Jesus’s Presentation in the Temple transformed the ancient rites into a new covenant
Fr David Howell• February 2, 2025
O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors. (Ps 24[23]: 7)
The Jews presented their first-born in the Temple forty days after birth to “redeem” them, to “buy them back” from God, in memory of the slaughter of the first-born in Egypt.
God had instructed them to smear lamb’s blood on their doorframe to ward off the destroying angel. Just as the lamb was sacrificed in place of those first-born children, so too every following generation would “pay” for their own first-born, giving five silver shekels (Numbers 18:16).
When Jesus is presented in the Temple, these previous rites are transformed. Payment is made to redeem the one who will pay our debt of sin: he will be sold by Judas not for five shekels of silver, but for thirty pieces of it.
His blood will be smeared not on the posts and lintel of a door but on the vertical and horizontal beams of the cross. He will not impede the angel of death entering the door but will himself be the door through whom we enter heaven: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door” (John 10:7). We enter into his wounds to reach bliss, and can sing with the psalmist: “O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors” (Ps 24[23]: 7).
He is the true first-born and yet he makes us all first-born children, joining us “to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23). The privilege of a first-born Jew was to receive a greater share of the inheritance than the other offspring (Deut 21:15-17): the death of Jesus gives us all a “greater share” of the inheritance, for we all share the infinite gift of heaven.
God could have redeemed us in another way, hinted at by the second reading: “For surely it is not angels that he takes to himself, but he takes to himself the offspring of Abraham” [my translation of Hebrews 2:16 – our lectionaries differ]. He could have become an angel, not a man, angelic not human; he could have become like the one who defeated us, Lucifer, instead of like the one who was conquered, Adam.
But God chose to show strength through weakness so that “through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Simeon’s fear of death was removed by embracing Jesus, and he prayed in words reminiscent of ancient slaves being set free by their masters. Let us pray these words like him, docile to the Holy Spirit, and praising God for the light and freedom he gives us: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
Then we can become light for others as he has enlightened us. Malachi prophesied that we would be refined “like gold and silver” (Malachi 3:3), shining with light. But this purification is painful: ancient refiners held coarse gold or silver in the fire until they could see their faces reflected in it, and God holds us in suffering until he sees himself in us.
Mary, who did not need to be purified, gives us example and strength in our trials: a “sword pierced her soul” as Simeon prophesied, when the lance opened her son’s side, but she embraced God’s will and embraces us as her children.
Photo: Detail from ‘The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple’ (La présentation de Jésus au Temple), 1886–1894, by James Tissot (Nantes, France, 1836–1902, Chenecey–Buillon, France).
Fr David Howell is an assistant priest at St Bede’s in Clapham Park. His previous studies include canon law in Rome, Classics at Oxford and a licence in Patristics at the Augustinianum Institute in Rome. He is a regular contributor to the Catholic Herald; his other articles can be accessed here.