Studies in Luke #6
Memorable Pictures of Jesus
Luke 2:21-39
I am not sure what memories you have of your childhood. Perhaps they are stored up in a family album that you glance at now and again. They may been a time of play and fun. Memories that are filled with pleasant times and pleasant dreams. Tragically, others have not had that blessing. Their memories are seared and smeared with the haunting recollections of the dark hues of domestic abuse and family quarrels that resulted in the fracturing of the home. For such it seems that their childhood innocence was stolen from them.
It may be for that reason the Saviour shows us some snapshots of His own childhood, as a model of healthy growth. The Bible contains the portraits of many heroes but they are nearly all adults. The Bible contains very few portraits of its heroes as children. Here these pages from the Saviour’s family album are precious indeed.
Look at Jesus as a baby born in Bethlehem (2:1-38; a child – 21, 27) Between verses 38 and 39, many crucial events happened in Jesus' young life that only Matthew fills in for us. - the family returned to Bethlehem and, apparently, settled there for a while. During the next year or so, magi having seen a star in the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking King Herod where they could find the One born King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2). They were directed to Bethlehem, where they worshiped the Christ child-the city where not long afterward the jealously paranoid Herod had all the baby boys two years and younger slaughtered (vv. 3 - 18).
An angel had forewarned Joseph of Herod's wicked intent and had sent the young family fleeing to Egypt (vv. 13-15). When the murderous king died, an angel again appeared to Joseph to tell him it was now safe to return. Led by God, Joseph took his family through Judea into Galilee and settled in the safety and obscurity of his and Mary's hometown, Nazareth (vv. 19-23).
Jesus as a boy at the age of twelve in Jerusalem Luke picks up the story here, after the family "returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth". (Luke 2:39, 40),
Jesus as a young adult in the Temple (41, 42). a series of photos from the family's Passover trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve (vv. 41-51), and another snapshot, capturing a few features of His childhood comes into focus.
Jesus as a Son in Nazareth 2: 51 Jesus the man - 2:52
The great stoop of our Saviour condescension is well defined in the Scriptures:
Jesus Christ was made a little lower than the angels.
Jesus Christ was made flesh and blood.
Jesus Christ was made of a woman,
Jesus Christ was made under the law.
Jesus Christ was made a curse. - Jesus Christ was made sin for us.
When our blessed Lord stepped out of eternity, out of heaven, He not only stepped into time and into a human body but He made himself a servant to the Father’s will and a slave of the Law.
1. Meet Moses at the Presentation of Jesus
Five times in this chapter we read the words "according to the Law" and that is more often than any other chapter of the Bible. It thus fulfills Galatians, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons". Though the Lord Jesus came to deliver from under the curse of the Law yet He was made subject to the Law. To save men who were justly doomed by the Law it was necessary that Christ be born under the Law.
The Circumcision of the Saviour - The Pattern of the Law
Mary and Joseph obeyed the Law and brought Christ to be circumcised on the eighth day. Luke describes Christ's circumcision in a single concise sentence: "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" (v.21). Circumcision was a sign and a seal of the covenant god made with Abraham. And was required of Jewish male. Without circumcision Jesus could not have identified with His people even though he was of pure Hebrew blood.
In the fulfilling of this law the Lord Jesus as an infant the Saviour suffered the first blood shedding. It was a shadow of that which was to come. Gethsemane –the crown of thorns – the scourging of His back – the piercing of the hands, the opening of His side.
(b) The Nomination of the Saviour - The Purpose of His life
However; the matter of greatest significance at his circumcision was that he was officially named Jesus, which means "Jehovah is salvation" This is essential to understanding the Incarnation, though sadly, in this secularized age, the average person on the street has no idea what Jesus means. But for those of us who know him, the name is both a claim and a promise, and that is why it is so often on our lips. "Jesus, 0 how sweet the name."
The origin of the name reveals something that makes it even more precious. Jesus is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word Joshua the name of the great man who succeeded Moses and led Israel into the Promised Land. Originally, however; Joshua's name wasn't Joshua but Hoshea, which means "salvation" But because of his faith and leadership in believing that the Promised Land could be conquered, as Numbers ~3:l6 records, "Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. And as we know, he became Israel's greatest general.
Joshua (or Jesus) not only means "Jehovah is salvation" but suggests deliverance. It carries the idea of our being delivered by heroic action from the bondage of sin. The name Jesus shouts to the world the heroics of the Incarnation and the cross.
Now consider this - both Mary and Joseph had been told separately by an angel to name the child Jesus. The angel said to Joseph, 'She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Gabriel's announcement to Mary was similar: "You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus" (Luke 1:31).
Certainly Mary and Joseph had often discussed this, both before their son's birth and during the week since, but when the time for circumcision came, and Joseph uttered the divinely given name, the sense of the moment must have overwhelmed them. Certainly this was a topic of conversation time and time again. Mary would say to Joseph, "Tell me again;' and he would recite the details of his encounter with the angel in his dream. Then he would ask the same of Mary and she would describe Gabriel and reverently describe his announcement of the name of all names - "Jesus:'
"Jesus - Jehovah is salvation - he is my deliverance:' As John Newton said so well: How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's ear!
(c) The Presentation of the Saviour - The Poverty of His home
The poverty of Jesus' parents was obvious, considering the humble offering they made for Mary's purification in obedience to the Law: After the birth of a male child the mother waited for forty days and then came to present her offering and her child to a Rabbi at the Temple. With the offering Mary and Joseph had to redeem the child with a payment of five shekels.
When the time of their purification according to the Low of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Low 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". (vv. 22-24)
That they offered a poor woman's offering is clear from Leviticus 2:6-8, which stipulates that the purification offering must be a yearling lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or dove for a sin offering. However, she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean" (12:8).
Mary and Joseph's humble offering was a public declaration of their poverty. So here we again see that Christianity began and always begins with spirit of need - spiritual destitution. This was the persistent refrain of
2. Meet Simeon Prophesying of the Saviour
(a) Simeon’s posture – waiting for God. -Tradition says that Simeon was 113 years old.
(b) Simeon’s praise of the Saviour - this is the fifth of the Christmas songs
worship - salvation - missionary
(c) Simeon’s prophecy of the Lord. The stone – the sign(miracle) – the sword
Meet Anna in Praise.
(a) Anna’s circumstances of widowhood
(b) Anna’s content of worship
(c) Anna’s comprehensive witness
Anna. the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years of age and long widowed. Apparently she was a member of the resident staff at the temple in Jerusalem, devoting herself to continual service in the temple. The text does not indicate why she was called a prophetess. Her unnamed husband might have been a prophet, or perhaps she herself had spent time praising and hearing testimony or even foretelling future events under divine inspiration. In simplest terms, she obviously was a woman through whom God spoke. As a descendant of the to be of Asher, Anna looked for the Messiah as the prophets Isaiah (Is. 9:6) and Micah (Mic. 5:2) had foretold.
When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord approximately a month after His birth, they offered their sacrifices according to ancient law. He had been circumcised on the eighth day, probably in Bethlehem. Now the days of Mary’s purification were completed (see Lev. 2:4). As they were in the temple, a devout man. Simeon, was moved by the Holy Spirit to be present and to hold the Infant in his arms.
Anna watched as Simeon prayed, knowing in her heart that the Messiah had come. Luke’s description of this woman helps us to understand the respect and veneration that she commanded. A lifetime of prayer and fasting made her comments worth reporting. She, a recognized prophetess confirmed God’s gift of redemption, and her words resonated with all who looked for salvation (Luke 2:38).
Anna personified in her day those who .serve the living and true God, and ..,wait for His Son from heaven' ~ Thess. 1:9, 10). She is a model for us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:12, 13).
There are lesson’s here for parents. Mary and Joseph had been honoured and privileged but they also had responsibilities of providing the right atmosphere for the children.
Physical – Social, intellectual and spiritual training to our children.
Children – soon you will be looking back on your memories in youth’s scrap book and be sure you do not throw away the things you learned from godly parents.
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