Of all the events during Jesus’ life, isn’t it interesting that his presentation in the temple as an infant is preserved, while so many others are not? To make an analogy, if you were writing an autobiography, how many would include a story about your baptism? Sure, a passing reference, but what about a page or two? Even more, not only is Christ’s presentation in the temple preserved, but the Church thinks that it is more important than many other events of Christ’s life. We do not have a set day to remember when Christ raised the widow’s son, or expelled demons, both of which certainly seem like a bigger deal than him being brought to the temple. And yet, the Church raises this celebration above many others and links it to Christmas, where it acts as the bookend to Christmas.

So what makes today so important? To understand this we need to remember history and how we got to this moment. Christ’s presentation in the temple is set within the context of fulfilling the promises the covenants between God and Israel. Two thousand years previously Abraham was promised a multitude of descendants, land, and that the world would be blessed through him. This promise, though, was not fulfilled in his lifetime, for he would have a single son late in life.

Across these thousands of years, the people wrestled with the promises made to them by God. They waited in expectation as to how he would fulfill them. As with Abraham, they were called to have faith, that is trust in the Lord, that he would fulfill his promises. Just as the Lord acted “at the set time that [he] had stated,” in giving Abraham Isaac, so too would the Lord do again with his other promises. And so in faith they waited for the arrival of the Messiah.

At long last, he has arrived, he is born unto us, but in a manger, without notice and fanfare. His arrival is not yet known to the people. And so the Lord prepared his prophet Simeon for this day. The Lord had promised to him that he would not die before seeing the Messiah, the Christ, and so the Spirit then led him into the temple this day, filled with expectation: this is the set moment, this is the time prepared by the Lord across centuries.

As he lays his eyes upon this child, this infant of humble stock, he breaks out in praise, proclaiming publicly the good news, the gospel of the Messiah’s arrival. The Glory of God has arrived in the temple, the salvation of the people, and wisdom to all. What we knew as secret a few days earlier at Christmas is now made public, and how we ought to rejoice in this, just as when we have kept a secret of good tidings which we can now share aloud.

The prophetess Anna, in hearing the joy of Simeon, comes over, and she too rejoices in the fulfillment of God’s promises. She then goes throughout the temple bringing the good news to all, just as Mary Magdalene will do at the resurrection.

Further, in these two prophets, we find an elderly man and woman who come to bear witness to this event of the young Mary and Joseph bringing Christ. They stand in for the whole Old Testament and give witness to the arrival of the New Testament, that the Old Covenant of Israel is fulfilled in the New Covenant of Christ given to the Church and the world.

Let us each go forth as Anna did and proclaim the good news of Christ’s arrival in the world. Just as his birth some two thousand years ago is often overlooked and forgotten, so too is it today in the commemoration of his nativity itself. But today we celebrate the public proclamation of said birth, the royal announcement that our Lord has arrived. The Old proclaims the New, and the New is glorified in the Old. Go forth and proclaim the good news, for your eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation, bringing his light to all nations. Amen.

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