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Luke 2:22-33
22 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 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant1 depart in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good evening, everybody. My name is Jeff. If we haven't met before, I'm I'm the associate pastor here at Redeemer. I'd love to meet you after the service if you've, got a few moments. We're gonna be in Luke's gospel tonight, so if you wanna go ahead and start making your way in your Bibles.
Jeffrey Heine:It's also in your worship guide if you don't have a Bible with you. You. In 1943, a songwriter, Hugh Martin, was given the task of writing songs for a new Judy Garland movie that was coming out called Meet Me in St. Louis. Some people have mistakenly referred to this as a Christmas movie.
Jeffrey Heine:If you've ever, you know, gotten gotten what you got, it's Christmas tree, and you got the stockings out, and you got some hot cocoa, and you put it in, you will realize very quickly, this is not a Christmas movie. However, it does have one of the most iconic American Christmas songs in existence. And that is, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. And Hugh Martin wrote that song in 1943. And when he played it for Judy Garland, it happens in a scene that is actually really tremendously depressing.
Jeffrey Heine:She's singing it to her sister. They're moving and it's a very sad scene. And, the very first time that Judy Garland heard it she said, you've got to change the words. The audience is going to hate me if I'm singing this to this crying girl. Like this is not gonna work.
Jeffrey Heine:So Hugh Martin went back and he rewrote the song, and he changed some of the lyrics around. But it's still a pretty dark song like that version there in 1943. Everything is about how someday soon, one day next year, things are going to be better. Because that's the message that Judy Garland is telling her little sister. Sister.
Jeffrey Heine:Next year's gonna be better. I know it's terrible right now, next year's going to be better. In fact, one of the last lines of the song is, someday soon we will all be together if the fates allow. Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow. And so the whole thing is kinda dark.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like it's this muddling through, this trudging through this time with the hope that things are going to be better in the future. About 14 years later, Frank Sinatra wanted to record the song. And yet again, a big major star went to Hugh Martin and said,
Speaker 2:you're gonna have to change the lyrics to this song. You've gotta you've gotta cheer
Jeffrey Heine:this up. My my my Chris And so, Hugh Martin, walking down Highland Avenue here in Birmingham, He was walking down and he looked up at at a tree and pinned the words and changed it from instead of, until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow, he wrote, hang a shining star above the highest bow. I don't know what kind of Christmas you're heading into this week. I I don't I don't know, for some of you, it's you're you're excited about time with family. You're excited about maybe traveling or or or going home.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe some of you, this is your first time away from home, and and and that's hard. For some of you, you're experiencing Christmas for the first time with someone new, whether that's a new boyfriend or girlfriend, a new spouse, a new child. And for others, you're experiencing Christmas for the first time without someone, whether that's through a strained relationship or perhaps in the past year, someone very important to you has passed away. And so I don't I don't know what kind of Christmas you're walking into, especially the unexpected things, you the things that just that come up in life that we can't even anticipate right now that we will be facing this week. I don't know what kind of Christmas you're walking into.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know if it's gonna be, a Judy Garland muddling through, or if it's gonna be Frank Sinatra and hanging stars on the highest bow. I I don't know which one you're walking into, but I do know this. What is central, what is at the very heart of Christmas is summed up in what you see when you look at the baby in the manger. That's the constant for all of us. No matter what we might face this week, what we see when we look at that little baby in the manger, that is the very heart and core of Christmas.
Jeffrey Heine:Because people see lots of different things when they look at that baby. And for many, when they look at baby Jesus, and they they see a nativity scene set up at a church, or outside someone's home, maybe, maybe in one of those, handed down through the family nativity scenes with the glued on straw, you know, and and the the the figurines that you were never allowed to touch, and and maybe a a wise man with his head glued back on, you know, and and that that's kinda handed down. I've got one of those in my family. Or maybe it's one of those inflatable ones that's never gonna be handed down at all. Like that's that was a bad idea.
Jeffrey Heine:But, when you look at that baby, some people they they see a treasured fable about humility. You know, just a sweet folklore about a made up God coming down and being with his creation. And some people, they see a sweet story that's that's just inspirational, and that's it. Others look at the baby and see a good reason for holiday traditions, and cheer, and family time. But what we believe what we believe at the very heart of Christmas is summed up in what we see in the manger.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the question that I want us to consider together tonight. What do you see when you look at this baby? And to help us consider our answer, we're gonna continue reading, from Luke's gospel chapter 2, kinda picking up where our opening advent scripture reading left off. And so if you would, join with me in looking at Luke chapter 2, beginning with verse 22. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word.
Jeffrey Heine:And when the time came for the 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 2 young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the spirit 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 you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. The word of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. God, we thank you for your word, and we ask that by your spirit, you would bring revelation, that you would help us to see salvation. God, whether we know it or not, each and every one of us here tonight, we are in desperate need of you. We might deny it. We might reject the notion.
Jeffrey Heine:We might try and cover it up with lots of things, but we need you. And so we ask that by your grace, you would meet with us, that you would draw near to us and give us the strength to draw near to you. We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. For a Jewish family with their firstborn son, there were 3 ceremonies that they would participate in.
Jeffrey Heine:The first ceremony, was that of, circumcision and the naming of the child. Next was the presentation of the child in the temple. And then 3rd, there was a ceremony of purification for the mother. And in that first ceremony, Jesus was circumcised and named. That would have occurred on the 8th day, as we read in our, opening passage.
Jeffrey Heine:But so, on the 8th day, Jesus was circumcised and named. That would have happened in the home. That would have happened in the home in kind of a private ceremony. Joseph had been told by an angel, as recorded in Matthew's gospel, to name the child Jesus. Mary was also told that the child's name should be Jesus by an angel as recorded in Luke.
Jeffrey Heine:So they are being faithful to God's law that he be that Jesus would be circumcised, and also faithful to this command from God that came through the angels to name the child Jesus. Now, the next two ceremonies, they happened a little bit later. They were about 6 weeks after the birth of the child, and they happened in Jerusalem. That happened at the temple. So they went up to Jerusalem for these special ceremonies.
Jeffrey Heine:The first one was that presentation. In Exodus 13, we read, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Now, if you'll remember back when we went through our study of the Exodus, there was the plague in Egypt. So Israel's in bondage in Egypt. Plagues are coming.
Jeffrey Heine:One of the plagues is the plague of the firstborn child. That's when they had the Passover meal. The blood was was put above the doorpost, and the angel passed over the homes of the Israelites, sparing the firstborn. And from that time, when the firstborn, would then be brought to the temple for a time of thankfulness and celebration and remembrance that God spared the firstborn. The child was called holy before the Lord and dedicated.
Jeffrey Heine:And so Mary and Joseph are faithful to do as the law of the Lord commands. The second, or the the second thing that happens when they're in Jerusalem, that third ceremony, is the purification. That's an offering of purification for Mary after the delivery of the baby. And that sacrifice was, that sacrifice that was that was given, it's apropos. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, there's gotta be a baby crying during an, this kind of a story. Bring it back in here. So so the the offering that was to be given was that of a lamb. A lamb was to be brought in and and sacrificed. However, you might have noticed that that they did not bring a lamb, they they brought the 2 turtle doves, which if you've ever wondered where do where are we getting and singing about 2 turtle doves, it's here.
Jeffrey Heine:It's this purification offering that Mary brings. And what this tells us, is actually in Leviticus 12, there is a provision for women who cannot afford a lamb. They may bring 2 turtledoves. And so what we can infer from that is that Mary and Joseph, maybe at great cost of even just getting to Jerusalem for these ceremonies, to be faithful to what God has commanded them to do, The cost of that has, they can't afford a lamb. They can't afford a lamb for the purification ceremony of the birth of God.
Jeffrey Heine:If nothing teaches us about the humility that Jesus came into, the the the the humble earth and manner in which he came to us, this reminds us that his parents couldn't afford the lamb, but this provision is made. 2 turtle doves. Mary and Joseph, they take the baby into the temple for this second ceremony, this presentation of Jesus when an old man approaches. Little is known about Simeon, and no backstory is given about his tribe or his family or his profession. There are a few things that we do know about Simeon.
Jeffrey Heine:We are told that he is righteous and devout. And righteous and devout would mean that he feared the Lord, that he obeyed the law. We also know that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And Luke tells us that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Now, your Bible, where where I'm saying consolation, it might say comfort in your translation.
Jeffrey Heine:The Greek word used here is is often translated in other contexts as as comfort or encouragement. But in this context, in Simeon's context, what's being talked about here by consolation is that long promised, long awaited comfort of Israel. In Isaiah 40, the Lord gives the prophet a window into the future of Israel. In Isaiah's time, great disobedience on Israel's part had resulted in great suffering for the people. And in the midst of words of judgment, of prophecy concerning a rebellious Israel, God issues these words of hope in Isaiah 40.
Jeffrey Heine:Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Simeon was waiting for that promised comfort to come. The promise of comfort was the promise of the Messiah. The one who would come in the line of David, and rule justly and bring aid against the enemies of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:And most significantly, he would bring pardon and forgiveness. By his wounds, Israel would be comforted. About 200 years before the birth of Jesus, Jerusalem was sieged by the Seleucid Empire. The Sabbath and circumcision were outlawed. The temple was ransacked, and Zeus, a statue of Zeus, the pagan god Zeus, was established in the temple.
Jeffrey Heine:Pagan worship was happening there. And there was a revolt that happened about 50 years later. A revolt of these faithful Jews to take back the temple, to to to rededicate it to the worship of Yahweh. And that rededication, all this this rededication time was actually something that that was celebrated from then on. The Feast of Dedication.
Jeffrey Heine:It's today what we call Hanukkah. And in John chapter 10, Jesus celebrates the feast of dedication. He celebrates Hanukkah. So how's that for a plot twist, that Jesus is a happy holidays guy? So that's it's one less thing to worry about.
Jeffrey Heine:That's good. But in all of this turmoil, all of these, the deportations, the persecution, the terrible suffering that happened under foreign super powers, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans. After all of this misery, Simeon held out hope, and waited for the comfort of Israel. He waited in prayer before the Lord that comfort would come. He waited for the Messiah, and in walk Mary and Joseph and a 6 week old baby.
Jeffrey Heine:The parents come in to present their son. These 2 inconspicuous young adults with their baby, humbling themselves before God in obedience to his law. The third thing that we know about Simeon, remember that he is righteous and devout, that he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. The third thing that we know is that the Holy Spirit is upon him, and the Spirit has told him 2 things that we know about. Number 1, that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:And then at this particular junction, he is told by the Spirit to go to the temple. The text doesn't specifically say how Simeon knew to go to Mary and Joseph. There would have been lots of other people in the temple, likely lots of other babies and moms and dads, in that 6 week zone, too. So these sleepy Mary and Joseph kind of bleary eyed making their way around the temple. But how does he know?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, it's not because they went to you know, JCPenney and got some new ceremony clothes. They can't afford the lamb. So there's nothing visually that's just stunning and appealing about them. They're just this simple couple who's not even bringing the expensive right offering. So we understand that the spirit leads him to this couple, this humble couple.
Jeffrey Heine:And there in verse 28, he takes this little baby into his arms. He held in his arms the resurrection and the life. He holds the very God he worships in his arms, and he praises God. These next few words are are sometimes called the Psalm of Simeon or the hymn of Simeon because it feels like this song, this deep rejoicing where he says this. Look with me in verse 29.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. Simeon praises God, and he says, you are letting me die in peace, Just like you said. Because you have done just what you said you would do. Simeon can depart in peace.
Jeffrey Heine:His eyes have seen God's salvation, and that's that's it. That's what Simeon saw when he looked at the baby. He saw salvation. Simeon looked at this little baby and saw the salvation from God. Simeon didn't simply see a humble family of obedient Jews doing their obligation observing the law.
Jeffrey Heine:He saw salvation. And Mary and Joseph marveled at this. He said, I can I can die now? I can I can depart in peace because I have seen your salvation? What would it take for you to die in peace?
Jeffrey Heine:That's the question that came to me as I spent time reading through this this week. What would it take for me to die in peace? I've got a long list. I've got a long list of things, things that I wanna accomplish, see, experience. And for Simeon, everything hinged on salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:When he saw salvation walk into the temple, he said, now your servant can go. And they marveled, Mary and Joseph. They marveled. Simeon, describes this salvation in his hymn. And there are 2 concepts in this description, 2 emphasis in this hymn of praise that I'd like for us to consider together.
Jeffrey Heine:1st, is that salvation has been prepared. Salvation has been prepared. And then secondly, that salvation brings light and glory. So let's consider these together. That salvation has been prepared.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at verse 30. For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. Simeon says that salvation from God has been prepared. The word prepared gives us a really great picture, that God is the one who must make salvation possible. He has to do this work.
Jeffrey Heine:He has to prepare it. He has to ready it for us. But what exactly is prepared? Well, let's kind of follow the line of logic maybe in reverse. What was prepared is salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:And Simeon saw salvation with his eyes, and what is it that he is looking at? He is seeing the baby. Jesus. God prepared Jesus. That that's that is the incarnation.
Jeffrey Heine:He prepared this baby, this body. Jesus coming in flesh is this preparing work of the Trinity. And we see this language concerning this preparation in Hebrews chapter 10. Let me read for you from verse 4. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Consequently, when Christ came into the world, that is his advent. When he came into the world, that is his incarnation. When he came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. It's the body of Jesus, the blood and bones of this little baby. That is what has been prepared.
Jeffrey Heine:Theologian and pastor Frederick Buchner wrote one of my favorite quotes on the wildness of the incarnation. It's in his book, Secrets in the Dark. He says this, we preach Christ crucified, the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, A stumbling block to the Jews' folly to the Gentiles. He could as well have written, we preach Christ born. We preach Christmas.
Jeffrey Heine:Because the birth presents no fewer problems than the death does, both to the religious people and to everybody else. Christmas is not just mister Pickwick dancing a reel with the old lady at Dingley Dell, or Scrooge waking up the next morning, a changed man. It's not just the spirit of giving abroad in the land with a white beard and reindeer. It's not just the most famous birthday of them all, and not just an annual reaffirmation of peace on earth, that it is so often reduced to, so that people of many faiths or no faith can exchange Christmas cards with no qualms. On the contrary, if you do not hear in the message of Christmas something that must strike some as blasphemy and others as sheer fantasy, the chances are you have not heard the message for what it is.
Jeffrey Heine:Blasphemy and fantasy. That's what many see when they look in the manger. Many see blasphemy. How could it be that a creator of all things seen and unseen could be humbled into the form of a baby, into the form of a servant. That's blasphemy.
Jeffrey Heine:That can't be almighty God. In fantasy, virgin birth, angels enunciating these things, and announcing, heralding from the skies, That's that's the stuff of folklore and fairy tales. It's fantasy. Do you ever feel the pull of these ends? Do you ever feel the pull of of the wildness of the incarnation that God would come in flesh?
Jeffrey Heine:Because because these words of Buettner, they they they hit me and they strike me because it's not actually for me that I'm so often led to the blasphemy side, or to the fantasy side, but to a point of indifference, of commonplaceness. And I would say that when God touched foot on this earth with the tiny foot of an infant, nothing can be common anymore. Came down for us, rending the heavens to come down, to be like us so that we might become like Him, children of God. The wildness of the incarnation, I pray this Christmas season would be stirred up in each one of us. Salvation brings light and glory, A light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people, Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:Light and glory are often connected in the scriptures. We see it in lots of, areas in the prophets. We see it in Revelation. And one of the areas that I think captures it so well for us is Isaiah chapter 60. Chapter 60 verse 1, where the prophet Isaiah writes, Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Jeffrey Heine:For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. This promise of light and glory. The light, for many Christians, we become so accustomed to hearing Bible stories that we just of insert ourselves into every story of some part where we jump in as the Pharisees, we jump in with different Jewish characters. And so it might be hard for some of us to remember, the deep need of the Gentile.
Jeffrey Heine:Those who were not a part of the people of Israel, who were deeply in need of revelation, who were not a part of the promises of God, who were cut off from the promises of God, the the foreigner, the stranger, the outcast, those who are not a part of the house of Israel, and yet God has made a way. God has made a way to bring in to those elected to be a part of the family of God. And so this light comes. That's what's being declared here by Simeon. This is the light, that Jesus is the light by which we see God.
Jeffrey Heine:The darkness within us, bringing light, bearing witness to God himself. This is how we see God. He must be revealed. Flesh and blood do not reveal these things to us, but the spirit of God reveals God to us. And Jesus is the light by which we are able to see God.
Jeffrey Heine:This light is for revealing. We don't look at Jesus and really see this on our own. Again, the prophet Isaiah helps us. It's not just what we see with our eyes of the baby Jesus. In Isaiah chapter 53, he writes, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Jeffrey Heine:For he, meaning Jesus, grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. No beauty that we should desire him. We need the light of revelation to see salvation in Jesus, And that is the gift of God. God must reveal himself to us, and he does so through the light of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:So it brings light and it brings glory. As a salvation from God brings light to the gentiles, it brings glory to Israel. This glory is the honor that Israel's messiah is from the people Israel. The people are honored that the Messiah has come from the stump of Jesse, from the lineage of David, come to reign over the whole earth forever. This glory comes from God because he has kept all of his promises to Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:When Israel was disobedient, and defiant, and rebellious, God kept his promises. When Israel broke their promises to God, sought after other gods, went their own way. In fact, back back, when the the temple was was sieged and and and the pagan worship was going on, there were Jews who participated in that. They forsook their God. They went after other lovers.
Jeffrey Heine:And God was faithful all the while. Glory to the people, Israel. This salvation, which God has prepared in the body of this child brings light for humanity to see God revealed. And it brings glory for the people of God who have longed for the comfort of Israel. And this is what Simeon saw when he looked at the baby in Mary's arms.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, we must ask this Christmas, what do you see? In all all that we have going on, in all the the both hustle and bustle of the season. What do you see when you look at the baby in the manger? 19 years ago today, actually, on the radio show, This American Life, Ira Glass read these words. You know that saying, you can really tell somebody who somebody is in a crisis?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, you can really tell at Christmas too. That's because Christmas, more than any other day in the American year, is a day when we're all handed the same stage props. The same tree, the presents, the meal, the relatives, all the same expectations. And then, we all try to create more or less the same kind of day. It's like 100 of millions of people all set to work on doing the exact same art project.
Jeffrey Heine:And not just any art project, but a very high stakes art project, an art project everybody cares about getting right. End quote. We all have these expectations already. Like, we we don't set off end of the week, like, thinking that we're just gonna drive Christmas into the ditch. Like we want, we, we have these expectations.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe it's, maybe it's a gift that you've, you've got for someone in that, that, that moment or, or it's going to be the the moment when you're gonna get to all the family, all the kids are gonna be gathered around. You're gonna have some candles. You're gonna read the Christmas story, and it's just gonna be perfect. Right? Or or that meal, like that meal is going to be perfect.
Jeffrey Heine:We have these expectations. We're all handed the same stage props, and we're all going after these high goals. And again, I don't know what kind of week you're going to be walking into, what kind of Christmas you have in store. I I don't know if it's gonna be one that's that's filled with grief, sorrow, nostalgia, excitement, joy, arguments, or expectations completely unmet? It'll likely be a little bit of everything.
Jeffrey Heine:I I don't know if you're gonna have that Judy Garland muddling through or the Frank Sinatra stars on the highest bow, but what you see when you look at that baby changes everything. And I wanna encourage you as you go into this week and you see you see lots of different pictures here and there, maybe maybe the nativity, at a relative's house or even if it is an inflatable nativity, I wanna encourage you to stop and answer honestly if if just for yourself. Answer honestly, what do you see? Because it's my prayer for myself and for each one of us that by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we would see salvation, that we would behold the one whose body was prepared for nails and spears, That we would see the one who did not stay in the grave, but conquered death that we might not taste death, but find victory over the grave. Pray that we would see our King, and in the depths of your heart, you would respond, come, Lord Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Come. Let's pray. Holy God, on our own, we are only lost. But by your grace, we have found salvation and redemption in your son, our lord. Help us by your spirit to see him as Simeon saw him, that we would look to him and see salvation, and that we would come to adore him, that we would come to obey him and to trust him.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray these things in the strong name of Christ our King. Amen.