I know this is not a perfect analogy. You could poke holes in it if you wanted to. But here we go anyway – the movie 42 is based on the story of Jackie Robinson breaking the color lines in professional baseball. Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was, of course, instrumental in all of this. But it was Jackie who put a target on his back and endured the snide comments, the threats, the insane rules, so that he could forge a path for others to follow. Doors were wrenched off their hinges because of the bravery of two men (probably more). And the black community breathed hope. A similar thing happened when Barack Obama was elected president. Someone has to be the first and it is often the first who bears the brunt of mistrust and outrage; it is the first who has to be especially mindful of the watchers who are looking for any reason to cast dispersions on the whole mess. Now this is where the analogy falls apart. Jesus was not only the first; he was the only one.
The beginning of Jesus’ life is, like the whole of his life, about fulfillment. The story of Jesus is not just about a savior. It is about the first and only perfect man; the ideal man who was able to live the way God had intended. No one has or will come close. The Garden fiasco issued a disease into creation. A disease that infected everyone. We can debate at what point mankind becomes susceptible to the disease, but most will agree that at some point mankind is indeed infected. We are sinners. What do we do about the sin problem? Jesus is the answer. And if he is to be the answer, then his entire life as a man must be fulfillment.
So, when the eight days of his baby life were fulfilled or completed, he was circumcised. The law was honored and fulfilled. Luke is the only evangelist who tells us of the circumcision. The other gospel writers probably thought, “Well, of course he was circumcised. He was Jewish you know.” They didn’t feel the need to point out the obvious. So, why did Luke? Because this whole passage is about fulfillment. That is why it is important to stick to the original language as much as possible. A translation like “the eight days had passed” misses what Luke is doing. This is about the perfect ideal man starting out fulfilling, although at this point, credit goes to his physical parents. Circumcision is when a male was considered to be child of the law; a true Israelite. And, as we saw with John, so also Jesus, was named when he was circumcised. As mentioned before, this may have been a family tradition.
And then when the days for their purification were fulfilled, they make their way to Jerusalem. This is in accordance with Leviticus 12:1-8. If the child were a male, on the fortieth day, the mother was to be purified. It was only the mother who was commanded to be purified and yet Luke has “their purification.” Some later manuscripts tried to clean this up and changed “their” to “her.” Luke may have been referring to “Israel” when he wrote “their” or he may have intended his readers to view it as a family event. After all, the whole family made the trek to Jerusalem. But what is important is that Mary fulfilled the prescription of the Law.
It seems likely that as they had already traveled to Jerusalem to fulfill the purification law, they took this opportunity to fulfill the dedication of the first born to Yahweh law found in Exodus 13:2. Some have argued that this command does not necessitate a dedication ceremony such as we find here, but we have evidence of such a ceremony in Nehemiah 10:36. Luke got it right after all. But the most important thing is not that Luke is vindicated. Doubters will doubt regardless. The truly important thing is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law from the very beginning of his life. Everything is being done correctly. He is the ideal man (well baby at this point in the story). He was dedicated and sacrifices were made. And although it is not the point of the reference, we can know that Mary and Joseph were relatively poor. They substituted pigeons for the required lamb offering (Leviticus 5:7). Even in poverty the law was fulfilled.
Jesus was the first and only person to fulfill all of the requirements of the law. He is the trailblazer of our faith. And that’s a good thing. Because I have the disease. I am a sinner. I cannot fulfill the requirements of the law. But Jesus did and the sin problem has been sufficiently dealt with. I stand before my God righteous because Jesus, even in his infancy, was all about fulfilling. He blazed the trail and I stumble along after him; always striving to follow in his footsteps. It is about direction. Follow the fulfiller!