Weekly Bible Study - Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 2:22-40

2 February 2014
The Presentation of the Lord

And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek.... But who will endure the day of his coming?

There is a tension in these words. The coming of the LORD to the Jerusalem temple ought to be a wholly joyous occasion. But in the Bible the LORD's manifestation is also kind of ominous. In the Old Testament, prophets realized that, generally speaking, humanity is singularly ill-prepared for a direct encounter with our God.

The prophet Malachi, speaking some five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, shows deep insight into what Luke's gospel will call a “sign of contradiction.” Both Old Testament and New Testament here point to the joyous-but-overwhelming event of God's coming into human lives.

Is it any wonder, then, that when Simeon sees Jesus (God made human) coming into the temple, he recognizes Jesus as a source of contradiction?

Now, the Levites (priests) taking care of liturgical needs and  worshipers milling about the temple compound probably wouldn't even have noticed Jesus at his presentation. It would seem an every day kind of ordinary event: A young couple, like many before them, make the customary sin offering for their newborn child.

But we know that there is deeper meaning in this particular sin offering. This humble act will plunge Jesus (God) right into the plight of humanity in need of redemption. The author of Luke is getting the gospel readers (us) ready for the harsh, surprising reality of the cross of Christ: a sign of contradiction if ever there was one.

Luke shows us Simeon and Anna, two elderly individuals, guided by life-long faith, who come to recognize God's unique presence in this Holy Child. They are moved to recognize that the fulfillment of Israel’s deepest longing for God is not for the purpose of worldly power but is for the purpose of spiritual power: our redemption from sin. In this bittersweet moment Simeon's prediction points us toward the suffering of Jesus as the perfect offering that reconciles humanity with God for all time.

And it will be to those like Anna, the Lord’s anawim, poorest of the poor, that Jesus will bring healing, hope and the message of salvation.

This is the moment of the Lord’s presentation. As an infant in his mother’s arms, Jesus already embraces the work of our redemption.


The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, The Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.