Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Malachi 3.1-4
Hebrews 2.14-18
Luke 2.22-40
Sunday 1 February 2026
©Suzanne Grimmett
On this Feast known since the Reformation as ‘The Presentation of Christ in the Temple’ we have another moment of revelation, but this time both the promise and the foreboding of this child’s coming to us is made clear. Simeon recognises he is witnessing the fulfilment of God’s promise of redemption, even as his words sound the notes of just how unexpected and for some, unwelcome, the form of this redemption will be. Jesus is being brought to the temple because in Jewish tradition, every first-born son needed to be redeemed by the blood of a lamb, that most foundational act in the sacrificial temple system. Mary also needs to come to be purified from her blood after the birth of her child. The law, as the Gospel tells us, also allows for two turtle doves in place of the lamb for those who were too poor to afford the costlier sacrifice. This tells us that Mary and Joseph were people of simple means, but it also is part of the revelation- Jesus is the true first-born son, the one provided by God, just as Abraham in that ancient troubling story was provided with a lamb from God so that his own son Isaac would not be sacrificed.
So we have here the very uncomfortable theme of blood sacrifice sitting at the centre of this nice feast of Candlemas with its 40 days after Christmas magic and processing with little lights. We are, of course, being reminded of the light which has come into the world, a light recognised in its glory through the prophetic insight of Simeon and Anna. But this light reveals some things we would rather not see.
This light shines piercingly into our lives through the creative disruption of the incarnation. This babe will become ‘the sign that will be opposed’ because he will occupy our own place of shame and death. When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, the violence of human nature is on full display.
But that is a different way of talking about the crucifixion to the way it has been heard by many. James Alison gives us the story that might even be the one you know. He says it goes like this;
God was extremely and justifiably angry at humans having sinned. Adam had, in some degree or other, seriously trashed the goodness of everything that God had created….Then God’s Son offered to come down on earth to pay the full price of being sacrificed to God by humans. Because he was God the value of this sacrifice was infinite.
…The result of this was God agreeing to let off punishment all those who agreed to be covered by the blood of his Son. They are now insiders within the peaceful eye of a hurricane that is still seriously violent to all those outside it. Those on the inside are those who have received the benefit of a bloody sacrifice.[1]
If that is a true way of seeing Christianity, then we are stuck inside a sacrificial cult- just maybe the biggest and best of all because God is the one being sacrificed. We have only managed to find a way where we believe the insiders are okay, as long as they stay as insiders. It has nothing to say about what goodness means, or love, or justice or even what it means to be human. And it keeps us with serious divisions between insiders and outsiders, and a God who could not love and forgive us without needing to be violently appeased. It is hard to equate a God that demands a blood sacrifice to activate forgiveness with a God of love.
Let me step back a bit and talk about the centre of the human problem and specifically about shame. I am reminded of Brené Brown who has found the biggest way to avoid unwanted conversations on a long-haul flight is to answer the question, “What do you do?” with “I am a shame researcher” because no one wants to go near that stuff. (I would also argue that “I am a priest” is a useful line too, but risky because occasionally it can go the other way!) We will do anything to avoid being in shame or even talking about shame because it is what we fear the most. To quote Brené Brown again, guilt says I made a mistake, shame says I am a mistake.[2] It really is a big bad feeling and one that is slippery to define because it occurs between people. We catch shame from each other. If you are not sure what I mean, consider how you feel when you see someone using their power to humiliate …and notice your internal reactions. I know for example, that I found that infamous interview between Trump, Vance and Zelensky excruciating to watch. Yet while shame comes to us from others, deep inside it feels like an individual private thing. And because it is a painful feeling that feels like it is ours to own, we go into hiding, robbing ourselves of the very human connection we need. We maintain our public persona and walk alone, burying our shame.
But here is the unexpected and liberating truth. It is when we can safely let our feelings of shame become public that we are set free and welcomed back to the human condition. Shame whispers, “It’s just you” Telling the truth says, “It’s all of us.”
Truth is the way through fear. This is powerful on the personal and communal level, but also something I think we are beginning to witness on the global stage when leaders refuse to be cowed by politics of humiliation and begin speaking truths out loud that others are only whispering. (If you haven’t yet heard it, Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s address to the World Economic Forum this past week is a lesson in this. Link below.)[3]
But what does all this have to do with the presentation of the infant Christ who would become ‘a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed’?
Let me ground this a bit more in a real, if extreme, example.[4] In gang membership, sometimes an act of violence is needed to become a full member. Through the murder of a someone identified as an enemy, the new member is then held securely within the secret pact of this evil act and can never speak the truth that the victim who had been objectified as the problem was really just like them. Our sense of personal righteousness and belonging depends on a person or group who must remain as an outsider, and we will use violence to keep it that way.
There are many examples in the world today of the way this works, but I am reminded of a scene from the mythology of Star Wars. At the beginning of his Jedi training, Luke enters a cave and is confronted in a dream sequence with Darth Vader. He kills Vader, taking off his head, but when he looks at the face revealed, he finds it is not Vader’s but his own. Our fear of shame is grounded in not wanting to face our own shadow. It is the feeling that keeps us in hiding and projecting on to others, preventing us from taking responsibility for ourselves in ways that would lead us into the goodness and relationship for which we were made.
An owning of who we are can feel painful and threatening but really leads to freedom. Each week, to help us with vulnerability and taking responsibility, we practice a shared confession before coming with open hearts and hands to the table where we are welcomed by Christ as equal friends.
Jesus will be sign that divides because to receive a loving God as victim is to allow our feelings of shame to be exposed. We would need to lay down our violence that says the problem is always with the other person, the other group, the other party. Jesus, by being a forgiving victim, enables us to recognise our humanity in him, even as our own fear and violence is revealed. Far from being a god who needs to be appeased, the God of the incarnation is one who is relentlessly seeking our good, going to such lengths so that we can stop hiding from our shame- a shame now tenderly held in the grace of God. And to quote a line I heard from visiting US writer, Jeff Chu in yesterday’s Baroona Farm address, “What is grace anyway, but love?”[5]
The infant Jesus will grow to become a sign to be opposed by all who maintain power through shame and humiliation and the violence which will always demand more sacrifice. But all who are willing to take the risk of believing that we don’t need to be afraid can come out of hiding, discovering that our shame has no power in the light of God’s mercy and grace. All who find this road less travelled go out as light bearers in the world, free to love because they have nothing to hide, nothing to cover up, walking as the beloved of a God who demands not sacrifice, but mercy and truth.
+Amen
[1] James Alison https://jamesalison.com/catholicity-sacrifice-and-shame/
[2] https://youtu.be/psN1DORYYV0
[3] Mark Carney address to World Economic Forum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flsgJe8mN-A
[4] An example from this rich lecture offered by James Alison https://jamesalison.com/catholicity-sacrifice-and-shame/
[5] https://stfran.qld.edu.au/upcoming-events/2026/1/31/grow-together-microfest-from-garden-beds-to-places-of-belonging