The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is a minor festival, that doesn’t often fall on Sunday: the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of our Lord. Before we zoom in on the details of the story, let’s first zoom out and see the big picture, and the importance of the setting. This took place at the Temple in Jerusalem, which was the center of all the worship life of the Jews. At the Temple God located Himself for His people. At the Temple God placed His Name and His presence, to hear His people’s prayers, to receive their repentance and accept sacrifices for purification and for the forgiveness of sins, and to make His Name great throughout the earth (2 Chron. 6). The significance of the Temple as where God located His mercy and forgiveness is huge—and especially when we consider that the New Testament teaches that this “located-ness” of God’s mercy moves from the Temple to the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14; 4). This transfer or movem...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christmas is here! Today we celebrate Jesus’ birth. The Bible tells about Jesus’ birth from several different angles. Matthew’s Gospel tells of Mary and Joseph, the promise of the Virgin birth, the visit of the Wise Men and the terror of King Herod. Luke’s Gospel, which you likely heard last night, tells of the census, Bethlehem, the shepherds, the angels, and Jesus laid in the manger. The Gospel of John also tells the Christmas story, but in a very different way. He focuses not so much on the human participants and the locations, as on the grand themes of what God was at work doing, and the coming of Jesus into the world. John 1 is the Christmas’ story told from God’s perspective, showing Jesus’ relationship to God and His incarnation, His coming into human flesh right here in the world. All this unfolded in the midst of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and wise men’s lives, but John tells how it fits in the grand scheme...