Text: Exodus 13:1-3a, 11-15
Date: Christmas I + 12/27/15
On this third day of Christmas the word of God tells us about the thirty-third day after Jesus’ circumcision. We will celebrate the circumcision of our Lord on the eighth day according to the Law of Moses, on January first, the eighth day according to the Church’s calendar when Jesus was circumcised in His home town of Bethlehem. The next important requirement of the Law of God, however, was the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus, her first-born, with the appointed sacrifice. This is one of the oldest and most important of God’s covenantal laws as we heard its institution immediately preceding the Passover Exodus of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. It was to remind and remember that fundamental, original deliverance by God. God’s final plague and sign to Pharaoh was the death of all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. So now God claims the firstborn of His people and their beasts as sacrifices of praise to Him, a reminder of God’s original deliverance. When asked by your son what this ceremony means they were to say, “I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.” To redeem means to buy back, to save by means of paying the redemption price. Today we hear of the Redeemer being redeemed, that is, dedicated to the service of the God who sent Him. He Himself would be the redemption price for the salvation of the whole world, for your salvation. Continue reading “Redeem the Redeemer”