Scripture Study for
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Genesis 15:1–6; 21: 1–3 / Psalm 105:7a, 8a / Hebrews 11:8, 11–12, 17–19 / Luke 2:22–40 [22, 39–40]
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Understanding the Word
By Br. John R. Barker, OFM
The story of Israel commences with an elderly, childless couple to whom God promises countless descendants. The Lectionary reading begins with the initial promise to Abram, made in response to his complaint that all of the blessings he had received will pass to his servant—an unsubtle critique that the promise of descendants has not been fulfilled. In an intervening passage (Genesis 17) God makes this already improbable promise even more unlikely by insisting that ninety-year-old Sarah will be the mother of those countless descendants. The increasingly implausible promise of descendants, however, is finally fulfilled, setting the biblical precedent that God has the power and the will to bring life where it does not seem possible.
In his Letter to the Hebrews the author here focuses on the faith of Abraham, who trusted in God’s promises (Genesis 12:1–7). When God told Abraham to leave his family and go “to a land that I will show you,” he went. Abraham also believed that God would produce an heir through Sarah—and so it happened. The most difficult act of faith came when God, without explanation, commanded Abraham to sacrifice that very same heir (Genesis 22). Although the Genesis account reveals nothing of Abraham’s thoughts about this command, the author of Hebrews draws on the tradition that Abraham trusted God to raise up his sacrificed son, a symbol of the resurrection of God’s own sacrificed Son.
The central theme of the Gospel reading is fulfillment. The Holy Family fulfills the law, obeying it by circumcising Jesus (2:21) and now presenting him to God. According to Exodus 13:11–16, the firstborn male was to be set aside exclusively for God. Usually, the child was redeemed, “bought back,” for five shekels. Jesus is not redeemed, however, because he will remain consecrated to God. The purification of the mother, who became ritually unclean during childbirth for seven days, lasted for thirty-three days after that; then she could once again enter the temple. Jesus himself fulfills God’s promises to Israel. Both Simeon and Anna represent pious Jews who trusted in these promises. They thus represent also those who would recognize and favorably receive Jesus as the Christ.