Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel! [Luke 2:29-32 (NLT)]
You may have celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (or Purification of Mary) at church yesterday. Also known as Candlemas, this day commemorates an incident found in Luke 2 when, forty days after the birth of Jesus, three important events occurred: the ceremonial purification of Mary, Joseph and Mary’s dedication of their firstborn son to God, and Jesus’ first entrance into the Temple. It was then that Simeon and Anna recognized Jesus as the Messiah for whom they’d patiently waited. The association of candles with this event in Jesus’ life is understandable; upon seeing Jesus, Simeon declared him to be the light that would reveal God to the nations. Traditionally, a candle-lit procession preceded the Mass and all of the candles that would be used in the church that year were blessed. Candlemas night, people would place lit candles in their windows.
Although seven major festivals were ordained by God in the Old Testament, none were ordained in the New and nothing in Scripture requires the observance of any of our traditional Christian holy days. Although the liturgical year is not God-ordained, it does follow major events in the life of Jesus as told in the Gospels. Christ’s resurrection was observed in the second century and His birth may have been celebrated as early as AD 336. As for Candlemas, a sermon about the importance of this date goes back to AD 312 and the earliest rites to AD 381! Initially, a small celebration, Candlemas became one of the twelve major feast days throughout Europe after prayer and fasting stopped a plague in Constantinople in AD 541.
Because God never ordained the celebration of any of the events in Jesus’ life, some Christians, in strict obedience to the command to neither add nor subtract from God’s Word, do not observe any of the usual Christian holy days such as Christmas or Easter. Others object to their celebration because so many of them have pagan roots or are associated with superstition. For example, coming half-way between the winter solstice and spring equinox, Candlemas coincided with the Gaelic festival of Imbolc and people believed that the weather this day predicted the climate for the rest of the winter (an early Groundhog Day).
Most evangelical Protestants do not observe Candlemas while most Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox churches do. Should Christians observe Candlemas, days like Christmas or Easter, or seasons like Advent, Epiphany or Lent? As long as we don’t add superstitions or non-Scripture based significance to them, there seems no harm in remembering the day Jesus was born, the Magi’s visit, His forty days in the wilderness, the resurrection or the day the Jesus visited the Temple and was recognized as the light of the world. May this day serve as a reminder of the darkness that existed on earth until Jesus brought His light into it. Let His light shine within each one of us!
Our bright shining candles are a sign of divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ. [Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (AD 638)]
Devotions of the Heart 