Yesterday, Today, and Forever (4 page)

Chapter 7

The Purification and the Presentation

There are many things we really don’t know about the childhood story of our Lord and there is absolutely no way of finding out. For instance, how long the census may have taken in Bethlehem, how long the little town was overcrowded, and how soon Joseph could take his family from the cave into a house. In a way it doesn’t matter, and in a way it does. As soon as you have started to re-live the life of our Lord together with your family as closely as possible day by day — you discover that this is something which has a beginning but no end. The more one has found out, the more one still has to find out. As soon as the children’s interest is aroused, questions will never cease. This is a typical one: How long was the holy family in the cave? Once in a while it will happen that even after much research you will have to say, “I really don’t know”; but this is already great progress compared with those who, when asked this same question, answer, “What do I care?”

Our children wanted to have a day by day account. Now the priest of the circumcision has left with the woman and the implements. What happened next? We figured out together that the next days and nights might have been pretty unquiet with a sick baby in the house. When the wound had healed, the little Jesus smiled again; how relieved Mary and Joseph must have felt.

“And how about the census?” asked one of the youngsters. “Didn’t Joseph have to go downtown and announce the new name?”

This was a good question. Surely Joseph had to do that, and so we accompanied him “downtown” to Bethlehem, as he approached once more the census taker, and watched how for the first time in history the holy name was written down. This was not an uncommon name, and in the way of His days it was spelled Joshua or Jeshua.

Even if we don’t know how long it was, we may be sure it was as soon as possible that Joseph got his little family into a house in Bethlehem. The next thing was to find out how the house in Bethlehem looked. With the help of pictures from illustrated articles and postcards sent by friends from their pilgrimages to the Holy Land, we easily found out what the houses looked like.

What I am telling here does not refer to the happenings of one year. It also is not storytelling to children. It is honest-to-goodness research work done by a whole family throughout the years. Your interest, once aroused, will compel you to watch out for illustrated articles about the Holy Land and to keep postcards from there. A map of the Holy Land will soon prove to be an absolute must. What fun it was when we also found a map of Vermont on the same scale and put the two on the wall next to each other to compare. The distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about as far as from Stowe to Rutland, or a little less. From Jerusalem to Bethlehem it would be five miles south of Stowe and one mile east. It is a good idea to take a family hike of just this distance once, both ways on foot, of course, because soon we accompany the holy family on their way to Jerusalem, to the temple.

“The days of her purifying” refers to a law in the Old Testament. “She shall touch no hallowed thing,” it says of a mother after she has given birth to a child, “nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled” (Lev. 12:4; KJV). This was 40 days if the child was a boy and 80 days if the child was a girl, that the mother could not enter the temple and was liturgically unclean. Then the law continues: “And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest: Who shall offer it before the Lord, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed…. And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons …and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean” (Lev. 12:6-8; KJV). Right away the idea comes to one’s mind: Mary was not allowed to touch any holy thing — but there she was carrying holiness itself around in her arms, and she was not supposed to enter into the sanctuary of the temple.

After the purification of the mother there was still another law to fulfill, and that was the presentation of the boy: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine” (Exod. 13:1–2; KJV).

This law served as a reminder to the Jews that God had once slain the Egyptians and taken their firstborn sons but had spared the firstborn of the Hebrews. Now in order that the child might go back home with his parents and not to have to remain in the temple for the service of the Lord, the parents had to pay a certain sum in silver — about five dollars in our money — as ransom money. This was the law for 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel. The sons of the tribe of Aaron, however, were destined to the priesthood. No money had to be paid for them. So Jesus’ little cousin John, belonging to the tribe of Aaron, did not fall under that law. Jesus, belonging to the tribe of Judah, did.

One of the great beauties of reading through the Gospels like this is that after doing it a while, it will very often happen that the passage you are reading will bring to mind another one. Young minds are especially keen at finding such apropos comparisons. Therefore, having worked on “the days of her purification,” one of the family might muse, “But Mary had been greeted by the angel, ‘Hail, O favored one.’ Didn’t she know that the birth of this child couldn’t possibly make her liturgically unclean? And then — the same angel has said to her, ‘He …will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David …and of his kingdom there will be no end’ (Luke 1:28–33). Didn’t she feel within herself that this Son would not have to be bought with ransom money?”

And the family circle decides that she must have known. But in her actions she now accepted what her Son would later express in words to His cousin the Baptist when he didn’t want to baptize Him, but would rather have been baptized by Him: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).

A few years ago we were talking about this same subject, and again we came to the point that our Lord really didn’t
have
to follow the law, when young Rosmarie remarked, “Well, isn’t this exactly like the story with the income tax?” (It was February, on the Feast of the Presentation, and the phrase “income tax” must have been heard frequently around the house.)

“Which story with the income tax?” We asked, somewhat dumbfounded.

“Oh,” said Rosmarie, “wasn’t our Lord once reminded that He hadn’t paid His tax yet, and didn’t He say to Peter, His friend, pretty clearly that He didn’t have to?” Feverishly turning the pages in her New Testament, she had found the place (Matt. 17:24–26) and read it to us triumphantly. “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?” (Matt. 17:25).

In her own words she continued, “And Peter would say, ‘From others, of course.’ ” Then returning to the Book: “ ‘Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself’ ” (Matt. 17:26–27).

It is a real feast if oneself or someone in the family finds such connections as the “story of the income tax.” So it is pretty safe to say that of course, Mary knew, but “that we may not give offense to them,” she prepared for the three-fold ceremonies: her purification, the presentation of the Son, and the sacrifice for sin.

Pitilessly the children want to know: “What happened in those weeks before they went to the temple?”

The Gospel doesn’t say. No contemporary of those days is still living, no photographs were taken, no diaries were kept. But it must have happened
somehow
, and in all reverence, my guess is as good as yours. For instance, Ain Karim, the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth, was only about a mile and a half away from Bethlehem in the hill country. Isn’t it more than likely that within these 40 days of waiting Elizabeth would show up and repay the visit of her young cousin? Most probably she would bring Zacharias and her baby boy. How much rejoicing there would be among the two families!

We don’t know anything about the parents of Mary, but tradition has it that their names were Joachim and Anna. Down to the earliest times of Christianity, artists have pictured Anna as a happy grandmother with her daughter Mary and her little grandson. Couldn’t it be that some people from Nazareth returning from the census in Bethlehem brought the message to Anna that the baby had arrived, and her daughter and son-in-law would wait those 40 days near Jerusalem? What would any mother in our day think and do in such a case? She would exclaim: “Oh, my poor girl! She only took the most necessary things for emergency with her. I must get her everything she could possibly need.” And then the elderly woman might start out on the trip herself, impatient to see the precious grandchild.

Sure, this is all “might be” and “maybe,” but if I want to bring those 40 days of waiting to life, I certainly must use all my God-given faculties: the intellect and the memory for studying, and imagination, to be applied lovingly to reading between the lines. Consider what a part imagination plays in public life, in the world of fiction writing, movies, radio, and television! It couldn’t possibly be put to better use than to help us to perceive how He did what He did, or what He looked like when He said certain things. It seems as if only the painters have made use of this privilege “to figure it all out.” When we think of the “annunciations,” the “visitations,” and the “nativities” as they were imagined by painters and sculptors throughout the centuries, it should serve as a stimulus to our imagination. “All right, that’s the way Giotto or Raphael, Michelangelo or Albrecht Durer saw it. Which way would you and I picture it?” And isn’t it a shame that you and I would most probably have to admit that we hadn’t gotten around yet to thinking about it, and just took Raphael and Fra Angelico and their pitiful descendants from Barclay Street and St. Sulpice as substitutes?

It is said that in the fourth century the market women in Constantinople were throwing cabbage heads at each other because they had different opinions about the Most Holy Trinity. Isn’t it rather sad that we have to admit that while market women might still throw cabbage heads at each other, the reasons for doing so have changed so completely! Who cares now, for instance, what happened to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph while they were waiting for the days of her purification to be fulfilled?

Finally the morning of the great feast day dawned. Mary and Joseph must have set out with the child very early that morning to be in time for the morning sacrifice in the temple, after which the mothers used to be purified.

They were nearing her second home now — the temple. Tradition tells us that Mary had been brought to the house of God when she was three years old. As a temple virgin she spent her whole youth within the holy walls of the cloister together with other young girls from the first families. It was the highest education a young woman in Israel could get. They were taught how to read and write. If we consider that all boys had to learn to read (only the boys, not the girls), but not how to write, we understand what a privilege it was to be a temple virgin. They were instructed in Holy Scriptures, some of which, like the Psalms and the Proverbs, they had to learn by heart. They were taught how to cook and took turns cooking for the priests. They learned how to spin and weave and embroider. Is it any wonder that they were the most sought-after brides in Israel? The temple, besides being the house of the Most High, was for Mary also her home, her alma mater. The fondest memories of her youth were connected with it. Only a year or two had she been away from this sacred place, but how much had happened to her in that short time. First her espousal to Joseph, then the earthshaking moment of the annunciation. Her visit with Elizabeth, maybe the happiest months of her life; then the heart-rending weeks when she witnessed Joseph’s worries. The trip down to Bethlehem, the mystery of the Holy Night, the shepherds and their story about the angels. Now here she was back at the temple — not alone, but with her husband and her son, pondering in her heart the great things said to her by the angel and by Elizabeth.

The temple — how much do we know about it — its shape, size, cervices, porches, gates, courts, and priests? For our Lord it will always be the house of the Father. It will be said of Him in the words of the Sixty-ninth Psalm: “Zeal for thy house will consume me” (John 2:17). One day He will cleanse it in vigor and wrath. Of the last days of His life it is said, “And he was teaching daily in the temple” (Luke 19:47). Just how familiar are we with it? Most of us do not give it a second thought and take the temple simply for something like a big church. How astonished we are, therefore, when we find out that at that time the temple occupied a square of more than 950 feet. This would make it more than half again as long at St. Peter’s in Rome, which measures 613 feet.

During recent excavations of the temple, stones have been found measuring from 20 to 40 feet in length and weighing about one hundred tons. In the back of the large confraternity edition of the New Testament is a colored plan which gives us an idea. Soon we find ourselves hunting for pictures and more information and, if possible, a scale model. They are very rarely to be found, though, so why not make one yourself? It is exciting and interesting.

There are whole books written on the temple, one by Alfred Edersheim:
The Temple, Its Ministry and Services as They Were in the Time of Christ.
In a book by Father O’Shea,
Mary and Joseph, Their Life and Times,
are three very helpful chapters on the temple: “The Priests of Jehovah,” “The House of Jehovah,” and “The Hour of Incense.”
¹
If, after some study, we try to reconstruct the temple on a small scale with our girls and boys — must not our Lord be pleased that we show so much interest in the house of the Father so dear to His heart? After having worked with cardboard, paper, and glue for weeks that way, we shall find ourselves richly rewarded, because we don’t feel like strangers any more.