Luke 2:29-32

Well, good morning, church. Merry Christmas.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

We are looking at the Song of Simeon.

We've looked at the four songs which open up the Gospel of Luke over the four weeks of this month.

And today we are looking at the last one.

We're actually going to look at two people, both Simeon and Anna.

That are in this passage.

We're going to read Luke, chapter 2, from verse 25 to verse 38.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

So you can turn there.

If you're looking at a pew Bible, it's page 857.

So Luke, chapter 2, starting at verse 25.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

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.

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.

And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

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.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin

and then as a widow until she was 84.

She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God

and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Christmas is finally here.

How many kids have been waiting and looking forward to Christmas for a long time?

Right?

Anybody been counting down the days through the month of December?

Looking forward to seeing friends or family?

Maybe visiting from out of town and eating special foods?

Giving and receiving presents?

For the adults, maybe you've been looking forward to Christmas too.

Perhaps it's the end of all the frantic preparations.

Making food, buying gifts, delivering gifts, writing cards, mailing cards, cleaning house.

Now you can finally sit back and relax.

At least for a little while.

After all the waiting and preparing, Christmas Day is finally here.

But what exactly is it about Christmas that makes it worth waiting for?

What is it that we look for and long for and hope for this time of year?

Is it just food, presents, getting stuff?

Is it being with people?

People we care about?

Friends and family?

Or is it something bigger?

A hope that somehow love and peace would prevail in our fractured and frenzied world?

You know, Christmas is one of the very few days in the year when you can walk through the city of New Haven and it actually seems to be at rest.

No rushed drivers running red lights.

No stressed out students burning the midnight oil.

No weary workers toiling from early morning to late night.

For one day in the year, the city finally seems to rest.

The only other day like it, I think, is Thanksgiving.

But even on Thanksgiving, the stores open at six.

So really, Christmas is sort of the only full day that the city seems to rest.

But of course, the rest and joy of the holiday season doesn't seem to last forever.

To be sure, some of it carries over through the next week.

Perhaps until the day after New Year's or this year, January 3rd, when the world will go on much as it was before.

So what is it that we look forward to at Christmas?

Is it just something temporary and fleeting that comes and goes each year?

Is it a mere projection of our wishes that will inevitably slip out of our grasp?

Or are the longings and hopes that we experience in this season, the hopes for family and fellowship, for peace and rest, for joy and beauty,

are those hopes and longings perhaps a window through which we glimpse a more enduring reality?

Even a transcendent reality, something that's not of this world.

And we hope and long and wait for that.

And we glimpse it at this time of year.

The passage we read this morning from the Gospel of Luke, we see a man and a woman who had been waiting a long time.

In fact, waiting their whole life long for what we celebrate at Christmas.

Until this moment, Simeon and Anna, their lives were characterized by waiting, longing, hoping, anticipating.

Verse 25 says, Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

Verse 37 describes Anna.

She did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

The practice of fasting in particular was a sign of longing, literally hungering for God to come and transform this world.

One person described fasting as a kind of spiritual protest, an assertion that all is not well in this world.

So Anna and Simeon were among those who, as verse 38 says, were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

They were waiting for the liberation of their people, praying for the day when those who were mourning would be comforted,

hoping for the day when God would come, as he had promised long ago.

By this time, though, both Simeon and Anna were quite advanced in years.

We don't know Simeon's age, but verse 26 tells us,

That word Christ just means king or Messiah.

So it's likely he was getting older, realizing that death might come to him soon.

And Anna, Anna was certainly quite elderly.

According to verse 36, she had been married for seven years,

then lived the rest of her life as a widow until she was 84.

It's also possible that the text could be translated,

she lived as a widow for 84 years.

In that case, she would have been over 100.

Either way, she had lived quite a long time.

She had seen a lot, and she was still waiting.

But in the child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas,

what we see this morning is that Simeon and Anna finally found what they had been waiting for.

Their whole life long.

And I want to look at each of them this morning, Simeon and then Anna,

what they were waiting for and what they found,

and what that has to offer us this Christmas.

So first, I want to look at the rest that Simeon found.

Simeon's song in verse 29 to 32 is at the heart of this passage.

It's the last of four songs that open up this gospel.

We've looked at Mary's song of joyful praise.

We've looked at Zachariah's song of confident hope.

We've looked at the angel song of glorious news.

And finally, Simeon's song.

And more than anything else, Simeon's song is a song about peace.

It's a song of someone who finally found rest.

Now, in order to understand Simeon's song, I want you to imagine a security guard who works third shift.

Someone who's responsible to watch over a building or a neighborhood or a city through the long night hours

when most other people are asleep and unaware.

In the ancient world, the city would often have a night watchman

whose job it was to patrol the city walls to make sure the city was kept safe

from potential threats during the most vulnerable and potentially chaotic hours of the night.

Through the whole long night, the security guard has been pacing back and forth,

going from station to station, sometimes yawning and trying to stay awake and stay focused,

sometimes shivering and trying to keep warm,

sometimes yawning,

always alert to signs of potential danger,

all the while waiting and anticipating the time

when the sky would gradually brighten

and the sun would rise above the horizon

and flood the world and the city with light.

And then he would report to his boss and say,

Now, my job is done.

Now, I can go in peace.

That's how Simeon's song begins.

Lord, now,

you are letting your servant depart in peace.

The word now is actually the first word in the original Greek.

That's the emphasis.

For my whole life I've been waiting,

watching,

hoping,

looking forward to this moment,

and now

I can rest.

Simeon speaks to God as if he's speaking to a trusted boss.

He addresses God as Lord,

Master.

He acknowledges God's rightful authority over him.

He calls himself your bondservant,

one who owed everything to God.

And yet he trusted God to ultimately do him and his people good.

You are letting your servant depart.

Literally,

that means you are releasing me from the duty you have laid upon me.

Just as you said you would,

according to your word.

Your word is good.

Simeon describes himself as one who has been waiting through the long,

dark night,

through years and decades,

when God seemed distant,

silent,

or even absent.

When at times chaos and danger and evil seemed to reign unchecked.

But now he sees the dawning of a new day.

And even though the sun was only peeking over the horizon

and beginning to shine its light over the world,

he says,

now I can go in peace.

My eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared for all the world to see.

A light for revelation to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Simeon was most likely thinking of words that the prophet Isaiah had spoken

hundreds of years ago to the watchmen,

literally the security guards of Jerusalem.

Isaiah wrote in chapter 52 of his book,

the voice of your watchmen,

they lift up their voice.

Together they sing for joy,

for eye to eye,

they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing,

you waste places of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people.

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Simeon knew of that prophecy,

and he said,

now it's come to pass.

Now is the day of God's salvation.

Now God has come and returned to Zion to comfort and redeem,

to heal and liberate his people.

And God's light would shine not just on Israel,

but on all the nations of the world.

Simeon says,

that's what God is doing through this child,

Jesus.

And so Simeon says,

now my job is done.

Now I can die happy and at peace,

because this child has come to do what I never could.

He's come to complete what I couldn't even start.

I'm just the night watchman.

He's the son of righteousness.

I'm not the Messiah.

He is.

You know,

the message of the Bible,

at the heart of it,

is not about what we must do

to draw near to God,

to fix ourselves and fix our world.

It's about what God has done for us

in the person of Jesus Christ.

And the posture it calls us to is

the posture that Simeon adopted to receive that.

Simeon saw the child,

Jesus,

and he took him in his arms,

received him,

and he said,

now I can rest,

because he is going to complete the work

that I could not do.

Many years ago,

Timothy Dwight said,

Christ is the only,

the true,

the living way

of access to God.

Give up yourselves,

therefore,

to him,

and the great work of life is done.

Now you can rest.

You see,

Simeon saw Jesus,

and he found rest.

Now it wasn't the

self-indulgent sloth

that comes from turning a blind eye

to the pain

and anguish

and brokenness of this world.

Not that kind of rest.

That's not true rest.

Nor was it the deflated weariness

of cynicism

and resignation

that makes you want to just

crumple up and lay down on the floor.

Not the anxious striving

and stressful rushing

that characterizes

so much of our lives,

so much of the time.

But Simeon found peaceful rest.

Knowing that God was in charge,

knowing that his plans for his people

and his creation are good,

and seeing that in Jesus,

the Messiah,

he has accomplished

what he said he would.

And our lives are in his hands.

Simeon could say that.

Have you found that peaceful rest?

Can you say with Simeon,

now because Jesus has come,

now I can die in peace.

Tim Keller in his book,

Every Good Endeavor,

tells a story about John Coltrane,

the jazz saxophonist,

and his most celebrated album,

A Love Supreme,

which he dedicated to God

as an offering of praise.

He explained that it was the result

of a spiritual awakening

he had experienced

by God's grace,

through which he had come

to acknowledge God's omnipotence

and our dependence on him,

the God who is gracious

and merciful.

There was only one live recorded performance

of this piece.

And at the end of that performance,

Coltrane stepped down from the stage

and he said,

Nunc dimittis.

That is the Latin

for the first two words

of Simeon's song.

Now I can go.

Keller writes,

Coltrane claimed to have had

an experience of God's love

that liberated him

from the tyranny of work.

From the pursuit of perfectionism

and self-justification,

he had been given God's power.

He had felt God's pleasure.

He had experienced God's grace.

He had responded in praise.

And now he could rest.

That's what Simeon found

in the Christ child.

Rest.

But now look at Anna

in verse 36 to 38.

Notice in verse 38 in particular

how the news of the child Jesus

affected her.

Anna didn't say,

Now I can die in peace.

Now my work is done.

Notice how she reacted.

She began to give thanks to God

and to speak of him

to all who were waiting

for the redemption of Jerusalem.

It's as if the coming of Christ

gave her a new lease on life

at the age of 84.

It awakened and enlivened her.

She began praising God

and proclaiming the good news

to everyone around her.

And the verb tenses indicate

this wasn't just a one-time thing.

It became,

it was a continuous,

ongoing,

habitual action.

Giving thanks to God

and speaking of Jesus

to all those

who would listen to her.

For Simeon,

the coming of Christ

made him ready to die in peace.

For Anna,

the coming of Christ

gave her energy

to live with hope

and joy

and praise.

Simeon got rest.

Anna got energy.

Some of us,

like Simeon,

might be ready to die in peace.

But we need strength,

like Anna,

to live

with praise.

Maybe like Anna,

you are getting older

day by day.

Perhaps your body

is gradually slowing down.

Your memory

is beginning to fade,

at least at some points.

Perhaps your eyes

are growing dim.

Your hearing

isn't what it used to be.

You feel not quite as sharp

as you once were.

And perhaps you're tempted

to sit back

and become just

a passive observer

of life going on around you.

Because you're facing

difficult physical

and mental limitations

that you haven't

had to deal with previously.

Maybe those of us

who are younger

or middle-aged

haven't honored you

in the way we should.

Perhaps you feel

disregarded

or unnoticed

or unwanted.

But let me encourage you.

The Holy Spirit

knows no age limit.

In chapter 1,

the Holy Spirit

was at work

in John the Baptist

when he was still

in his mother's womb.

And here,

the Holy Spirit

was active in Simeon

and Anna

nearing the end

of their lives.

Let me encourage you

not to be idle

and inactive.

and silent.

Be creative

within the limitations

that you have.

You might need

to find new ways

of doing things.

You might need

to ask for help.

That can actually

be a way of serving

someone else

by allowing them

to serve you.

It is actually

a way that you

can bless others.

But let your life

be characterized

like Anna's was.

By giving thanks

to God continually.

By speaking

of the Lord Jesus

to all who will listen.

Or perhaps like Anna,

you're on your own.

Anna was married

for seven years

and then she was a widow

for the rest of her life.

She lived in a culture

that even more than ours

revolved around marriage

and family

and children.

She lived in a society

where widows

were particularly vulnerable,

both economically

and otherwise.

But for whatever reason,

Anna had taken

a harder

and potentially

more lonely road.

Anna knew what it was like

to spend every holiday

without a spouse

and without children.

She knew what it was like

to go to bed alone

every night.

She knew what it was like

to have lost someone

so very dear to her.

Maybe you're wrestling

with one or more

of those things.

Loss, loneliness, longing.

But in all that,

Anna devoted herself

to God.

It says she did not

depart from the temple.

Now that doesn't

literally mean

that she pitched a tent

and laid her sleeping bag

in the temple

and camped out there

every night.

There wasn't space

for her to do that.

That wouldn't have been feasible.

But it means

she did not isolate herself

from the people of God.

She actively engaged herself

in the community of faith.

So let me encourage you

to do that.

And it also says

she devoted her energies

to worshiping,

fasting and praying

night and day.

If you have neither spouse

nor children,

that is actually

one of the great

spiritual privileges.

you have,

you can spend

uninterrupted time

in prayer

with no one

to bother you

and no one

who could rightly

interrupt you

and claim

your time.

Well, perhaps someone

would interrupt you,

but with less interruption.

the road of sin

or widowhood over the long term,

the road of loss

and loneliness

and longing

that comes in various

shapes and forms

is not an easy road

to walk

and often not a path

that any of us

would choose

if it were just

up to us.

But the Bible says

that the Holy Spirit

of God

can energize us

to walk on that path

and that the Lord

Jesus Christ himself

accompanies us

for he walked

that path,

the path of loss

and loneliness

and longing

when he was on earth.

His life began

in a manger

and his life

would end

on a cross.

He was rejected

so that we could enjoy

God's acceptance.

He was made poor

so that we could

become eternally rich.

He was forsaken

so that we might

be forgiven.

He died

so that we might live.

He gave

so that we might

receive a gift

that would never

pass away.

And seeing the Christ child,

Anna found energy

through which

she could live.

Simeon found peace

in which he could die.

And isn't that

all we really need?

When it comes down to it.

Isn't that

what we hope

and long for

in this holiday season?

What we try

to grasp onto

in the form

of beautiful music

and satisfying food

and thoughtful presence

and the comforts

of a home?

Of course,

it never lasts forever.

Perhaps deep down,

we're always left

wanting more.

we're trying

to soothe

and silence

the aching longing

deep within our soul.

This Christmas,

look to Jesus Christ.

Find in him

the peace

in which you can die

and the energy

through which

you can really live.

Maybe you've never

done that before.

Maybe this is

all new to you.

You can begin today

by simply

receiving him.

Perhaps you still

have questions.

Seek him.

Seek until you find.

Maybe you have

trusted in Christ.

Look to him

again today

with renewed

faith and hope.

Ask him to fill you

in a fresh way

with his Holy Spirit

who gives us

his peace

and his power

within our souls.

Many years ago,

someone wrote

a very succinct

but profound

description

of what it looks like

to do this.

To find the peace

to die

and the energy

to live

in Christ.

And it

made its way

into a document

called the Heidelberg

Catechism

which has been used

by Christians

for hundreds of years

and this is how it goes.

It puts it this way.

It says,

what is your only comfort

in life

and in death?

In other words,

what is it

that gives you energy

to live

and peace

in which to die?

And the answer

is as follows.

That I am not my own.

But I belong

body and soul

in life

and in death

to my faithful Savior

Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid

for all my sins

with his precious blood.

He has set me free

from the tyranny

of the devil.

He also watches over me

in such a way

that not a hair

can fall from my head

without the will

of my Father

in heaven.

In fact,

all things must work

together for my salvation

because I belong

to him.

Christ,

by his Holy Spirit,

assures me

of eternal life

and makes me

wholeheartedly

willing and ready

from now on

to live for him.

Christmas

is finally

here.

What have you

been waiting for?

find it

in Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

Father,

we pray

that

by your grace

today

we would find

what Simeon

and Anna

found

in Jesus

whose birth

we celebrate

on this day.

The peace

in which we can die

and the energy

through which we can

really live.

Grant us that

by the power

of your Holy Spirit.

perhaps for the first

time,

perhaps in a fresh

way

today

and send us out

with joy

and praise

for what you have done.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.