Did you know
that Jesus was Jewish? We know it, but it’s
easy for us Christians to forget it. Luke,
the Gentile physician, and author of the gospel account that bears his name,
gives us more detail than the other gospel writers about the events surrounding
the birth and infancy of Jesus. They
remind us that Jesus was Jewish, and how important that fact is to who He is
and why He came. Here’s what Luke said:
Luke 2,
beginning with verse 21.
On the eighth day, when it was time
to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before
he had been conceived.
When the time came of their
purification according to the law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary
took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law
of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to
offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair
of doves or two young pigeons.”
Just a few
verses, yet so much of significance is included in just them. Dr. Luke records for us three significant
ceremonies Jewish families of that day would perform after the birth of a
child. The first is circumcision.
v. 21 “On the eighth day, it was time to circumcise him.”
Genesis 17
records the rite of circumcision as the Lord gave it to Abraham. Circumcision was instituted by God as a sign
of the everlasting covenant He made with Abraham and all of his descendants
after him. The covenant included the
following promises:
· The Lord would make Abraham the
father of many nations.
o
We
see the fulfillment of God’s promise today as Jews, Muslims and Christians all
trace the origin of their faith back to Abraham.
· He would make Abraham very fruitful.
o
Abraham
is not only thought of as the father of three major faiths, he is also the
spiritual father of all who have been declared righteous by their faith in
Jesus.
· He would give Abraham the whole land
of Canaan as an everlasting possession to him and his descendants after him
o
This
is why there is still such tension today over who owns the land of Israel. Jews trace their ownership of the land back
to this promise of God’s to Abraham and his descendants.
· He would be their God.
The
covenant, of which circumcision was the sign, was an unconditional covenant,
with God Himself making all the promises.
Instructions
were given at that time, and repeated later in Leviticus, regarding this rite:
“For the generations to
come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised.” Genesis 17:12
When your
Jewish friends today invite you to a bris, you can expect it to be a ceremony
which centers around the circumcision of an infant son.
Luke records
the next two ceremonies, purification and consecration, in verses 22-24:
When the time came of their purification
according to the law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took (Jesus)
to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the
Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to
offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair
of doves or two young pigeons.”
What is
purification? We find the answer in God’s
instructions to Moses in Leviticus 12:4-7:
For 40 days
after the birth of a son and 80 days after the birth of a daughter, the mother
was ceremonially unclean (because of her bleeding) and could not enter the
temple. At the end of that time, she was
to bring to the temple a year old lamb, or if she couldn’t afford a lamb, two
doves or two young pigeons, as a burnt offering. In this way the priest would make atonement
for her and she would be declared clean.
What about
consecration?
Webster’s
Dictionary defines consecrate in this way:
To dedicate something
to a higher, holy purpose
In modern
times Jewish children undergo consecration when they begin the study of the Hebrew
language and God’s law.
In the Old
Testament, and in the time of Jesus, consecration was based on God’s
instructions to Moses in the book of Exodus, chapter 13:
Verses 11-12;
13b;14-15
“After the Lord brings you into the
land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and
your forefathers, you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every
womb. . . . Redeem every firstborn among your sons. In the days to come, when
your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’, say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the
Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go,
the Lord killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I . . .redeem each of my
firstborn sons.”
When the
Lord took the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, He preserved the lives of
the firstborn of Israel and thus their lives belonged to Him. As a reminder of His mercy and grace toward
them, the people of Israel were required to “buy them back” from God. For us who are Christians, this ceremony
points ahead to what Jesus would do when He died to “buy back” sinners for
Himself through His death, and thereby redeem them.
While these
ceremonies are interesting to read about, why, with all the things about the
young life of Jesus that Luke could have written, did the Lord have him include
these events and not others?
First, I
think it shows us something about Mary and Joseph. They weren’t just nominal believers, they
were devout believers who loved God and demonstrated their love through their
obedience to His commands.
Why did the
Lord choose them? Because of His
grace. He called them out from among all
the other men and women of that day to be His own, He gave them a heart of
obedience, so that when He called them to be the parents of His Son, He knew
they would obey.
There is a lesson here for us too
from Mary and Joseph:
When we’re devoted to God, we want to obey Him,
quickly and completely.
Would you
consider yourself devoted to God?
Webster’s definition for this word is interesting. It means:
· Displaying strong affection or
attachment.
· Being consecrated; dedicated
Read Mary’s
prayer in Luke 1 verses 46-55. Can you
hear her affection, awe, and reverence for God?
My soul glorifies the
Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
Notice the
personal pronoun MY. Mary’s relationship
with God doesn’t sound distant, it’s personal and joyful. He’s HER Lord and she loves Him.
In Luke 2,
verse 38, the angel had just told her something she could not possibly have
wrapped her head around. She would have
a child without benefit of a man and, just as puzzling, God would be His Father. Yet, see the total trust and commitment she
has in how she answers!
Luke 2:38
I am the Lord’s
servant, may it be to me as you have said.
Because Mary
knew and loved the Lord and had consecrated herself to God and His will for
her, she was able to obey without question. What about you?
If you
wouldn’t describe yourself as dedicated to the Lord or having a strong
affection for Him, what would it take for that to change?
Let me
suggest one thing. Begin reading the
Bible. Begin with the New Testament and
look at Jesus. Ask Him to reveal Himself
and His will for you as you read. Be
willing to commit yourself to Him in love and obedience.
Another
thing that comes to mind as I read this passage is this:
As believers
in Christ, you and I are no longer required to keep the ceremonial law Mary and
Joseph had to keep – but we CAN follow their example of devoted obedience.
I don’t know
about you, but very now and then I need to take my spiritual pulse and ask myself:
When my kids, or my granddaughter, or
my neighbors, and extended family look at my life, the way I look at Mary and
Joseph’s lives, what do they see?
Do they see mostly consistency
between what I say I believe and the way I live my life, or do they see mostly inconsistency?
Do they see an authentic Christian
life lived out in devotion to God and obedience? Do they see a walk that backs up my talk? Or don’t they?
When the Lord has something that
needs doing, can He count on me to obey Him as quickly and completely as Joseph
and Mary did?
The Lord
knew Mary and Joseph would be faithful to obey the Law of Moses in everything
pertaining to His Son, and this was critical because of the second important thing
it shows us.
If Jesus was
to be the perfect sacrificial lamb, then He had to have done what no one before
Him had ever done – obey God’s law perfectly.
From the time Adam sinned and passed his sin DNA down to the rest of the
human race, right up to the present day, no one, absolutely no one, has kept
God’s commands perfectly, ever.
And so Mary and Joseph, perhaps
without even realizing how important their actions were, fulfilled God’s law in
Jesus’ life by observing these ceremonies surrounding his birth and
infancy. It established, right from the
very beginning, that Jesus had come to fulfill the Law of Moses, as He said in
the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5:17:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or
the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
In reference
to what the Lord would do through the birth of Jesus, Mary says this Luke
2:54-55 in relation to the nation of Israel:
He has helped his
servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants
forever, even as he said to our fathers.
In the birth
of Jesus, Mary saw this promise to Abraham fulfilled. She was not surprised when her son eventually
announced that he was the Messiah. Her
words demonstrate that she had known his mission even from before his birth.
Mary and
Joseph trusted and obeyed God and became the ones the Lord used to nurture His
Son and raise Him according to the Law of Moses. In fulfilling all of the law, from the days
of his infancy, to the moment of his death on the cross, Jesus proved Himself
to be God’s perfect Son, the sinless Passover Lamb, and the only One qualified
to be our substitute.
He came to
His people the Jews, but He came also to be a light to the Gentiles. . . more
about that in my next blog!
