August 2023 – Page 4 – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: Childbirth was an exciting and frightening event at the time of Jesus. Many children and their mothers died soon after a birth. When both mother and child survived the ordeal, God’s law required male children to be circumcised on the eighth day following their birth. After forty days — when the greatest danger to the life of the mother and the child had passed, they were to present themselves at the temple to make a sacrifice. For the woman, this sacrifice made her clean again and able to return to worship God.

During the time of Jesus, Rabbis gathered in the temple in the court of the women, the closest to the Holy of Holies a woman was allowed to go. They would take each child in their arms and bless them. So it was that the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The Spirit revealed to Simeon that Jesus was the coming Messiah. By the prophecy given to Him, Simeon pointed to Jesus’ mission to save both Jews and Gentiles and to the cross. Simeon’s song of joy is still sung by the church in worship.

Anna was a prophetess, like Miriam and Deborah, one of very few women God used to speak to His people. She likely served in the temple to help with a variety of tasks. In her devotion to God, she also saw Jesus and had the privilege of telling everyone that the Messiah had come.

On February 2, the Church celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the temple and the singing of Simeon’s song, known as the Nunc Dimittis. We also sing this song every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

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Encore Post: About one hundred years before Jesus was born, the Jewish people rebelled against the Greek king of Syria and won their freedom. To this day, the Jewish people celebrate that event during the season of Hanukkah. At that time people from the area around Jerusalem and Bethlehem settled in Galilee and built little towns like Nazareth. Likely the grandparents or great-grandparents of Mary and Joseph settled there. When the Roman rulers of Palestine required all its peoples to register in their home towns, Joseph and Mary had to travel the 80 to 90 miles to Bethlehem on foot. The census was an achievement of pride for Augustus Caesar. The emperor had it inscribed on his tombstone. It likely took decades to complete — especially on the edges of the empire and in its client kingdoms.

When Mary and Joseph arrived in the small town of David, there was no room for them to stay in any of their homes. The word the King James Version translated “inn” means something more general that a place to rent a room. It means more like, “guest room.” So likely one of their relatives let them stay in the stable — actually a fairly warm and somewhat private place to give birth in that day. The people of Bethlehem had built their homes into the caves on the hillside, a very efficient way to maintain steady temperatures year round and protect people and their home animals from the elements.

Our traditional crèches show the scene more like it would have been if Jesus had been born in medieval Germany rather than Roman First Century Judea. Because most people in the middle ages could not read, art work told all of the stories of the birth of Jesus together in one scene. They often include a baby Jesus, Mary Joseph, a manger with hay, cattle, sheep, donkeys and camels, shepherds, wise men and their gifts. Yet it is unlikely that the original scene was that crowded. Most families in that time and place likely would have at most a donkey and sheep — no cattle.

Shepherds were common folk, looked down on as working class people are looked down on today. Those on the night shift would not be a group to which an announcement from the throne of God would be made. Yet the angel, God’s ambassador to announce the birth of his son, chose them.

Martin Luther summed it up in a Christmas Sermon:

If Christ had come with trumpets sounding; If he had a cradle of gold, His birth would have been a stately thing. But it wouldn’t comfort me. So, He had to lay in a poor girl’s lap and be scarcely noticed by the world. In that lap I can come to see Him; In this way He now reveals Himself to the distressed. Yes, He would’ve had greater fame, if He’d have come in great power, splendor, wisdom and high class. Yet, He will come some day, in another way, when He comes to oppose the great nobles. But now He comes to the poor, who need a Savior.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blo g Post Series

Month: August 2023

Sunday School: The Presentation of our Lord

Sunday School: Jesus is Born