Luke 2:22-40 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 firstborn male will be called holy to the Lord.”) 24And they came to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
25Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27Moved by the Spirit he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law, 28Simeon took him into his arms and praised God. He said,
29Lord, you now dismiss your servant in peace, according to your word,
30because my eyes have seen your salvation,
31which you have prepared before the face of all people,
32a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
33Joseph and the child’s mother were amazed at the things that were spoken about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Listen carefully, this child is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36Anna, a prophetess, was there. She was a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old. She had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37and then she was a widow of eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple complex, since she was worshipping with fasting and prayers night and day. 38Standing nearby at that very hour, she gave thanks to the Lord. She kept speaking about the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
39When they had accomplished everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town, Nazareth. 40The child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16) Amen.
Simeon’s aged eyes didn’t look forward to death. No. They looked forward to life.
The Holy Spirit himself had said, “Simeon, you will not die before you see the Lord’s Christ.”
And so Simeon waited, looking forward to the coming of the Christ.
In the synagogue he had heard the promises so many times that he knew them by heart. That the Christ would be stricken, smitten, and afflicted, and by his wounds we would be healed. Simeon rejoiced as he heard the promise to Adam and Eve: that One would come to crush the head of the serpent, even as the serpent would strike his heel. He heard the promise that to those living in the land of darkness, a light will dawn. He heard the promise that the great descendant of David would rule on David’s throne and that it would be an eternal kingdom.
And Simeon waited.
He waited as his friends grew up with him, as they got married, as they had children, as they died.
And Simeon waited.
He saw the brokenness of the world, the weeping women, the poverty-stricken children, the evil men. He saw so many who lived in darkness. They needed light. He needed a light. And he waited.
He saw seasons come and go. The rains fall on the land, the crops come in. The Word of the Lord remained, declaring what he saw with his own eyes: They needed salvation. They needed deliverance. And he waited.
And then, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Today. Go to the temple.”
And so Simeon got up and went. And he saw the milling throng, so many people there! Mothers and fathers and children, old men and old women, sheep by the flockful.
And he saw them. There. That infant! Just circumcised – squirming in discomfort. That was him. The one that Simeon had been waiting for.
He pushed his way through the crowd to Mary and Joseph. He asked for permission and then he took the child in his arms and he praised God with words so beautiful they sound like a song, “Lord, you now dismiss your servant in peace, according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Then he handed the child back to the mother. He looked at the mother and he said, “Listen carefully, this child is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Simeon then walked away rejoicing. Simeon was waiting for the comfort of Israel. It had arrived! He told everyone he met: “The wait is over! The Christ has been born! Salvation has come to us! The light has dawned! The wait is over!”
The wait is over.
Waiting. That’s something we usually don’t consider to be a very good thing. In fact, to most of us, WAIT is a four-letter-word. We are forced to wait in checkout lines, to wait at the doctor’s office, and to wait for the repairman to show up at our home. We think microwave popcorn takes too long, so how can we be expected to wait?!
Advent forced us to wait. Four weeks of waiting. While the rest of our nation was physically, emotionally, and monetarily spent by the time December 25th finally rolled around, the Christian Church was just getting around to celebrating Christmas. Waiting encourages us to slow down, notice what is going on around us, look forward, look backward, anticipate, and wait to celebrate. Waiting gives us opportunities for conversation and meditation that we might not otherwise have in our busy and hectic lives.
But when the waiting is over, it’s time to rejoice! To break forth in jubilation! When we finally reach the front of the line, when our name is called, when we finally hear the knock on the door. And now our Advent waiting is over. We have ripped into the Christmas presents, visited with our relatives, and broken forth with Christmas hymns and carols. Our waiting is over – not because we have celebrated Christmas but because Christ has come in the flesh.
Simeon is the perfect man to hear about during the Sunday after Christmas for he is truly an Advent man. He was waiting for the coming of the Savior. He was waiting for the “comfort of Israel” which means the relief of Israel through its redemption. Simeon had been told by the Holy Spirit that he
would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Think about that. Doctors may tell a terminally ill patient that she doesn’t have long to live. But Simeon learned that he was going to keep on living until he had seen with his own eyes the promised One of Israel. This wasn’t a death sentence but a life sentence. Every day Simeon would awake and wonder, “Is this the day?” Every child who came into the temple would make him ask, “Is this the One?”
Simeon is a man on tiptoes, wide-eyed and watching for the One who will come to save Israel. Studying each passing face. Staring into the eyes of strangers. Patiently vigilant. Calmly expectant. Eyes open. Arms extended. Searching the crowd for the right face and hoping that face appears today.
We can learn a lot from Simeon, because you’ve probably noticed how short-sighted we all are. We are like children: “I want it now!” Waiting, patience and thinking ahead are all learned behaviors, skills that need to be taught. It is easy to live for just right now, to indulge our sinful nature and gratify our natural cravings. Drug or alcohol addictions, out-of-wedlock childbirths and credit card debts all “happen” to people who couldn’t defer gratification to a later time.
It is said that “patience is a virtue.” If that is true, then that must mean that impatience is a sin.
We are by nature impatient people.
We experience road rage because we are too impatient on the freeway. We covet what others have because we are too impatient to wait for blessings to flow naturally into our life. We stand fuming in the check-out line because we are too impatient for the clerk to finish with the customers ahead of us. We blow up at our children because we are too impatient for their immediate presence in front of us.
Impatience leads to a whole host of other sins – angry outbursts, foul language, pre-marital sex, addictive behaviors, financial debt, and many more.
Impatience is quite often our default setting.
Patience ought to be a way of life for the Christian. Sadly, it is not. That’s why St. Paul writes, “as God’s elect, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12). We need to be taught to be patient. The best way for God to teach us patience is … wait for it … by waiting.
Waiting is not a weakness. It comes from the serene confidence that God will keep all his promises, that our future is going to be way better than our past, and that God is managing all the events of our lives to get us to the finish line of faith intact.
What joy must have filled Simeon’s soul when his waiting was over! His heart must have skipped a beat when Mary and Joseph walked into the temple carrying their Son. The Holy Spiriti whispered into Simeon’s spirit, “This is the One you’ve been waiting for.” And Simeon gathered the little Child in his old arms and lifted his weary eyes to heaven and broke forth in song.
Simeon’s time of service has come to an end for God has kept his promise. You can almost hear the relief in his voice, for he is at peace. His tired, weak eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation. Though Jesus has yet to be visited by the Magi, step into the Jordan River, do battle with the devil in the wilderness, preach on the Mount or be betrayed, arrested, scourged, crucified, and laid in the tomb – it is as good as done.
The waiting was over.
This Child is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel,” but his Light hurts our eyes which are used to the darkness of sin. “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:5). Because he was rejected by his own people, Jesus revealed himself to the Gentiles – to us and the rest of the world. He is the glory of God to Israel, but that glory was revealed in serving, in lowliness and in humility, and so his glory was displayed in being nailed to the cross. This tiny Child was the redemption of Israel and the salvation of the Gentiles – the world’s Redeemer.
We still sing Simeon’s Christmas song. The traditional place for this hymn is at the close of each day. It’s the Christian’s “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. That is why we sing The Song of Simeon in two of our evening services in our new hymnal – Prayer at the Close of Day and Compline.
Personally, I use Simeon’s Song as a prayer after private communion. It is a fitting prayer there, too, for it is deep and wonderful theology. In that private setting of a living room or hospital room, the communicant and I have beheld the salvation of our Lord. We have looked upon the humble vessels of bread and wine that carry the Lord’s salvation to us in body and blood. We have held the glory of Christ’s body in our hands. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. We have heard his words addressed to us personally – “my Body given for you; my Blood poured out for you.” This body and blood born of Mary, laid in a manger, nailed to a cross, raised from the dead, glorified at the right hand of God – this he gives to us as our food and drink. Many of the saints will pray this prayer with me as together we lift up our old eyes to heaven to thank God for the comfort of release and redemption. The waiting is over. We can truly depart in peace.
Make no mistake, Simeon is now saying he’s free to leave. Not leave the temple but die. When I was a kid and we would use Simeon’s Song after communion, I used to think we were thanking God because we were free to go home from church now. That was my prayer, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant, depart in peace.” But that’s not what Simeon was singing. He was saying, “Now I can die and rest in peace. I am released from life’s sentence, and free to die. I have seen your salvation and I know it’s mine in this little Child.”
And so are we. We are free to go. We have worshiped the Child in the manger, the Man upon the cross and the Redeemer risen from the tomb. We have beheld his glory, hidden beneath word and water, bread and wine. With the eyes of faith, we have seen him laid in a manger and then laid upon the cross. We have witnessed him as God as an infant in Mary’s womb and the God-Man resurrected from the tomb. We have heard his proclamation of forgiveness and received his blessing upon us. We can truly depart in peace. Our wait is over. Amen.
And everything you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17) Amen.