Perhaps you have heard the quip, “ninety percent of life is just showing up”? Employed? Show up for work. Married? Get home for dinner. Children? Go to their soccer games. Student? Show up for class. There is something to this, and there is something of it in our passage. Mary and Joseph “show up” when they are supposed to. They are obedient. They do their duty. Repeatedly they do what they are commanded to do with respect to the naming, circumcising, and dedicating of Jesus, as well as regarding the post-partum purification of Mary. They are in accordance with the Law of God. The text emphasizes this (vv 21,22,24,27,39). Missionary and author Elisabeth Eliot used to tell her radio audiences, “Do the next thing.” Discouraged? Obstacles in your way? Take the next step. Do the next thing. As Mary and Joseph are faithful, Jesus takes His first steps toward accomplishing our redemption, and illuminating steps they are. We see, at a distance, the whole work of our salvation. Through the obedience of Mary and Joseph, “The child,” in Marshall’s words, “duly circumcised, named and presented to God, is the fulfillment of the hopes of pious Israel, the Redeemer of the people of God . . .”[1]

Obedience & blessing

Luke, says Green, “presents Jesus’ family as obedient to the Lord, unquestionably pious.”[2] He does this by escorting us through three Old Testament ceremonies: (1) circumcision (and naming); (2) redemption of the first born; (3) purification after childbirth.

And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. (Lk 2:21)

Circumcision

First, Luke tells us of Jesus’ circumcision. Circumcision was the covenant sign of the Old Testament, the rite of initiation into the covenant community, a sign of one’s commitment to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of one’s commitment to the people of God, and much more (e.g. Rom 4:11; Col 2:11). Eighth day circumcision was what was required by the law of God (Gen 17:12; Lev 12:3). Mary and Joseph were careful to keep the requirements of the law precisely as God intended. “When eight days were completed,” or “at the end of eight days” (ESV), “before,” or “when he was circumcised” (ESV). Jesus is circumcised, not on the seventh day, not on the tenth day, but on the eighth day, just as God commanded.

Naming

Luke’s emphasis, however, is not on the circumcision but on the naming. Apparently it was customary to announce officially the name of a child at his circumcision, as often has been customary with Christian baptism. The name given to the Child was that given by the angel (Lk 1:31). Here again is an act of obedience. The angel commanded that He be named Jesus. They obey. He is named Jesus.

Purification

In verses 22-24, Luke describes two separate ceremonies: the presenting of the Child and the purification of the mother.

And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (Lk 2:22)

The “days for their purification” would be 40 days after childbirth. According to Levitical law, after the birth of a son a woman would be unclean for 7 days leading up to the circumcision, and for an additional 33 days she should be kept at home apart from all holy things. For a daughter the time was doubled (Lev 12:1-5). Upon completion of these 40 days, a lamb and a dove (or pigeon) were offered as burnt and sin offerings respectively, completing the purification rites. Or, if one were poor, a second dove or pigeon might be offered (Lev 12:6-13). This is described in verse 24:

and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Lk 2:24)

Mary’s offering was that of a poor person. This ritual, says Luke, was for “their purification” (Lk 2:22): Mary because of her defilement through childbirth; Joseph, we may surmise, because of his contact with Mary.[3]

Consecration 

Verses 22b-23 describe the dedication or consecration of Jesus as Mary’s firstborn.

they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every first-born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) (Lk 2:22b,23)

Mary and Joseph came to Jerusalem not only to offer the sacrifices for purification, but “to present Him (Jesus) to the Lord.” Luke cites Exodus 13:2,12, which required the devoting of the firstborn, both human and animal, to the Lord. This is repeated in Exodus 22: “The first-born of your sons you shall give to Me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep” (Ex 22:29-30). The first-born of livestock were to be offered in sacrifice (Num 18:15-17), while unclean livestock were to be redeemed through the payment of the ransom price. The first-born children of Israel were to be redeemed by payment of five shekels (Num 18:16; cf. Ex 8:22:28ff; 34:19ff; Num 3:11-13,40-51; 8:16-18; Deut 15:19ff). The point may be that, “like Samuel before him, Jesus was dedicated and consecrated to the service of God (1 Sam 1:4,22,28). [4]

Yet the greater point would seem to be the obedience of the parents. Repeated mention of conformity to “the law of Moses” (vv 22,24; cf. 27,39) “underlies the thought of pious obedience,” says Marshall, “which is present throughout the narrative.”[5] The “holy family,” as they have been called, are doing what they are supposed to do. They are obeying God’s will as revealed in His word. They are presented by Luke as an example for us. They are a devout couple modeling what true piety requires. Only when “they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord,” did they return to Galilee (Lk 2:39).

Careful obedience is a virtue. Precise conformity to God’s commands is to be commended. There are far too many slackers among professing Christians today. There is too much sloppy, careless discipleship. Too many are “at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1), serving God with partial conformity and half-measures. Too many are morally lax: flippant about gossip, dishonesty, cheating, Sabbath-breaking, and sensuality; too many have “turn(ed) the grace of our God into licentiousness” (Jude 4); too many have turned Christian freedom “into an opportunity for the flesh” (Gal 5:13).

Here’s the voice of piety: “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps 119:97). The godly throughout the ages have found God’s law more desirable than gold and sweeter than the honeycomb (Ps 19:10). Among the most significant victories of the devil in our day is the confusion of law with legalism. Legalism is bad. Law is not. The law of God, says the Apostle Paul, is “holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12). Legalism is the soul-destroying attempt to be justified by works. The legalistic spirit also can be identified with endeavors to impose man-made rules, with warped priorities (carefully tithing pennies while neglecting the “weightier matters of justice and mercy and faithfulness,” straining gnats while swallowing camels – Matthew 23:23,24), and with conforming to the letter of the law but not the spirit. However, law is not legalism, and careful obedience is not Phariseeism.

“The place of obedience is the place of blessing,” J. A. Motyer, the Old Testament commentator and former Principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England, would regularly say. Mary and Joseph carefully and precisely are keeping the commandments. Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day, not the twelfth. It would not have done for them to show up on day fifteen and ask, “What difference would it make?” Or shout at the temple officials, “God is concerned about our hearts, not whether it is day 7, 8, 9, or even 28!!” It would not have done for them to ignore the requirements for the redemption of the firstborn and say, “We’ve dedicated Jesus at home in our own family ceremony.” It would not have done for them to conclude the rites for purification on day 39, or to omit the offering of the two doves or pigeons and offer one, or say God is concerned with the cleansing of the soul and the sacrifices of the heart and doesn’t care if it’s one pigeon, two pigeons, or a duck. The God who gives the commands and ceremonies and procedures expects obedience.[6] To claim otherwise is to establish a false dichotomy and to disrespect the Holy Spirit through whom the commands were delivered. The slacker, “whatever,” “who cares” culture has infected the church with an unholy, carnal, worldly outlook that is undermining our witness and sapping our strength. God is worthy of both our hearts and our careful, precise conformity to His commandments.

Seeds of redemption

What happens as a result of Mary and Joseph’s obedience? Jesus takes his first step in saving us from our sin. We, in turn, get a glimpse of our redemption. How so? First, by submitting to circumcision, Jesus is fulfilling blood rites of the Old Testament. Passover, Yom Kippur, the daily morning and evening sacrifices, and circumcision were all “bloody,” that is, they all involved bloodshed. In so doing they pointed to, they foreshadowed, they anticipated the cross. The cross is the fulfillment of the meaning of these ordinances, as one final, conclusive, complete blood sacrifice for sin is offered by Jesus the Messiah. He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). The “shedding of blood” is necessary for the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God (Heb 9:22). Jesus’ blood sacrifice does what the blood of “bulls and goats” could not do (Heb 10:4). The circumcision of Christ points to the cross and the blood of the new covenant which shall be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 22:20). As Mathew Henry said regarding Jesus’ circumcision, “Then he shed his blood by drops, which afterward he poured out in purple streams.”[7] The circumcision is but the first step, but it points inexorably to the greater blood-letting at the cross, to atonement, and to our salvation.

Second, by submitting to circumcision Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness. This was Jesus’ language at His baptism. Conformity to the law of God characterized His whole life. Jesus came not only to die but to “fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15). He was “made under the law” (Gal 4:4). He was born under the obligations of the law and in the course of His life fulfilled all of its requirements. This was crucial to our salvation.

Let us explain it in this way. Jesus is the Lamb of God whose death was an atoning sacrifice for sin. It has a “negative” function. It covers, or takes away, guilt. The penalty of sin is taken away because Jesus dies as our substitute, receiving our punishment, bearing our guilt, enduring our suffering, dying our death. We cannot remind ourselves of what has been called Jesus’ “passive obedience” too much or contemplate it too long.

Yet there is a second side to our salvation, which we can describe as “positive.” Not only is guilt removed but righteousness is credited. The righteousness that Jesus established through His perfect life, His “active obedience,” is credited to us. His righteousness is “reckoned” or “imputed.” We receive what Luther called an “alien righteousness,” a righteousness that is foreign to us, that is not ours but is Christ’s.

This is the argument of the Apostle Paul in Romans 4:1-25. Abraham and David were both “reckoned” (a word appearing ten times in this one chapter) as righteous by the God who “justifies the ungodly” (4:5; cf. 4:3-6, 9-11, 22-24). They and we receive righteousness as a gift. We are not righteous but God considers us righteous by faith. Righteousness is credited to us. We don’t earn it. Jesus earned it. How? Through His perfect obedience. Hear again in Romans 5:19: “through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” We not only are forgiven and our slate is wiped clean; we also are seen as positively righteous on the basis of the imputed righteousness of the perfectly obedient Christ. He fulfilled all righteousness. The first step in His doing so was right here: his parents both circumcised Him and dedicated Him, they “carri(ed) out for Him the custom of the Law” (Lk 2:27).

We rejoice with the Apostle Paul that in Christ we have “a righteousness not of (our) own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil 3:9). Joseph Hall (1574–1656), Puritan pastor, theologian, and bishop put it this way: “He, that was above the law, would come under the law, to free us from the law.”[8]

Third, by submitting to circumcision, Jesus is identifying with our need of the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. Circumcision, like baptism, is a cleansing ordinance. It entails the cutting away of “unclean” flesh. In so doing it represents internal cleansing, the “circumcised heart.” Physical circumcision is meant to represent spiritual circumcision. The Old Testament prophets urged the people of God to circumcise not just their flesh, but their hearts (Jer 4:4; Deut 10:16; 30:6; cf. Jer 9:25,26). The Apostle Paul energetically argues this in Romans 2. Circumcision of the flesh only has value if the circumcision of the heart stands behind it. He says,

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. (Rom 2:28-29)

The circumcision of Jesus points to our need of regeneration. “Why wouldest thou, O blessed Saviour, suffer that sacred fore-skin to be cut off,” asks Joseph Hall, “but that, by the power of thy circumcision, the same might be done to our souls that was done to thy body?” [9]Jesus said, “You must be born again” (Jn 3:3), which is the same as being “born of the Spirit,” and being “baptized by the Spirit” (Mk 1:8; 1 Cor 12:13). We need internal transformation. We need new hearts. This is what happens through the gospel. Jesus circumcises our hearts (Col 2:11-13). He gives us cleansed, renewed, transformed hearts. We become a “new creation” in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). We become new people, freed from bondage to sin and freed to know and serve God.

We have in these verses both inducements to careful obedience in the example of Mary and Joseph, and the seed of our salvation in Jesus’ shed blood and His first steps of active obedience. We see both our call to holiness, and the gospel of grace, of justification by faith, regeneration, and the free gift of eternal life (Rom 6:23).