February 01st, 2020

This Sunday is extremely special. Since February 2nd is on a Sunday, and February 2nd is the fortieth day after Christmas, this Sunday we celebrate ‘The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord’. It is a significant festival that points to Christ, and so it takes over the readings for the Sunday. The gospel text is from the only place where we know that visit to Jerusalem happened, in the Gospel according to Luke [2:22-32].

With the ‘Presentation of Our Lord’, there is the presentation of Jesus into the temple. This is a special visit to a special place by a special person. And you probably know that something special is going to happen.

Simeon ends up saying some very special things. I would like to focus on basically just one word that he says: face. That word, unfortunately, does not end up in the ESV. The following is a more literal translation: ‘My eyes saw your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples (verses 30-31).’

It is interesting that the word ‘face’ does not even appear in some ancient manuscripts. Why? It seems that the writer liked to describe being ‘before’ someone, rather than use a reference to ‘face’. He uses that other way in Luke 1:15 (‘he will be great before the Lord’), 1:17 (‘and he will go before him’), 1:19 (‘I am Gabriel, the one standing before God’), 1:75 (‘in holiness and righteousness before him’), and 1:76 (‘he will go before the Lord to prepare his ways’; these translations are also very literal). So, it makes sense that one would expect him to use the word ‘before’ as he did before.

In the previous verses, he was even talking about God or a person, and both of those things have faces! But now, he chooses to say that there is a face ‘of all the peoples’. This is the more difficult reading, the one you would not expect, and, therefore, probably the original reading.

Why was it important for him to say that there was a face of all the peoples? That is a difficult perspective to have. We usually attribute a face to ourselves, and we may attribute a face to God, but we usually do not attribute a face to all the peoples.

With this phrase, and given the way that the writer used similar words before this, I cannot help but think of the word ‘gospel’ as it was used in the Old Testament. It was a word that was used when a significant message went from the battlefield to the king (see 1 Samuel 4:17). But it was also used for other things. Essentially it is an important message that goes from one significant place to another. And I believe the writer is saying that the world is a significant place. And Jesus’ arrival is a significant event.

Lest we forget: the world also has a face. That is what we have in the book of Genesis, in the creation account. Talk about a bigger perspective. With this perspective, individualism is not even given a chance.

All peoples are significant. As a whole, they have a face. It is interesting that, when the Lord breathes into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, the Greek translation says that he breathed into his face. The face is an important thing. It is a special thing.
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I have probably heard of this before and just forgot, and perhaps you have as well, but I read this week that there are seven parts to a person’s face—seven being a significant number in the bible (two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and one mouth; see TDNT, volume 6, page 774). That may be another simple reminder of how special we are.