The Lord Returns to His Temple

Text: Luke 2:22-40

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            From the beginning, we have always had a God who locates Himself somewhere specific. Yes, while it may be true that He is everywhere, it is also true, and perhaps more important, that He is in specific places for specific reasons. We read that He walked in the Garden of Eden—a specific place on earth. He tells Job that He’s traveled through the depths of the oceans. When He gave the Law to His people, He was present at Mount Sinai in a way that He was not present anywhere else in the universe. But if we really want to get at the heart of this mystery, how the Lord who is everywhere is also present in some places in special ways, we need to look no further than the temple.

            Even from its earliest days, when it was the tabernacle—the tent of meeting, as it was called, where God would meet with His people—the Lord was present there in a unique, special way. The bright cloud of His glory was there as He spoke wisdom to Moses, so that when Moses would leave the tabernacle, his face glowed with the light of the Lord. Then, when the temple was built by Solomon, the Lord arrived at its dedication in that same bright cloud, so thick that anyone inside couldn’t see, even right in front of their faces. After the dedication, the Lord vowed that He would remain seated on the Ark of the Covenant, His throne on earth, on the mercy seat, which was the golden lid of the Ark. Thus, He would be present in His temple in a special way, unlike the way He was present anywhere else on earth. He would be there to accept sacrifices and offerings and to bless and forgive, in ways that were not shared with anywhere else on earth.

            And that brings us to the Gospel reading for this morning. For the Lord would return to His temple. The original temple had been destroyed by invading armies. The Ark of the Covenant, the throne, the mercy seat, had been captured and lost to the ages. The prophet Ezekiel had seen a vision of the Lord’s presence leaving His temple, and by all appearances, that had happened.

            But now, in a very different scene, we see the Lord returning to His temple. But it would not be in the ways that the world expects, or even thirsts for—flashy, showy displays of glory and power. It would only be through the eyes of faith that we see Him return there. For He does not come back to His temple in the cloud of glory, as at the dedication of the original temple. He does not arrive in the wealth and pomp and show of Herod, who rebuilt the temple after its destruction. He does not arrive carried on the wings of golden seraphim, as on the mercy seat covering the Ark of the Covenant. No—this time the Lord will come to His temple as an infant that must be carried by His mother. He comes not to demonstrate His might, not to overwhelm, but to give comfort to an old man and woman: Simeon, whose song we sing so often in the liturgy of the Divine Service, and Anna, the widow who was fasting and praying every day. He comes not to glorify Himself, but to continue down the path that will lead Him to the cross.

            It’s even at this tender age of infancy that Jesus, the Lord, will enter into the covenant that He Himself had established so long before. He had made that covenant with the man who was now His own ancestor, Abraham, a covenant that was carried in the bodies of the men of Israel through circumcision. And now the Christ Himself would enter that covenant, being dedicated to the Lord as the firstborn son of Mary, being born and raised under the Law. He would now be placed into the vow of keeping all that the Lord had commanded, every demand of the commandments, from the least to the greatest. He would swear to never covet what had been given to another, not to take a thing that was not His, to dedicate Himself fully to the Scriptures on the Sabbath, to never hurt or harm any of His neighbors, to always live and speak and think as the Son of God who bore the holy name. Even at this young age, as He came to His temple, He was dedicated to fulfilling all of this for God’s people who could not, who refused to, who found every excuse under the sun why they shouldn’t have to keep it: why is was OK for them to take what wasn’t theirs, why they shouldn’t have to make time to hear God’s Word, why it’s acceptable for them to hate and slander those people, why they can live exactly like those who aren’t believers. That’s all to say, at His return to the temple, Jesus was entering into the covenant for you—vowing to do what you have not, what you would not.

            It’s this perfect fulfilling of the Law in the place of His people that will be the salvation of the Lord, the salvation that old Simeon sings of. In fact, now that Simeon has seen this Christchild begin this path of salvation, through the eyes of faith, he can now sing that he’s ready to depart and be with the Lord. His faith, his hope, has found its object and meaning. So he sings, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light to reveal you to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.” It’s this fulfillment, this beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross for the sake of the world that is the redemption of Jerusalem that the prophetess Anna, who was living in the temple, prays for and speaks about to any who will listen. It was this beginning that caused Jesus’ mother and father to marvel and spend the rest of their lives contemplating what it all meant.

            It’s this path, begun when He took on flesh and blood, born of His virgin mother, that will lead to Jesus’ obedient death, even death on a cross, the sword that would pierce His mother’s soul as she watched Him bear the sins of the world and die. For it has always been God’s will, from the beginning, from Eden, throughout the wilderness years in the tabernacle, every sacrifice in the temple—all of it pointing forward to what Jesus would be and do for the sake of His people. And that path began here in the temple, as He returned, as those who have eyes of faith can see: the beginning of the perfect fulfillment of God’s will, the promise that will bring Him to you.

            Now that He has completed salvation, walked that road to the cross and then the empty tomb at Easter, now that it is finished, He still comes to you. Yes, He’s present everywhere; but He’s present in a unique and special way here in His temple, where He’s present in His body and blood, where He distributes forgiveness, where He speaks His Word to you. He has fulfilled the Law for you, and it’s here, in these ways, that He brings the benefit of it to you. Receive His forgiveness, His blessing, His presence. In the name of Jesus, born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law, Amen.