We Present

We begin this week with a quiet kind of anticipation, excited expectation, yet an awesome sense of solemnity, as we think about this being the final full week before we begin Lent 2026. Indeed, Ash Wednesday comes to us next week and with it, the commencement of the season of Lent.

Friends of mine, very devout Catholics, celebrated a special mass on the second day of this month. They celebrated the Presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple. This Feast of Commemoration takes place forty days after the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Light of the world. Although, in my own denomination, we do not celebrate that specific date as a Feast Day, we always remember this special event, in our celebration of the Nativity.

The Scripture tells us that Joseph and Mary, the earthly parents of Jesus, brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Luke 2: 22b – 24.  

Will you let your minds of faith take you to that precious, solemn and accepted moment of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple, on this Blessed Lord’s Day Sunday, as we turn our faces towards Lent? Make no mistake about this. The Presentation of Jesus has never stopped and will not cease, until this earth be no more. What do I mean?

Jesus was taken to the temple and presented there, for the temple was the place of God, the place of worship, the place of prayer and the place of offerings. Is it not true that the Lord has living temples, people like you and me, in whom He dwells? If we have died to ourselves so that we no longer live but Jesus lives in us, then in a real way, we are the very embodiment of Jesus and we carry Him in us, so that we can present Him wherever we go.

Do you realise, not just with head knowledge, but in truth and in fact that Jesus is the Living Word, made flesh in you, me and all true believers? Whenever you present the Living Word to any one, in whatever form the Spirit chooses, do you know that you are presenting Jesus first and foremost? Does not the infallible, inerrant, trusted Scripture inform us that whatever we do it must be unto God? And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3: 17

This simply tells us that as servants of Jesus, in whom we dwell and who dwells in us, all we speak and do must be with grateful thanks to the Father. We must remember that we are serving God and not humans. Our sacrifices are to Him and Him alone. Thus, when we present Jesus to others, we are presenting to God, in that we are doing it all to His distinct honour and divinely, glorious glory.

The wisdom, mind and thought of God are way beyond our highest studies and wildest imaginations. We receive and follow by faith only, for without faith, we cannot accept, trust and obey our Lord. Therefore, be not deceived in any way about this fact. We cannot present Jesus to anyone in Spirit and in Truth, if we cannot present Him before Father God. If God is not pleased with our discipleship, our presenting of His Son to Him, how can we then, on this earth, present Jesus to others? 

O may the Holy Spirit stay in us even now, and stir our hearts and minds to undivided and untampered truth about presenting Jesus to Him and thus to others. May we be removed from all ignorance and self-arguments and know that to serve others is to serve God. Listen again to this, if you would ponder and contemplate its simple, yet unmatched wisdom and truth.

• God chose to place Himself in a Human Being called Jesus, who presented Him to the world. True or false?

• God chose to place the Human Jesus in the hands of Joseph and Mary, who presented Him in the temple. True or false?

• God chose to place the Spirit Jesus in the hands of believers, who present Him to the world. True or false?

If the Spirit of Christ lives in you, then you must be found presenting Him in you, God’s living temples, for some other to see and know Christ, all in the Presence of God.

This week, we shall be looking closely at a servant of God and His work in presenting Jesus to others.