Anna at the Temple (Luke

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This passage describes the ‘presentation’ of the baby Jesus, just a few weeks after his birth. As devout Jews, Mary and Joseph have made their way to the Temple in Jerusalem . Leviticus 12:1-8 laid out the instructions for a woman who has given birth. After 40 days she is to come to the temple with a sacrifice. Those who could not afford to bring a lamb could bring two turtledoves or pigeons, as Mary and Joseph do. Mary and Joseph are “careful to do everything that the Law requires.”
And then, uniquely, Luke 2: introduces two characters that feature in Giotto’s picture: Simeon and Anna. As will happen throughout Luke, both men and women are shown as significant actors in the story of God. These two are described in ways that highlight their righteous and devout living. Simeon has been given special insight by the Holy Spirit along with a promise that before he dies, he will be allowed to see the one whom God has chosen to rescue the world.
“There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2: 36-38)
This tiny little moment is often missed within the bigger and more dramatic moments of the narrative. Why did Luke insist on its inclusion?
Obviously, because there is something of moment here, that shouldn’t be overlooked.
The first point of emphasis, I think, is that the coming of Jesus is the perfect flowering of ancient promises. That is to say, this Jesus is the culmination point of the whole long story of Israel.
Sometimes we are tempted to over-emphasise the newness of what God was doing in Christ. There was even a move in the early Church, led by Marcion, to more-or-less ditch the Old Testament completely. They asked: “Why do we need all that stuff?”
Even today there is sometimes a tendency for preachers to so focus on New Testament texts that the Old Testament is seldom considered and much less well understood. But all of that complicated root system (a king like David, a prophet like Moses, a priest like Melchizedek… and so forth) intertwines and links together to produce the flower. So how can you cut off the roots without damaging the fruit?
And so, to make that emphasis, Luke includes the account of someone passionately devoted to the Temple, to its ways and rituals a total Jewish insider and notes how that very passion was looking forward, not stuck in the past, to something which Luke describes as the “redemption of Jerusalem.”
And there’s the point. The word “Jerusalem” signifies the old system of worship and sacrifice, the law and the prophets. But the word “redemption” signifies the new thing that was promised and is now happening - a release from bondage as the new seedling bursts out of the old soil. Much of the prophecy from the Old Testament centred on the coming of Messiah, the long-promised hero. And so Luke emphasises Anna’s extreme age and devotion. Her age means that she has lived with those promises a long long time! Her devotion means that she now recognises their fulfilment. “She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying…”
This is the very quintessence of Old Testament faith
But suddenly, everything has changed. “Jerusalem” is being redeeemed.
Second, as we consider Anna’s age and devotion, we should also note her gender. There are very few women who are designated “prophet” in the Bible.
So when he makes the point that Anna is a prophetess: Luke is anchoring that gifting of prophecy within the story of the People of God past present and future
Remember that it is Luke who will tell the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, underlining that non-gender specific bit: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…”
And here, before any of that, it is an elderly, devout woman who recognises the truth about Jesus even when he was just a baby. In Giotto’s mural (above, from the Chapel of Scrovegni, in Padua), Anna stands quietly to one side, in a position which is easy to overlook. And yet she holds the scroll (the Old Testament promise) in one hand and with the other points to the Christ.
It was Giotto’s genius to portray those warmly human moments. And here he suggests the character of Anna as selfless, intelligent and gracious.
The paper she bears reminds us that she is the bearer of the ancient promises. The raised hand shows where those promises point. To Jesus himself… the one they named ‘God saves.’
God saves. Right now.