One of the good things about Christmas is catching up with people you haven’t seen for a while, maybe even since last year. Well, this year I’ve had lots of conversations with people who want to know what’s happening about the merger with St Michael’s. They all want to know how things are progressing. When are we likely to merge, when are we likely to move onto the new site? And depending on the mood I’m in and who it is I’m talking to, my answer varies from "In a little while", to "Sometime soon", to "Sometime before I retire". You might gather from the last answer that there are times when I don’t want to think about it because it feels like it’s going to take so long. In this age of instant gratification we don’t like having to wait, do we? We get very impatient with the sort of planning process you have to go through for any large project. We get annoyed when decision makers take longer than we want to make their decisions.
Of course the bigger the project the more important it is that it isn’t rushed. Some of the great planning disasters of the 20th century came about because planners rushed into them before considering all the factors involved. On the other hand if the delay is too long people start to wonder whether it’ll ever happen.
Two weeks ago I talked about how most people in Israel around the time of Jesus’ birth would have been taken by surprise when the prophecies about the Messiah began to be fulfilled. But in fact there were some who hadn’t forgotten and in fact were waiting faithfully for God to fulfill his promises.
In today’s gospel reading we discover a number of people who have been waiting for a very long time for their great hope to arrive. First of all Simeon, who’s described as waiting for the consolation of Israel. Secondly there’s Anna and the people that she speaks to who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. All these people are looking for the same thing. They’re looking forward to the fulfilment of prophecies such as Isaiah’s that told of the restoration of Jerusalem, of the coming of the Messiah to restore the fortunes of Israel, and to establish God’s Kingdom here on earth, to bring salvation to all peoples. Interestingly, at the end of Luke’s gospel we’re introduced to another person, Joseph of Arimathea, who was also waiting expectantly for the Kingdom of God.
All these people were waiting for God to act. Most of them had been waiting for many years. We’re not told how old Simeon was, but the implication is that he’d lived beyond the normal span of years as he waited to greet the coming Messiah. He’s certainly ready to go once he’s seen Jesus. Anna we’re told, is 84, which we’re told was a great age for the time. But notice that their time hasn’t been wasted. Rather they’ve spent their time in worship of God. Simeon is described as righteous and devout. That is, his life was exemplary. He was a regular worshipper of God. He was open to God speaking to him, and responded when he heard God’s voice. We’re told the Holy Spirit rested on him. Presumably that means that he’s a prophet, like the prophets of old. God, it seemed, had been silent for 400 years. There had been no prophets since Malachi. But now here is Simeon, waiting for the Messiah to be revealed. In fact Luke tells us that it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he wouldn’t see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Similarly there was Anna. She too was a prophet. She never left the temple, but worshipped there with prayer and fasting night and day. What a great example of a godly woman. And what a great example of a woman who acts as a mouthpiece for God. Anna is a great example of a woman whom God uses to teach his people about who Jesus is.
So these people are faithfully waiting for God’s promised Messiah to be revealed when suddenly he appears among them. The thing is, if you look at the account that Luke gives of this event, it’s clear that by itself, no-one would have noticed it. As we saw last week, the event of Jesus’ birth happens in a very unspectacular way, and in fact Luke tells it in a very sparing manner. Only seven verses for the birth of Jesus! But then the rest of chapter 2 is devoted to three separate events, three sayings about this child who has been born. The birth by itself might have been missed, but the events that surround it, the words that accompany it, ensure that we fully understand its significance.
First the angels come to the shepherds and announce good news of great joy to all the people. This day is born a Saviour who is Christ, the Lord. Christ isn’t a name, notice. Rather it’s a title. In fact it’s the Greek form of the word Messiah, the anointed one, the descendant of David who was to come to restore the nation of Israel to its previous glory.
In fact, the baby had already been given a name, Jesus, by the angel Gabriel in the previous chapter. Jesus was a not unusual name for the time. It meant "The Lord saves" the same as Joshua. It’s a name that occurs from time to time through the Old Testament. But in Jesus’ case it had a hidden significance. As the angel announces, this Jesus is to be the Saviour. God is about to bring about the salvation that people have been waiting for, once and for all. "Peace on earth" has meaning only because of what this baby will do. That’s because not only is he the Saviour, but he’s the Christ, the Messiah. All those prophecies of the Servant of the Lord are to be fulfilled in this person who is God’s anointed one.
And he’s "the Lord." Luke has just referred to God as "the Lord" some twenty times in the previous chapter, so this title used for Jesus has staggering implications. Here is God incarnate, God in human form. God coming to save us himself. No wonder the shepherds have to go and see for themselves this wonder that the Lord has made known to them!
Then in the next scene, we find Simeon and Anna speaking of Jesus. It’s Simeon’s words that we have recorded for us in detail, in the familiar words known as the nunc dimittis. What he says isn’t that much different from what the angels said, except that the range of his words reaches further. Whereas the angel brought news of great joy for all the people, that is the people of Israel, Simeon says this salvation is for all peoples. That is for the whole world! The light that Jesus gives will bring revelation to the Gentiles as well as glory to Israel. In fact it had always been God’s intention that through Israel all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That was part of the original blessing on Abraham, in Gen 12. (Gen 12:1-3 NRSV) "The LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Later, during the exile Isaiah had also predicted it: (Is 49:6 NRSV) "[The Lord] says, ’It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’" For two thousand years God’s promise had stood there waiting and now it was being fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
But in among the good things that Simeon says to Mary about Jesus, there comes a warning. The blessing that Jesus brings to some will also be a stumbling block for others. The salvation that’s Jesus offers to all peoples, won’t be taken up by all. Some will stumble over it. Some will even oppose it.
This must have seemed incredible to those who heard it. I mean, who ever objects to being rescued, saved from disaster. There were a few sailors out on Bass Strait last week who were very pleased to be taken off their boat before it sank. Imagine if they’d told the rescue boat to go away and leave them to go down with their ship. Can you imagine them saying they were purists and wouldn’t be seen dead on a motor boat? You’d be calling in the men in white coats, wouldn’t you? Yet that’s what this prophecy, inspired by the Holy Spirit predicts. There will be some who will oppose this sign from God. Some who may even think they’re doing God’s will! Now I’m sure Simeon didn’t understand the full repercussions of this but we now know that some are offended by the way God’s salvation comes about, by the shame of the cross. Some are offended by its simplicity, thinking we should have to do more to earn our salvation. Some are offended because this light that Jesus brings shows up the evil of their hearts, revealing their inner thoughts, forcing them to admit their need for God’s forgiveness. So Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, warns Mary that their opposition in the end will mean Jesus’ death, and that Mary’s heart would be pierced as well.
When Anna has her chance to speak, we’re not given her words. But we’re told that she gave thanks to God and spoke about him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. It’s fairly clear that her message was similar to Simeon’s. That is, that this was the one whom God had promised would come to rescue his people and restore God’s reign to Jerusalem.
Now while there’s little we know about Anna, the little we do know tells us something. First, she’s described as a prophet. Like Simeon she represented a new awakening of the word of God in Israel. She was very devout, never departing from the Temple. Whether that means she actually had a room there or if it’s simply saying she was there all day, every day, isn’t clear. But her devotion to God was single minded and complete. Then we’re told she was from the tribe of Asher. Now Asher was one of the lost tribes of Israel. So there’s something particularly poignant about this representative of the lost tribes being present when Jesus appears to begin the process of bringing all his people back to God.
Notice, by the way, how Luke includes both male and female prophets in his account of what happened this day. First Simeon prophesies over Jesus that he’s to bring salvation to all people, then Anna gives thanks to God that at last she’s seeing the redemption of Jerusalem coming in the person of Jesus. What’s more, notice how she then begins to speak about him to anyone who’ll listen, especially to those who were looking for God’s Messiah to come.
One of the things we learn from a passage like this, is that the events by themselves are not enough. Jesus’ being brought to the temple was simply Mary and Joseph fulfilling the requirements of the law. But to understand the significance of what’s happened with his birth we also need God’s word to enlighten us, to fill out for us these events with the rich understanding of God’s plan for the world. That’s true whether we’re thinking about these Biblical accounts of history or events in our own world. Mind you, with modern day events we need to work a bit harder to understand how God sees them because there’s no direct revelation from God about them. So we need to have a clear grasp on God’s word and have got used to applying that word to the world around us. We need to look at the events of our world through lenses that are shaped by God’s word and his will for the world. That means we need to be a bit like Anna and Simeon: people who are committed to God, meditating on his word day and night, searching the scriptures to find out how God thinks and what he wants his world to understand about itself in relation to him.
We also need to be like Anna and Simeon in the sense that we’re looking forward, preparing ourselves for the Messiah’s coming, only, in our case, for the second time. So we need to be people who are worshipping him regularly, studying his word, and training ourselves to be like Simeon was, righteous and devout, looking forward to the return of Jesus, our king.
Well, that’s all for today, but next week we’ll be looking at a third set of words, spoken about Jesus when he was brought to the Temple at the age of 12, as a full member of the people of God.
For more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
