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The Seventh Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): Acts 1:6-14; John 17:1-11; I Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Acts 1:6-14; John 17:1-11; I Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
✛
Forty Days: The Presentation in the Ascension
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Jesus, though the Son of God, was born to devout human parents. After he was born in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph travelled to the Temple in Jerusalem to do for Mary and for Jesus what was required by God’s law. Arriving at the Temple, they would have been met by a priest at the gate that separated the women’s court from the inner sanctuary where there was the altar of sacrifice. Mary would have given the priest an animal she and Joseph purchased, in Mary’s case she gave two pigeons which was an option if the family was poor and could not afford a more substantial offering like a lamb. The priest would have taken the pigeons to the altar, made the sacrifice, burned incense, and returned to Mary sprinkling her with the blood of the pigeons and declaring her free from sin, and purified. This rite had been set forth by God, recorded in the book of Leviticus; the summary of this law being that when a woman delivers a male child she shall observe these purification rites forty days after his birth. (Leviticus 12.2,4)
There was another purpose for Mary and Joseph to visit the Temple forty days after Jesus’ birth; to present and then to redeem their son. According to God’s command, every firstborn male, man or beast, belonged to God. “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine… and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.” (Exodus 13.2,13) This redemption was a simple matter of presenting the child to the priest and then paying five shekels of silver so that you could have your child back. Now, this was not extortion or a ransom on behalf of the priests, nor was it permitted for the parents to give the child to the priest so they wouldn’t have to pay the redemption price, this was a symbolic action rooted in Passover.
The last plague that God visited on Egypt when the Hebrews were slaves there, was God sending an angel of death through the land to kill all the firstborn males, both man and beast. But the Israelites, at God’s command, sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and the angel of death passed over and spared the lives of those firstborn males. And when they were saved God commanded that from then on every firstborn male was to be consecrated, dedicated, made holy unto, set apart for God’s sacred use.
But then in the book of Numbers God did something unexpected by human understanding. God asked Moses to take a headcount of all the firstborn in the nation, and Moses discovered there were 273 more firstborn males than there were in the entire tribe of Levi. So God said to Moses, “[I’ll] take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites are to be mine.” (Numbers 3.44-47) It seems that God is focusing this service due to him by the firstborn in a particular direction, so he creates out of a nation of firstborn males set apart for his service, a tribe of priests set aside for his divine service. But he does not relinquish his claim on all the firstborn. The nation still has to acknowledge the debt owed to God for the lives of their sons by presenting every firstborn male child to him, and then paying the redemption price of five shekels. So the rites of presenting the child and paying the price were tokens of God’s claim on their very lives.
It was in obedience to the Law of Moses, this obligation, and God’s command that Mary and Joseph presented themselves and their child to the Lord in his Temple forty days after Jesus’ birth.
You might have any number of reactions to this rehearsal of the Law surrounding the presentation of Jesus in the temple. You could be thinking, look, Michael, it’s the Seventh Sunday of Easter not Candlemas—are you preaching from the wrong lessons? On the other hand, you might have already started to connect the dots. Forty days after birth, a firstborn son is set apart for God’s service, a priest is making a sacrifice for purification of sins, a first and only son is being presented in the temple, and the price of redemption is being paid.
Listen again to this portion of our morning’s lesson from the Acts the Apostles. “When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times…’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” This is the account of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. When did this take place? It was forty days after his resurrection.
Jesus died a bloody and cruel death at the hands of an efficient killing machine, the Roman State, who crucified him with all the routine efficiency of a temple priest slitting the throat of a sacrificial lamb. His blood poured out, his death accomplished, Jesus is sealed in a tomb that, thanks be to God, does not hold him. On the third day he returned to life, reborn, as it were. It is the nativity of his resurrection. And Jesus is God’s firstborn and only son.
Forty days after this new birth day, and according to God’s will, Jesus, the firstborn son, ascends and enters into the heavenly Temple, where he presents himself. It might appear that he enters into the presence of God empty-handed. But he is not. Jesus said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me… thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.”
Jesus presents himself in the temple; he offers the sacrifice of his body and blood for the purification of the human race from sin and death; and he pays the price to redeem not just firstborn sons, but every man, woman and child, indeed, all of creation. Creation is redeemed and set apart for God’s good purposes; it is free from sin, free from death, free from anything that might separate it from the love of God.
But how do we know this, how do we know that this is a perfect and acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the whole world? The Epistle to the Hebrews puts it this way: “When Christ appeared as a high priest he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, securing for us an eternal redemption. If the blood of goats and bulls, and sprinkling sinners with the ashes of a heifer could purify, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself without blemish to God?”
We know that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, because he invites Jesus to stay in the holy of holies with him, and to sit in his presence and at his right hand until such time as Jesus will stand again, come to earth, and gather all those who put their faith and trust in him into his kingdom where he is already reigning at the right hand of God. We know God accepts the sacrifice because Jesus lives, and Jesus reigns in God’s presence.
Therefore, we are given confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, a way that he opened for us through his own flesh. Since we have such a great high priest, let us draw near, not sulking nor skulking, nor withholding ourselves. With true hearts in full assurance of faith, and with our hearts sprinkled clean by the blood of the immaculate lamb, may we live our lives worthy of Jesus’ life, worthy of his death, his resurrection, ascension, and coming kingdom, and live it all boldly in the sight and presence of Almighty God. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you there, and has paid your admission, your redemption price in full.
