Bible for Catholic Nerds – The Episodes in the Temple

The Episodes in the Temple

The Gospel of the Infancy narratives written by saint Luke highlights the work of the Gospel. The revelation of Jesus involves the people who accept the message and pass it on to others. It is the experience that the evangelist Luke lived in person, and how he describes Mary, who accepted the Word and brought the Word to Elizabeth. He describes the shepherds who received the gospel of the birth of Christ, the Savior, the Lord, and after verifying these things they announced to others what they discovered themselves. “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” The name means ‘God saves,’ the Lord intervenes to save his people.

When the 40 days prescribed by law are completed, the child is redeemed. Another episode that Luke narrates is the presentation in the temple, which, however, coincides with the mother’s purification rite, which took place 40 days after birth, and the rescue of the firstborn son. However, Luke does not describe this Jewish ritual.

After saying that Joseph and Mary went to the temple to perform these rites, he narrates something else. He tells of an encounter with a man named Simeon, a symbolic figure linked to the environment of the poor of the Lord, close to Zacharias and Elizabeth. Simeon is one who awaits redemption. He received from the Spirit the promise that he would not die without having seen the presence of the Messiah. And that day, incidentally, inspired by the Spirit, he goes to the temple and recognizes Jesus.

Imagine the scene we make on the esplanade of the temple, a large, immense crowded square, in the midst of all the people coming and going, there are these two people, a young couple with a baby in her arms. This man, this old man, the text does not say, but everything suggests that he was an old man. Simeon, in the midst of the crowd, identifies those two people and, that child in the mother’s arms, he recognizes the Messiah.

Luke puts another canticle into the mouth of the old Simeon, another text of the Judeo-Christian community: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word.” Now you can let me go in peace because your promise has been fulfilled and “my eyes have seen your salvation.” A particular term is used: ‘σωτήριόν’ = ‘soterion’. It is not the generic ‘σωτήρια’ = ‘sotería’, which is much more frequent. This is neutral, to indicate the concrete fact, worked by God to save his people. My eyes have seen the event of salvation that “you have arranged before all peoples.” You have prepared in front of all the peoples. ‘It is a light for the apocalypse of the peoples.’ We translate it as apocalypse, we translate it as ‘revelation’.

This child is a light that reveals the nations, who removes the veil from the eyes of the nations, that is, all other peoples. This child is the glory of Israel, his people. I said that the old Simeon is a symbolic figure because he embodies in himself the old Israel. It is the people of God who goes to meet his Lord and, in the temple, recognizes him and meets him, and passes his hand to all peoples. Ancient Israel recognizes the glory and light in Jesus and does not keep it for himself, but recognizes that this child illuminates, reveals God to all peoples. As the old Zachariah recovers his voice at the birth of his son, who will be the voice to prepare the Word, so is the old Simeon, who is not a priest, who does not perform any rite on Jesus, but simply recognizes him, the prospect of salvation opens to all peoples.

And also to Mary, the Mother, he reveals the important presence of this child. As Elizabeth had told Mary that she was expecting a child and that this child is the Lord, now Simeon explains some other details to Mary: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” It’s a sign of contradiction about which one thing and its opposite can be said for good and bad. This child will serve “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” –Simeon announces to Mary– “and you yourself a sword will pierce” – the sword of the word of God.

Accepting the Word will not leave you immune to effective involvement and even great suffering. Having embraced God’s project you become fully involved in this story. “The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him.” It is likely that, at first, Mary was frightened when she saw this person approaching and taking the child in her arms … What does he want? He wants to praise the Lord. What did he see in this child? We already said it: God’s revelation for all peoples.

And the man Simeon is joined by a woman, Anna. She is qualified as a prophetess who was left a young widow and is now 84 years old. It is said that she lives in the temple, day and night, without ever leaving. She must be a character similar to a homeless person, a woman who lives in the temple but does not have a house in the temple. It means that she sleeps under the porches. She is a strange figure, a poor woman, probably a beggar, but wise and far-sighted who sees beyond what others can see. She awaits for the consolation of Israel and recognizes in that child the one expected by the peoples, and she speaks of it.

Once again, Luke insists on this dimension of the announced gospel. Anna speaks to everyone she meets about the child, about the meaning of that child. “When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

A transitional verse serves Luke to present the normality of life. Everything resumes as normal and the boy grows up in a remote environment in the town of Nazareth.

The story resumes twelve years later when the child grows up, and at the legal age of 12 years old, according to the Jewish canon law, he becomes a ‘bar mitzvah’, that is, child of precept, and the parents can return to Jerusalem on the Passover pilgrimage. Pious Jews were expected to go to Jerusalem at least once a year on one of the pilgrimage festivals: Easter, Pentecost and Tents.

Easter, especially, could have been a good occasion for the pilgrimage to the temple. And not having gone there because the child was still small, when he turns 12 they go with the whole caravan of pilgrims to the holy city. Also, this episode is narrated by Luke with an important theological intention; it is not simply an anecdotal chronicle. It’s a glimpse of thirty years of the undocumented life of Jesus.

When he reaches the age of majority and performs the rite that constitutes him son of the precept, Jesus becomes aware of his own person, of his own vocation, of the mission that the Lord expects of him. His father Joseph hands him the roll of the law and says, basically, ‘You are grown up and now you are responsible, you have to put God’s law into practice.’ When the feast is over and they return to their village, the boy remains in Jerusalem. The caravan is made up of well-known people and for a day’s journey, the parents do not notice the absence of Jesus. When they look for him in the evening, they do not find him, but they have already traveled a day away from Jerusalem. They cannot return in the evening. The following morning, they leave and were back in Jerusalem after another day. It is late and, therefore, they cannot look for him. On the third day, they start looking for Jesus, and they find him in the temple. He had stayed there, among the teachers of the law.

Imagine this intelligent boy, very interested in religious matters, he found in the temple some great teachers who splendidly explained the Scripture He used to go to the synagogue in Nazareth, a small town, and the preacher in the Nazareth synagogue must have been a poor man, who would know little … he would explain the bare minimum; who knows how many questions this smart kid had. In Jerusalem, he found competent people able to answer his big questions, and these expert scribes were surprised finding such an intelligent child, capable of asking such profound questions.

Let’s not confuse this with a presentation that puts Jesus sitting in the chair, while the doctors of the law learn. He is a very gifted boy, who cares and asks the teachers serious questions. The loss of Jesus lasts for three days. We are in the context of an Easter feast; when they find him, his mother asks him a question, which has a very delicate tone of reproach: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And Jesus answers in a strange way: “Why were you looking for me?” How can you say: why were they looking for me? It is the most logical thing in this world that parents, having lost their child, should be anxious and look for him.

Behind this dialogue, we must understand the theological intention of the narrator. The question that Mary asks is the question of the Christian community at Easter, the future Easter, that of the death of Jesus when he disappears for three days … has been lost. The question is ‘Why did you do this? Why does salvation have to pass through death? Do you realize the anguish we experienced at your loss?’ And Jesus’ answer is a counter-question: “But why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ‘This is what Joseph told me: you must take care of God’s things and I did.’ Mary said: “Your father and I were looking for you.” Jesus says: “I have to stay home and I must be in my Father’s house.”

Jesus reveals that he knows that Joseph is not his father; it is not an offense but an indication of his awareness, of his knowledge. Luke, in this way, wants to present to us how, from the beginning, Jesus is aware of his nature and mission. This does not mean that he knew everything, right away. Being a real man he has matured and grown and also grew in self-awareness. We cannot say how we have become aware of ourselves… when we have understood the meaning of our life, but who among us could say it so clearly? And we are trying to say it about a unique person like Jesus?

He does not know everything from the beginning, he grows in age, in wisdom, and in grace. And being a real man, he grows up and begins to understand. He listens to the Scripture, meditates on it, and tries to understand it. And he asks for help from those who know the most, to understand it better. And when he first arrives in Jerusalem and sees the splendor of the temple, and meets the teachers of the law, he is fascinated and remains in the things of his Father. “It is necessary that I stay….” It is the same answer that in chapter 24 is given three times to the disciples on Easter morning. On Easter day, Easter day in the evening, and to the women: “Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” To the disciples of Emmaus, Jesus repeats: “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And in the evening, in the upper room, the Risen One again says to the apostles: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you… that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day….”

The episode of the loss and the finding in the temple, during a paschal feast, is theological anticipation of what will happen on the Easter of death and resurrection. The parents embody the community that suffers the drama of the loss of Jesus and rejoices in the new encounter. The central meaning is that God’s plan must be fulfilled. Jesus understood it and He does it. Mary and Joseph, models of the disciple, do the same. The parents did not understand what he had told them and yet “his mother kept all these things in her heart.” Another transitional verse closes the infancy narrative. “He went down with them and came to Nazareth.”

Jerusalem is in the mountains, 800 meters above sea level, and therefore, even if they go north, they actually go down towards Nazareth, and Jesus “was obedient to them.” For a moment, in Jerusalem, Jesus began to prove his divine consciousness, but continued to remain submissive to his parents. “His mother kept all these things in her heart.” This is the correct attitude of the disciple. A faithful, constant custody is the heart that meditates on the word, does not understand but meditates on it, and keeps it. “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

And with this synthetic verse that presents the growing humanity of Jesus, Luke ends the infancy narratives. Immediately after, Chapter 3 begins in parallel with the other Synoptics, Mark and Matthew, the story of the public manifestation to Israel, at the moment in which John the Baptist, an adult in his thirties, begins preaching.