I think one of the things people these days find hard is having to wait. Delayed gratification is one of those things that have been forgotten in our age of fast food, instant communication and short attention spans. I see you can even buy an air conditioner now, that you can telephone on your way home from work to turn it on so you don’t have to wait for the room to cool down when you get home. I remember when Di was pregnant with each of our children, there was that long wait, of some eight months from when we found out until the baby was born. Eight months of anticipation, but also 8 months of wondering how we’d cope, whether it’d be a boy or a girl, whether it would be healthy or not. Well these days people do ultrasounds to find out the sex of their baby and whether it’s healthy, etc. Because it’s difficult to wait isn’t it?
But sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have to wait. Delayed gratification can be a helpful thing. For example it allows you time to prepare. Imagine if you found out you were having a baby the day before it arrived! You’d be lost, wouldn’t you? You just wouldn’t be prepared. But on the other hand, if the wait gets too great, you start to wonder whether it will really happen.
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. Both are looking for the same thing. These people were looking forward to the fulfilment of prophecies such as Isaiah’s which 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. 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. They’d been waiting for many years most of them. 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. Anna we’re told, is 84, which I take to be a great age for the period. 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. Similarly Anna 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 who God uses to teach his people about who Jesus was.
Here are people who are faithfully waiting for God’s promised Messiah to be revealed when suddenly he appears among them. But if you look at the account that Luke gives of this event, it’s clear that by itself, no-one would have noticed it. The event of Jesus’ birth happens in a very unspectacular way, and in fact Luke tells it in a very sparing way. 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 it’s 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. 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 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 of the nunc dimittis. What he says isn’t that much different to what the angels said, except that the range of his words spreads wider. 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. 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. And it had been predicted by Isaiah: (eg. 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.’" And now it was taking place in the person of Jesus.
But Simeon gives Mary a warning. He says this salvation that’s offered to all peoples, won’t be taken up by all. Some will stumble over it. Some will oppose it. Simeon probably didn’t understand the full repercussions of this but we now know that some are offended by the way it comes about, by the shame of the cross. Some are offended by it’s 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. Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, warns Mary that their opposition in the end will mean Jesus death, and so 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.
The final scene of this chapter, and indeed of Luke’s account of Jesus’ childhood, is the visit of Jesus to the Temple. This time the voice we hear is that of Jesus himself. They go up to Jerusalem when Jesus is 12, possibly in preparation for his Bar-mitzvah in the coming year. Anyway, when it comes time to return home Jesus stays behind, unbeknown to his parents. When they discover his absence they go back to look for him. After three days of searching they finally find him. Now you can imagine by this time they’d be getting a little frantic. I used to get worried when my teenage children were an hour or so late getting home. Imagine with a twelve year old, who’s been missing four days. But there he is in the Temple, sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking questions, and everyone is amazed by his understanding. Well, you get the feeling that this amazement is somewhat lost on Joseph and Mary. They’re ready to throttle him. You don’t quite get the intonation of Mary’s question in Luke’s written account, but you can probably imagine it. "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." ’We’ve been to the police, we’ve rung all the hospitals. How could you be so thoughtless.’ I know just how she feels. But Jesus is unfazed. He says "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" There’s a childlike simplicity to these first recorded words of Jesus that belies the significance of them. You see, they imply a relationship between himself and God different from and deeper than, anything that had ever been known before. Oh sure, the Jews had always referred to God as their father, but all they really understood by that was that God had brought the nation into being. If anything Abraham was their true father. But here was Jesus claiming a special relationship with God as Father that overrode even his relationship with his human parents. It was a relationship that later on he would teach his disciples applied also to them. He’d teach them when they pray to pray to their father and they’d learn to use the intimate name "Abba" (Dad) to address God.
Just as in John’s gospel we’re told from the outset that Jesus came so that all who received him would be given the power to become children of God, so here in Luke we discover that Jesus has come as God’s Son, which means that all who come into relationship with him, will also come into relationship with God the Father.
So can you see how Luke has taken this fairly unimpressive event of the birth of a peasant child, in the stables of an inn in the little village of Bethlehem, and shown through these three subsidiary incidents the real significance of Jesus coming among us. Here are three omens, three voices, that point beyond the physical event to the spiritual significance of what’s happening. As always in Scripture, the event is accompanied by words that explain and fill out the event, the image. One can imagine that without the words, those who were waiting patiently for Jesus’ appearing might well have missed it. Certainly we who look back from the distance of centuries would know nothing if not for the words recorded by the writers of the Scriptures.
The coming of Jesus into the world would mean nothing if it weren’t accompanied by God’s own explanation of it. So Luke has recorded for us the angel’s words that tell us who Jesus is, the prophets’ words that tell us who might benefit from Jesus’ coming, and Jesus’ own words that remind us that to grasp fully this message of salvation we need to follow the one who already knows God as his Father, so that we too might be brought into that same relationship with him.
We too are people who are waiting. Not for the coming of a Messiah to save his people. No we’re people who are waiting for that Messiah to return, to take us to be with him in the Father’s presence. But like those people who were waiting for Jesus to come, we need to be ready. We need to be preparing ourselves. How? By devoting ourselves to worship of God, by reading and studying his word so we can be more like him when he returns, and so we can understand the days in which we live, and by telling others of what we’ve discovered in that word; sharing the revelation we’ve been given of the significance of this Jesus who was born all those years ago, but who is still alive today, and who still speaks to his people through the Scriptures.
My hope in this coming year is to see us grow as a congregation who are ready to meet the Lord when he comes and who are working hard at learning how to share our faith with those around us; who are taking the events of our lives and sharing them with others so they too see that God is at work in the world. Let’s pray that we too might be voices that reveal to the world that a Saviour, who is Christ, the Lord, has come.
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