Luke 2

Luke 2:1-52

Subdivision 2. (Luke 2:1-52.)A Saviour, and a testimony to Him. As compared with Matthew -the only other Gospel which gives at all the circumstances of His birth or infancy -the account of the Lord’s coming into the world is clearly in keeping with the Gospel of the Manhood. There is no incident that the two have in common; and each maintains its own character with the most perfect consistency. In the one the Gentile magi may come to do homage to a King of the Jews; in the other, to shepherds in the field heaven opens to announce a Saviour. The testimony of Simeon and Anna is also to a Saviour and salvation. His circumcision, and the offerings at His presentation to the Lord, alike show Him to us in the “likeness of sinful flesh”; while His growth and development testify to the verity of His Manhood. These things are in full accord with the truth presented in Luke, -each one being necessary to it.

1. How thorough is the humiliation into which He is come is shown by the circumstances of His birth. Caesar is lord of the world, and orders it as he will, for his own purposes. How different a world from that which He had made at the beginning; yet He is in it as under Caesar’s rule, Joseph and Mary being brought out of Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled as of David’s line. Spite of all this, the power of the world is unconsciously working to fulfil a prophecy concerning One it knows not; and this being accomplished, the design drops through as if it had never been: “the census itself first took place when Cyrenius (or Quirinus) was governor of Syria” -some years afterward. Thus the Lord of all is born a Man, among men His creatures, and laid in a manger, because there is no room for them in the inn. Sad sign; surely, of men’s condition; when their Maker, come to be their Saviour, prophesied of in every particular as coming, heralded even now by angelic visitation; could come after all unnoticed and unknown!
2. As already said, in Luke the announcement is, not of a King of the Jews, but of a Saviour; and it is not to the great or wise, but “to the poor the gospel is preached.” To shepherds keeping watch over their flocks, the news is brought of the Good Shepherd who goeth after that which is lost; and here it is not a star in the heavens that is the sign, but heaven itself opens, and the angels bring a direct face to face message, while the glory of the Lord shines round about. Good tidings of great joy there are for all the people: a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And now there is a sign: what is it? Not a sign in heaven, but a little babe, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Not in a king’s palace, but lying in a manger! How unlike are the thoughts of God to those of men! The Deliverer is a Son of man; nay, the Seed of the woman. Divine power has clothed itself in weakness to accomplish that for which mere power was not competent: for the battle here is not to the strong; an infant bound in swaddling-bands is no symbol of strength, nor a manger that of favoring circumstances, but the very opposite. Still, in such a conflict as is here impending, difficulties may be used to manifest the overcomer, as darkness to bring out the stars, And in a world ruled by God, there must after all be victory in goodness, which the stripping off of mere strength may make plain; nay, the accumulation of all that we conceive as power on the opposite side. This little babe brings out the praise of angels, if the earth is silent and asleep. The hosts of heaven praise on man’s behalf, and with a fuller praise than when, at creation first, “all the sons of God shouted for joy:” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men.” Sin has dishonored God, and thus introduced conflict where all was harmony. Man; the image of God, set over all else on earth, has fallen lower than was possible for the beast, and after centuries of trial has only demonstrated the impossibility of self-recovery. The first man has had children in his own image, himself repeated in every one of them but too faithfully. But now, at last, there is a Second Man. At last God is glorified in the scene of His dishonor, nay, in a manner which has given heaven itself such a theme of praise as it has never known before. Here is for earth’s wounds a healing power, for its conflict peace, if delayed yet assured; and for men more than justification of wisdom’s old delight in them. The Second Man becomes the last Adam of a new humanity, the embrace of God for a renewed creation. So the angels depart, and the shepherds go their way to Bethlehem, to find all as the angels had declared, and to make known to others what they have heard and seen. All who hear it wonder; Mary ponders it in her heart; the shepherds praise and glorify God.
3. After the testimony of angels we have now that of the Spirit of God when Jesus is presented to the Lord: a fitting occasion; and the witness that of One who from the beginning inspired the prophets to speak and write of Him. Besides Simeon and Anna, the types and shadows of the Old Testament find here their suited place, though the Antitype of necessity transcends them all. (1) First, He is circumcised, and receives at that time the significant name given Him before His birth -that of Jesus. He is afterwards presented to the Lord as a first-born Son; or as the law expresses it, one opening the womb. While next we hear of a sacrifice presented on the part of His mother, as to which He declares in the burnt-offering psalm, “In the volume of the book it is written of Me” (Psalms 40:7). All this we must briefly look at. His circumcision; as the apostle says of this, makes Him “debtor to do the whole law” (Galatians 5:3). “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son; come of a woman, come under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). He thus pledges Himself to full legal obedience, which on His part is to have no relaxation. To others He is to be the Source of a grace which for Himself He is never to know. And the law itself marks out for Him a special place, apart from all others. At His circumcision it is that He receives the name of “Jesus” (Jehovah the Saviour) of which it was said, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). He comes under the law as the Redeemer from under it. As such we find Him directly under the law of the first-born; and presented to the Lord. Every first-born son is holy to the Lord, and thus God claims the whole family as His; thus He acknowledges the claim and presents them to Him. “We have already seen what family this is of which He is the First-born. It is not Mary’s; though through His mother He may have brethren merely human. But the true family must be sons of God, though also human. It is in the very idea, a human family, as He is presented as One opening the womb. On the other hand, the whole human family it is not; while yet again all men are invited and urged to become members of it. Those who do so are thus “sons of God, by faith, in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26), as He is true Man, and Son of God as Man also. In Hebrews, in which He is distinctly called “the First-born” (Hebrews 1:6), occurs the passage in which is affirmed at the same time His kinship with and His great diversity from, those whom, because they are all of one with Him, He is not ashamed to call His brethren (Hebrews 2:11). Yet He is the Sanctifier, they are the sanctified; and forasmuch as they are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same (ver. 14); for in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (ver. 17, Gk.). We see, then, what this relationship as First-born involves for Him. He is taking up a path peculiar to Himself. He is acknowledging the claim of God upon that family with which He is in true and abiding relationship, and who are in Him presented to God. But these are sinners: they are those who are to be “sanctified” by Him, -“sanctified,” as the epistle itself explains it, “by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 10:10), His priestly work is the offering of Himself (7: 27). Immediately here, therefore, the shadow of this tells over His path: Mary, His mother, must bring her offering for purification (see Leviticus 12:1-8, Notes). He is “in the likeness” -only in the likeness, but still that -“of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3).

His connection with a human mother brings for Him that shadow which acquired its fullest character, as it found its explanation; in the darkness of the Cross. He touches here the margin of that which Be was to know in all its dread reality. For He was to be Himself the sacrifice to put away the shadow, and that how gloriously! shadow dispelling shadow evermore. The sacrifice here is, as we know, the sacrifice of the poor. It is, at the same time, that which if it does not speak of fullest sacrifice, does surely of the Heavenly One; and the dove or pigeon is the only sacrificial bird required in the law. (2) It is as thus presented to the Lord that the testimony of the Spirit is given as to Him. We find once again the people who fear God, and with whom the secret of the Lord is, not among the heads of the nation, but little known of men; though in communion with one another as those upon whom the Spirit of God is. Of Simeon we know nothing but his character as just and pious and waiting for the consolation of Israel. It was not merely for his own; even spiritual good: his heart longed for the blessing of the people of God, keenly feeling their condition and what alone could meet it, -Who alone could bring effectual comfort. To him it was given by the Spirit to know that he should not see death till he had seen the Christ, Jehovah’s Anointed. He comes, therefore, into the temple at the time Jesus is brought in, and taking Him into his arms, breaks out in praise. This praise, moreover, goes far beyond the consolation of Israel, while it includes this: for the bud of God’s promise has a sweeter, richer unfolding than the promise itself implies. Simeon, no doubt, did not realize all that his words pointed to, and there were still developments to be in the day just dawning. (a) He begins with what is personal to himself. God is acting in His sovereignty, and he can rejoice: for sovereignty with Him means sovereign goodness; He has fulfilled His word to him, and now he may depart in peace. What, indeed, could man have sought or imagined on God’s part so blessed as He has done? Who could have thought of what the Babe in Simeon’s arms meant for the heart that could take it in? (b) Simeon knew, at last, that here was God’s salvation. If not as yet wrought out, here was the Worker of it; and his faith did not fail as he contemplated the weakness of those infant hands to which it had been committed. Already his eyes had seen it: a salvation which as such, though it might come from Israel, could not be shut up in Israel; nay, God had prepared it before the face of all the peoples. Could it be less in God’s desire than world-wide, with the same need on all sides calling for it? (c) Israel and the Gentiles must be both in the purpose of God; and so much had the Old Testament already declared should be; but Simeon puts them in another order than the Old Testament. “A light,” he says, “for the revelation of the nations:” to bring those that had been hidden; sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, into the light of divine blessing. And then “the glory of Thy people Israel.” But this will be more fully declared as we go on. (3) Simeon does not see the bright side only, nor imagine that even God’s message of salvation will be at once welcomed because of the need men have of it. While Joseph and Mary wonder at the things that are spoken of Him, he turns to the mother with the warning of what divine light will reveal as to the hearts of men. The Child was appointed for the fall as well as the rising up of many in Israel, and as a sign -surely the most significant that could he -yet to he spoken against. Yea. a sword would pierce through her own soul also. For the presence of Christ as light would bring all to light. (4) Anna completes the number of these witnesses. All else have failed with her; but she has been brought into the wilderness only that God may speak comfortably to her. She is a true child of Asher, the “happy,” and of Phanuel, the “face of God;” her name Anna, “grace,” identifying her with the principle of a life like hers, where fastings and prayers are but love’s service, and her prophesying the outflow of intercourse with God. A blessed picture! Christ will surely be with such the thanksgiving of the heart, and the theme of the tongue. Already it was so with those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. 4. The visit of the magi and the consequent flight into Egypt are omitted in this Gospel; on the other hand we have here the only notice of the Lord’s youth. It naturally finds its place in the Gospel of the Manhood, being evidently intended to show the truly human development of this. The words are simple and natural, with no pretentiousness of knowledge and yet no plea of ignorance; no apology indeed of any kind; no attempt at explanation or reconciliation. We find in them a true, while yet a perfect Child; growing mentally, just as we have no doubt He grew in body; filled with wisdom, no room in Him for folly at any time: His heart turned constantly to God, and so the favor of God resting ever upon Him. Little do we realize how spiritual aim affects the mental capacity. These points are at the end of the chapter taken up once more and emphasized: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Between these statements we have that story of His youth, which shows what His aim was, -the way in which already, at twelve years old, He was occupied with His Father’s business. This was the age at which the Jewish child began to come up to Jerusalem at the festivals; and here for the first time it was, no doubt, that the schools of the greater Rabbis were open to Him. How great must have been the attraction to Him of the teaching and discussions of the spiritual leaders of Israel, with whom He was to be in relations so different at a later time! Thus He remains at Jerusalem, after the company with whom He had been had left it on the return to Galilee, and is found there by Joseph and His mother on the third day “in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.” Yet how little did those know Him who should have known Him best upon earth! “And when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother” -she who had learnt of Him from angels, lips, and had been pondering in her heart so much already -“said to Him, Child, why hast Thou dealt thus with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee in distress.” From the mere human side of things that was no wonder; but alas that we should be so much at the mere human side of things! “And He said unto them, Why is it that ye sought Me? did ye not know that I ought to be about My Father’s business?” It is strange indeed that any should think that this was His own waking up to such a thought. For in this case how could He speak of it as a strange thing that they should not before have had this thought? On the contrary, it is plain they ought to have understood it from all that they had ever seen of Him. This absolute devotedness had been His “wisdom” ever, only manifested more as His child-life expanded into youth and manhood. Thus this visit to Jerusalem, and to what He afterwards used to call His Father’s house, comes in between His earlier and His later life in Nazareth, giving the character of it all, while He filled too His place in that human family life, which was His Father’s will for Him, subject to the authority of those who at best knew Him so little. Still His mother kept in her heart and thought upon what was still beyond her, God’s favor towards Him more and more manifesting itself as the development went on of that which, for the present, drew out man’s favor also.

For as yet He had not come forth into that place of public ministry and appeal on God’s part which would lead on to His rejection by those after whom in grace He had come, and for one brief, awful moment to the transcendent sorrow of the abandonment of the cross also. But thus were His words to be fulfilled, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32).