The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

At the beginning of the third chapter of the Book of Malachi, there is a promise: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Today we celebrate the day when this promise was fulfilled: Jesus, who was forty days old, was brought to the temple – in order to offer two sacrifices according to the Law of Moses: one for the ritual purification of His mother and the other for the redeeming of Jesus as the firstborn of Mary.

The ritual purification of the mother signified that the woman, exhausted by childbirth, had regained her vitality and could once again come to the sanctuary as a full member of the congregation. This was accompanied by thanksgiving to God for the blessing and protection, since the birth of a child is not something that is taken for granted – it is a miracle in which both the child and the mother are literally on the verge of life and death.

The redemption of the firstborn was a reminder of the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. God struck Egypt with ten plagues, the last of which was the most terrible. Namely, all the firstborn in Egypt were killed – only those whose houses were marked with the blood of the Paschal lamb were spared. From then on, all the firstborn belonged to God, and to redeem them, their parents had to go to the temple and bring the appropriate sacrifice.

Neither Jesus nor His mother needed purification. And since Jesus is not only Mary’s but God’s own firstborn, He didn’t have to be redeemed. On the contrary, Jesus came to redeem and cleanse us. He came to His temple to confirm: the time has come, the ancient promises have been fulfilled, the Lord, who has been eagerly awaited, is here – to save and redeem us, to purify and sanctify us.