Here in Luke we have our only accounts of some details in Jesus' early life. Although Luke is one of the most gifted story-tellers of all time, he does not reveal these glimpses into Jesus' infancy just to give the Christian community fodder for fireside remembrances of Jesus' life. The event of Jesus' presentation at the temple and the reactions his presence inspires fit precisely into a pattern Luke has already established in the infancy narratives. The point here is not fireside tales, but faith's firepower.

Luke, the historian, uses his narrative skills to weave a common pattern between the birth narratives of both John the Baptist and Jesus, using as a template the story of the great prophet Samuel's own birth. Here in Luke 2:22-24, Jesus is brought to the temple, even as Samuel was, …