Luke 2:21-40
All right, let’s read God’s word
together. This is Luke chapter two, beginning at verse 21. Actually, let’s go back a verse
to the previous little paragraph. It says, at the end of eight
days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name
given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And
when the time came for their purification, according to the
law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him
to Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this
man was righteous. he was devout, and he was waiting
for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon
him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that
he would not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ.
And he came in the spirit into the temple, and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom
of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God, saying,
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according
to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all the peoples.
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your
people Israel. And his father and mother marveled
at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said
to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the
fall and the rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is
opposed. And a sword will pierce through
your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the
tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having
lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin,
and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from
the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And
coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God
and to speak of him to whom all were waiting for the redemption
of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything
according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee. to
their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became
strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon them. Amen. This is God’s word for
us. If you drive around the church
landscape, you’ll very often see banners hung out in front
of churches. Maybe even one of our close neighbors here has
them. They seem to say something like
this. We need to rethink Jesus. We
need to fashion a Jesus who’s maybe more 2019 or since it’s
so close who’s more 2020. I heard the other day somebody
speaking of maybe it was a Hallmark movie channel issue you know
they banned a certain strand of advertising and the next morning
the news channel says don’t they get it it’s 2019. And so the
rationale out there is, since it’s 2019, or since the times
are changing, maybe we need to rethink what we believe, because
who, after all, could believe something from such a long time
ago, and that still be a gold standard? But we’re people of
the book, we’re people of the scriptures, right? The Bible
doesn’t change. God doesn’t change. Christ doesn’t
change. We don’t need a new Jesus. We
don’t need a new religion. We don’t need to form any new
belief systems. Old school works just fine. The
Bible as our source of knowledge, our source of faith, our source
of worship, our source of how to live, how to worship, all
those things just in 2019 as it was 2,000 years ago. So maybe this night we think
of the question, who is Jesus? And we want to look to scripture
and not maybe what the world would like to fashion him into
for the betterment of our culture or to fit our itches and our
desires. Who is Jesus? Where can he be
found? Well, he’s found in the scriptures. He’s found in the whole counsel
of God’s word. But these songs we’ve been looking
at, these songs of Christmas in Luke’s gospel, really say
some neat, some meaty, some important things. And maybe the song of
Simeon is one we often overlook. It’s one we don’t think of very
often. We get Mary, we get the angels,
but we don’t really look at Zachariah’s song or Simeon’s song. But you’ll see the content of
the song in verses 29 to 32. Lord, you are now letting your
servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have
seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence
of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles. and for glory
to your people Israel. One of the questions that you
have to ask in this passage when you think of who is Jesus, one
of the answers you have to give is he’s a law keeper. You might
think in your mind that since Jesus was perfect, since he was
after all the Son of God, he didn’t have to obey the law.
Well, actually he did. And why is that? He needed to
be the perfect human, the perfect man. He needed to do what Adam
failed to do. And as the second Adam, he keeps
the law of God perfectly. And here as an infant child,
as an eight day old, it’s Not that he peeked out of his bassinet
and said, mom and dad, be sure to get me to the temple on the
eighth day. We gotta keep this thing perfect. They were part of the
plan. They were his parents, by God’s
grace, for a reason, they took him to the temple. But what was
the reason for the law? Why the civil law for Israel? Why the ceremonial law, which
included his circumcision? Why the moral law, which we took
a peek at, some of its meaning and message in tonight’s catechism. Why all these laws? Well, these
laws show the character of God. These laws show the character
of Israel. These laws show us that we must
be pure. Everything must be in good order. The laws were meant to set us
apart from other nations. And here we have Jesus obeying
with the help of his parents for sure, but he’s here obeying
some of the first portions of the law that he must encounter. Now, one of the things we do
know is that he would be the end of the ceremonial law. We
studied the book of Hebrews a couple years ago, and what did we find
out? But that Jesus ended all of the ceremonial law. He was
the great lamb. He was the great sacrifice. He
was the great one who all the Old Testament ceremonial laws
we’re pointing to. And so there’s a bit more significance
in this passage than we might think. Jesus is beginning to
fulfill those ceremonial laws that otherwise we would be perpetually
practicing and continuing in. And so his parents, who were
devout Jews, they were obedient. They circumcised him on the eighth
day. That’s the day they also named
him. They would have presented They’re
first born for purification on about the 40th day. Mary would
have presented herself to be purified after giving birth to
a child. Even though they were poor, they
would have offered some small sacrifice. Nowadays, we have
a child, and when do we get around to baptizing the child? Well,
it’s when family can come into town. It’s when we can pull off
sweet tea and chicken salad to have everybody for lunch. It’s
sometimes a year or so. One of the jobs, I don’t know
if y’all ever noticed this, but in our form of government, one
of the jobs of the pastor, one of the jobs of the elders together
as a session is to exhort parents to present their covenant children
for baptism. I usually don’t badger people.
I know they have busy and after having babies, it’s a little
hectic and probably presenting a baby the first Sunday after
they’re born would be a little bit difficult. But you see how
they do quickly what is so necessary to get that covenant child under
the covenant obligations to do according to the Holy Scriptures.
And so Jesus later will become a teacher with his lips, but
here he’s a teacher with his life, his family in the mix as
well. Jesus, the spotless lamb who
needed no purification, who needed no circumcision. He comes to keep
the law. And so what a special thought
it is to consider what the Lord Jesus does as an example. Another
thing that we find in this passage, particularly in the song of Simeon,
is you ask the question, who is Jesus? He’s the law keeper.
Well, he’s also the hope of Israel. What was on Simeon’s bucket list? Did he want to go to this land
and see this waterfall? Did he have dreams of getting
on a bus tour? Riding, I don’t know, to, where
do you go on buses? Disney World, or did he have
visions of skiing in the Alps, Graceland? Yeah, whatever, what
was on his bucket list? His bucket list was to see the
Christ Child. Seems to be Annas as well, the
old prophetess, who night and day stayed in the temple. They
wanted to see the hope of Israel. Can you imagine if you had been
told by the Holy Spirit, you could actually write a book about
it and make a lot of money if this happened, but could you
imagine being told by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is about to appear on the
scene? Maybe that’s why God brought Jesus in the ancient world. No
texting, no Twitter, no communication, no Christian book market. It
could happen naturally, as it were. But could you imagine having
that inside information? What would you do with it? In
our day and age, we would sell it for our own blessing, I’m
sure. But what did these two, Simeon
do. They waited until Christ was
presented in the temple. They could not wait to see Christ. Makes us wonder what’s on our
bucket list. Is on our bucket list to see the coming of the
Lord Jesus, to see the second coming, to see the world come
to its glorious end and to see the new heavens and the new earth
ushered in. Is that on our bucket list? I
would imagine It’s not there. But here we have Jesus, the hope
of Israel, and he appears right before Simeon’s eyes. He picks up the Lord in his arms
and he declares what we call Simeon’s Song. The reason, at
least in Latin, I think it’s called the nuc dimetus, the Lord,
you can let your servant Depart in peace now may your servant
depart in peace comes from verse 29 But this man realized my life
has been fulfilled and it’s not because he been to Disney or
seen the waterfall or been to the Swiss Alps or Whatever the
modern-day bucket list is it’s because his eyes beheld The Lord
can you imagine what that meant? I? for Israel. Can you imagine
what that meant? Here was a small little nation
state that had disintegrated basically into Jerusalem. Over
the years, their sinfulness, their wickedness, their being
brought into exile, their return, their rebuilding the city and
the temple in a much smaller way. They’re under Roman authority. The world has closed in on Israel,
which at one time had been great. It had been a great stretch of
darkness. God had not spoken in some 400
years through any form of a servant. And now all of this light, all
of this revelation built up and encapsulated in the little tiny
baby, the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine the excitement?
This is what can change the world. This is what can bring salvation.
This is the Lord’s Christ. The Gentiles can now have light.
Israel can have glory again. Jerusalem, will be redeemed. And in his arms, he held the
Eternal Son. In his arms, he held the one
who would be obedient to the Father and fulfill the law. And you can imagine, Jesus was
probably a cute little baby to hold, wouldn’t you think? And
so, what a special time this was to have this spiritual bucket
list. This man waited. He waited to
see, and now he wanted to tell others about these wonderful
things. There’s an interesting little
prophecy, too, that pops up in verse 34. This is the reality
check, isn’t it, of Christ. Simeon blessed the parents and
he said to Mary, his mother, this is usually not what you
say to a mom, but this is what he said. This child is appointed
for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel and for a sign
that is opposed. And we understand the reality
of the gospel. As the Apostle Paul says, it
is good news to those who will receive it. It’s like a fragrance. But to those who will not receive
it, to those who reject it, it is the stench of death. And so one of the great realities
that we have to suffer with is that, yes, Jesus has appeared.
Yes, the gospel has come. Yes. The gospel is good news,
but it will cause those who seek Christ, those who come to Christ,
it’ll cause them to rise. But those who reject it, it will
be their stumbling block. It will be the cause of their
fall. So there’s a deep sense here
of excitement and joy, but also hardship. And so as we think
on Christmas, as we look back on those who were present at
the excitement and joy of the coming of Christ, may the Lord
grant us the time to sit and to think and to reflect what
it means that Christ came into the world, what it means for
those who will receive him, but also what it means for those
who will let him pass by. Let’s pause and pray together.
Lord, we give you thanks for reminders from your Holy Scriptures
that you are good and full of grace to send your only son,
the Lord Jesus, into the world. And it is the desire of our hearts
to see him more and more as we look to your word, as we participate
in your sacraments, as we enjoy life in the church, what a blessing
it is to have the fullness of Christ. We pray, Lord, that more
and more people, more and more men and women and boys and girls
might come to faith in Jesus. and that his coming, his life,
would be the rising of many in our day as we proclaim the good
news of the gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would
have mercy on this world through the preaching of your word, that
you would bring your elect to faith through those whose feet
bring the good news. Hear us and help us as we pray
in Christ’s name, amen.