The Gospel of Luke: Born Under the Law

Transcript

JRNT 73
01/12/2025
The Gospel of Luke: Born under the Law
Luke 2:21-24
Jesse Randolph



Well, here we are in the dead of winter. Christmas is over, the decorations are gone, it's coldish, it's gray, spring is still a long ways off. It's time of year that many will just sort of will themselves to get through, not only because it's cold, but because of that warm and familiar glow of Christmas that's now started to wane and that overwhelming sense of back to reality that's kicked in. Not many people, when asked what their favorite month of the year, would say, January. Not many of us will look back on 2024 and say, yeah, summer was great, but you know what was really great, it was January. There are exceptions, of course. Some who have their birthday in January, their anniversary in January, might object. You might really like January. But for most, January tends to be an afterthought.

Well, sadly, the section of scripture we'll be in this morning is often treated as the January, you might say, of the birth account of our Lord. We're still in Luke chapter 2 where up to this point Luke has meticulously recorded the various events surrounding the birth of Jesus. But in terms of the interest that most have in this next section, the amount of attention and focus it receives, it's a bit like January, a forgotten afterthought. We've worked through those various familiar and beloved scenes, which we find earlier in this chapter in Luke 2. We've learned about Caesar Augustus and his decree. We've learned about Quirinius, the governor of Syria. We've learned about Joseph and Mary and the background on them. We've learned about Nazareth and Bethlehem. We've learned about the actual events of the birth of Jesus. We've learned about the manger, the guest room, the cloths that baby Jesus was wrapped in. We've learned about the shepherds and the angel of the Lord, and we've learned about the heavenly host. We've learned that there were those who were marveling at this whole scene at the manger. We've learned about the treasuring and the pondering that was happening in the heart of young Mary. And last time, many, many weeks ago now, in Luke 2:20 we learned that the shepherds went back "glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen just as was told them."

And that's typically where our annual December heavy read through of Luke chapter 2 ends. After the smells of the season have evaporated into the air, after we've put away the Christmas ornaments, as we're now struggling to get that belt to wrap around our bellies after the holidays, we close the chapter on Luke chapter 2 until we come back to the good parts, the Christmassy parts, next December. And the result is that the infant Jesus, at least in terms of how we conceive of Him, is frozen in time in the attic of our affections. He really never leaves that manger scene, at least not until next December. And how unfortunate that is since Luke, the Holy Spirit inspired author of this Gospel, has so much more to say about the events surrounding the birth of our lord.

Indeed, the remaining 32 verses of Luke chapter 2 capture some incredibly significant moments in the infancy and childhood of Jesus, and it starts in the text that we'll be in today. If you're not there already, I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke 2:21-24. That's what we'll be studying today, Luke 2:21-24. God's Word reads, "And when eight days were fulfilled so that they could circumcise Him, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their cleansing according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

Now let's keep our eye on the ball, let's maintain our focus on the big picture of what's happening here in Luke's Gospel. Recall that Luke writes this Gospel originally to a Gentile named Theophilus, to provide Theophilus with some certainty about the things he had heard through various witnesses about Jesus, about His deity, about His humanity, about His ministry. In fact, go over with me to the very beginning of Luke's Gospel, to Luke 1, where we see again this incredibly well-crafted purpose statement behind what Luke wrote, to what he wrote Theophilus. Luke 1:1 says, "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught." So Luke, this able, detail oriented, spirit directed Gentile, wrote what he wrote to Theophilus, another Gentile, to explain who Jesus was and what He did during His life, starting with His ministry to His own people, the Jews, and then, of course, what He accomplished through His death.

In the section of the Gospel of Luke that we'll be in this morning, Luke 2:21-24, Luke now goes through great pains to explain what Jesus went through and specifically what His earthly parents had Him go through to comply with the requirements of the Law, meaning the Law of Moses, the Mosaic Law, which was still in effect during this time and applicable to Jews like Joseph and Mary and their newborn son, Jesus.

Now would be a very good time to clarify that when I say Law and what the Law entailed, we have to be clear about what the Law is and who it did bind and who it doesn't bind today in the Church Age. By Law I mean, and here in Luke's Gospel Luke means, the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the place where unfortunately many well intentioned Bible reading plans go to die. It was the Law, the Jews of Jesus' day called it the Torah, the Hebrew word for law. And this morning's sermon is titled “Born under the Law”, that's alluding to Galatians 4:4, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law." Which also drives home an important point that we can't miss in working our way through this section. Which is that Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior, the One in whose death we have eternal hope, was born under and committed to the Law of His day. Jesus was not a Christian, as some will wrongly assume. No, in His humanity and through His incarnation, He was a Jew. And as a Jew the Law of Moses was still operative during His years on earth.

The law was inaugurated for Israel through Moses. That's what John says in John 1:17, "For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth," he says, "came through Jesus Christ." But make no mistake, though grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, for Jews first and then for Gentiles, for you and me, the fact is that during his earthly ministry Jesus lived under the jurisdiction of the law. That truth is captured in places like Galatians 3:23, "Before faith came," it says, "we were held in custody under the Law being shut up for the coming faith to be revealed." He lived under the jurisdiction of the Law, He taught on the Law, He interpreted the Law. That's why we have all those statements in the Gospels, "You have heard it said," where? in the Law, "but I say." He didn't come to destroy the Law, He didn't come to abrogate the Law, He didn't come to break the Law.

Now, He certainly broke various manmade rules and traditions, that's why the Pharisees were continually getting on Him, but He never broke the Law of God which had been given to the people of Israel through Moses. No, Jesus did what with the Law? He fulfilled the Law. Matthew 5:17, He Himself says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." So our Savior was born under the Law. Now important point here. That He was born under the Law does not mean that we as Christians in the Church Age are under the Law. The testimony of Scripture, in fact, is the opposite. We're told for instance, that Jesus was "the end of the Law for righteousness to all who believe." That's Romans 10:4. Or Romans 3:21 says, "But now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested."

So big idea here, Jesus in His incarnation lived under the Law, but we as His followers, as Christians living in the Church Age, do not. To be sure, there are principles concerning the nature of God, the character of God, God's insistence on absolute holiness from His subjects that we can derive from the reading of the Law. That's why we can listen to sermons from Leviticus and benefit from them. That's why we can read the book of Numbers in our quiet time and benefit from it. But we're not bound by the Law. We're not justified by the Law, we're not under the Law, we don't live in the era of the Law. We live in the era of grace. Again, John 1:17, "For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." But at the same time, to be faithful students of God's Word, to be informed followers of Jesus Christ, it's important that we know, as it was important for Theophilus to know, what purpose the Law served in our Lord's life, going all the way back to His first few days of life here on earth.

And that's what we're going to see in our passage this morning. In fact, if you're a note taker, if you mark in your Bibles, note this. In the entirety of this Gospel, Luke's Gospel, Luke mentions the Law, the Greek word is “nomos”, ten times in the whole Gospel. Five of those ten references are found in Luke 2, with three of those five being found in the four verses we're working through this morning. In fact, here are some of those five references. Luke 2:22, "And when the days of their cleansing according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled." Or verse 23, "as it is written in the Law of the Lord." Verse 24, "to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord." There are two more. Look at verse 27, "The parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for Him the custom of the Law." And then finally, verse 39, "And when they had finished everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own city of Nazareth."

See, it really is the case, as Warren Wiersbe said in his commentary on this passage, that in this section of Luke's Gospel, Jesus meets Moses. Specifically, we see here our Lord's encounter through His parents with the Law of Moses. And in our text for this morning, verses 21 through 24 of chapter 2, we're going to encounter four different expressions of the truth that Jesus, God incarnate, the eternal Son of God encased in flesh, truly was born under the Law. Four different ways that our Savior who was born an Israelite, a Jew, had to be, as Hebrews 2:17 says, "made like His brothers in all things," which includes being a compliant, Law-abiding Israelite. Why? The verse continues, Hebrews 2:17, "so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."

As we're about to see, as it pertained to the Law that was then in effect during Jesus' earthly life, there were no shortcuts in the shaping of our Savior. We're going to see this first through His covenantal compliance, we'll see this second through a comprehensive cleansing, we'll see it third through a consecrated calling, and then fourth through a curtailed cost. Those are our four points for this morning. If you're taking notes, “Covenantal Compliance”, “Comprehensive Cleansing”, “Consecrated Calling”, “Curtailed Cost”.

Let's start with the first one, point #1 for the note takers is “Covenantal Compliance”. Verse 21 again says, "And when eight days were fulfilled so that they could circumcise Him, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb." Now, here we see two things happening. We see the Savior receiving His name from His parents, and second, we see Him receiving His name at the same time He goes through receiving the sign of circumcision. Now let's start with the fact of Jesus' circumcision, which is alluded to by these words, "and when eight days were fulfilled so that they could circumcise him."

Now, before we get into this topic of circumcision, I'd like to highlight something for us here, which is that when God sent His Son to dwell among us, He placed Him in a godly family with pious parents, who were committed to living lives of quiet faith and humble obedience. Let's start with Joseph, His earthly father. We know something of Joseph's spiritual stock by what's mentioned in Matthew 1:19 where he's referred to as a righteous man, that is to say he was right with God, one of the faithful ones in Israel. And we get to Mary, we see the same thing. She was a righteous woman, she was justified by God on account of her faith. We know that from places like Luke 1:38, where Mary expresses her desire to act in accordance with God's Word. She says, "Behold the slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to Your word." We know this from Luke 1:45 where Elizabeth notes that Mary believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. And we also know of Mary's faith from Luke 1:46, where she herself says she needed a Savior. She says, "My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior." So both Joseph and Mary were righteous. Neither was sinless, neither was perfect, but both had a right standing before God, based on their faith in Him and in His promises. Jesus, in other words, was born into a good family, a devout family with two Jewish parents who were committed as Jews to following the Law that governed their lives.

Again, we're told, back to our account, Luke 2:21, that "eight days were fulfilled that they could circumcise Him." And now there's a parallel here, as we often see in these early chapters of Luke's Gospel, between Jesus and John the Baptist, who is named and circumcised in a similar fashion. In fact, flip back to Luke 1:59. This is the account of John the Baptist's circumcision and his naming. Luke 1:59 says, "And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zechariah after the name of his father. But his mother answered and said, ‘No, but he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.’ And they were making signs to his father as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, ‘His name is John.’ And they all marveled." So for both John the Baptist and for Jesus, we see here that their circumcision was connected with receiving their name. That was the custom and the practice in this day.

Now let's start back to Luke 2:21 with this first piece of what's recorded here, this procedure of circumcision, a procedure which involved cutting and retracting the foreskin of an infant male's penis. That was the God ordained sign of the covenant that He, God, had cut with Abram. In fact, go back with me to the book of Genesis, first book of the Bible, the book of beginnings. Let's go to Genesis chapter 17, where we see this sign of the covenant mentioned.

Genesis 17, we'll start in verse 1 to get the whole context here. It says, "Now it happened that when Abram was 99 years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless, so that I may confirm my covenant between Me and you, that I may multiply you exceedingly.’ Then Abram fell on his face and God spoke with him saying, ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you. And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. And no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will go forth from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your seed after you. And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.’ God further said to Abraham, ‘Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep between Me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And every male among you and who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, one who is born in the house or one who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed.’"

So the actual covenant that God made with Abram is found back in Genesis 15, it's that promise through that covenant of land and seed and blessing to Abram and his posterity. And all male members of the Jewish community were shown to truly be members of the people of Israel, part of the people of Israel, and therefore party to the covenant that God had made with Abram by receiving this sign of circumcision. You saw that in verse 12, that this procedure of circumcision was to take place on the eighth day of the child's life.

That same standard is rearticulated in Leviticus 12:3, which says, "Now on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." Now to be clear, the fact that Jesus underwent the ritual of circumcision does not indicate that He was somehow impure before He went through that ritual, nor was this a testimony that there was any sort of seed of corruption in His heart, nor was this a confession of His inclination toward evil or His need of grace or forgiveness. No, as the eternal, holy, unchangeably holy God of all, there was no impurity in Christ whatsoever. 1 John 3:5 says, "in Him there is no sin." He was holy and undefiled, His heart was pure, He was sinless, which is why 2 Corinthians 5:21 refers to Him as "Him who knew no sin," even at His birth, even in His humanity.

So then why? Why did Jesus undergo this rite of circumcision? On one very practical level, going through circumcision would have been necessary for Him to gain an audience, to be able to speak credibly in front of fellow Jews. See, had He not been circumcised, Jesus could not have publicly stood or spoken in front of any lawful Jewish assembly. Without circumcision, He would have immediately been rejected as a teacher in Israel. Without circumcision, He immediately would have been shunned and regarded by His Jewish audience as the equivalent of an uncircumcised Gentile. So circumcision, this external ritual, served a very practical purpose in that it allowed our Lord to be around and to associate with His fellow countrymen, those whom He initially came for, the Jews. Further, and on more of a spiritual plane, by going through this rite of circumcision this act marked Jesus as being a child of Abraham, as being a part of this covenanted people of God, the Jews, as being under the Law. "Born of a woman, born under the Law," as Galatians 4:4 says. And the Law required circumcision. So as one being born under the Law, whatever the Law of God prescribed, Jesus did.

Not only that, by going through this rite of circumcision this associated
Jesus with the people that He came for, not only ethnically as a Jew, but in His humanity in the flesh. And that would later allow Him to offer Himself up as a true sacrifice for His people, salvifically as their substitute, taking care of their sin problem. That comes through in passages like Hebrews 2:14. "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same." Or Romans 8:3 says, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin He condemned sin in the flesh." Or 2 Corinthians 5:21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Speaking of sin, this rite of circumcision, going all the way back to the days of Moses, it was never only about the physical act. It was never only about physical compliance or physical purity or physical cleansing. Circumcision, even back in those days of Moses, also pictured every individual's need for spiritual cleansing. In fact, go back with me to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 10. The book of Deuteronomy is recording God's second giving of the Law to the people of Israel. In fact, that's what Deuteronomy means, the second giving of the Law. And this is what God communicated to Moses and through Moses as the people were preparing to enter the Promised Land. But look at Deuteronomy 10:12. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, "So now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. For Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows love for the sojourner by giving him food and clothing."

But did you catch that language in verse 16? It wasn't merely that males in Israel were to be circumcised physically, though that was a requirement. No. No, all of Israel was to be circumcised spiritually, they needed spiritual circumcision. In other words, the physical act of circumcision in terms of its purifying hygienic components highlighted ultimately how deeply sinful the people of Israel were, and how greatly their need was of spiritual circumcision, heart cleansing. And Jesus, we know, is the One who came, offering that spiritual circumcision, that internal heart cleansing. That's what Paul would later refer to in Colossians 2:11 when he says in Him, meaning Christ, we “were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ."

So Jesus being circumcised, back to our passage, Luke 2:21, marked His covenantal compliance, namely the covenant which God had made with Abraham, as Jesus received the sign of the covenant, circumcision, which went along with its promises. Now before we leave verse 21, note it's not only Jesus' circumcision which Luke records, but His circumcision is linked to Him receiving His name. Look again at the fullness of verse 21 here just to get the context. "And when eight days were fulfilled so that they could circumcise Him, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." Now first, "His name was then called Jesus," it says. For Joseph and Mary the choice wasn't difficult. There was no mystery as to what their Son's name would be. His name would be Jesus, the name that Gabriel had announced to them before Jesus was ever even conceived in Mary's womb. Recall how Joseph had been told by the angel Gabriel that this child's name would be Jesus. That's over in Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 1:20 says, "Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the One who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’” More on that line, "save His people from their sins" in just a moment.

But it wasn't only Joseph who was visited by this angel, and it wasn't only Joseph who had been told by the angel what the child's name would be. No. Look back at Luke 1:26, where we see recorded the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary for really the same purpose. Luke 1:26 says,”Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you.’ But she was very perplexed at this statement and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son and you shall call him Jesus.’”

So to Joseph the angel says you shall call His name Jesus. To Mary the angel says you shall name Him Jesus. So when it came time to name this child on the occasion of His circumcision, on His eighth day here on earth, guess what mom and dad named Him? Jesus, which is our English translation of the Greek rendering of his Hebrew name, Joshua, Yahweh is salvation. Remember, names in this time that parents would give to children meant something. Parents back then weren't naming their kids like Juniper, or Wednesday, or Apple. No. They were naming them names that had ancestral meaning, geographic meaning, theological meaning.

And in Jesus' case that name signified that He was not only Israel's Messiah, but He was God, Yahweh in human flesh. And God is a saving God, and God is a God who desires all men to be saved. And God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And God is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe. And as God, Jesus' saving purposes, we know, would come out later. They would be expressed even more clearly during the days of His public ministry. We think of the scene where He's weeping over Jerusalem, Matthew 23:37 and He says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you did not want it." Or when He said in Luke 19:10, "The Son of man has come to seek and save the lost." So at this point Joseph and Mary knew who this child was. They circumcised their Son because they knew that's what the Law required. And they named Him Jesus because that's what the angel had told them to do. And they also knew that that name of Jesus would match up with His mission, which was to save His people from their sins.

Since we've been exploring what Luke here says about the naming of Jesus, it does bring to mind another New Testament reference which ties together the name of Jesus and his salvific purpose and mission, that being Acts 4:12, where it says, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
With that passage in mind, Acts 4:12, I have a few questions for anyone in this room this morning who has not put their faith in Jesus Christ, whether you're young or old, churched or unchurched. Do you recognize that you are a sinner as we all are? Are you aware of the fact that you, as we all do, fall short of God's holy standards as He has given them in His word? Do you know that your sins, like mine, are acts ultimately of ungodly rebellion? Do you know that what your sin deserves because of whom you have sinned against is an eternity spent in torment and anguish in the flames of hell?

Do you understand that you are not able to spare yourself from that fate? Do you understand that no amount of good deeds, good works, sacraments, hail Marys, or even regular church attendance will allow you to be spared from the wrath that is to come? Do you understand that if you were to die in your current state of sin and rebellion, there would be no second chances for you? If your life came to an end, today, tomorrow, in an accident, by way of a virus, by way of natural causes, do you understand that you would face the unmitigated fury and wrath of Almighty God? Do you understand that the life gate of salvation through Jesus Christ is open to all who would come in? Doesn't matter how many people they've hurt, it doesn't matter how many relationships they've broken, it doesn't matter how many drunken nights they've stumbled through, it doesn't matter how hopeless and bleak their circumstances might seem. Doesn't matter how unreachable or unsavable they might think they are.

The Bible teaches plainly in Romans 10:9, "That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." So what's stopping you? What's holding you back? Believe, Acts 4:12, in the only “name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Believe that Jesus died for you, paying the penalty for your sins. Believe that Jesus rose for you, conquering the powers of sin and death in your life to which at this point have had total mastery over you. Reject all false, all competing forms of religion. Understand that Jesus alone is the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the father but through him. And in doing so, find eternal life. Find forgiveness for your sin through Him.

We've considered Jesus' “Covenantal Compliance”, where we've just looked at how He, at the behest of His righteous parents, received that sign of the covenant which God made with Abraham, namely circumcision. And then as sort of a footnote there, we explored the significance of His name, Jesus. Now, as we turn to verse 22 here, Luke 2:22, we're going to learn another aspect of what it means that Jesus was born under the Law, namely the comprehensive cleansing that Luke reports on here. That's our second point for the note takers in the room, “Comprehensive Cleansing”. Look at the beginning of verse 22, it says, "And when the days for their cleansing according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled," I'll just stop right there mid-sentence because we here have a reference to a complete and separately distinct aspect of the Law which devoted Jews like Joseph and Mary were careful to obey in the days of Jesus' infancy. And this separate aspect of the Law that we see in the first half of verse 22 had to do with ceremonial cleansing, purification for a woman who had just given birth.

In fact, go back with me to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 12. I bet you weren't expecting to turn to Leviticus this morning, but here we go. Leviticus 12, the third of the five books of Moses, this is what Luke is going to be pulling from and alluding to as he lays out what he lays out in Luke 2:22. So look at Leviticus 12:1, it says, "Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel saying, when a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days. As in the days of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.’" Now look at verse 3. Now the focus here in verse 3 shifts to this male child that the woman has given birth to. And I quoted this for you earlier, but it says, "Now on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." Now verse 4, the focus shifts back to the woman who has just given birth. It says, "Then she shall remain in the blood of her cleansing for 33 days. She shall not touch any holy thing, and she shall not enter the sanctuary until the days of her cleansing are fulfilled."

So back to Luke. Mary, having just given birth to her baby boy, Jesus, needed cleansing. Why? Well, according to the Law of Moses and this passage here in Leviticus 12, she was deemed to be ceremonially unclean, meaning she was legally barred from taking part in any form of temple worship in Jerusalem during this time. They had a court of women around in the temple precinct at this time. She would have been barred from going in there, and prohibited from touching any holy or sacred item. And this window of her ceremonial uncleanness from Leviticus 12:1, that initial window would have been seven days, the seven days immediately following the birth of her son. Then on the eighth day, Leviticus 12:3, that male child would be circumcised. And then verse 4 gives the instructions for what she was to do and what she was deemed to be after that eighth day, after the circumcision. She was to remain in the blood of her purification 33 days, meaning she was deemed ceremonially impure for another 33 days on top of the original 7 days, meaning in total she was going through a 40-day period of ceremonial uncleanness, of ritual impurity during which she was not allowed to touch any holy or consecrated thing, and during which she was not permitted to enter any holy or consecrated space like the temple precinct.

So think about that just for a minute. A mom, a woman has given birth to a son or perhaps a daughter, it's this joyous, momentous occasion, event, in her life, but for 40 days following delivery she's deemed unclean, she's deemed impure. And what was the lesson being taught? What was she being reminded of? Well, the season of impurity that followed the birth of her son was a reminder that even on such a joyful and celebratory occasion, there was still sin in the world. The mother who had just delivered that child was a sinner. Indeed, the child that she had just given birth to was a sinner. So being considered impure would have reminded every new mother that she needed purification, not only in the immediate sense so that she could be soon thereafter deemed ceremonially clean, but also in the ultimate sense of realizing that she had sin that needed to be atoned for and forgiven.

Now, still in verse 22, I'm back to Luke's Gospel, verse 22. Note this little wrinkle in the text. Luke writes, "And when the days for their cleansing according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled." Note that word there, it says "their cleansing." Why did Luke write it that way? Why the plural word "their" there? Wasn't it Mary, the mother, Mary, the one who had just given birth who needed cleansing? So who else might Luke be referring to here?
Is this word "their" meant to sweep in the infant Jesus, or is this word instead meant to include Joseph? The better answer is Joseph. And the main reason for that is as we read into the rest of verse 22 here, you see that it reads, "They brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord." Now who is the "they" there? Who brought Jesus up to Jerusalem? Answer, Joseph and Mary. And that word "they" links grammatically back to the beginning of verse 22 where it says, "When the days for their cleansing according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled." In other words, what Luke is telling us here through the grammatical word choices he uses is that both Mary and Joseph went through some form of cleansing at this time.

But how? And why? Joseph didn't give birth to Jesus, Mary did. So what sort of cleansing would he need? Well, the only explanations I've seen that have some degree of plausibility, one is that Joseph, being in close quarters with Mary through the whole delivery process, himself became unclean through that process. In other words, he may have had contact with whatever blood was on the scene during the birth, and that made him unclean, too. Another rendering or option I've seen is that Joseph sought purification and cleansing at this time as a matter of demonstrating family solidarity with Mary. You know, they were now one flesh, Genesis 2:24. And so as the leader of their household and being this righteous man, Joseph wanted them to go through this ceremonial purification together. Both theories are plausible, I'd lean more in the favor of the first one.

But ultimately, whatever theory you go with, a key truth that we don't want to miss here from this birth scene and the cleansing scene are the physical realities associated with the incarnation and the birth of Christ. Jesus really did enter into this world physically through His mother Mary's womb, He really was conceived and born of physically a virgin. And through that birth process, his mother, his physical mother was deemed ceremonially unclean. But righteous young woman that she was, she and Joseph went through all the necessary steps to become ceremonially clean. They complied with the Law to the letter. Remember, that theme is prevalent in this section of Luke's Gospel, this reality that this child really was born under the Law and born into a home with these two parents who had this great godly resolve to follow the Law.

So verse 21, we saw the “Covenantal Compliance” surrounding the circumcision and naming of Jesus. Verse 22, we just considered this “Comprehensive Cleansing” that Mary and apparently also Joseph went through. Here's our third point where we're going to consider a “Consecrated Calling”, a “Consecrated Calling”. Let's look at the rest of verse 22, and this will take us into the end of verse 23. It says, "They brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord." And then the parenthetical, "as it is written in the Law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the lord." Note the first words there, "They brought Him up to Jerusalem," middle of verse 22. Now as you've heard it explained before, this is not a north/south description, this is not like saying, “I'm going up to Minnesota this week and I'm going down to Oklahoma next week.” No. This is an altitudinal description, meaning Luke is saying that Joseph and Mary traveled this short distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and as they did so they went upward in elevation to present their Son to God at the temple in the holy city. That's what's meant by going up to Jerusalem. And they made this journey, as you see there at the end of verse 22, "to present Him to the Lord." And then the parenthetical in verse 23, "as it is written in the Law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord."

Now there is a lot going on here. What we have, if I could sort of boil it down, distill it, what we have here is a ceremony of presentation, a ceremony of dedication, a ceremony of consecration. You know, up to this point, Luke, what he's narrated is that Joseph and Mary took their child Jesus and brought Him through the process of circumcision, and they named Him as we just saw. And then she went through this period of ritual impurity and then went through ceremonial cleansing. Now what they're being described as doing, according to Luke, is going to Jerusalem in accordance with the Law to now present, consecrate, their infant son to the Lord. Note this parenthetical again in verse 23, "As it is written in the Law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." It's in all caps there, meaning it's an Old Testament reference, and the reference is Exodus 13.

Turn back with me, if you would, to Exodus 13. That's the underlying reference to what Luke is quoting here in Luke 2:23. I think we're going to cover every book of the Law this morning except the book of Numbers. I tried to weave that one in, but I couldn't find it, or a reason to do so. But Exodus 13, and we'll start in verse 1 here. Remember this links to Luke 2:23. Exodus 13:1 says, "Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, “Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast, it belongs to Me." Now that verb at the beginning of verse 2, "sanctify," could also be translated set apart as holy to Me. And drop down to verse 11, it says, "And it will be when Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers and gives it to you, and you shall devote to Yahweh the first offspring of every womb and the first offspring of every beast that you own. The males belong to Yahweh." So there was this requirement according to the Law to not only circumcise your son, but to present any firstborn son, which Jesus was, to God 33 days later.

So piecing all this together, what's being described here is that under the Mosaic Law, God had this claim to every firstborn Jewish male. Each firstborn Jewish male was considered holy, meaning separate, set apart to God. Now, here's where things get a little thorny, a little complicated. Remember that the Israel of this time was divided up into 12 tribes. You have the 12 tribes of Israel, each representing one of the sons of Jacob who later became known as Israel. And under the Law that was in effect at the time of Jesus' birth, if an Israelite firstborn son came from the tribe of Levi, at the moment his parents presented that little boy, that son was immediately considered dedicated and devoted to priestly service as being from that tribe, as being a Levite. But if that firstborn son came from any other tribe of Israel, in presenting that son, his parents would simply be acknowledging God's rights over his life. And so what they would do, and this is actually laid out in Numbers, (there's Numbers), Numbers 18. What they would do since he wasn't being offered up for priestly service, since he wasn't a Levite, is they would pay a redemption tax of 5 shekels. And by paying that redemption tax, they were essentially buying their son back.

So recap, if a firstborn son was of the tribe of Levi, in presenting that son to the Lord, he would actually be given over to the priesthood. But if that firstborn son was not from the tribe of Levi, the parents would pay a 5 shekel redemption tax and purchase him, redeem him, buy him back. So Joseph and Mary, we're going to see this more as we get into genealogy in Luke chapter 3, they both came from the line of David, they both came from the tribe of Judah. Neither came from the tribe of Levi, meaning in presenting Jesus, consecrating Jesus, devoting Jesus, they would have had to pay this redemption tax. They would have had to part with 5 shekels to buy back their son, to redeem Him, to purchase Him. Remember, Jesus was born under the Law, Galatians 4:4, and his parents, faithful Israelites that they were, they would have seen to it that every single one of the Law's provisions were diligently followed as it pertained to their newborn son. That included the payment of this 5 shekel tax to redeem Him, to purchase Him. Not to redeem Him from sin because He had none, but to redeem Him from priestly service for which He was ineligible because He was not of the tribe of Levi. But I mean that is a profoundly beautiful truth when you really think about it, that these young new parents had to redeem the One who came to be their redeemer, they had to purchase the One who had come to purchase them through His own death and resurrection. That's what we see happening here.

So that was our third point pertaining to Jesus' consecrated calling. That takes us now to our fourth point in the final verse of this section, Luke 2:24, where we're going to see a “Curtailed Cost”. That's our fourth point, “Curtailed Cost”. Look what Luke records in verse 24 of chapter 2. And by the way this ties back to Luke 2:22. So I'll read Luke 2:22, and then that leads into verse 24. "And then when the days of their cleansing according to Law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord," then we have the parenthetical, "and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." So on this same visit to Jerusalem, when they came to present and dedicate and consecrate the infant Jesus, when they bought Him back with the payment of those 5 shekels, they also had animals there to sacrifice. And note the reference there in verse 24 to these animals that were offered for sacrifice. They brought, they offered what was according to what was said, it says, "in the Law of the Lord." And which portion of the Law of the Lord is Luke referring to? Well, that quote is also in Leviticus 12.

One more flip back to the book of Leviticus. We've already considered Leviticus 12:1-5 and what it says about the circumcision of a newborn son and then the cleansing period that his mother was required to go through. But now, look at Leviticus 12 and the next three verses, verses 6-8. Leviticus 12:6 says, "When the days of her cleansing are fulfilled," that's what we saw back in verse 22, "for a son or for a daughter she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering. Then he shall bring it near before Yahweh and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female. But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean."

So after the child was born, after the mother's cleansing and purification period passed, the mother, as we see here, was required to provide a sacrifice, an offering to Yahweh, a lamb first for a burnt offering, which was in recognition of the Lord's goodness in bringing this child, and then a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering, which was offered to cleanse the mother, to atone for her. You see that in verse 7 where the priest would bring the offering near before Yahweh and "make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood." But then note again verse 8 says if the mother is unable to afford the lamb for the burnt offering, she could replace that lamb with a second turtledove or a pigeon. And going back to our passage, Luke 2:24, we see that's exactly what Mary did. Luke 2:24 indicates that Mary along with Joseph offered a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord. That's Leviticus 12:6-8, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

And that tells us a few things. First, it tells us that Mary and Joseph, they were not a wealthy couple. You know, they couldn't afford a lamb for their sacrifice, so they brought an additional pair of doves or pigeons instead, which apparently was all they could afford. And this is yet another reminder that Jesus, though the eternal Son of God, as He came down to earth from the highest heaven, as He did so, He took His place in a family which couldn't even afford a lamb to commemorate His coming. This is very "Philippians 2-esque," speaking of the condescension of Christ in coming to earth in the way He did.

Second, on kind of a related note, this ties back to one of the Christmas sermons I preached last month on the mythology of Christmas. The point here that Joseph and Mary couldn't even afford a lamb to sacrifice to commemorate the coming of their Son, it suggests that they weren't yet in possession of the gold and the frankincense and the myrrh that the wise men would later bring. If they had gold and frankincense and myrrh at this time, guess what they could have afforded to bring as a sacrifice? A lamb. Gold was precious then as it is now. They could have used those valuable items had they had them to secure for themselves a lamb, but they didn't. And why? I won't bang on this drum too much more, because those wise men hadn't yet come, they still hadn't made their way from the east. The gifts weren't yet in Joseph and Mary's possession.

Third observation is that though a sin offering was made here, that sin offering was not made for the Lord Jesus Himself in whom as the perfect Son of God, we know there was no sin. Rather, Leviticus 12:7 even says, the offering was made to “make atonement for her,” meaning His mother, Mary, who like Joseph needed forgiveness, who needed redemption that her Son brought.

So Joseph and Mary were pious Jews, that's what we've seen here. They were faithful Israelites. They were very careful to keep the Mosaic Law. They faithfully observed each of the requirements of the Law of the Lord, whether those requirements dealt with circumcision or ritual cleansing or purification or presenting their child to the Lord or making these offerings. And as Luke wrote Theophilus what he wrote here about this meticulous piety of Joseph and Mary, note, he didn't write Theophilus these words to persuade Theophilus that he also needed to follow these Jewish rights. Luke didn't write Theophilus, a Gentile, to say to him, you are under the Law. No. Luke's purpose in the section we've been studying this morning was to explain how this Jewish Messiah, Jesus, who would become the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles, was born under the Law, Galatians 4:4. And why? Well, Galatians 4:5 explains, "So that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

That's where we'll end this morning, praising the Lord for His redemption and His adoption of us as sons.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for this section of Your Word in Luke's Gospel, which is one that we can, if we're not careful, look past, overlook, but it has such rich truth in it pertaining to the piety of the parents of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, their diligence to follow what Your Law had required. God, I pray that we would remember as we've seen from John 1:17, that the Law had its purpose, the Law came through Moses. At the same time grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. We praise You for Your perfect plan, Your perfect plan of history, Your perfect plan of redemption, Your plans for Israel, Your plans for the Church, and where those plans will even merge in the end. God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its clarity, we thank You for its inherent power and truth and we thank You that we can take these truths and live according to them. God, we pray that this truth would sink into the hearts of everyone here. For those who have believed, that we would be reminded of the grace we have been shown through Christ. And, again, if there's someone here who does not know you as Savior, I pray that today would be the day that the shackles of their sin would come off, that the weight of legal requirements would be unburdened, and that they would find freedom, hope, and salvation in Christ. It's in His name we pray, amen.