Let’s go for a walk. Are you ready?
I enjoy a good walk. I’ve taken some walks around downtown this past month, getting to know our immediate neighborhood, as well as some walks—and runs—in the neighborhood where I live.
For me, walks are enjoyable, and they’re good exercise, too. I don’t know about you, but I have consumed an above-average amount of calories these past few weeks, so exercise is especially important right now.
So come on, let’s go for a walk.
In fact, let’s walk with Mary and Joseph and their now 5 ½ week-old baby Jesus. They are walking to Jerusalem – it’s a long walk. It’s gonna take several days.
You may ask why anyone with a 5 ½ week-old baby would take such a journey. Why don’t they just wait?
The answer to that is found in the ancient book of Leviticus.
Leviticus, chapter 12, states: eight days after the birth of a male child, the child is to be circumcised. Then, 33 days after that, the woman’s days of purification will be complete. At that time, she shall bring to the priest in the temple a lamb in its first year, and a pigeon or turtledove, for an offering.
If she cannot afford a lamb, then two pigeons or two turtledoves will suffice.
Joseph and Mary could not afford a lamb. A lamb was way beyond what they could afford. So when they arrive at the temple, they will go to the sellers in the temple courtyard, and buy two pigeons, or two turtledoves; even that is a stretch for their budget.
But they will go to the temple, and they will make their offering, even though it is a big sacrifice for them, because they are faithful and devout.
But we’re not at the temple yet; we’re still several miles away, so let’s keep walking.
If you look up ahead, you can already see the temple, rising up into the sky. The massive structure was built atop a hill; the walls are 150 feet high, all made of gleaming, polished, green and white marble.
The area within the walls is as big as 14 football fields. The walls mark the perimeter of a massive building… and on what could be called the roof of this massive building are more walls surrounding multiple courtyards.
In the center of these courtyards is the Holy Place, a two-room sanctuary used by the priests, which rises up even higher into the sky.
This is the largest human-made structure on earth! It was built by Herod, for the Jews, but mostly for himself, as a way to draw attention to his own might and authority. Herod called himself the king of the Jews, and the building of the temple was his way of saying to the Jews: look what I did for you; now, what are you going to do for me?
As we journey to Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary, the temple, rising ahead of us, reaching up the sky, is truly magnificent.
For Mary and Joseph, what a difference this is from that dark, dank, drafty, smelly stable where Jesus was born…
We’re almost there; let’s keep walking. The road here is busy and well-worn. If a legion of Roman soldiers comes our way, be sure to stand aside and keep your eyes down until they pass…
Finally we approach the outer wall of the temple, and we can’t help but reach out with our hands and touch the massive carved rock, and we can’t help but lean our heads back and look up. It makes one dizzy, to look at something so tall; it’s even higher than the birds in flight!
We start up the outer stairs. They lead to a doorway located about halfway up the wall. There, we enter the opening.
Our eyes adjust to the darkness, and we see a large passageway… and more stairs.
We take those stairs up, and up, and up… all the way to the top, and we emerge onto the outer courtyard, the Court of Gentiles.
This courtyard is huge. It is surrounded by massive porticos.
The Court of Gentiles is where the vendors were located. In fact, this outer court was like a giant bazaar. There, vendors sold the lambs and pigeons and turtledoves that weary travelers required in order to make their offerings.
These vendors wouldn’t accept just any money, however. Roman money bearing the likeness of Caesar was forbidden for temple transactions; so, alongside the vendors there were also money changers. You could give your Roman money to them, and they would give you temple money.
Every time money was exchanged, taxes were levied and profits were made. It was quite a racket. You exchange your Roman money for Jewish coins, and you lose some to taxes and to the money changers profit. Then you make a purchase from the vendor, but you lose some more money to taxes and the vendor’s profit.
But what choice did you have? What other options were there? For Mary and Joseph, transporting a lamb (if they could have afforded a lamb) or even a pair of turtledoves from back home would have been impossible. Yes, they were being ripped off by the vendors and the moneychangers, but that’s just the way it was.
Mary and Joseph purchase their offering, and now we walk with them across the Court of Gentiles to a gate that leads to a smaller, inner courtyard that, by itself, is still as big as two football fields… and there, at the gate, we see a sign, written in Greek, warning non-Jews to pass no further, or they would be put to death.
In the ancient world, everyone had their place in society, and the boundaries that separated people by category were firm. Both Jewish holiness codes and the Roman codes of conduct enforced this separation of people.
For the Jews, it was about purity. For the Romans, it was about maintaining social order. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, everyone had their place in society, and that place needed to be respected.
Mary and Joseph are Jews, so they are allowed into the next courtyard, which is called the Court of Women. It’s called that because that’s as far into the temple as women were allowed.
Years later, this court is where Jesus would do much of his teaching, all those times when scripture says he was teaching in the temple. Anytime you read in the gospels about Jesus teaching in the temple, you should picture this courtyard.
At some point in all this, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus attract the attention of a man—a righteous and devout man—named Simeon.
And they also attract the attention of an elderly woman named Anna, described in Luke’s gospel as a prophet and a widow.
Because she’s a widow—with no children to care for her, apparently—she has no home. There was no social security, no safety net. Widows almost always found themselves without means of support, and thus, without a home.
In Anna’s case, Luke says she lived there at the temple, never leaving. Perhaps she slept under the colonnade surrounding the courtyard at night.
In Luke’s gospel, Simeon and Anna are lifted up as people of wisdom and faithfulness. They are the “holy people” in this story: the ones guided by the Spirit, who recognize the significance of this moment: the arrival of Jesus and his parents.
Neither one of them is described as a priest. Where are the priests? The priests don’t appear at all in this story. All this takes place in the temple; there must have been priests around. But Luke doesn’t mention them.
Because Luke isn’t impressed by titles. Luke isn’t impressed by the magnificence of the temple, and the rituals that take place there. Luke isn’t impressed by displays of human power and strength and authority
This, according to Luke, is all part of the great reversal that is central to the gospel. The people with power, the wealthy ones, the rulers—they are not first in God’s kingdom.
But Anna, the poor widow; and Simeon, the faithful-yet-humble servant of the Lord; they are lifted up as models of faith. They are the ones who matter, and it is their words and their actions that Luke includes in the story.
Now, think back to what has happened already: the announcement of Jesus’ birth was not made to the priests, but to shepherds in the field. Filthy young men who probably were prone to cursing on occasion, who were so desperate to make any kind of a living that they left their homes to go and live out in the fields…
Where were the priests then? They weren’t at the stable. They weren’t in the countryside ministering to the shepherds. They were busy worrying and working, spending all their energy trying to maintain Herod’s favor so that the mighty fist of Rome didn't come crashing down on them.
Which it would seventy years later.
There is so much irony here. The massive, gleaming temple, financed by Herod, overseen by Herod-approved priests in their fancy clothes… and yet Luke pays so little attention to any of that. Luke is not impressed. In fact, Luke is making an emphatic point here, that those whose attention is drawn to the grandeur of the temple miss the truly important thing that is happening here.
They miss seeing God.
Because God is not in the glitz and the glamor. God is not in the gleaming white and green marble, polished and shining in the sun. God is not in the orchestration of orderly conduct, with separate courtyards for people depending on their status in society … “separate but equal” courtyards.
God is not there in “separate but equal.”
This is Luke’s message. This is the point Luke is making.
As travelers to Jerusalem, our eyes are drawn to the gleaming, polished marble rising to the sky. Our attention is drawn to power, to wealth, to grandeur, to celebrity.
But Luke says no. No, no, no. Luke says: that’s not what you should be paying attention to.
Because the real wonder, the real holy of holies, is among the poor and the humble.
It’s among people like Simeon.
People like Anna.
And people like a baby born in a stable, whose parents were so poor, they couldn’t even afford a lamb.
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