In Jesus Holy Name December 29, 2019
Luke 2:25-32 Christmas I
“The Song of Simeon: The Cradle & The Cross”
Well, here we are almost at the then end of another year. Do I still say “Merry Christmas” or do I greet you with “Happy New Year”? Liturgically we are still in the Christmas season, but most people are probably looking ahead to new resolutions for 2020.
The sad thing is that most of us aren’t very good a keeping our resolutions. Statistics say 55% of American can keep a resolution for about a month; 40% are faithful to their resolutions for six months, but the numbers soon drop to 19%. We may not be good at keeping our resolutions and promises but the gospel of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph were good at keeping their promises.
On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise their newborn infant son, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. Mary and Joseph were keeping the Law of Moses and dedicating their first born son to the Lord. They brought a pair of doves or two young pigeons. That’s verse 21.
The Law also required that women wait 40 days after the birth of a son before presenting themselves in the temple for their purification. That’s verse 22
The Law also required that a mother and father present their firstborn son before the lord to be “redeemed” by offering a sacrifice. This is now their 3rd trip to the temple. That’s verse 23. Verse 21 takes place 8 days after Christmas, verse 22-23 take place 33 days later.
Forty days have passed since the birth of Jesus. Now Mary and Joseph return to the Temple to “redeem” their firstborn son. There was nothing outwardly to distinguish them, no marks or signs that indicated they were anything other than another poor young couple coming with their newborn son.
At this point Simeon enters the story. Aside from what we are told in Luke 2, we know nothing about him. We don’t know his background, his hometown, his education, or even his occupation. We assume he was a priest—although the text doesn’t explicitly say so. We also assume he was an old man—but even that is not a certain fact. He simply appears on the stage of history as a bit player in the drama surrounding the birth of Christ. After his part is over, he fades from the scene, never to be heard from again.
A divinely-planned encounter is about to take place. Luke tells the story this way: Read Luke 2:25-32)
Simeon was waiting for the Messiah to come He was a Spirit-filled man. He was eagerly awaiting the imminent appearance of the Messiah. That last part is fascinating. The Holy Spirit had told him, “You will not die before you see the Messiah.” Each day Simeon would be a the Temple. . How would he know him? What should he look for? Did he know to look for a baby? Or was he looking for a teenager or a strong young man? No one knows the answer to those questions.
Day by day he kept watch over the throngs coming into the Temple. Each time a young couple came in with a baby, he whispered, “Is that the one?” My guess he has been waiting in the temple for many years.
Perhaps he is now 70 or 75 or even 80 years old. Perhaps he has a long gray beard, stooped shoulders, wrinkled face, bushy eyebrows, and trembling hands. If so, then he knows it can’t be long. The Lord’s Christ must be coming at any moment.
Here comes Mary holding the baby in her arms with Joseph by her side. Jesus is only forty days old. Never was there a more unlikely couple. He is a poor carpenter from Nazareth, she is a peasant girl carrying a little baby boy. They are obviously from the country. They obviously don’t have much money. If you were people-watching, you wouldn’t give them a second glance.
And here they are in cosmopolitan Jerusalem, timidly walking onto the Temple courts. When Simeon sees them, he asks his question for the 10,000th time, “Is this the one?” And the Holy Spirit says, “Yes.”
Suddenly Simeon’s heart leaps within him. The long days of waiting are finally over. The Lord’s Christ is before him. Here is the One for whom the nation has been waiting. He walks over, introduces himself, and says, “Do you mind if I hold your child?” As Mary gives the infant Jesus to Simeon, the thought hits him, “I am holding the salvation of the world in my arms.”
At that point Simeon breaks out into a song of praise, a song that is so beautiful that it has come down through the centuries to us as the final and climactic song of Christmas. The song is called the Nunc Dimittis, the title being taken from the first two words of the Latin translation of Simeon’s words.
Simeon calls him “the glory of Israel.” In this baby, Simeon sees the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people across the centuries. To call Jesus “the glory of Israel” takes us back to the time of Abraham when the Lord said, “I will make your name great, and make of you a great nation, and through you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
After that came the reaffirmation to Isaac, and then to Jacob. Still later God told Moses that one day a great prophet would come who would be unlike any other prophet before him. Still later God promised David a son who would reign on his throne forever. Still later God spoke through Isaiah and promised that a son would be born of a virgin, and that his name would be called Immanuel—God With Us. Still later, Micah predicted that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
Simeon calls him “a light of revelation for the Gentiles.” Simeon explicitly says that this baby will not only be the glory of his own people Israel. He will also be the light of revelation for the Gentiles. He’s not just for Israel. He didn’t come just for their benefit. He came to shine a light of the revelation of God into every nation, every tribe, every kindred and every tongue.
The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.
It all happened exactly as Simeon had predicted. When Mary watched her son die, a sword pierced her soul. The Bible does not separate the cradle from the cross. This little baby was born to die. The joy of Christmas leads on to the agony of Good Friday. He was born to end up that way.
In the Book of Revelation chapter 12 we are told that Satan was very much aware that God’s son was born in Bethlehem. Stan had a plan. His plan was to stop Jesus from being the Savior of the world.
There was a King by the name of Herod who was also excellent at keeping his word. He was born into a politically powerful family. By the time he was 25 the Romans had name him governor of Galilee. Having succeeded in that position the Romans named him “king of the Jews”. In short order Herod wiped out roving bands of robbers, and made peace between waring factions. The Romans like him but the Jews hated him. He wasn’t pure Jewish, he liked to associate with idolaters.
Herod understood. When he was a young man, Herod’s father, who had also been king, was poisoned by someone he trusted. Herod resolved never, never to ever completely trust anyone. Here’s how that worked out in practice.
In the year 35 B.C. (before Jesus was born) Herod, contrary to Jewish law appointed a 17 old boy to be the High Priest. Unfortunately, the young man became too popular. Too popular. That’s why Herod invited the popular your man, Aristobulus to go swimming at his palace in Jericho. Aristobulus never came back and never celebrated his next birthday.
When he thought his favorite wife Mariame was plotting against him, she was executed for adultery, most of her family simply disappeared. One by one, many of Herod’s sons disappeared. Herod kept his resolutions.
Therefore it was no surprise that when several Magi, astrologers showed up in Jerusalem asking, “Where is the new born King?” Trouble is on the horizon. Putting the best poker face, Herod told the Magi to go and look in Bethlehem. The Wise men went off to David’s City and found Jesus and His family in a house. They gave gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod.
When they did not return to Herod’s court, Herod decided to cover his bases, play it safe. He ordered his soldiers to wipe out any Bethlehem baby boy who might grow up to be king. Before they arrived Joseph was warned in a dream of the coming wrath and he fled with his family to Egypt. Two more
prophecies fulfilled.
At the very beginning of time God made a resolution to redeem human beings who had, who have and who will break his commandments. God kept his resolution through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. God knows that we can not keep our well intentioned resolutions. He knows we don’t want to disobey his commandments, but we do. God knows that every human heart longs for peace and harmony with our Creator. On our own we just an not make it become reality.
This is why the one born in the Cradle of Christmas cannot be separated from the beam of the Cross. So that we might be rescued, redeemed from eternal death and the wrath of a righteous Creator, God resolved to send His only Son, Jesus, into the world. Born true man so that He might take our place, and true God so He might live a perfect life, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The keeping of God’s promise is who the Wise Men came to see.
The keeping of the promise is who Simeon waited years to see. Christmas is the celebration of the beginning of Jesus’s earthly life, the beginning of God keeping His resolution to save us.
Jesus did not abandon Peter when he denied knowing the Savior. He did not destroy those who came to arrest Him. When he was beaten, He did not retaliate. When he was pit upon, he did not curse the one who insulted Him. Jesus then carried all of our broken commandments to the cross. When He died he left them there, stripping Satan of any possible accusation for those who hold to the cross of Jesus. So completely did Jesus keep God’s promises that three days after he was placed in a borrowed grave he shattered the darkness of death and rose from death with a glorified resurrected body.
Many of us may wear a cross. Many a church has a cross within or upon it’s tower… but we do not worship the cross… it is only a remainder of a God who kept his resolutions to remove our broken commandments from his memory and thus guarantee each believer the gift of eternal life. On this day I wish you both a “Merry Christmas” and may your New Year be a Happy One.
