Luke 22:22-24

‘And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male which opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”, and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons”.'.

According to the law of Moses every firstborn male of Israel belonged to God for the purpose of service in God's Dwellingplace, because they were seen as having been redeemed by God at the Passover and therefore as having become His. Initially a sacrifice would be offered on their behalf. But then, in order that they might redeemed from the obligation of service at the Tabernacle/Temple (they had been substituted by the Levites) five shekels had to be paid to a priest at least one moon period after the birth (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12; Numbers 18:15; compare 1 Samuel 1:24). Although all this would be done Luke does not mention it because what he is interested in is the presentation of Jesus to God as holy. All the rest is merely background.

Furthermore when a woman bore a male child she was seen as fully ritually unclean for seven days, (making unclean any who came in contact with her or entered her room), and after that she was secondarily unclean for another thirty three days. During that period of forty days she was not allowed to enter the Temple or take part in a religious ceremony (on bearing a girl child it was for eighty days). At the end of forty days her purification would be complete. Then at the end of the forty days she had to offer up a lamb as a ‘whole burnt offering' (literally ‘that which goes up'), an offering of atonement, dedication and worship, and a pigeon for a ‘purification for sin sacrifice', a sacrifice for dealing with and removing sin. But in the case of the poor they could offer instead two pigeons, one of the pigeons replacing the lamb. See for the regulations Leviticus 12. These regulations appear to have been slightly relaxed by Jesus' day so that two young pigeons were seen as sufficient for any woman whether poor or not. Thus this offering need not indicate that they were poor.

There was no obligation to actually bring the child to the Temple, but women who lived not too far from the Temple would want to take the opportunity of showing off their babies when they came to offer their offerings. To have a male child was a triumph and an occasion for gratitude.

The purpose of all these offerings was redemption and atonement. The idea would seem to be that child birth was a constant reminder of the woman's part in the sin of Eden. Every child birth harked back to that day and thus to the need for both atonement, and cleansing from impurity, for the woman. Furthermore the baby would over the period be made constantly ritually unclean by his contact with his mother and the afterbirth, thus he too would need to be ritually ‘purified'.

‘As it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male which opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.” Luke is not actually citing a particular verse (although it may have been found like this in a compendium of Jewish or Christian sayings) but is combining the ideas found in a number of Scripture verses e.g. Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12; Exodus 13:15; Numbers 18:15.

Thus Jesus' mother and father brought Him to the Temple to present Him before God, having carried out the necessary requirements for ‘their' purification. This ‘their' may mean that of the mother and child, or it may have been including the father. He would carry the taint of uncleanness from his contact with his wife. We must distinguish the ‘purifying from uncleanness' from the sacrifices which followed, which were for atonement, although they too purified in their own way. In all this God's ordinances were gladly and religiously fulfilled. Jesus was a full Jew, as He had to be for ‘salvation was of the Jews' as the Old Testament made clear (John 4:22), and the Jews would not have accepted anyone who did not completely fulfil the Law.

It should be noted that Jesus constantly fulfilled all Jewish requirements, even when it was not necessary in His own case because of His sinlessness. This was in order to ‘fulfil all righteousness', that is, do what was right for a man to do and come nothing short of what God required of Israel, of which He had voluntarily become a member. For Israel was summed up in Him. This would, as we know, include participation in the Passover. He participated in these ceremonies in His capacity as representative on behalf of the whole of Israel for whom He was ‘born under the Law' (Galatians 4:4) and for Whom He would be the bearer of sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But note how Luke skirts over the detail of the ceremonial. He is more concerned to emphasise that Jesus was presented to God as One Who was holy before the Lord. The ceremonial was secondary. And he makes no mention of the payment of the five shekels which released Jesus from the obligation of Temple service. He is rather concerned with the fact that Jesus was being offered to God for a greater service. Nevertheless he lays great stress on His parent's obedience to God's command in carrying out all that was required of them, emphasising their continual piety and obedience to the Law (Luke 22:22; Luke 22:27; Luke 22:39). Until the cross and resurrection such fulfilment was fully required.