Feb 2, 2020  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation today is a portion of the Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, Luke 2:22-24. There we read: "And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.’"

We begin in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Our text begins in Egypt, in the hectic aftermath of the first Passover. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, but God had not forgotten His people. He sent Moses as his spokesman, warning Pharaoh again and again, "Let My people go." Pharaoh stubbornly refused, so the Lord has afflicted Egypt with nine plagues to persuade him that rebellion against God was a very foolish thing. When Pharaoh refused to submit to God, he learned a terrible lesson in the tenth plague: the Lord declared that He would come through the land and take the lives of the firstborn males of Egypt, both man and beast.

Every firstborn would die…unless.

The Lord declared to His people that their firstborn sons could be saved. They were to take a lamb without blemish, and they’re to sacrifice it. They were to put the blood of the lamb on the lintels and doorposts of their dwellings, and they were to roast the lamb and eat it for dinner.

The people followed the Lord’s instructions about His Passover to the letter; and when the Lord came through Egypt to take the lives of the firstborn males, He passed over every home marked with the blood of the lamb and spared those who dwell inside.

The tenth plague—the death of the firstborn—finally moved Pharaoh to submission, at least for the moment. He ordered the people of Israel out of his land: after 400 years of slavery, they were free and on the move. One can only imagine the chaos as an entire people packed up to leave; and as they left Egypt, the Lord commanded them to remember the Passover every year.

He said, "Consecrate to Me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is Mine" (Exodus 13:2). The firstborn males of animals were to be sacrificed as an offering to God. The firstborn males of the people were to be redeemed by sacrifice, consecrated to God by the blood of a lamb—or a pair of turtle doves or pigeons for those who are very poor. The Lord was adamant: this was a law to be remembered.

He went on to say in Exodus 13: "And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of My sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:14-16).

So the people were to remember that the Lord redeemed the firstborn, and He redeemed by sacrifice.

Centuries later, Mary and Joseph came to the temple in obedience to this command. Jesus, Mary’s firstborn Son, was forty days old, and it was time to make the sacrifice to redeem Him before God. Mary and Joseph were poor: they brought a pair of turtledoves or pigeons, not the preferred lamb for sacrifice.

This is the mystery that makes this text such a stunning account for meditation. The Lord commanded His people to redeem their firstborn sons for two reasons: 1.....to remember how He delivered them from Egypt, 2.....and to proclaim to them how He would deliver them from sin, death and hell.

He would deliver them by redeeming them, and He would redeem them with a sacrifice, with the shedding of blood. The shedding of His own blood. That’s why Jesus was born of Mary: God became man so that He could shed blood for your redemption.

So what is happening when the Lord came suddenly to His temple that day, incarnate in human flesh as a forty-day-old boy?

A sacrifice was made for Jesus, and by this sacrifice, this firstborn Son was declared redeemed; and because of this sacrifice, it was the firstborn Son who was declaring the redemption. A sacrifice was made to redeem Him who needs no redemption. But He did it to keep the Law perfectly for you, to give you the credit for His obedience; and, later on, the One who needs no redemption would be the Sinner who was condemned by His Father on the cross for the sins of the world. The eternal Son of God and Lord of life was going to die.

This where Simeon, Anna and you come in. Simeon was a righteous and devout man. We always assume he was older because he was pondering death, but we just don’t know. However, he had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he saw the Christ.

Today was the day. He saw Mary, Joseph and the Baby come into the temple. Remember: the temple was a busy place; and for all we know, there was probably a bunch of young couples with kids around. And, there’s no halo around Jesus’ head: He was just an ordinary-looking baby to the eye.

That’s why text mentions the Holy Spirit so much in connection with Simeon, so that you might realize that Simeon knew that Jesus was the Messiah because the Spirit had revealed this to him. He knew Jesus by faith, not by sight.

By faith, he took the Child in his arms and blessed God with a prayer you know so well: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word. For my eyes have seen Thy Salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."

This was an astounding moment: as Simeon prayed to the Lord about the Child, he was praying to the Child: if he were staring into the Baby’s eyes and calling Him "Lord," he would not be wrong, for Simeon held God in his hands.

Simeon revealed something else in this prayer: he said not only would that this One bring salvation for all peoples, but as he blessed them, and he said to Mary "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."

Although the Son of God deserves the devotion and worship of all, He would not receive it, says Simeon. He would be opposed to the point where Mary’s soul would be pierced with grief.

Many would rise and many would fall. This would not be about outward appearances: it would be about faith and unbelief, about the thoughts from the heart. Simeon’s prophecy would prove true: the Pharisees, who you would expect to follow the Messiah, would bitterly oppose Him and plot His death, while the suffering, the downtrodden and the repentant sinners would rejoice in His coming.

One of these was Anna, the daughter of Phanuel. We know very little about her, but her life was not the sort that people dream of. She was 84 years old. She was married once upon a time for seven years, but had been widowed ever since; and if she was married at the typical age, then she had been a widow for around sixty years.

It was a long time to be alone in any era, but it was far worse at the time of the New Testament. To be a widow then was to live in poverty, without protection. To live so for sixty years was to know a lot of loneliness, want and suffering. So Anna’s life was one of fasting, prayer and waiting: she waited for the redemption of Jerusalem, waited for the Messiah. She had nothing in this world to trust in, so she trusted God’s promise of a Deliverer.

On this day, her prayers were answered. She saw the Redeemer, swaddled up and carried in the temple, and she gave thanks to God. In this Savior, she would be delivered from this life of suffering to eternal life in heaven.

Anna was one of the first Christians, then—one of the first followers of Jesus. She was an example of what Simeon had just said. This Messiah did not gather the powerful and strong as a fighting force to win an upcoming battle; He gathered the weary and heavy laden. He gathered those who despaired of themselves and who did not trust in the things of this world, but trusted in Him.

He does not assemble them to fight His battle: He was going to do the fighting for them throughout His life and by His death. This infant Savior had already shed blood to save His people, and would die for their sins and rise again to win the victory over sin, death and devil.

Simeon and Anna. What about you? Like Anna, is your’s a life of waiting, waiting for the Christ to return in glory. You wait for deliverance, too. It may be the loneliness of widowhood. It may be waiting for deliverance from pain or disease. It might be waiting for employment or better employment. It might be waiting for an improved situation in the family or in yourself.

Whatever your situation, there will be reminders of the curse of sin, that there’s just something wrong, whether you can put your finger on it or not. If you don’t feel this restlessness, then take the Lord’s Word that it is so: all of creation groans for redemption, and you are not exempt from the curse of sin.

But remember. You’re also like Simeon. By the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the Word of God, you know of Jesus. You know that the Son of God became flesh, lived and died for you. By faith, you also know where to find your Savior: as the Spirit pointed Simeon to the Infant Jesus in the temple, so He points you to your baptism, to the Word and to the Supper. These means of grace have no halo floating above them, but the Lord is there all the same. Guided by the Spirit, then, you go to where your Savior is found, present with forgiveness and life.

You hear the Word. You receive Christ’s body and blood. Is it any wonder then that, after the Supper, you sing Simeon’s song—because the Savior is just as body-and-blood present with you as He was with Simeon when Simeon held Him in his arms.

We’re back to some mystery again, more to ponder like the Incarnation. You wait for the Savior to return; and as you wait for the Savior, He waits with you in His means of grace, to strengthen and preserve you in the one true faith unto life everlasting.

As you wait, you will still be pierced with suffering and grief. But the promise is yours, because in the fullness of time, "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5).

Christ is risen. AMEN