Going to the Temple

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Candlemas is very different. Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrates the moment when Mary and Joseph bring Christ to Jerusalem, 'to present him to the Lord'. So, we go to the Temple. The focus is on a particular place and on a ritual. The purification of a Jewish woman, the presentation of a child, these are rites of passage: ceremonies in which a community sets its boundaries and describes itself.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (Luke 2.22)

Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem. Luke seems sure that they were still staying in Bethlehem at the time. In terms of distance, Jerusalem was not far away, but their journey took them from an obscure hill village into one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. There was a saying, 'Whoever has not seen Jerusalem in its splendour has never seen a fine city.' Two buildings in Jerusalem towered over all the others. 

One was the Roman fortress, the Antonia, which had been built quite deliberately next to the Temple. The other was the Temple itself, recently rebuilt by Herod. Visitors would have first glimpsed it long before they got to the city gates. It was huge, and it was built not from local stone but from white marble. It shone in the sun. The walls soared out of the valley floor. 

The biggest of the stones used was 12 metres long. Herod had added a massive colonnade as an entrance. That colonnade alone was bigger than York Minster. To get to it, you had to climb steps to a height of three storeys, and the steps were cut irregularly, forcing you to keep breaking your stride. No one could run in, or out, of the Temple. This was magnificence that was meant to give you pause.

Go to York Minster, or to St Peter's in Rome, and you know you are entering a great building and a place of prayer. Visiting the Temple was that and more. It was not just different in size and scale. To enter the Temple was to trespass on heaven. It was more than a holy place; faithful Jews believed that this was God's footstool. This was where heaven touched earth. There was no suggestion that God was present in Jerusalem and nowhere else, but God was in the Temple distinctively and uniquely. Going to the Temple was to an encounter: a pathway child, these are rites of passage: ceremonies in which a community sets its boundaries and describes itself.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (Luke 2.22)

Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem. Luke seems sure that they were still staying in Bethlehem at the time. In terms of distance, Jerusalem was not far away, but their journey took them from an obscure hill village into one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. There was a saying, 'Whoever has not seen Jerusalem in its splendour has never seen a fine city.' Two buildings in Jerusalem towered over all the others. One was the Roman fortress, the Antonia, which had been built quite deliberately next to the Temple. The other was the Temple itself, recently rebuilt by Herod. Visitors would have first glimpsed it long before they got to the city gates. It was huge, and it was built not from local stone but from white marble. 

It shone in the sun. The walls soared out of the valley floor. The biggest of the stones used was 12 metres long. Herod had added a massive colonnade as an entrance. That colonnade alone was bigger than York Minster. To get to it, you had to climb steps to a height of three storeys, and the steps were cut irregularly, forcing you to keep breaking your stride. No one could run in, or out, of the Temple. 

This was magnificence that was meant to give you pause. Go to York Minster, or to St Peter's in Rome, and you know you are entering a great building and a place of Visiting the Temple was that and more. It was not just different in size and scale. To enter the Temple was to trespass on heaven. It was more than a holy place; faithful Jews believed that this was God's footstool. This was where heaven touched earth. There was no suggestion that God was present in Jerusalem and nowhere else, but God was in the Temple distinctively and uniquely. 

Going to the Temple was a prayer pathway to an encounter: the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple... I heard some-one speaking to me out of the temple. He said to me: Mortal, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will reside among the people of Israel forever. (Ezekiel 43.5-7)

It is Luke's Gospel that describes this trip to the Temple. That is no accident. Luke was fascinated by Jerusalem and interested in the Temple; he wanted us to think about how and where we look for the presence of God. He begins the Gospel in the Temple, with old Zechariah, and he ends his Gospel at the Temple. Now, he begins this particular story by telling us about the Law that Mary and Joseph should keep, the offering they should make: according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, 'a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.' (Luke 2.24)

Having got us thinking about ritual and the routines of worship, suddenly Luke shifts our attention away from the purification (the reason that Mary had to go to the Temple). Instead, we are asked to think about the baby and what he might become. 

The story has a slippery quality about it; is it about Mary, or does it focus on the infant Christ? Is it really about the Temple, or is it about something else? Luke is indeed pointing us elsewhere, and he rather labours his point. Simeon, he says, was looking for 'the consolation of Israel' and he is full of the Holy Spirit and he has been promised that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. This is a passage all about expectation and fulfilment. 

It begins with Mary and Jesus, but it points to the future. Simeon finally sees and rejoices: 'my eyes have seen your salvation' (Luke 2.30). God has kept his promise. The baby in Simeon's arms, we look on the Messiah. It is a glorious moment, and it is dripping with irony. We are in the Temple, remember, the place where faithful Jews would go in order to meet the living God.


Scarless Warmth
↪  Going to the Temple

Being living in Arnhem, Netherlands. Living with his presence in my life, have learned through self-education, being honest to others is truthful. Being a lifelong learner.

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The apostle John was privileged to look within the gates of heaven, and in describing what he saw, he begins by saying, 'I looked, and, lo, a Lamb. This teaches us that the chief object of contemplation in the heavenly state is the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.

Nothing else attracted the apostle’s attention so much as the person of that Divine Being, who hath redeemed us by his blood. He is the theme of the songs of all glorified spirits and holy angels. Christian, here is joy for thee; thou hast looked,

↪ And thou hast seen the Lamb

Through thy tears, thine eyes have seen the Lamb of God taking away thy sins. The natural inclination to attribute ultimate life to the mother/woman simply must be overcome by a supernatural power [who], while encompassing the female, must nevertheless project a male persona. 

Rejoice, then. In a little while, when thine eyes shall have been wiped from tears, thou wilt see the same Lamb exalted on his throne. It is the joy of thy heart to hold daily fellowship with Jesus; thou shalt have the same joy to a higher degree in heaven; thou shalt enjoy the constant vision of his presence; thou shalt dwell with him forever.

I looked, and, lo, a Lamb, Why, that Lamb is heaven itself; for as good Rutherford says, Heaven and Christ are the same thing to be with Christ is to be in heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ. That prisoner of the Lord very sweetly writes in one of his glowing letters—“O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee.

It would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want.” It is true, is it not, Christian. Doesn't thy soul say so to be with Christ?