Longings Fulfilled

Well, again, I say to all of you who are here, Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year.

This is the last day that we can officially say Merry Christmas, the 12th day of Christmas.

It's the eve of the epiphany, which technically happens tomorrow.

And I don't know about you, but this time of year is always hard for me, emotionally speaking.

There's a sense of letdown, a sense of a kind of mild to moderate depression that always sets in.

Even if you have a great Christmas, I mean, even if the celebration is wonderful and you see lots of friends and family,

even if it is ideal in many ways, there's always afterwards a kind of feeling of emptiness, at least in my experience.

A sense of something lacking, an incompleteness.

And as with anything in the spiritual life, that kind of thing is worth paying attention to.

And so what I want to do this morning is to pay attention to that feeling, to inquire where it may be coming from.

Because as we look at Luke chapter 2, we're going to realize that that sense of longing can actually lead us somewhere.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

That there's tremendous value if we follow it.

And so we're going to look at Luke chapter 2, the part of the Christmas story that sometimes gets overlooked.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And we're going to see a few things about this longing.

We're going to see three sort of questions answered.

Number one, what are we longing for really?

Where's the emptiness coming from?

Number two, why can't we get it?

Why can't we get that thing that we're longing for?

And then number three, how does Christmas make it possible?

So what are we longing for?

Why can't we get it?

And how does Christmas make it possible?

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

And we thank you for the Christmas season.

And we thank you for all of the hope and the joy.

But we also thank you for the sadness and the loneliness and the longing.

Because these are things that motivate us.

They drive us to look beyond what's right in front of us.

They call us out of ourselves.

They turn our faces to the stars.

They make us wonder if there's more out there than what we can see or touch or taste.

We pray that you would call us out of ourselves and into yourself as we open your word, Lord.

That you came to dwell in our midst.

That we might live for eternity in your midst.

And so we pray this in your son's holy name.

Amen.

So this first question, what are we longing for?

Luke chapter 2, verse 22 to verse 40.

Luke 2:22

This is a passage that's all about longing.

We meet two very important people in the Christmas story, Simeon and Anna.

And they're both advanced in years.

They're both fairly old.

Which is important because we realize right away that they've both spent their entire lives waiting.

They've spent decades waiting.

Simeon, at some point in his life, we don't know when, but God came to Simeon in the Holy Spirit.

And told Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen God's Savior with his own eyes.

So he's been made this promise, but we get the sense from the way he talks about it that it's been a trial for him in some ways.

It's been a long season of endurance.

He's been told, you're not going to see death until you see the Messiah.

And so he rarely leaves the temple.

He's there every day waiting, hoping today might be the day that he sees the Savior.

And then we have Anna.

And Anna is given the very distinguished title of prophetess.

And she's 84 years old, which is older by today's standards, certainly old by the standards of the first century.

And Luke tells us that Anna was only married for seven years before her husband died, from the time that she was a virgin.

So assuming that she perhaps got married around age 13, which wouldn't have been uncommon,

she was married up until age 20, and then she lost her husband.

And since age 20, or thereabouts, she's been single.

She didn't remarry.

She would have probably been encouraged to remarry, but she remained single for decades, for the next 64 years.

And she has devoted herself to what we might consider to be an intercessory prayer ministry.

It says she never leaves the temple.

It's possible that she had even been given an apartment there, which sometimes happens.

So she was living there, and she fasted and prayed every day and every night.

So both Simeon and Anna have lived lives that are filled with spiritual longing.

They say they're waiting for the consolation of Israel.

They're waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And God had actually told Simeon, you will not have peace until you see my salvation.

So it's not been a peaceful time.

It's been full of unrest, full of unanswered prayer, full of questions, full of longing.

And in a way, this is a story about Simeon and Anna, but in a way, it's a picture of the human condition as a whole.

It's a picture of something that I think on some level we all experience.

We all have a kind of spiritual longing that can't ever fully be satisfied.

This is what C.S. Lewis famously described as that inconsolable longing.

He describes it as a longing for the scent of a flower we have not found,

or the echo of a tune that we have not heard,

or news from a country that we've never yet visited.

Inconsolable longing.

And yet, I think if you were to go out and you were to ask people,

or maybe some of you here are thinking,

you know, I'm not really aware of that in me.

I've never really felt that longing that sometimes I hear Christians talking about.

And there's a number of reasons why you can live much of your life

and never really tune into that longing,

never really be aware that there's something like that inside you.

You know, I think some people tend to bury that longing,

along with many other parts of themselves,

under a kind of avalanche of distractions.

Right?

I mean, you can work enough or look at your phone enough

or eat enough or drink enough or shop enough

that you're continually distracted,

and you never have to pay attention to anything that's going on in here.

Least of all, some kind of deep spiritual longing.

So some people bury it.

I think some people channel that spiritual longing in other directions.

They channel the longing into good things

that they allow to become ultimate things or God things.

So just to take one example,

centuries ago,

centuries ago,

people cared about things like social justice

because they cared about and loved God.

The idea is I love God.

God cares about justice.

Therefore, I care about justice.

But what's happened over the last few centuries

is that more and more people

have desired a vision of life

that excludes God or anything transcendent,

a purely materialistic worldview.

And so philosophers like Charles Taylor

say that we take that spiritual longing

that used to be channeled toward God

and we redirect it.

In a materialist worldview,

where we don't allow for the transcendent,

we have to do something

with that longing for the transcendent.

And so he says we channel it

into things like

the pursuit of justice.

And so we have gone from being a society

where people pursue justice

for God's sake

to being a society

where justice has become God.

The pursuit of justice

has become divine itself.

And what I mean by that is

it has become the source of meaning

and the source of fulfillment

and the source of identity

for many, many people.

And so now in our society,

everybody cares about justice.

And many people pursue justice

with a kind of religious fanaticism

because it's become a source of meaning

and purpose and identity.

And yet at the same time,

there's tremendous confusion over justice

because it's no longer embedded

in a larger narrative.

It's no longer rooted

in any truth outside itself.

And so no one seems to be able to agree

on what justice even is.

But we all want it

to satisfy the longing.

And then I think

that there are some people

who don't feel

that sense of spiritual longing

because they mistake that longing

for other kinds of longing,

lesser longings.

Right?

There's a kind of nostalgia obsession

in our culture

where people love the nostalgic.

There are shows like Stranger Things

that are, it's a great show,

but it is custom tailored

to evoke that sense of longing

for people who grew up

in the 80s and 90s.

And it's there for a reason

because if you can evoke

that sense of nostalgic longing,

you can make money

because we love feeling that.

Right?

And there's a sense

in which we idealize the past

and we say,

if only I could just get back

to the good old days.

If only I could just sort of

relive that.

Right?

You feel that if you travel

and you go home for Christmas

and you say,

man, I hope that this Christmas

is like all those Christmases

that we used to have

when everything was great

and fun and peaceful.

And then you get there

and you're sort of

tragically disappointed.

It doesn't even come close.

Right?

And the kind of hard news is

if you were to get a time machine

and to go back to those

idealized earlier Christmases,

I can almost guarantee you

they would fall short also.

Because what nostalgia is,

is it's a longing for the past

that in some ways

we imbue with the inconsolable longing.

We say,

this is what I'm really longing for.

If I could just get back there

or recreate it somehow.

So some people live in the past

for that reason.

Some people say,

if only I could find

my true soulmate.

Some people say,

if only I could get to some place

of financial security and stability.

Right?

So we mistake the inconsolable longing

for other forms of longing.

And this drives many people

to just move from place to place.

Or to go from job to job.

Or to bounce from church to church.

You know, over the years

I've met so many people

who they came to our church

from another fantastic

gospel-centered church.

And they come to our church

and they mistake that sense

of novelty for spiritual growth.

And then once the novelty wears off

and once they're showing up

to volunteer for the 400th time

and they kind of, you know,

they've been through some drama

and some decisions have been made

they don't like,

the novelty's gone,

they kind of hit a wall.

And instead of pushing through the wall,

which is really a wonderful part

of spiritual growth,

is learning how to deal

with those walls that we encounter,

they bounce to another church.

And then again,

they seek out that sense of novelty

that they mistake for spiritual growth.

Right?

So there are all of these ways

that we try to deal with the longing.

And then we have Simeon and Anna here

who know the truth about the longing.

They know who we are all

really waiting for.

And that's the value of this passage.

Right?

So now this seems like a good time

for me to pivot

and to say,

okay, well now let me tell you

all about Jesus

and how he satisfies

all of your longings.

And that's true.

Jesus is the object of our longing.

He can satisfy all of our longings.

But there's a problem

that we have to deal with first.

Leads us to the next question.

Why can't we get

the satisfaction that we crave?

When we come to Christ.

Look what Simeon says in verse 30.

He says,

My eyes have seen your salvation

as he holds the baby.

Right?

That you have prepared

in the presence of all peoples

a light for revelation to the Gentiles

and for glory to your people Israel.

First, the good news.

By definition,

the gospel is meant

not just for Israel

or for Westerners

or for religious people.

The gospel is by design

meant for the world.

And this is a theme

that we hear in this service

because it's what we focus on

during Epiphany,

which is tomorrow.

We talk about the fact

that the gospel is meant

for all of the nations.

This is God's free gift of salvation

and it's meant for every single man,

woman, and child.

Right?

It's meant to go out to the world.

And yet,

Simeon goes on to say,

Behold,

this child is appointed

for the fall

and the rising

of many in Israel

and for a sign

that is opposed.

Now, here's the question.

If God is offering salvation

freely to the whole world,

why in the world

would anybody oppose it?

That does not sound controversial.

Well, the conflict comes

when you realize

that Jesus alone

is God's salvation

and that there is no other way.

When Simeon sees Jesus,

he doesn't say,

Finally,

here's somebody

who's going to be able

to teach us

how to get saved.

He says,

Here is salvation.

In other words,

Jesus himself

is God's salvation

for the world.

And once he gets older,

Jesus himself says,

Not,

I will teach you the way,

the truth, and the life,

but he says,

I am the way

and the truth

and the life.

And then Jesus says,

Whoever believes in me

is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe in me

stands condemned already.

And this reveals something

very fascinating

and very crucial

to understanding the gospel.

We will rise and fall

depending not on who we are

or what we have done for God

or what we have not done.

We will rise and fall

depending entirely

on our relationship

with Jesus.

Those people who

give themselves

fully to Jesus

and follow him

will rise to glory.

Those people who

reject Jesus

will fall under condemnation.

Jesus himself

says this.

So, in a way,

Jesus came to unify

and bring peace,

but he's also polarizing.

And,

if you read

the Christmas story,

you realize

that Jesus

is polarizing

before he's even born.

Before he's even born,

he's polarizing people.

You look at Mary.

Mary responds

to the news

of Jesus

by completely

surrendering

herself

to the Lord.

She says,

Behold,

I am the servant

of the Lord.

Let it be to me

according to your word.

Let me tell you this.

There is no greater

example of discipleship

in all of Scripture

than Mary's response

to the angel

upon learning

of the birth of Jesus.

Let it be to me

according to your word.

That's discipleship.

Herod responds

in the opposite way.

When Herod hears

the news of Jesus,

he sees Jesus

as a rival,

as a threat

to his power,

as a contender

for the throne.

And the truth is,

if you look at Mary

and you look at Herod,

and then you look

at your own heart,

you realize that I think

if you're anything like me,

inside you see

parts of yourself

that look like Mary

and parts of yourself

that sound an awful lot

like Herod.

I think that we fall

somewhere between

these two extremes.

You know,

I may say

I want to follow Jesus

and I really mean it

up to a point.

I really want to

follow Jesus

because I want the peace

that Jesus offers.

I want the answer

to my longing.

I want to be whole

as a human being.

But,

if I'm really honest,

and I'll be honest

with you,

just keep it here,

there are parts

of my life

I'm willing to do that with,

but there are parts

of my life

that I hold back.

And I keep

a pretty tight grip

on them.

You know,

I want the peace

that Jesus offers,

but I'm also

kind of a control freak

when it comes

to my life.

And I love being

in control of my life.

So,

I will trust

and follow Jesus

when it comes

to liberating

the oppressed.

I love that idea,

but not when it comes

to my love life.

I will trust

and follow Jesus

when it comes

to my job.

I want to seek

his will

for my vocation,

but not when it comes

to how I spend

my money.

I want the peace,

but I want control.

I want to have my cake

and eat it too.

And I think

our experience

of the Christian life

is part surrender

and part power struggle.

And I think both

are happening

at the same time

in us.

And I think

that this is one

of the main reasons

why many of us

who seek

to follow Jesus,

who have given

our lives to Jesus,

nevertheless do not

experience the kind

of peace

that we read about.

We struggle

with that sense

of longing

and unrest.

because I think

that there are parts

of us that want

Jesus to be our salvation

and part of us

that oppose him

as a rival king.

And so if you

take a moment

to kind of look inward

and to figure out

where those places

are in your life

of fear

or anxiety,

of resentment,

of bitterness,

of unresolved anger,

if you find

those places

in your life,

I can almost

guarantee you

that those are

connected to,

that they're emanating

from something

in your life

that you are holding

on to with a

white knuckle grip.

Wherever those

feelings are,

as we said

at the beginning

of the sermon,

don't run from them,

listen to them,

follow the thread,

figure out where

they're coming from,

you're probably

going to find

a power struggle

in your heart.

And this is why

we need Christmas.

This is why

Christmas

is such good news.

How does Christmas

make it possible

to overcome

the power struggle?

Well, Simeon

goes on to tell Mary,

because of Christmas

and the birth of Jesus,

he says in verse 35,

a sword will pierce

through your own soul

so that the thoughts

of many hearts

may be revealed.

And just imagine

this scene,

Simeon holding

this baby,

looking from

the sweet child

to the faces

of Mary

and Joseph,

two new parents

who have been

through what

must have been

an enormous trial,

spiritually,

emotionally,

physically,

to get to the temple

after this

conflict-filled

birth narrative.

And their faces

are exhausted,

you know,

they've not gotten

much sleep,

they may even look

a little haggard,

and yet they're beaming,

right?

They're radiating

happiness and joy

at this new child

in their life,

right?

This is the fulfillment,

this is God's answer,

this is what they've

been waiting for.

And yet Simeon,

as he looks

from the parents

to the child,

God allows this prophet

to see the beautiful,

awful truth

of Christmas.

How does Jesus,

how does Jesus

save people

who are spiritually

longing for him

and yet perceive him

as a rival king?

Who want what he offers

and yet would

just as easily

kill him

to stay in power?

How do you save

somebody like that?

How does Jesus

overcome the power struggle

and bring peace

to people who don't

necessarily want it

on his terms?

And you can imagine

Simeon putting

the pieces together

and recognizing this,

that Mary's great burden

was not giving birth

to a baby

in a cattle stall.

Her great burden

was watching

that baby die

on a cross.

And for a mother,

I don't have to tell you,

that would be like

having your soul

run through.

But in a way,

this is something

that I think

that we're all

meant to experience.

You know,

becoming a Christian

isn't really about

taking a blind leap

of faith.

faith.

It's not really

about an intellectual

assent where you

sort of look at

the evidence and say,

I believe these

things happened.

A lot of people

believe these things

happened who are

not Christians.

Becoming a Christian

is about having

your soul pierced

by the cross.

It's about having

your soul pierced

by the cross.

The Bible scholar

and historian

N.T. Wright

tells the story

of a Roman

Catholic archbishop.

He says,

the archbishop

was once

preaching a sermon

and in the sermon

he tells this story

of three boys.

They were younger boys

and they were walking

along down the street

and they thought

it would be

a really funny

kind of prank

to go into

a Catholic church

that they saw

and to go one by one

into the confessional booth

and then to confess

all kinds of wild,

bizarre,

outlandish,

crazy things

just to see

what the priest would do.

And this sounds

exactly like something

boys would do.

Young boys would do,

right?

At least me

and my boys.

And so they go in

and they make

these confessions

and they think,

they imagine

that they're kind of

blowing this priest's mind,

right?

But the priest

is experienced

and he knows

exactly what's happening.

And so the first

two boys get away

but he kind of

catches hold

of the third.

And he says,

okay,

you've confessed

all of these sins,

now I'm going to

give you a penance.

He says,

I want you to go down

to the front of the church

and I want you

to look at the picture

of Jesus hanging

on the cross.

And I want you

to look at the face

of Jesus on the cross

and I want you

to say to Jesus,

you did all of this

for me

and I don't care.

And he says,

I want you to say

that three times.

So the boy

goes down to the front

of the church,

looks at the picture,

says,

you did all this

for me

and I don't care.

And then he says again,

you did all this

for me

and I don't care.

And he can't say

it a third time

because right about then

he breaks down

and he starts to cry.

And Wright says

that the archbishop

then says,

the reason that I know

this story

and I know those boys

is because I was that boy.

I was that boy

and that was the day

that I came to know

the Lord.

Becoming a Christian

isn't about becoming

intellectually convinced

of something.

It's about having

your heart pierced.

There's a moment

when the cross

ceases to be theoretical.

It ceases to be

a bit of doctrine

in a confession.

And there's a moment

at which the cross

leaps off the page

so to speak

and it becomes deeply

and uncomfortably personal

because the more

you look at the cross,

the more you look

at Jesus on the cross,

the more you begin

to become aware

that you're not

the basically good,

compassionate,

enlightened person

that you think

that you are.

You start to see

your own selfishness.

You start to see

your own pettiness.

You start to kind of

see your overblown

sense of self-importance.

You start to realize

that all the insecurity

you feel about

what are people

going to think

is immaterial

because guess what?

Nobody's thinking

about you.

They're thinking

about themselves.

Nobody really cares

about you.

Enough to notice

your shoes.

Right?

Nobody cares.

And you begin

to realize

the truth about things.

And yet this

isn't a bad thing.

This is something

that many people

would say,

oh, now you're

struggling with

low self-esteem

and we need

to fix that.

This isn't a bad thing.

This is a wonderful thing.

It's a beautiful thing

because the more

you begin to see

the truth about yourself,

the more you begin

to see the truth

about Jesus

and you begin

to see the truth

of the love

that Jesus has

for you.

So becoming a Christian

isn't about

the plausibility

of the cross.

it's about believing

the necessity

of the cross.

It's about looking

at the cross

and saying,

nothing less than this

was necessary

to save a person

like me.

Nothing less

than the death

of the eternal

Son of God

was necessary

to save a person

like me.

When you begin

to realize that,

it pierces your heart.

It pierces your heart.

It opens up a wound.

that is then filled

with the Spirit of God.

So just a couple

of implications

to bring all

of this together.

First, I would say

that knowing

the true object

of all human longing

puts all other longings

into perspective.

So think about Anna.

You know,

most likely lost

her husband

at age 20.

barely getting going

in life.

We don't know

if she had any kids.

Spends 64 years

unmarried

at the temple.

Right?

Justifiably,

she could have turned out

to be a very different person.

She very justifiably

could have become

an incredibly bitter

and angry

and resentful person.

Like,

why is this my lot

in life?

Why can't I have that?

Why can't I have that?

Why can't I be like that family?

Why is this my lot

in life?

That could have been her.

And yet,

we don't know much about her,

but the one thing

that we do know

is that she became

a person of immense joy

and gratitude

and devotion.

You know,

whatever unfulfilled longings

we're facing,

the best way

to avoid falling

into bitterness

and self-pity

and despair

is to recognize

that the one true object

of our heart's desire,

the one who can actually

make us whole,

is Jesus Christ,

and he has come

and he is available.

And if you have him,

you don't believe me now,

but one day we will

in the New Jerusalem.

You won't believe this,

but if you have him,

you have everything.

And one day,

you're going to believe it.

One day,

I'm going to believe it.

I think I'm maybe

about 30% there.

Right?

Most of the time,

I don't believe that,

but I think maybe

at my best,

30% of me believes that.

But one day,

we're all going to believe it

because we're going

to experience it.

If you have him,

you have everything.

And the other thing

I'll say is this.

If you're a Christian,

and yet there are parts

of your life

that you know

you're holding back,

white knuckle grip,

power struggle,

more like Herod than Mary,

not willing to give

them over to Jesus,

or if you're not a Christian,

and all of your life

is a power struggle

with God,

I encourage you

to simply spend some time

looking at the cross.

You don't have to say

the phrase three times.

You can if you want.

But really look at the cross.

Really think about the cross.

And it may be

that God uses the cross

to pierce your heart.

A God who is willing

to take on flesh

and give his life for you

is the kind of God

that you can give

your whole life to.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you

for the cross.

We thank you

for the beautiful,

ugly, horrible,

offensive, wonderful truth

of Christmas

and its connection

to the cross.

And we thank you

that our relationship

with you

doesn't hinge on us

getting it right,

having our ducks in a row,

pulling ourselves together,

proving our devotion to you.

It's not about us

making a difference

in the world

or showing you

how much we care.

it's simply about us

recognizing that we need

the cross.

That you knew

what we needed

and you gave it to us

before we even asked.

As your word says,

while we were still

sinners,

you died for us.

While we were still

in rebellion,

you gave yourself for us.

I pray that as we come

to your table

in a little while,

our hearts would be

pierced anew.

that those would become

holy wounds of glory

into which the light

of your gospel

is poured

into our hearts.

We pray this

in your son's holy name.

Amen.

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