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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever received a Christmas gift that, at least at first, you just did not know what it was or what good it would do for you? If that ignorance of the identity of the gift or of its benefit has not happened with a gift you have received, perhaps such ignorance has happened with a gift you have given. I remember such experiences both with gifts that I have received and with gifts that I have given. We might have expected some ignorance of the identity of the gift or its benefit in the case of God’s gift of His Son on Christmas, for by most appearances he would have been an ordinary and otherwise unremarkable human baby (Isaiah 53:2), but, in the Gospel Reading appointed for today, the First Sunday after Christmas, we find the opposite is miraculously the case. Simeon and Anna are two recipients of God’s gift of His Son who know both His identify and the good that He is doing for them. And, we can be like them in “Seeing Salvation and Departing in Peace”.
Today may be the Third Day of Christmas for us, but today’s Gospel Reading takes us to the events of the fortieth day after Jesus was born. When the time came for Mary’s purification, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. They were performing everything according to the Law of the Lord, and the Lord used the occasion to keep His Word to a righteous and devout man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. To Simeon the Holy Spirit somehow had revealed that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ, and, coming in the Spirit, Simeon was seeing the Lord’s salvation and departing in peace.
Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke mentions others who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem, which is essentially the same thing: looking for the promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. In our time, there are a lot of people out in the world who are not so looking for the Savior and would not know Him if they saw Him, though certainly there are some who are looking for the Savior and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would know Him if they saw Him. Those of us who are here today in some sense probably were looking for the Savior and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, now know Him. But, we still might have questions or doubts about the whole “departing in peace” thing.
Now, to be sure, Simeon’s experience in many ways was unique to him, but that uniqueness does not rule out either any application to us or any similarities to our experiences. Simeon saw the Lord’s salvation, and he was departing in peace. We have seen the Lord’s salvation, and we should be departing in peace. Simeon was ready to go, and so should we be ready to go. Simeon did not ask the Lord to keep him around until some relative could graduate from college, get married, or have a first child, as if those things were most important, and neither should we. Simeon is usually thought to be an old man, though the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke does not say anything about Simeon’s age, only about Anna’s age. And, Simeon’s potentially being a younger man makes his readiness to depart all the more striking. Simeon did not fear death, and neither should we. Simeon did not put any pre-conditions on going to the Temple, and neither should we. Simeon did not try to avoid the death of his body at any and all costs, even potentially the cost of his soul, and neither should we. From the moment we become Christians on, we should be looking forward to the Lord’s final coming in glory or our own deaths, whichever come first. The sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the body and eternal life in glory with the Lord should characterize our entire lives. (Confer Titus 2:13; Pieper, III:84-85.) Sadly, because of our sinful nature, such is not always the case with us. We sin in those and in other ways. And, on account of our sins, we deserve temporal and eternal death, apart from the repentance from our sin and faith in Jesus Christ that God gives to us.
Today’s Gospel Reading heaps up the descriptions of even the 40-day-old Jesus! He is the Consolation of Israel, the Lord’s Christ, Salvation, Light for revelation to the Gentiles, Glory to the people of Israel, a Sign that is opposed, and the Redemption of Jerusalem (a complete seven things). As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Galatians 4:4-7), God sent His Son for the purpose of redeeming us! Later in St. Luke’s Gospel account, Cleopas and his unnamed companion traveling with him to Emmaus unknowingly tell Jesus that they had hoped that He was the One to redeem Israel, hopes that apparently were dashed for them when Jesus was crucified. So, Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, specifically, the Divine necessity for Him to suffer and enter into His glory. (Luke 24:13-27.) Appearances can be deceiving. Death on the cross can appear to be defeat. By God’s revelation to us we know both Jesus’s identify and the good that He is doing for us. We know that Jesus is God in human flesh Who died on the cross for us and rose again from the grave. We know that, out of God’s love, mercy, and grace, Jesus in our place kept God’s law and died for our failure to keep it. We trust God, for Jesus’s sake, to forgive us our failures to be willing to depart in peace and all of our other sin.
God forgives our failures to be willing to depart in peace and all of our other sin through His Means of Grace. As there were appointed means for Mary’s purification, so there are appointed means for our receiving God’s forgiveness, starting with Holy Baptism. At the Font, God, in the words of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 61:10-62:3), clothes us in garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness. Through the pastors to whom we privately confess the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, in Holy Absolution God forgives our sin and dismisses us in peace. And, as Simeon took up in his arms the child Jesus, so, in the Sacrament of the Altar, we take up in our mouths bread and wine that are Jesus’s Body and Blood, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation. Afterwards, we even sing in the Nunc Dimittis the words that Simeon sang!
Surely by at least the providence of God, the elderly Anna came up at the very time that Simeon was both praising God for Jesus and blessing Jesus’s parents, and, perhaps on that basis of Simeon’s words (so Just, ad loc Luke 2:21-40, pp.124-125), Anna, in turn, was giving thanks to God and speaking of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. The Old Testament time of waiting had come to an end, and the New Testament time of fulfillment had begun! And, each one of us gives thanks to God and can speak of Him, no matter our vocations, even if we are elderly widows! We do not know how long it was after Simeon held Jesus before our Almighty God summoned from this vale of tears Simeon’s soul, and we do not know how long it will be before God summons from this vale of tears our souls. However long we might patiently wait in faith, and however we might be treated during that time, we are comforted by our redemption. We do not fear death, but we also try to not let our sure and certain hope be an occasion either for us to harm others or for others to take offense from our behavior. We serve the Lord as best we can, and, with daily repentance and faith, we live in His forgiveness of sins that we receive through His Means of Grace.
In the case of God’s gift of His Son on Christmas, we are not ignorant of His identity or His benefit to us. Like Simeon, we are “Seeing Salvation and Departing in Peace”. In the Holy Spirit, Simeon sang a new song that we continue to sing. Now and forever, we, in the words of today’s Introit (Psalm 98:1-4; antiphon: Is. 52:10), make a joyful noise to the Lord and break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +