A War Cry: Simeon and Anna - Luke 2:23-28
Some would think
we’re done at this point, others would suggest that we have one more group to
cover, namely the wise men. Considering
that the wise men did not show up at the manger, but likely at Mary and
Joseph’s home when Jesus was a toddler, for reasons we’ll get into next week on
the first Sunday after the Epiphany, we have an additional stop to make on our
War Cry journey. It is an event that would have taken place between the birth
of Jesus and the arrival of the wise men—it is also continues to highlight the
darkness we have encountered in our journey of God’s battle plan—today we turn
to the presentation of Jesus at the Temple as part of Mary’s purification
rites.
Have you ever
received a Christmas or maybe birthday present that was what you had always
wanted, or at least longed for for a long time?
I have to say that Joshua is a very gracious gift-receiver. I can’t tell
you the number of times, at his birthday and Christmas that he would open a
present and say with regards to the gift, “it’s what I’ve always wanted.”
If we have ever received that gift we have always wanted, and remember
the excitement that we felt, then we might can feel a slight piece of what
Simeon felt that day.
Simeon was a holy
man. He had longed to see Israel
relieved from the oppression that the nation had been under for as long as he
could remember. God’s people had been under control other than God’s for years.
He wanted to see the people of God’s covenant freed. In the midst of his
faithful longing, he had received a visit from God’s Spirit and received a
promise that he would not die before he saw the One who would bring the
salvation of God’s people—the Messiah, God’s Anointed.
One day, prompted
by the Holy Spirit, maybe realizing what was about to happen, maybe just having
one of those inexplicable urges that he just had to be somewhere, Simeon went
to the Temple. That same day, Mary, Joseph, and the infant, Jesus, had made
their way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem for the presentation of Jesus, and for
the priest to declare that Mary, Jesus, and possibly Joseph to be clean, having
waited the appropriate amount of time, and brought the required sacrifice after
coming in contact with the blood associated with childbirth.
As they walk in,
Mary possibly cradling the baby Jesus, the Spirit prompts Simeon to turn and
see them, and opens his eyes to who Jesus is.
With that realization, Simeon rushes over and sweeps Jesus from the arms
of Mary and begins to sing praises to God, giving thanks to God for God’s
faithfulness in keeping His promise and that the redemption of Israel was at
hand. We hear these words: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in
peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have
prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.
In today’s world,
Mary and Joseph would have been standing there in shock, terrified about what
this lunatic might be getting ready to do to their child, they might even
would’ve yelled for someone to call thru police, or whipped out their
smartphones and dialed 911 themselves.
However, this was a different time, and despite both of them having been
visited by angels who had indicated what a special child Jesus would be, and
despite the bust from the shepherds, Mary and Joseph stood in quiet amazement
at what Simeon was declaring about their son.
Sounds like a
great celebration, right? No hint of all
the darkness or pain of God’s War here, right? Well, that seems like the direction it's
going, until Simeon turns and begins talking to Mary. There we find the words of God’s battle plan
and more sorrow for this young mom, “This child is destined for the falling and
rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the
inner thoughts of many will be revealed…:, and then the words about Mary that
we hear often during the Lenten season, “and a sword will pierce your own soul
too.”
What is Simeon
talking about? Simeon’s words to Mary
paint a picture of the counter-cultural ministry of Jesus, and the reaction to
it. We see in Jesus’ ministry the
raising of many. We see the literal
raising of the synagogue leader’s daughter, the widow’s son, and, of course,
Lazarus. However we also see many others
raised—the quadriplegic that had been lowered by his friends through the roof,
the man who had laid by the pool of Bethesda for half a lifetime, and the woman
who had hemorrhaged for twelve years. We
see him lift up the significance of those that society would cast aside, the
tax collector, the prostitute, and other sinners, those who had been considered
not worthy of becoming a rabbi’s disciple and returned to their family
businesses such as fishing, little children who were meant to be not heard and
not seen, women who were considered to be of no greater value than an asset of
their husbands, and Samaritans and Gentiles, who were all of those dirty,
filthy half-breeds and non-Jews (in the eyes of the culture, not in the eyes of
Jesus). It was all of these that society
pushed aside or ignored that rose in response to the teaching and touch of
Jesus.
Simeon, though,
spoke of the falling of many at the words of Jesus. Where are the falling? The experienced Jesus and his teachings as
the “stumbling block,” as Paul would later refer to Jesus in relation to those
who struggled with accepting Him as the Messiah. We see many who fell as a result of an
encounter with Jesus—the pig farmers who watched their herd run off the cliff
into the ocean when filled with the demons of the Gadarenes demoniacs brining
the whole town to beg Jesus to leave, rather than celebrate the life-changing
encounter, there was the rich young ruler who went away sad when told by Jesus
to go and sell everything he had, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus,
there were the religious leaders whose teachings kept themselves lifted up and
everyone else in their place found every effort to trap Jesus reversed on
themselves, and even found themselves on the receiving end of Jesus’ ridicule
as Jesus called those who accused Him of being in league with Beelzebub of
being children of Satan themselves, there were the money changers and
sacrificial animal sellers in the Temple courts, and even Judas Iscariot who
could not accept that Jesus was the Messiah he had been longing for all these
years.
Each of these
efforts, of lifting the fallen and bringing down those who placed themselves
above others, led to the opposition that Jesus faced. From the healing of the quadriplegic to the
healings on the Sabbath to the cleansing of the Temple, the religious leaders
began plotting to bring the ministry of Jesus to an end. They bribed Judas Iscariot to show them where
to find Jesus as Jesus prayed in the Garden.
They were so opposed to Jesus that they resulted to seeking out folks to
break one of the Ten Commandments as they actively sought out people to bear
false witness against Jesus. They used
peer pressure to sway the crowd to ask for the release of a murderer over the
release of Jesus when given the option by Pilate. All of this was seen by those around Jesus,
but Jesus also encountered opposition on a completely different plane as Satan
appeared to tempt him in the wilderness, use Peter’s confusion over what the Messiah
was to look like to try and tempt Jesus to a different route, and at the last
tempted Jesus to choose self-preservation over the cup God of self-sacrifice
that the Father had set before Him.
What does this
mean for all of us, my friends? If it
means that if we are followers of Jesus, if we claim to be disciples of Christ,
then the words of Simeon will apply to us as well. Our lives and ministry will be
counter-cultural…we will not be satisfied with the status quo. We will seek to raise those who find
themselves at the bottom. We will reach
out to those who are sick and struggling and seek to lift them up. We will reach out and touch those that
society has said are untouchable and worthless—the homeless, the undocumented,
the sinners striving for repentant lives, and others. We will expend our energy to counter the
“-isms” of our culture—sexism, ageism, racism, classism, or any other effort to
categorize a group of people in a way that makes them less, and force the world
to recognized the value and significance of each and every life—that all are a
precious, valued life before God.
Our following of
Jesus will cause many to stumble or fall—as we call for forgiveness in a world
where getting even is seen not only as a strength, but a right; as we call for
personal responsibility in a culture that is quick to blame someone else for
our own mistakes; as we call to place others’ needs and a commitment to God above
ourselves in a culture that says, “look out for number one”; and as we confront
those who would suggest that following Jesus is only about believing the right
thing, not necessarily doing the right thing, or the flipside of that doing the
right thing, not believing that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and
that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
In doing these
things, we join the War Cry that rose from the manger, and most likely sounded
out through the Temple as He was presented, committing ourselves to the battle
plan of God. And as we do, let us all,
let the whole Church, join Anna in praising God for this child and pointing
others to the One who came not only to redeem Jerusalem but also the whole
world.
In the Name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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