They knew. . .

Good morning, Friends.

Today’s reading is one most people aren’t too familiar with. We all know the Christmas stories – the stories about the shepherds and the angels, the prophecies of Isaiah, the journey of the wise men – we know those pretty well. But today’s story takes us onto some less familiar ground.

Mary and Joseph were pious Jews. They believed in and followed the Jewish law, the law of Moses. So when their first child was born, Mary and Joseph followed the Bible commandments to the letter. Their new son was circumcised, given a Hebrew name, and taken to the Temple in Jerusalem, to be presented at the altar. The idea back then was that the first of anything – your first crops, the first of your cattle, and your first child, especially if your first child was a son – first things were considered to belong to God.

Joseph and Mary brought an offering with them to the Temple. They weren’t wealthy enough to afford the offering for prosperous people, which would have been a lamb. They could only afford the offering for poor people, which was a pair of doves. (If you’re interested in Christmas trivia, in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, that’s where the verse about “two turtle doves” comes from.)

So Mary and Joseph went up to the Temple, intending to obey the commandments for first-time parents. That’s where today’s story starts.

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, his parents brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”).

And they offered a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

Inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now let your servant depart 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.”

And his father and his mother were amazed at what was said about him.
And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,

“Behold, this child has a destiny; many will fall in Israel, and many others will rise. He will be a sign, and many people will reject him. The secret thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce through your own heart as well.”

And there was a prophet, a woman named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. In her youth she had been married for seven years, but her husband died. And now she was 84 years old.

She never left the temple, but she fasted and prayed night and day. Coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke about Jesus to all who were looking for Jerusalem to be redeemed.

And when his parents had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Luke 2:21-40

Simeon and Anna are not famous. We only meet them this one time. We never see them again. But Simeon and Anna greeted the baby Jesus, as if they had been waiting to see him, all their lives.

It must have really surprised Mary and Joseph. They probably thought they were done with all of these extraordinary events. Now they could get down to some normal parenting. And all of a sudden, down the steps come these two old people, holding their hands in the air and praising God. They were prophesying, and rejoicing, and doing all this biblical stuff.

If I were Joseph or Mary, I’d have been really scared! First Simeon comes along. He’s an old man, and it says that the Holy Spirit had told him that before he died, he would see the Messiah. Simeon lived with that promise, day in and day out.

At the start of each new year, Simeon would say to himself, “Maybe this is the year is when it will finally happen! My people have been waiting, for so many years now. Seems like forever. People say God has forgotten us. It’ll never happen. The Lord will never come. But I know that I, personally, will be around when it happens. I will know the moment, when it comes. I will witness it. . .”

One of the other ways it describes Simeon is that it says, “He was looking forward to the consolation of Israel. . .” That’s a very interesting phrase. He wasn’t looking backward, which is easy for all of us to do as we get older. Simeon was looking forward, to a new day.

But isn’t that a strange and mysterious way to talk about the coming of Christ? “The consolation of Israel. . .” It reminds me of the times when Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. That’s one of the Holy Spirit’s other names, you know?

Christ is the Consoler. He’s the one who would heal the wounds of an entire nation. All the pain, the brokenness, all the injustice and wrong and oppression. All of the accumulated wrongs of the past – Simeon was praying for all of God’s people.

And when Simeon saw the baby Jesus – who probably looked a lot like every other baby you’ve ever seen – somehow, Simeon just knew that the moment had come. And he lifted Jesus gently out of Mary’s arms, and he said, “Lord, you can take me home now. I’ve finally seen what you promised. A light for the people who didn’t know you, and glory for your people of Israel. . .”

Mary and Joseph were some kind of astonished. They just stood there, while this crazy old man blessed them, and blessed their baby.

And then Simeon beckoned to Mary, and he said, “Pssst! You know – this little boy of yours has a destiny. Because of him, many people who are high up in Israel are going to be humbled. And many people who are humble in Israel, and going to be exalted. You know, some go up – and some go down, right?”

Simeon said, “He’s going to be a sign. And he’s going to do signs. He’s going to hang there, like a great, big sign, that nobody could possibly, ever be able to miss.”

“A lot of people are going to be against him. And what’s really going on, in people’s thoughts and in their hearts, is going to be revealed, because of him. Oh, yes, and Mary” – he beckoned her even closer, and whispered in her ear – “when all this happens, a sword is going to pierce through your own heart, too. . .”

And then he handed the baby Jesus back to Mary.

While Mary was still recovering from the shock of what this old guy Simeon said, up comes another crazy old person, named Anna. Anna is described as a prophet, which puts her into a very small class of women in the Bible who ever received that title. It puts her into the same group of famous women like Sarah, and Deborah, and Esther.

Anna was very old. Instead of spending her days watching soap operas and game shows, Anna was a prayer warrior. She lived right there at the Temple. She only ate the simplest food, and she prayed, night and day.

And just like Simeon, she began to praise God as soon as she saw the baby Jesus. And it says that Anna “spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. . .”

What does that mean?

Those two phrases, “the consolation of Israel” and “the redemption of Jerusalem,” are really powerful. They stand for the restoration of God’s people. All of the things which God’s people had to live with – their defeats, their lost hopes, their broken dreams, their slavery, the loss of their homes and land. That’s what Simeon and Anna saw in Jesus.

Anna and Simeon are, in a very real sense, the first Christians. Because they recognized the great work that God was doing, in a tiny little baby, held in the arms of two scared young parents.

What’s interesting about this story, and so many other stories in the gospel, is that almost no one recognized Jesus. The angels recognized Jesus. The shepherds did, too. But the innkeeper didn’t. All the crowds of people in Bethlehem were too busy with their own affairs to notice him.

The foreign wise men knew who Jesus was. But nobody else did. Mary and Joseph’s neighbors didn’t see anything special about him. Later on, a handful of poor fishermen listened to Jesus. Poor and hungry people listened to him. But rich people and religious leaders didn’t.

It’s amazing, how few people knew who Jesus was. And it’s amazing, how so many of the people who did, were outside normal society.

A Roman officer. A guy who was blind could see Jesus, but people with normal vision couldn’t. Another guy with hundreds of demons met Jesus, and the demons all knew immediately who he was – but none of neighbors did.

A person with leprosy figured out who Jesus was. A woman who’d been hemorrhaging for years. Sinners and outcast Samaritans. They recognized Jesus. But almost nobody else did.

Somehow, Anna and Simeon took one look at the baby Mary and Joseph were holding, and they knew who he was. They just knew.

And if it’s hard for you to believe all this, just think about how hard it was for Mary and Joseph – those two scared young parents. They didn’t know what was happening. But they listened, and they went home, and their son grew and was strong and became filled with God’s wisdom. That’s what it says.

And who did that baby become? You tell me.

Would we recognize Jesus, if we saw him today? I don’t know. Maybe we should be looking. Maybe we should be praying, like Anna and Simeon.

Most of the time, we don’t think that things can change very much. We just reckon that the world is what it is. Probably it’ll get worse. We don’t expect God to do anything. 

What would it be like, to live, day to day, in the joyful hope and in the expectation that God will make things better – and that we will live to see it?

How many of us are praying passionately, with all our heart, for things to change?

How many of us are praying, “Lord, I want this nation and this world to be so much better! I don’t know how it happens, Lord, but I want there to be peace for everyone! I want our leaders to be looking out for everybody!”

How many of you are praying like that, night and day, like Simeon and Anna?

How many of you hope and truly believe that God can make things change and get better?

Never stop praying. Never give up hope. Never lose your faith and trust in God. And keep an eye out for Jesus – cause you don’t know when you’re going to meet him.