they were carrying the Lamb of God in their arms. He would be the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices, at no cost to anyone other than himself. The price for this Lamb was beyond the means of everyone, for it was his life.
I wondered if Mary and Joseph were started when the two strangers, Simeon and Anna, broke into the proceedings. Well, they had been startled before, by shepherds visiting the stable maternity ward only hours after Jesus was born. Of course, before that there was the angel breaking into Mary’s day a startling announcement. We dare not forget Joseph’s dream. “Startled,” seems to have become a way of life for them.
Then among all the hubbub of the temple court, Simeon takes the baby and begins to sing. He is now ready to die peacefully. He eyes have seen salvation itself. He is holding in his arms the Light and Glory of all peoples. Anna came up and giving thanks to God hurried off telling everyone, who like her was waiting for God to redeem Jerusalem from oppression that the Messiah had come.
What a day. So what did Mary and Joseph do? They finished up what they had come to do and then started the 70 plus miles journey back to Nazareth to resume their life.
That’s what we do today. We go on with our life. But we go having another One present who is the very favor of God upon us.
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