Two Young Pigeons

In the great temple courts, rich families lead lambs to the priests. And one young couple, carrying a baby, hand over a small cage with two little birds inside. It is all they can afford.

About six weeks have passed since Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Now Mary and Joseph make the short journey north, just a few miles, to Jerusalem. Ahead of them rises the temple, rebuilt and expanded by King Herod, its white stone and gold gleaming in the sun. It was the centre of Israel's worship, crowded with pilgrims, priests, and the sounds of animals and prayers. Mary and Joseph have not come as tourists. They have come because the law of Moses asks two things of a family like theirs, and they intend to keep it.

Luke says the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished. The law said that after giving birth to a son, a mother waited forty days, and then came to the sanctuary with an offering, to be declared ceremonially clean and able to take part in worship again. This was not a punishment. It was part of the rhythm of life God had given Israel, a way of marking birth, and blood, and new beginnings, before God. So Mary had counted the days. And now the time had come.

There was a second reason too. They had brought Jesus, Luke says, to present him to the Lord. He quotes the law: every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Ever since the night of the Passover in Egypt, when God spared Israel's firstborn sons, every firstborn son belonged to God in a special way. So Mary and Joseph carry their son up the temple steps and hold him out before the Lord. In a sense, they were giving him back to God. Of course, this child had been God's all along.

Then came the offering. The law asked a new mother to bring a year-old lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove. But Luke tells us what Mary and Joseph actually offered: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. That was the gift the law allowed for a family who could not afford a lamb. So with this one small detail, Luke tells us something important. Mary and Joseph were poor. The Son of God, the King promised to David's family, grew up in a home where a lamb was too expensive. Heaven's Saviour came to the world through a family that counted every coin.

The law said that a firstborn son should be redeemed, bought back, with a payment of five shekels of silver given to the priests. It was a reminder that the child's life was a gift from God. Interestingly, Luke does not mention any payment. He only tells us that Jesus was presented to the Lord. Luke seems more interested in showing that this child was given to God than in the price.

You'll find this visit in Luke chapter two, verses twenty-two to twenty-four. A poor family, two young birds, and a baby given to God. And in the very next verses, an old man named Simeon is about to walk in. So here is a question to carry with you. What small, honest offering could you bring to God this week, even if it doesn't seem like much?