Seeing Salvation :: Luke 2:22-40

And when the days of their purification were to be fulfilled according to the Law of Moses, they brought him into Jerusalem to stand him before the Lord ... and to give a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 

If I didn’t know better, I might gloss right over this. So Let me paint a picture for you. There is no small detail here. 

This place is huge. ... 2,000 years ago, Jerusalem was a hustling-and-bustling city with nearly 80,000 people. The Jewish historian Josephus estimated there were 6,000 Pharisees. The temple complex Herod built was about the size of nine city blocks here in Appleton City. I am talking about from Hickory to Beech and Main to First Streets. There are people coming and going to offer their sacrifices. There are merchants lined up selling their animals for the sacrifices. There are priests going to and fro performing their religious duties. Members of the Sanhedrin are gathering along Solomon’s portico to discuss politics. Rabbis are in the various corners teaching the disciples around them. 

Now into all of that commotion enters one unassuming couple ... a carpenter and his young wife ... holding their 40 day old baby boy. They have come to fulfill what is written in the Law of the Lord that every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. 

You would think everything in today’s reading is business as usual in Jerusalem.

1.

But hold on. The fullness of time has come. And there is someone here who realizes the significance of this moment. Behold, Luke says. Open your eyes and see. Behold! ... there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. 

One of the great things about the Gospel according to St. Luke is the wonderful detail he provides, especially with all the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus. Even better is the character development that he provides. What a great way the evangelist has of grabbing our attention. Behold, Can you see the epiphany of this moment, he declares? 

Now, he doesn’t tell us much about Simeon. There’s no indication, for example, as to whether Simeon had a family. Could he have been a priest? Luke doesn’t say. Yet, Luke tells us plenty. He tells us that this Simeon is righteous and devout, that Simeon has been waiting for the consolidation of Israel, and that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. It’s the fullness of time.

Maybe an apt way of summing up Simeon’s character would be to say that he was singing the refrain to the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” long before it was ever written:

“Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel ... Shall come to thee, O Israel!” 

All the centuries of waiting for God to fulfill his promise of a Savior have been concentrated in this one man ... Simeon ... who on the fortieth day after Christmas, was waiting in the temple, waiting for the fullness of time to come to pass. That is what is meant by that phrase waiting for the consolation of Israel .... Simeon has patiently trusted that God would bring comfort to his chosen people. 

But don’t conclude that this was just a lucky coincidence, that he just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Behold today, is the fortieth day. 

Today the fullness of time has come. 

Luke explicitly points out that not only was the Holy Spirit upon Simeon ... but that on this day he entered the temple in the Spirit. In other words, this was explicitly God’s doing, not Simeon’s. Simeon didn’t make a choice for God. Today is the fullness of time. Simeon has been called by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to the presence of salvation in the temple. 

The world will try to convince you that you can find the spirit. But it's not true. The spirit finds you. And today it has found Simeon. I can only imagine the bubbling joy he must have felt.

2.

Saint Luke reports this joy in two short speeches. First, he delivers a blessing and then a prophecy. The blessing you should know pretty well; we sing it here occasionally in the Service of the Sacrament immediately after the Distribution, like we did last month during our first 150th celebration. God had made a specific promise to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Christ. Now that he had seen him, and even held him, now he was ready to die — in joy and peace. So he breaks forth in song .... Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. 

Do you realize how fitting those words are for us to sing after receiving the Lord’s Supper? Some, of course, might say we haven’t held Jesus in our arms and our eyes haven’t seen him. 

But actually, we’ve done one better than Simeon, because in Holy Communion the Lord Jesus comes to you and bids you to eat and drink. In this most mysterious sacrament, your eyes see his salvation. Not only that, you will hold the Lord in your hands, his body, his blood. You will taste and see that the Lord is good, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and full of mercy ... as Jesus delivers to you the forgiveness of your sins through his Holy Sacrament. What joy will fill our temple today as we receive the forgiveness of sins from our Lord? 

We should do this more often. 

Here, you receive his promise ... the forgiveness of your sins. Here, Jesus comes to you and gives you eternal life and salvation, for where the forgiveness of sins is there is life and salvation. As we struggle in this life with pain and disease and sin and death, it is terribly difficult to keep this in mind. We need a new heart and nature ... like Simeon ... to recognize it. 

3.

But I mentioned two short speeches from Simeon: a blessing and a prophecy. 

If the blessing is characterized by comfort and peace, then the prophecy is best described as sober realism. Listen again to those words that he spoke directly to Mary: Behold, there it is again ... the epiphany of this moment ... this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.

Just weeks after celebrating the Lord’s birth, with all the euphoria that characterizes our Christmas festivities, Simeon brings us back down to earth and reorients us. 

Here’s the truth about this child, Simeon tells Mary. He certainly is a miracle baby. She, after all, was a virgin. But this little baby boy has a specific mission. 

Jesus was born to die. He is appointed for the fall and rising of many. 

Now that Jesus has obeyed the Law fully, and come into the temple in the fullness of time ... our Immanuel, our God with us, our God who will save his people from their sins ... will face opposition for the rest of his life. 

At times, his own family will deny him. His friends will turn their backs on him. He will be mocked and spit upon. He will be slandered, and bullied. He will be beaten to a bloody pulp. And even after being found innocent of all the charges he faces ... not just acquitted, but innocent ... because he is the one who knew no sin ... the people will nevertheless demand that he be executed and that a guilty man be set free in his place. 

To be sure some people ... even those among us ... will praise Jesus and bless him, as long as he does what they desire, as long as he allows them to be what they want to be, sin be damned. But as soon as he sets out to be Christ to them, demanding that they go and sin no more, demanding that they repent of their sins for the kingdom of heaven is near, there is nothing but desertion. Our sins are deep ... we are proud, arrogant, abusive, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, slanderous, and lovers of pleasure ... among so many other sins. Repent, therefore, all of you. 

Jesus’ message of peace is bitterly opposed by the world. 

The very people who have waited for the consolation of Israel will discover that this Jesus is not the kind of Savior they had in mind. They want a warrior king and a bread king, and a giver of bling. They want a man wiser than Solomon, a man who will fix their problems in life and make things better. They want a new Moses, someone who will teach them a better way to live. They insist on searching the scriptures to find a new way, a better way. 

Yes, he will become a stumbling block to many. 

His words will be condemned and denied. Instead of hearing the Gospel that you receive the forgiveness of sins in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, people will say Jesus meant to say something else that suits their needs and wants. And it all fulfills Simeon’s prophecy.

Finally, Simeon astutely speaks of the cross by which the redemption of the world will be won. To this day his prophecy has indeed proven to be true, as even we sometimes doubt that God would choose to secure our salvation in such a manner, or that he would remove from us any and every claim we might make to justify ourselves before him. 

The honest truth is that that’s what we want to do. That is the stark reality of Simeon’s prophecy, that God’s salvation for us is pure gift — it is his to give, and ours to receive.

4.

That leads us to the last character Luke introduces: a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, whose name means the face of God. Luke doesn’t say much about her, but we get a pretty good picture nonetheless. It’s not clear from the original Greek language whether she’s 84 years old or that she’s been a widow for 84 years. The point is ... she’s old ... and she has spent a long life continually at the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day (v 37). And now here she is ... now here you are ... at the right place at the right time — by God’s doing, of course — giving thanks to God, that you too have seen salvation. 

Obviously, she ... like you ... have heard Simeon’s words and now she begins to sing like all of us do ... go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is here. 

In the last 40 days, have you done the same? You should. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today you too will see the salvation he prepared in the presence of all people. Don’t keep this news to yourself. The world needs to hear it. 

5.

Lost in this wonderful story is the fact that Luke never mentions Mary and Joseph actually performing the sacrifice that was required in the Law. I have no doubt that they did. The text says, they performed everything according to the Law of the Lord (v 39). But there is no actual mention of doing it. 

Why not? Perhaps it’s because Luke the evangelist wants to drive home this point: that this same Jesus who has come in the fullness of time to his temple will himself be God’s final sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. 

As John the Baptizer reminded us two weeks ago, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And now here are Mary and Joseph, though poor with their two pigeons, coming with the riches of a king, presenting the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world in the temple ... in the fullness of time. You who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Jesus has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. 

That was the purpose for his coming: to take away the sins of the world, your sin, my sin. He takes it all to his cross so that your sin dies with him. Jesus takes your sin to the grave, so that it will never been seen or heard from again. He takes your sin, and gives you his righteousness, through the baptism he pours upon you. And just as he was raised from the dead, he resurrects you to eternal life. As the writer to the Hebrews says, he himself partook of the same things you did, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

That’s the reason we celebrate his birth year after year. Jesus gave himself fully to you: His body and his blood in the Feast of Forgiveness. So ...

Rejoice, Rejoice, for Emmanuel has come to you, his new Israel!