CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Offered up with Jesus

The Presentation | February 2, 2020

By The Rev. Robert Fruehwirth

CAMINANDO WITH JESUS is a series of reflections on the Sunday Gospel by clergy and laity from across the Diocese.

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When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

"Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."

And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed-- and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

- Luke 2:22-40

Walking with Jesus is not merely following him. It is also watching him, learning from him and even awkwardly imitating him. We watch how Jesus relates to others and try this on for ourselves, however imperfectly. We experiment with walking the way of Jesus in our own lives. We practice compassion and care.

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus, February 2, seems to offer us little, however, to imitate. Jesus himself does not do anything. He is an infant who cannot walk or talk. His parents carry him to the Temple in Jerusalem, at the appointed time, to offer him to God. Two young turtledoves are sacrificed to seal this offering and Simeon, seeing the Holy Family, and full of God’s Holy Spirit, prophesies. He sees in Jesus the salvation of the Gentiles and the Jews. He sees that he will also be rejected and Mary will suffer with him. Anna the Prophetess, watching this, offers her own praise to God. There is great drama here, and great movement, but Jesus himself does nothing. He allows himself to be offered.

In this minimal action, this passive suffering, of allowing himself to be offered, we can however find a deep wisdom for ourselves.

There are times in our lives when it seems that we can do nothing for God. Perhaps we are racked with pain in a hospital bed. Perhaps we are exhausted and growing frail, unable to direct our day to day lives. Perhaps our prayer life seems dry, artificial, unconnected. Perhaps we feel lost, confused, even abandoned by God. Or perhaps we have welcomed a newborn child and are addled by lack of sleep. At times like these the Church exists to hold us, sustain us and offer us up to God, like Mary and Joseph and Simeon offered Jesus. We can follow our Lord Jesus by allowing ourselves be offered by others when we cannot do this ourselves.

Practically, we can tell our pastor, a friend or a spiritual confidant about our unfortunate state and ask for their prayers. We ask for their prayers, however, not to make our situation necessarily better, but that our situation, our dereliction, might itself be the means of our being offered to God in a new way. Another way of saying this is that we can surrender to God through surrender to our current helpless state. We release our resistance to this current state, our sickness, our exhaustion or whatever it may be. We can let this dereliction itself be our prayer. When we allow the sacrifice to happen, when we release ourselves with acceptance, new life invariably flows in.

In the end, after Jesus has grown up and we have walked with him in his miraculous ministry in Israel, we will journey with him to Jerusalem. After years of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God in word and dead—driving out demons, healing the sick, forgiving sinners, eating with prostitutes and tax collectors, and preaching to multitudes—we will see Jesus again reduced to immobility and weakness on the Cross, like he was when he was offered as a baby at the Temple. We will see Simeon’s prophecy come true as Jesus allows himself to be offered once again—offered because he remained steadfast in his loving response to God and his love for us.

Jesus and God never want us to stay in situations of suffering, or relationships that are abusive or demeaning. God and the Spirit always want us to take mature responsibility to seek what is life-giving for ourselves. But at the same time, even as we make the best choices that we can for ourselves there will always be situations of suffering and inability and exhaustion through which we can do nothings surrender to God, though which we can allow ourselves to be offered to God.

The miracle of the Church is that, by the love we share, our worship together, our affection and lives lived together, we have a community of people who carry us in prayer through these times, who are in a way the very one who will offer us to God when we have no strength to offer ourselves. This community of friends in Jesus, keeping us in Jesus when we cannot keep ourselves, makes all the difference in world for our lives in God. This community, loving and keeping us, suffering with us and offering us up, is what enables our suffering to be a true offering to God, and ultimately life-giving for the world.

The Rev. Robert Fruehwirth is the rector of St. Matthew's, Hillsborough.