The comfortable days at the shepherd's house continued. The shepherd's wife, experienced in caring for mothers and children, helped Mary fully recover. Joseph assisted the shepherd whenever he could. Though his skills as a carpenter weren't directly useful for tending sheep, he did his best by repairing the shepherd's hut and making staffs and various tools.
Occasionally, the boy would visit Joseph on days when he wasn't selling grain with his father. As it turned out, he too was a descendant of King David, making them distant relatives, yet bringing them closer together. According to the boy, his father still did not acknowledge baby Jesus as the Messiah. But, unable to ignore even a small possibility, he sent his son to build a relationship-though Joseph felt there was no need to judge this before speaking directly with the boy's father.
Thus, thirty-three days passed.
The law specified a period for a woman who gave birth to become clean. A woman who bore a male child was unclean for seven days, and then needed thirty-three more days to be purified from her bleeding. For a female child, she was unclean for fourteen days, and then needed sixty-six days to be purified. During this time, the woman was permitted to refrain from all outside activities and rest at home. At the end of this period, she would go to the temple to offer sacrifices for burnt offering and sin offering, usually requiring a year-old lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove. If one couldn't afford a lamb, two turtledoves or two young pigeons could be substituted.
Joseph and Mary decided to offer two pigeons according to their means. The shepherd offered to give them a year-old lamb, but both Joseph and Mary declined, feeling it was right to offer what they could afford.
Additionally, they had to offer a redemption price for their firstborn son. God had said to Aaron, Moses' brother, in the wilderness:
“Everything that opens the womb, of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal, shall be yours. Nevertheless you shall surely redeem the firstborn of man, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. Those who are to be redeemed from a month old you shall redeem, according to your estimation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which weighs twenty gerahs.”
Having prepared the five shekels of silver for this redemption price, Joseph and Mary purified themselves by immersing in a mikveh, then set out for Jerusalem.
Bethlehem was a village south of Jerusalem, and by taking the mountain path, they entered through the western gate of the city. Entering the gate, Herod's palace and the Hasmonean dynasty's palace could be seen on either side, with the grand buildings of the upper city stretching out, though none could compare to the beauty of the temple. Passing through the walls surrounding the temple, enormous colonnades with gold-plated roofs came into view. Joseph and Mary walked through the colonnades gleaming in the morning sunlight and entered the Court of the Gentiles.
"Excuse me."
"Yes?"
It was an old man. With his white hair and gentle smile, he looked as peaceful as an angel.
"My name is Simeon. The Lord once told me that I would not die before seeing the Messiah, and believing this word, I have lived my whole life waiting for the Messiah. Today, the Holy Spirit led me to the temple, and I saw you and the baby. This is the Messiah, isn't it?"
Joseph and Mary smiled at the old man. Feeling that God was continually giving them joy, their hearts were filled with greater emotion than ever before.
"May I hold him for a moment?"
"Yes, of course."
Holding the baby close to his chest, Simeon praised God and said:
"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
Simeon handed the baby back to Mary and said:
Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against-yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul-so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
Simeon's words were deeply meaningful, but he left the temple without any further explanation.
"Did he just say that because of this child, a sword will pierce through my soul?"
"That's how I understood it too... But what does it mean that he's destined to cause the falling and rising of many, and to be a sign that will be spoken against?"
Both of their faces hardened a little.
"It seems God is planning something beyond what He has revealed to us."
"It would be nice if He told us everything from the beginning..."
Joseph bit his lip hard, but soon relaxed his face again.
"Mary, let's not worry. All the days we've lived so far have been possible only by the Lord's grace. Our marriage, meeting good people in Bethlehem-these weren't our own doing but God's guidance. Shouldn't we just keep trusting in God going forward?"
"You're right. Whatever path He leads us on, it will all lead to grace. Come on, let's not dwell on this. Let's quickly go do what we need to do."
"Alright."
The couple bought two pigeons with the money they brought and went to the priest. This was to offer a burnt offering pleasing to God and a sin offering for cleansing, as prescribed by the law. After this, they would offer the redemption price for their firstborn son. As God told Moses in the wilderness, all firstborns belong to God:
"Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine."
This precious son given by God would also be called the Lord's holy one. Though He was holy from the beginning as the Messiah, these rituals still held meaning. It was the process of becoming truly God's-becoming a Jew as Abraham's descendant through circumcision, and becoming a holy firstborn dedicated to God among Jews through the redemption price. Whatever God plans through Him, it will unfold entirely under God's good will.
As they were doing this, a woman was watching from afar. Her name was Anna. She was the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She had been married for seven years before becoming a widow, and she never left the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer until she was eighty-four. Moved by the Holy Spirit, she spoke to those around her:
"Look, this child is the Messiah we have been waiting for."
Those who heard her words looked at the couple performing the purification rites. But to their eyes, the couple's appearance was too shabby. A man dressed like a shepherd and a woman wearing patched clothes-they were clearly poor people. How could the Messiah be born to such people? It seemed impossible.
It's true they had long been waiting for Jerusalem's salvation, but the Messiah they hoped for didn't look like this. The people who most resembled the Messiah they were waiting for were Alexander and Aristobulus, sons of Herod and Mariamne I. With their flawless appearance and good family background, if they hadn't been executed by King Herod, everyone would have pushed for them to become king. These people had no eyes to recognize a Messiah born in the lowest place.
They still failed to realize that what mattered was not their own thoughts and judgments, but God's direct words. They considered their own fantasies about the Messiah more important than God's word. Not knowing God's word shown through Scripture at all was a problem, but misinterpreting it as they pleased and insisting only their interpretation was correct was an even bigger problem. No matter how much they longed for salvation and dedicated themselves to it, how could God's word be properly seen by those trapped in wrong thinking? The people to whom God revealed the Messiah through the Holy Spirit were not these who had eyes but could not see, but the old man and widow who had served in lowly positions all their lives.
As Joseph and Mary finished all the rituals and were leaving the temple, a group of people appeared from the direction of the Garden of Gethsemane on the east side of the temple. It was the group of wise men from the East who had finally arrived in Jerusalem via Jericho and Bethany. Following the Jewish tradition for entering Jerusalem, they purified themselves by immersing their whole bodies in water, put on their best clothes, and entered the temple through the eastern gate called the Shushan Gate. Reaching Solomon's Colonnade in the Court of the Gentiles, they began asking people around:
"Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him."
People began to be bewildered by the question from these clearly high-ranking individuals. The Messiah was born? Where? The commotion began to spread.
The passage from Exodus 13:1–2, Numbers 18:15–16, Matthew 2:2, Luke 2:29-32, 34-35 quoted in this narrative is taken directly from the World English Bible (WEB) translation.
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