LW Baptist

By Rolland Coburn

Pastor

Our savior had a miraculous birth, yet a normal childhood. Nevertheless, his growing up included some amazing elements. The Bible says newborn Jesus’ father and mother were amazed at the things spoken about him (Luke 2:33).

At the baby’s eighth-day circumcision, Mary and Joseph registered his name as Jesus, meaning Jehovah is salvation, as the angel said before he was conceived in the womb (2:21). He was given that name because he would one day save his people from their sins.

The Bible says children are God’s gift. Jewish mothers waited 40 days after their son’s birth before joining public worship, as God’s law mandated. After 40 days, they presented their infant to the Lord because “every firstborn male shall be called holy to the Lord” (23). They brought the offerings they could afford to publicly give thanks to God for the blood atonement, to let humans come to him, and for his sanctifying work in that allows humans to be with him in heaven. Mary and Joseph, being poor, offered two doves or pigeons as the symbolic sacrifices.

A godly man named Simeon surprised them in the temple by referring to baby Jesus as God’s consolation to his people, recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed savior. The Holy Spirit guided Simeon there because he hoped to see the Lord’s Messiah or Christ before his death. Simeon took baby Jesus in his arms, blessed God, and began singing marvelous praises to the Lord. He spoke of God keeping his promises, his holy word, of providing salvation by sending Jesus, of Jesus being a blessing to the whole world, a light to the Gentiles, as well as the one whose glory in olden days covered and filled Israel’s worship center. No wonder the blessed parents stood amazed.

Simeon startled Mary by adding that in God’s plan, her precious son would be opposed and rejected by many, and yet raise many to saving faith in the Lord their God. Then Simeon spoke of Mary having to see her son on the cross: “A sword will pierce through your soul.” The purpose, he explains, is this: people’s response to Jesus, the father’s most precious gift to us, shows their heart’s true condition.

A godly older woman named Anna, who always was praying in the temple, stepped up, adding that Jesus was the heaven-sent redeemer, the one who would ransom and restore his people, a message she kept sharing with others from then on (36-37).

The wondering parents finished everything God’s law prescribed in the temple that day and returned to Galilee, to their own town Nazareth, where Jesus continued to grow and become strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was upon him (39-40). Little did they know that their humble and despised hometown would become world-famous, lend its name forever to their firstborn son, Jesus the Nazarene, and become a praise theme: “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene/and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean/How marvelous, how wonderful/ and my song shall ever be/how marvelous, how wonderful is my savior’s love for me.”