Celebrating Christmas with an eye toward the future

Sermon for Christmas 1

Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

Although most of the world has moved on, it’s still Christmas today, the fifth day of Christmas, to be exact. It’s good to celebrate Christmas. It’s good to think of Jesus as a tiny baby, lying in a manger, surrounded by Mary and Joseph and the shepherds of Bethlehem. It’s good to sing Silent Night, and to think of baby Jesus sleeping in heavenly peace on the day He was born. The Lord God approves of such a celebration. He must, because He inspired the story of it to be recorded in Holy Scripture, which He wants us to read and hear and ponder. But He doesn’t want us to get “stuck” on Christmas, as many do. Even among those who actually celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas, many refuse to move on from it. Many are happy to think of Jesus as a baby lying in a manger, and that’s it. They don’t want to think too hard about the ramifications of Jesus’ birth, why He was born, what He would say and do, how His birth must have an effect on their lives. But God wants us to turn our thoughts from the Child’s birth to the Child’s future, as the Scriptures immediately do and as the calendar of the Church also does. In today’s Gospel, the Lord directs our attention to Simeon and Anna—two elderly, outstanding Old Testament saints who help us celebrate Christmas, without getting stuck on the manger, to celebrate Christmas while keeping an expectant eye on the future.

Our text begins, And Joseph and his mother were amazed at the things which were spoken about him. Let’s make sure we know the context. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. When He was 8 days old, He was circumcised, and now a month has passed since then. Jesus is 40 days old, still a little baby. Mary and Joseph have brought Him to the temple in Jerusalem for His presentation, and for Mary’s ceremonial purification after childbirth. An old, respected man in Jerusalem named Simeon has been directed by God the Holy Spirit to the temple on this same day and has been enabled by the Holy Spirit to recognize baby Jesus as the promised Christ. He has just taken the baby in his arms and has spoken the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis, praising God for allowing him to see the long-awaited Savior with his own eyes. We’ll talk more about all that in February when we celebrate the Festival of our Lord’s Presentation. For now, understand that it’s Simeon’s words in the Nunc Dimittis that have left Mary and Joseph in utter amazement.

But Simeon isn’t done talking to them yet. Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel,

Not a single one of us knows, when our children are born, what they’re appointed for. We may have hopes and dreams and aspirations for them, maybe some expectation of which opportunities they may or may not have. But God alone knows the plans He has for our future, and for that of our children. That was not true about Jesus. God had already revealed much about the coming Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures, not only the passages that are specifically Messianic but also all the prophecies about what God would do for Israel, and also for the Gentiles. All His plans, all His promises, and also all His judgments revolved around the coming of His Son into the world, and the impact that the Christ would have on the world. Simeon knows those Scriptures especially well. How does he sum up for Mary and Joseph the future that lay ahead?

This child is appointed for the fall…of many in Israel. Not the political fall. Not the physical fall. But the spiritual fall of many in Israel. Think of the high and mighty Pharisees and priests in Israel who fell from favor in the eyes of the people as Jesus revealed them for the hypocrites and frauds they were. Think of Judas, who fell from grace all the way down to betrayal and suicide. Think of all the people in Israel who fell away from the faith of Abraham, and from the inheritance promised to Abraham, by rejecting Jesus, the true Son of Abraham. Think of that whole people group known as the Jews, who were once God’s chosen people, but who have fallen from grace and have made themselves enemies of the Gospel of Christ.

But think, too, of all people who live in sin and impenitence, and in willful ignorance of the doctrine of Christ, refusing to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, refusing to listen to His Word. They’ve all fallen, and they will fall even harder when Christ comes again in judgment.

But, Simeon also says, This child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel. Think of the thieving tax collectors and sinners who encountered Jesus and were brought to repentance and faith, and who went on to live a new life of obedience to God. Think of Mary Magdalene, and of all who had already fallen, because of their sin, or who fell when they heard Jesus, but then, like the Apostle Paul, eventually found God’s forgiveness and salvation in Christ. Think of all those among the Jews and Gentiles who have been rescued from eternal condemnation and brought into God’s family by hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of that lay hidden in the future of the child that Simeon held.

He also says, This child is appointed…for a sign that will be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Already as an infant, Jesus’ future was clear. If He was the Christ, then the Old Testament foretold His future clearly: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. Or in the words of the prophet Isaiah, He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. The Christ was appointed for rejection, for being spoken against. Think of the Pharisees, constantly speaking against Him for “dishonoring the Sabbath Day,” or for working with Beelzebub, or for criticizing their godless traditions. Think of the crowds on Good Friday, demanding that Jesus be crucified, or the soldiers at the foot of the cross, mocking Him as He died.

Still today, Jesus is spoken against, more vehemently than at any time. Just last week I read the words of a woman who was musing about how much better the world might have been if Jesus had been aborted, or if Jesus had been killed as a little baby. The people who cry about “white supremacy” usually find a way to blame Jesus (or at least His Christians) for every bad thing that has ever happened in Western civilization. But there are other ways of speaking against Him. Every expression of belief in the theory of evolution is a denial of Jesus. Every prayer uttered to a saint is a “speaking against” Jesus as the one Mediator between God and man. Every suggestion that you don’t have to believe in Jesus in order to go to heaven, or that you don’t have to listen to Jesus in order to be a child of God—that’s speaking against Jesus, too.

Finally, Simeon, even as he celebrates Christmas, points Mary to the future of her Son, (yes, a sword will pierce your own soul, too). Speaking by the Holy Spirit, Simeon points her ahead to the terrible pain she would suffer one day, the pain of sitting at the foot of her Son’s cross, watching Him suffer and die.

In all these things, God used Simeon to point not only Mary and Joseph but you and me to the whole life of Christ, so that we can celebrate Christmas intelligently, so that we’re pondering who the baby was who once lay in a manger, and why He came, and how it will affect our lives.

Now, Simeon gets more of our time, because his words about Jesus are actually recorded for us. But we don’t want to neglect Anna, who was also a faithful child of God whom the Lord used to keep our eyes on the future of the baby named Jesus.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well-advanced in years and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and was a widow of about eighty-four years, who never left the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

The fact that Luke is able to give us so many details about Anna speaks to how highly regarded she was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ birth. And with good reason! She had spent over five decades of her life, ever since her husband died, basically living in the temple in Jerusalem, fasting, praying, meditating on the temple ministry and its significance, and surely also interacting with the priests and with the Jews who came regularly to the temple. She had devoted her whole life to God’s service, and God had a special reward for her for her faithfulness.

She came at that very moment and gave thanks to the Lord and spoke about him to all those in Jerusalem who were looking for redemption. It was no accident that Anna showed up at just that moment, or that she was able to recognize Jesus for who He was. Whether she learned it from Simeon or by direct revelation from God, she knew. And she celebrated Christmas! She celebrated the birth and the arrival of Jesus. She gave thanks to God, and she also made sure to tell others in Jerusalem about Him.

And what did she tell them, exactly? Not about how cute the baby was, or about the wondrous circumstances of His birth. No, Luke tells us what her message was. She spoke about Him to “all those who were looking for redemption.” Redemption is one of those big words in the Bible. It means “purchase.” It also means a radical rescue from a dire situation. Redemption is what God did when He brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. It’s what He promised to do through the coming Christ, saying through the prophet Isaiah, The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the LORD. It’s what St. Paul was talking about in today’s Epistle: When we were children, were enslaved under the principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. This is the word that Anna so faithfully spread to all in Jerusalem who would listen, to all who worshiped the God of Israel, not for tradition’s sake, not to fulfill some obligation, but because they trusted in God to send the Redeemer, to rescue them from their sins and to make them acceptable to God. “Christ, the Redeemer, has come!”

Yes, Christ, the Redeemer, has come! Don’t stop celebrating His birth, especially while we remain in the Christmas season. But, as you celebrate, keep an eye on the future of that baby, why He came, what He would accomplish, how it affects your life to believe in Him. That child is your Redeemer. That child is your Lord, and your King. He didn’t come to make your life easy. He came to give you life, and life to the fullest, because without Him you are dead. But with Him as your Redeemer, you have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and a future of your own as a beloved child of God. Amen.