Scripture: Luke 2:25-35
When
Christ came into this world, it was never intended that He should remain safety
tucked away from the people! God has
never isolated Himself from creation – as a matter of fact, the Lord, right
from the beginning with Adam, has been intimately involved with humanity. The problem, though, is that many have always
thought that He was more like our human leaders, that while they mouth the thought
that they want to be accessible to all, they actually only want to interact
with those who can do something for them.
But our God is nothing like those who humanity raises up and honors! He has never demanded that we give and give and give some more to Him. The Lord’s attitude is nothing like ours – He wants to give His very best to us, and never to take our best from us! But as with every gift, they have to be accepted and appreciated if they are to have any significance in our lives.
And yet, if we are prepared to receive God’s blessings, they will come to us abundantly!
Read Luke 2:25-28
There were three obligations for the parents of a firstborn son. On the eighth day, the child was to be circumcised, which would be a sign that he was a child of the Lord. The other two occurred after the mother’s 30 days of purification, required because of her issue of blood at delivery – she would offer a sacrifice to complete the purification process, and the couple would also offer a gift to redeem their firstborn son. For Israel, the law required that every firstborn male was to be dedicated in service to Jehovah. However, for a price, he could be purchased back by the family. Think about that for a moment – the very One who had come to give Himself to redeem humanity through faith, had to first be redeemed by humanity through the law!
This is the time that brought this family to the temple, and the time when they were about to hear Simeon’s prophecy.
Simeon was a man of faith. He wasn’t a priest, he wasn’t a Pharisee, he wasn’t a learned man. But he knew that the scriptures had promised that Messiah would come to restore and renew Israel, and the Holy Spirit had promised him that he would, one day, meet this promised Savior face to face.
Faith is one of those things that no one will ever find easy to explain. It requires trust without reality to back it up; it demands confidence without certainty; it provides hope without proof; it gives us assurance for no reason whatsoever. But at the same time, faith is what Christianity is all about, and it’s all based in our trusting that God is who He says He is, and will do what He tells us that He will do! That is what had sustained Simeon for many years, and he never doubted.
And on this day, the promise of God became reality for him. And he praised the One who had been guiding and encouraging him throughout his life.
Read Luke 2:29-32
And as soon as he touches the Child, he knows, and he probably knows more than God had ever revealed to him before. He knows that this is his Savior, and that life is now complete. He knows that Jesus has come, not simply as Israel’s Messiah, but as the Christ for the entire world. This is what Isaiah had prophesied years before, that it just wasn’t enough to simply rescue Israel, that Messiah would come for all nations, that He would be their Light in the darkness, their revelation in the midst of ignorance, and the salvation that would overturn their sentence of death. (Isaiah 49:5-6)
The Lord doesn’t just make promises to us – He makes covenant. The difference is that promises can be broken, contracts have loopholes, and hopes can be so nebulous that they become meaningless. A covenant, though, is an agreement that is unbreakable without consequences for those who have failed to faithfully keep it. And God never fails!
And neither had Simeon. As the years had begun to pass him by, without any evidence or even a sign that the divine promise was about to come true, he never stopped believing that he would, one day, see his Lord Messiah just as his Lord God Jehovah had told him.
Are we as faithful as Simeon was? Never doubting, never hesitating, never avoiding, never thinking that you must have heard God incorrectly? “Trust” is what the Lord wants in our lives, not fear, not failure, and definitely not disbelief! And when we trust in his word, His faithfulness will become more and more evident to us.
Simeon apparently had no expectation as to what Messiah would look like, even though many in Israel believed that He would come as a conquering Warrior. Simeon never believed that Jesus would come to only be Israel’s King and Savior, and when he realized that He would be salvation for the entire world, he rejoiced. Simeon’s faith and trust in God went so far beyond that of the mighty and exalted of Israel, that he would be blessed, and that others would continue to disbelieve in their self-imposed darkness.
Where will we be found when Jesus returns? Rejoicing in His light, or struggling in our own darkness? Simeon is the example that we all should be considering.
Read Luke 2:33-35
Mary had, quite honestly, only been told about the glory that would grow within her, and nothing about the suffering and rejection that He would have to endure (Luke 1:26-37). When Joseph learned of her condition and was prepared to free her from their covenant, God sent him the message of Jesus being Savior, but, again, nothing about the mass rejection that would come His way. (Matthew 1:18-21).
But Simeon heard more than just the good things that would come from His birth. He heard that some would be raised up, but that others would be laid low. And the kicker would be the thought that Messiah’s own words would be the reason that many would denounce Him and reject Him.
We don’t know if his earthly parents ever knew that He would be rejected by the world until those final days actually arrived. They probably knew that the elite of Israel didn’t think much of Him, but would the death of the Savior have made any sense to them earlier? Probably not.
But Simeon was also given a glimpse into Mary’s lot – that her soul would also suffer greatly. This is one of the issues with faith – The Lord doesn’t always give us all the details, and when His words come to fruition, things don’t always make a lot of sense to us. This great gift of God to all the earth should have been a reason for joy and celebration, so why should animosity ever be shown toward Him? Did you know that the word of God is never easy to follow, and that it seldom makes sense to us?
The lack of compatibility with human understanding didn’t seem to have any impact on Simeon’s faith. This is where trust comes in for all who believe. We believe that God has a perfect and glorious plan at work for us. We believe that God has sent a Savior who will make all things right for those who are faithful. We believe that He is the ultimate authority over all creation. And yet, we see events at work in our lives that seem to defy all that we have ever learned about the Lord, and of all that we believe and hope in. And some times, we are tempted to turn away.
And yet, we remember that God has been revealed to us through this most unlikely of all Persons – a Baby! And our faith is renewed and strengthened through Him! It happened for Simeon, to the point that he knew that after this moment in life, nothing else would ever matter to him again, including his own demise. He had become complete at last.
Mary had known the call of God less than a year before, and now she was being told that her heart, one day, would break. Highs and lows, and yet, she had come to know and love the Child who had grown within her, and now lies comforted in her arms. She knew so very well who he was and who he would grow up to become, and the mother’s love that she had for him would never be taken away, even at the tragic and brutal end of her son’s life.
Joseph had, at first doubted her faithfulness to him, but he could never doubt the love that he felt when God’s messenger told him that it was all true, and that it was divine will that it should be this way.
The Lord’s faithful would also come to know the hatred that tried to end the ministry that Jesus had begun, and yet, faith has strengthened them – over and over - to not only continue to spread the message of Jesus, but to also suffer as their Lord suffered, with joy!
But the ending of our story has yet to be written. Will it be one of faithfulness? Of rising above our struggles? Of discovering a strength, a power unlike anything we have ever known? Of Joy?
Or
will it be one of safe decisions? Of worldly answers to worldly cares? Of failure to keep a determined focus on
Christ?
There is a power that is available to all who claim Jesus as Savior. It was there for the disciples. It was there for Paul. It was there for Simeon, and Joseph and Mary. It was there for countless millions of faithful throughout the centuries, and there will be that strength for countless others until the day that Christ returns. And it can be there for us. But where does this strength come from? Quite simply, from the revealed Christ who lives within all who believe.
Believe in the revealing of God through the life and love of Jesus Christ. Believe in the truth that lives within that holy name. Believe in the passion that has been shown to you, and for you. And believe that simply by faith and trust in the precious name of Jesus, that eternal life will be yours. Show Him to others today, that He might be revealed within them, too.
