.…”as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
2 Corinthians 6:10 (RSV)
In 2021 archeologists fully excavated a magnificent public building which dates back to 2,000 years ago. It was next door to the temple in Jerusalem, and would have been the precise location where Joseph and Mary shopped to buy two turtle doves to offer according to Mosaic law. It was the forty day presentation of their son Jesus.
A tourist who once visited this ancient mall, was brought there by a Jewish guide, who told him, “If you’re a Christian, you would want to remove your shoes because this is holy ground for you, since your Messiah was brought here 2,000 years ago.”
According to Mosaic law, every firstborn male child belonged to God, and the parents were to symbolically buy him back on the 40th day after his birth. This act of buying back was accomplished, by offering a one year old unblemished lamb as a burnt offering. The law in Leviticus 12:8, stated that if anyone was too poor to afford a lamb, they could offer two turtledoves instead. We know that Mary and Joseph were that poor, because they offered turtledoves according to the gospel in Luke 2:24.
Mary and Joseph may have been poor, but they made many rich. While having nothing, they possessed everything, and their true wealth was all wrapped up in the bundle of humanity, who they carried in their arms, named Jesus.
I can just visualize them shopping in this building filled with shops and vendors. The attached photo was the temple shopping mall of the day, where they purchased their two turtledoves, to offer according to the law of Moses. Mary and Joseph looked like any other family in the mall that day, but they were not like any other family, because of “who” they carried with them.
God, who is the Lord of the universe, gave many laws to Moses on that awesome Sinai mountain which thundered with smoke and lightning. The divine Presence that thundered on Mount Sinai, was later carried into this shopping mall and the temple that once stood across from it. As a baby, the Lord of life fulfilled His own decree and was presented for a 40 day dedication blessing, with a poor man’s offering of two turtle doves.
God is very intentional regarding numbers throughout scripture, and He chose forty as the number to symbolize all special moments.
In the Genesis story about Noah’s ark, it rained for forty days and nights. Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai, receiving the commandments. Jesus was tempted for forty days in the desert before starting His ministry. After the resurrection, He appeared to people for forty days, until His ascension. I recently learned that forty Roman soldiers in 320 A.D. were martyred together as a group after converting and professing their faith in Jesus Christ. We observe a forty day period of lent each year, as a time to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus.
God paid an extravagant price for our salvation. Though He lived with a poor family here on earth, He made us all very rich spiritually. The church of believers is symbolic of a forty day old infant, cherished and held in their heavenly Father’s arms, ransomed, not with turtle doves, but with the blood of an unblemished Lamb. Jesus sees each one of us as worthy to have died for, offering the costliest price of all, His own life.
Lord, we are speechless as we stand on the holy ground of your truth, and this excavation reminds us to be thankful for the great price you paid for our redemption. Amen
