Purification
of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord
Lk
2:22-32
2/2/25
The
prophet Isaiah wrote in the eighth century B.C.: “There shall come forth a
shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear
fruit.” Isaiah spoke about the line of
King David. Yahweh had told David, “And
your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your
throne shall be established forever.”
However,
in Isaiah’s time the kings who reigned on the throne of David were more often men
like Ahaz – people who didn’t trust the Lord and were not faithful to him. The king descended from David only ruled the
land of Judah, while the northern lands were the separate kingdom of
Israel. Judah, and Jerusalem itself,
were threatened by invasion from the Assyrian Empire.
However,
Isaiah pointed forward to the day when a descendant of David – the Messiah -
would arise. He said that the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon him. He would judge the poor with righteousness. He would strike the earth with the rod of his
mouth, and with the breath of his lips he would kill the wicked.
Assyria
conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. and took them away into
exile. Judah remained unfaithful to the
Lord and in 587 B.C. the Babylonians destroyed the temple and took the people
into exile in Babylon. Yet in
fulfillment of God’s word through Isaiah and Jeremiah, the people were allowed
to return to Judah in 538 B.C. Spurred
on by the prophets Zechariah and Haggai, the temple was rebuilt and dedicated
in 516 B.C.
God
had brought his people back to Judah, but now they did not rule
themselves. They were a province of the
Persian empire. They had no king, and
God had not sent the Messiah – the Christ as he was called in Greek. For five hundred years this continued to be
their situation as one empire after another ruled over the land of Israel.
God’s
people were waiting for him to fulfill his promise. They were waiting for God to send the Christ
and to bring rescue to his people. We
learn about one such individual in our text. Luke tells us, “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.”
Simeon
was a faithful man of God. Like others,
he was waiting for God’s end time salvation.
But Simeon was unique because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Not only was he uniquely endowed with the
Spirit, but we learn, “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.” Simeon was waiting, and the Spirit of God had
revealed to him that he would see the Christ before he died.
Simeon’s
wait ended when Joseph and Mary came to the temple with the baby Jesus. They had come for two reasons. First, they were there to redeem Jesus as
their firstborn son. God had rescued
Israel from slavery in the exodus. He had done so in the Passover as he killed
the firstborn among the Egyptians, but had spared the Israelites. Because of
this God commanded Israel to redeem their firstborn sons. And they were also there to offer the
sacrifices commanded by Leviticus to make purification for Mary after giving
birth.
When
Joseph and Mary were at the temple to have these sacrifices offered, Simeon
came in the Spirit into the temple. Through his Spirit, God revealed to Simeon
that this child was the One. He took the
baby Jesus into his arms 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.”
Simeon
declared that he was now ready to die.
Yet he could do so in peace because God had kept his word. He held in his arms the Christ sent by God –
the Messiah. His eyes had seen the
salvation that God had sent. This One
was a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words about the Servant, “I will also
make you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the end of
the earth.” He was the One who brought
God’s saving glory to Israel.
Simeon
spoke of God’s salvation. Yet this
salvation was not just rescue for Israel.
It was light for revelation to the Gentiles as God’s salvation reached
to the end of the earth. This was God providing rescue from the cause
of all that is wrong in our lives and this world. God was working through this One to win the forgiveness
of sins. And he was working through this
baby to overcome the result of sin – death itself.
Simeon
speaks lofty words in our text. Yet all
he holds is a baby. He speaks words
guided by the Holy Spirit because he holds in his arms the One who is more than
just man. He holds in his arms the Son of God.
The angel Gabriel had told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to
be born will be called holy--the Son of God.” Simeon holds in his arms the One who is true
God and true man. Jesus is the incarnate
Son of God whose birth we celebrated at Christmas.
Our
text ends with beautiful words that we know well. But immediately after our text Simeon goes on
to say things that begin to reveal the way in which Jesus will win this
salvation. Luke tells us, “And Simeon
blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘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 thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’”
Simeon
says that Jesus will be a sign opposed.
He will cause the fall and rising of many in Israel – and note that
“fall” is mentioned first. Jesus will be
rejected because he had not come to bring salvation in might and power. Instead, he had come to bring salvation
through his suffering and death.
Jesus
was the Christ sent by God. As Isaiah
had said, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him. But when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus
at his baptism, it meant that Jesus was the fulfillment of more than just the
Messiah. He was also the Servant of the
Lord in Isaiah’s prophecy. And while the
Messiah was described as a figure of power and victory, the Servant was also
the suffering Servant.
At
the Last Supper, as Jesus was about to undergo his passion he said to the
disciples, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in
me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written
about me has its fulfillment.” Jesus
quoted words from Isaiah chapter 53 about the suffering Servant and applied
them to himself.
Though he was without sin, Jesus was
numbered with the transgressors because you are sinful. Your life lived in relation to God and your
neighbor is marked by selfishness as you put your wants and desires before
both. As Isaiah said about the Servant,
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own
way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus Christ died on the cross as he received
God’s judgment against our sin.
When Jesus died on Good Friday there
seemed to be no way that he could be the Christ. But God was working through Jesus to provide
salvation from death itself. On the
third day God raised Jesus from the dead.
By the resurrection he demonstrated to the disciples Jesus is the
Christ. And in that resurrection he
defeated death as he began in Christ the resurrection that will be ours on the
Last Day.
God had told King David that he
would establish his throne and kingdom forever.
For forty days, Jesus was with his disciples. He demonstrated beyond any doubt that he had
risen from the dead as he ate and drank with them, and taught them. And then he
ascended into heaven.
Ten days later, on Pentecost, God poured forth the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. On that occasion Peter declared, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” God has fulfilled his promise to David. Enthroned at God’s right hand, Jesus the Christ’s reign will have no end.
In
our text Simeon says, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace
according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Jesus is salvation for us. After his resurrection Jesus said to the
disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
As our lives are marked by sin, we repent. We confess this sin to God. And we turn in
faith toward Jesus the crucified and risen Lord.
Through
Jesus we have forgiveness before God.
And our Lord is the gracious God who has surrounded us with ways by
which he delivers the forgiveness that he was won for us. After his resurrection, he instituted Holy
Baptism. Through this gift we were baptized for the forgiveness of sins. This
action by God – this baptism into Christ – is the continuing source of
forgiveness. As we believe God’s
promises about the forgiveness given in baptism, we continue to receive this
blessing.
And
at the Last Supper our Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Altar. Here he uses bread and wine to give us his
true body and blood. Christ works a miracle in our midst as he gives us the
very price that he paid for our salvation – his body and blood given and shed
for us.
As
Lutherans, it is almost impossible to hear the end of our text this morning and
not think about the Sacrament of the Altar.
This is because we sing these words so often in the Nunc Dimittis as the
canticle after receiving communion.
These words of Simeon so perfectly capture our experience as we have
received the Sacrament and prepare to leave the Divine Service.
Like
Simeon, we are able to depart in peace. We leave knowing that in the reception
of Jesus’ body and blood we have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins,
life, and salvation. Because of this we
know that we have peace with God and that death cannot separate us from him.
We do so according to God’s
Word. It is the word of the Son of God
that continues to cause his saving body and blood to be present for us. It is the word of God that declares we have
communion in the body and blood of Christ through the Sacrament.
Simeon said that his eyes had seen God’s salvation. All that he saw was a tiny baby, yet that baby was the incarnate Son of God – the Christ sent by God. All that we see is bread and wine, yet that bread and wine is the true body and blood of the incarnate Lord by which he gives us forgiveness and salvation.
Jesus Christ who comes to us in this
way now is the One who is the ascended and exalted Lord. But at his ascension the angels told the
disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus,
who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as
you saw him go into heaven.” Christ will
return in glory on the Last Day. All
will have to confess that Jesus is Lord as he judges the living and the
dead. He will raise up our bodies to be
like his own. No longer will we have to walk by faith. Instead we will see our Lord by sight as we
live forever with him.
