November 14 Sermon: Light for Revelation to the Gentiles

Consider these questions while we look at Luke 2:22-40:

1. What were the specific customs and rituals that Mary and Joseph followed after the birth of Jesus, according to the passage?

2. How did Simeon demonstrate his faith in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, and what significance did he attribute to Jesus' arrival?

3. In what ways did Anna contribute to the testimony of Jesus' identity, and how did she share this revelation with others?

Transcript:

One of the things that is overwhelming the first time you become a parent is everything that is involved in the process. When we had our first child I worked at Toys R Us as a manager and when I had first started with the company four years prior I was surprised to find out how much of the business of the story was baby stuff. I’m not talking baby toys here. I’m talking all the stuff that you need when you have a newborn. It’s more than diapers. You needed an infant car seat. You needed a stroller that the infant car seat would clip into. You needed extra bases for the infant car seat to clip into in your second car. You needed bottles and pacifiers and onesies. Then once you were past the infant stage you hoped the customers would return for a larger car seat and perhaps a larger stroller or a jogging stroller. So, when we became parents I had a good idea of what this all entailed but the whole process is rather overwhelming and I think several of our young parents here this morning are probably feeling what I’m talking about. And this goes beyond the stuff you have to buy and the things you need to learn, which includes coping with the fact that you are beginning a journey of severely interrupted sleep. You also have people who need to see the baby and you have things you need to do.

‌While we know that Mary and Joseph weren’t worrying about how they could afford a second infant seat base for the other donkey there were many things that they needed to do. In any age the arrival of a baby is a life changing event. We saw at the end of the passage we looked at last week that Mary and Joseph were faithful to name the child Jesus as was commanded and they had him circumcised on the 8th day just as the rituals commanded them to do. And now we are seeing that they have made their way to Jerusalem to present the child to the Lord. In the midst of all the things that need to be done, the parents of the Christ child are faithful and throughout the story we once again receive the confirmation of who this child is and what he is going to do.

‌Today we are going to pull out three points once again and so let’s line them out.

‌First, we are going to see what I just mentioned. Mary and Joseph are faithful to do what is required of them. There is no doubt left whether or not Jesus is set apart for a specific purpose. As we’ve seen so many times in scripture all the rituals ultimately point to him and we see here that when he arrives he is a participant in these things as well.

‌Second, we see Simeon and Anna witness to the identity of this child. We have seen the testimony of other people in Luke so far. The song of Mary and the song of Zechariah proclaim what the child is fulfilling. We saw the angels testify to who he is when they came to the shepherds and now we have others who witness to the identity of this baby.

‌Finally, we see that Jesus grows and the favor of God is upon him. As we are reading we are reminded that this isn’t the ultimate purpose of the story. The work that this promised child is going to do has not simply been accomplished by his arrival. He is not a conquering baby. He is to grow and we also see that God’s favor is upon him.

‌Let’s start out by looking at Luke 2 verses 22 through 24 as we look at point one and see that Mary and Joseph are faithful to fulfill what is required of them.

‌As we start here we don’t have a familiarity with the customs and rituals that were in the law. Even if we go and we read the stuff in the books of the law ,there are so many things there that while we read our eyes gloss over and we lose track of the stuff they are supposed to be doing. Many of these rules are like trying to understand another language because we just don’t live in their world, right? For the Hebrew people being ceremonially or ritually unclean was a significant concern. When a woman gave birth they were considered to be unclean for seven days after the birth of a son. And for an additional thirty-three days after that she was to keep away from holy things. So, for 40 days they were considered to be ritually unclean.

‌At the end of this the mother was then to offer a lamb plus a dove or a pigeon. Well, your eyes may have just darted to the screen to double check the passage because you didn’t notice the mention of a lamb. Well, there was another option if you were pour. You could do two doves or two pigeons. This is how we know that Mary and Joseph were not particularly well off and that Jesus came to earth in humble estate. They didn’t even have what was needed for the normal sacrifice and had to take the other option.

‌I have mentioned already that they are fulfilling all that was required of them and showing us that all the way to the beginning of his life, the law was being kept on his behalf but the question that naturally comes to our minds is what is going on with this?

‌In the law of Moses it was said that every child was to be set apart to the Lord. They were a gift from him and they were to be offered back to him. But they were not all raised in the temple. There wasn’t a big dormitory somewhere with all the firstborn sons of the Hebrew people. They offered these sacrifices to redeem the child. They were offering a substitute.

‌And with all of this being done the big picture being painted for us is that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity and belongs to God in that way but he is also fulfilling the earthly requirements. He belongs to God because the law has been kept and he has been offered to him.

‌We have been told multiple times who Jesus is and now we are seeing that everything required of him is taking place.

‌As we move onto our second point we find that the faithful actions of Mary and Joseph initiate others to testify to who Jesus is.

‌‌The ones who testify to who Jesus is are one off characters in scripture, yet we know who they are for their faithful testimony to the identity of Jesus.

‌The first person we are introduced to is a man named Simeon and we see that he was righteous and devout. And we also see that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. This is more than just the idea of Israel being consoled and made to feel better. The consolation of Israel is a title for the Messiah. It is about the peace and the comfort that the work and ministry of the Messiah brings. The messiah is the one who comforts the oppressed and those who are downtrodden and Simeon has been waiting for him and we see that the Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he saw the messiah.

‌We don’t know how this prophetic word was received by Simeon but he believed and trusted in this promise and as the passage continues we see that he comes into the temple and the Spirit reveals to him who the child is.

‌This is another moment where you imagine this story and you might struggle a little to picture in your mind. To put it in a way we might be able to visualize imagine that we are baptizing a baby and after I hand the little one back to the parents someone comes up randomly and takes the baby from the parents.

‌Yeah, we would wonder what was going on. But despite how strange the situation might seem to us the words of Simeon are beautiful. Now let your servant depart in peace.

‌Think about the faith in that statement. He is trusting that this child is the one who will save him from his sins. The work of Jesus has not been finished. The cross is still a long ways off but he trusts that this child, whose parents can’t even bring a lamb for the ceremonial sacrifice is going to bring salvation.

‌Many of us have probably held a child in our arms and thought about what they would do when they became full grown but it was just a hope and you probably didn’t have full expectation that what you hoped over that child would actually be. Simeon believes so deeply who this child is that he can now die peacefully knowing that God is bringing salvation through this child.

‌Simeon knows he is seeing the salvation of God and this baby can’t feed himself. He can’t speak. He can’t walk. He can’t do anything really and yet Simeon is banking on the word of God. His betting all the chips on this baby. That is faith.

‌I know what I’d be doing. Uh, God, this is it..... This is the plan. I know you said that I wouldn’t die until I saw the Messiah but can you let me live to know that he is actually going to do something. Can I see more than just the savior? Can I see what he’s going to do? You’ve let me live this long, what’s an extra 30 years or so. You gave ol’ Methuselah several hundred years. Can’t you spot me an extra few so I can see more than this?

‌But Simeon displays great faith for us. He shows us what believing and trusting in God looks like. It looks back to the promises made and it trust those promises into the future even when it might be difficult for us to see and understand.

‌And this confession is more than just an excellent example of faith to us. It is also additional confirmation of who this baby is. I’ve said this several times over the last several weeks. The messiah is not an enlightened sage or a wise guru who is delivering good advise. He is a savior and this time we see just how amazing his work as savior will be. He is a light for revelation to the Gentiles. That is what it means when it says in the presence of all peoples. The idea is that this salvation is not going to be limited to the people of Israel but it will go out to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

‌Remember what I’ve said in the past. What has been the difference between the Hebrew people and their pagan neighbors? It isn’t that they’ve figured out God or that they are smarter than the nations around them. It is that God has revealed himself to them. He has spoken to them through his word. Now, Simeon foretells the truth that through this child God is revealing himself to the Gentiles. Before, they had no revelation but now the light has come, not just for this one people group but for all people. Simeon is letting us know that this salvation that will come through the Christ child is going out into the people of the world in such a way that it even comes to 21st century Edgerton, Minnesota. God has revealed himself to us in his word and through the work of the Holy Spirit it has brought that salvation to you and I across time and across boundaries and oceans and ethnicities that God might be glorified in the salvation of his people. This promised revealed in scripture and to the humble and patient Simeon is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

‌And we see that the parents of the child marvel and what is said and then Simeon blesses them and he tells Mary that Jesus will call many to rise and fall in Israel. In other words, those in high positions will be brought low and those who are lowly will be lifted up. There is a great reversal being anticipated. Jesus did not come to bring greater benefit to those who were already at the top. Instead, he came to give hope to those who were without hope. This is not just about money or power. It is about the way that those who in humility acknowledge their sin and believe that their only help is a radical rescue by God himself. It is about salvation that comes not through our effort but realizing that salvation through Christ is all we’ve got.

‌And we see that this is not going to come easily. The sign of the messiah is opposed and a sword pierces through Mary’s own soul. We shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. We know from the Old Testament prophesies that the Messiah is opposed and suffers and Mary is made aware here that this will be something she sees and she herself will suffer at the sight of her son being crucified.

‌But Simeon is not the only witness to the truth of the messiah. Even though prophetic voices were rare in this time Anna was a prophetess. She had been a widow for a great many years and after her husband had died she had devoted herself to worshiping and prayer and fasting. And for her great time of faithfulness God revealed to her as well the identity of the child and this caused her to tell others who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. There were those who like her and Simeon trusted the promises of God and so she went about giving them the good news that the messiah had arrived. God blessed her lifetime of faithfulness with seeing the messiah but she did not keep silent about it. She shared the good news of his arrival with others.

‌And as we close out this passage we see the continuing of the story.

‌‌While we won’t dwell too long on this point it is an important part of the story. For all the celebration of this child, as I mentioned previously, it is not just the arrival of a baby that sets people free from their sin. While Anna and Simeon rejoice at seeing the child and know it to be the fulfillment of the covenant promises of God the promise does not fully come just by his arrival. Remember where he was born. It was among the animals and he was laid in a manger. It was not at the palace and he is seen by the world as the one who will rule. He is born a King but he is not an earthly king with political power and influence. He is just a baby and his family is so poor they can’t bring the lamb for the sacrifice. While part of the promise is fulfilled in his coming there is substantially more to come.

‌And Luke lets us know that everything is being done by the book. No one can say that Jesus didn’t have done to him what was required by the law. While he is fully God this does not exclude him from keeping the requirements of the law for he is also fully man and he came to fulfill the requirements that his parents kept on his behalf. All things are proceeding as they should but after the miraculous conception, the humble birth, the angelic announcement to the shepherds, and now his being recognized by Anna and Simeon things are now going to get very boring. We don’t know much of anything about this period of the life of Jesus. It is a normal life. We will see a story from when he is 12 next week but otherwise he is living life in Nazareth in Galilee. He learns to walk and talk. He helps his mother and father as the son of a poor family. He certainly played with friends and just lived like people do and that is kind of the point. While this passage has those elements of amazing prophetic words we still see that after he was circumcised they went to the temple and did things normal families do. Sure two prophetic voices said he was something more but he was a human baby who they saw and touched. He cried and needed to be fed. He has come in our very own flesh as the rescuer who saves us from the curse that afflicts us.

‌But in the midst of this normalcy we see that he became strong and filled with wisdom. He is growing and becoming the one who we are going to learn from and the who will teach with authority and put fear in the religious establishment. And the passage closes up with the statement that the favor of God was upon him. His growth in strength and wisdom could describe any child. We all grow as we make laps around the sun but Luke wants us to know that there is something more to the growth of Jesus. The favor and blessing of God is on him. Just as the angels and Simeon and Anna let us know, Jesus is different. He is the messiah and the hand of God is upon him to accomplish salvation for the people of God.

‌And so as we come to the end of this passage I think there is one very applicable application that we can take from this story that tells of the faithfulness of Anna and Simeon.

‌What a blessed example we have in these two people on how to live a godly life. And so I want us to consider one aspect of their faithfulness that is so applicable to our daily lives. Like Anna and Simeon we are called to wait patiently for the promise of God. Think about how they are described to us. They have lived long and faithful lives in service to God and even after they have seen the promise with their own eyes they still wait patiently. We don’t know for sure but it is unlikely that these two lived another 30 years to witness the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. They waited patiently for his arrival and they continued to wait patiently for the promise of God even if it went beyond their own years. They trusted not only that the promise of God would come but that he would continue to be faithful until the ultimate consummation of his promise.

‌In a sense this is what we do in the sacraments, right? in baptism, we put the sign of the covenant on our children knowing that God has been faithful to us and trusting that he will continue to be faithful to his promise in the years to come.

‌And this morning don’t we also trust the promise that has come and look to the promise to be fulfilled as we partake the Lord’s Supper. We look backwards to the finished work of Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension but we also trust that this is merely a foretaste of when we will feast in the house of Zion. And so may we approach the table with the faith and hope of Simeon and Anna this morning. Trusting that God’s promise has been fulfilled in Christ and that one day we will see the promise fully fulfilled when Christ returns at the end of history when he delivers his kingdom to his Father. Amen.