Christmas is also for the elderly

Sermon for the Sunday after Christmas

Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

As we’ve been saying this week, the Christmas story is for everyone, right? Young and old, boys and girls, rich and poor—in the sense that Christ was, as Paul wrote in the Epistle, born of a woman—just like everyone, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law—that is, everyone, both Jews who were under the Law of Moses and Gentiles who were under the moral Law since the beginning of creation, for everyone must answer to God for his every thought, word and deed, that we—that everyone!—might receive the adoption of sons. Believers recognize this and rejoice in it and have received the adoption of sons. Unbelievers still must be told, that they may come into the light of Christ by faith and be saved—a salvation which, as we said, is for everyone.

Children often receive the focus at Christmas, and that’s reasonable. The Savior of all became a little Child, reminding us that childhood is something good; He wants the little children to come to Him, to Him who was once a little child, just as they are, who had to grow up and increase in wisdom and stature, just as they do.

But if Christmas focuses on children, then the Sunday after Christmas focuses on the elderly. In our Gospel, we encounter two elderly believers who were born under the Law of Moses and were still, even at an old age, eagerly awaiting the promised liberation from the Law and the redemption that the Christ would bring. What do we learn from the elderly believers in today’s Gospel? What good can elderly Christians do?

First, we meet Simeon in the Temple, 40 days after the birth of Christ. Old Simeon had been “waiting for the Consolation of Israel,” Luke tells us, and was informed somehow by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Christ before he died—God’s gracious reward to him for a long life of faithful service. When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus entered the Temple that day, Simeon knew who Jesus was and rejoiced at seeing him, prompting him to speak the words which we know as the Song of Simeon, that is, the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon gave thanks to God and told Him, I’m ready to go now, ready to depart in peace, because the Lord had fulfilled His Word. He had allowed Simeon to see the promised Messiah, the Savior sent from God for all people, the Light that would bring revelation to the Gentiles and glory to the people of Israel.

Then our Gospel begins. It says that Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. You know that song, Mary, did you know…? It recounts several of the miracles Jesus would one day perform and the saving work He would do. Some people get a little bent out of shape about the premise of it. Of course Mary knew!, they scream. How dare you ask?!? Well, she knew where Jesus came from; she knew that He was the promised Savior and she knew certain Old Testament prophecies about Him. But she didn’t know everything He would ever do, and she certainly didn’t comprehend all at once the mystery of the eternal Word lying in her arms or just how far-reaching the implications were of this Child’s birth. So, yes, she marveled, together with Joseph, at the words Simeon spoke, because that elderly believer revealed to her something she didn’t know, or at least, didn’t fully comprehend.

And then Simeon went on to speak: He blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. Christ was, as the Prophet Isaiah had said, a sanctuary for some—a hiding place, a place of refuge. But also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken. Many would stumble over Jesus’ claim to be the world’s only Savior, His claim to be able to forgive sins, His claim to be sent from God and to be God. They would stumble over His humility and over His suffering and over His refusal to set up an earthly kingdom. They would stumble over the cross, because, they thought, the true Messiah would never let Himself be rejected and condemned and crucified.

But the reality is that the true Messiah came for the very purpose of being rejected, condemned, and crucified, as the Lamb of God who would pay for the world’s sins. Those who stumbled over Him fell into everlasting death. But those who found a sanctuary in Him from God’s wrath and from the righteous condemnation of the Law—they rose up to the adoption of sons and to inherit everlasting life. All of that lay in the future of the little baby lying in Simeon’s arms.

Destined for a sign which will be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. No mother wants to consider that her little baby will one day be hated, mocked, ridiculed, and slandered to his face or behind his back. But Simeon informed Mary that all such things were in the future for her little baby, and it’s still going on to this day. Here stands Christ in His Word, condemning adultery and sin in all its forms, speaking against it and condemning it and calling people to repentance, to faith, to a life of purity and chastity. But they continue to speak against Him, and so the thoughts of their hearts are revealed; they are the devil’s children.

Finally, Simeon warned Mary, a sword will pierce through your own soul, too. What pierces through a mother’s soul more sharply than when her dear child suffers, or worse yet, is tortured and killed? As Mary sat there at the foot of Jesus’ cross, together with the Apostle John, one wonders if she thought of Simeon at that moment and of his terrible prophecy. What was the point of it? Well, it prepared Mary for the kind of life her Son would lead. What’s more, it was God being utterly truthful and up-front with her, as He has also been with us, that believing in Him and following Him will not mean a peaceful, comfortable life on earth, for you or for your children, but a life of being hated by the world, even as Christ was hated, and a life of bearing the cross in His name.

All that was taught to Mary and Joseph and to us by the elderly believer Simeon.

Then in our Gospel we meet Anna, a prophetess, and apparently a well-known one. She was an old woman—either an 84-year-old widow or a roughly 105-year-old woman who had been a widow for 84 years (it’s hard to tell from the description of her in the text). The point is, she was very old and had been a widow for a very long time. For seven years of her young life she had lived as a dutiful wife, probably into her early twenties. But from her early twenties on, she spent her life, not chasing after men, not dwelling on her loneliness, not engaging in worldly activities, but serving God with fastings and prayers night and day. (Sounds nothing at all like what young ladies are expected to do today, does it?) At some point she had become a prophetess, chosen by God to reveal God’s Word to Israel, apparently right there in the Temple, telling people that the Christ was coming soon.

Then she, too, was rewarded for her many decades of faithful service to the Lord. The baby who is God arrives at the Temple to meet her. She gave thanks to the Lord, and then she spoke of the Child to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. She was like the shepherds that way, wasn’t she? Remember, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. They, to their acquaintances, and Anna to hers. And she surely had many after six to eight decades of serving the Lord in the Temple night and day. Her acquaintances were likely the faithful visitors of the Temple, where she spent so much of her time. All those decades—imagine the people she knew, the regular attendees at the sacrifices, the ones who had believed the Lord’s promises. To them she was now able to say, “Christ, the promised Redeemer, has been born! His name is Jesus!”

What do we learn from Simeon and Anna, these two elderly believers who were among the very first people whom we might call “Christians”? In addition to the things they revealed to us about Christ Himself, we learn how to live a long life of faithfulness, of devotion, of learning and clinging to God’s Word and trusting in His promises; a long life of waiting for the Christ to be revealed, never giving up hope, never abandoning God’s service, even if the world around us has abandoned it. We learn to keep praying and attending the Divine Service, not as an occasional practice, but as a lifelong, regular behavior. We learn to speak the Word of Christ to the people we know. And we learn to give thanks to God for revealing His salvation to us in Christ, whether early or late in life.

The service of these elderly saints has been preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures, that we might learn both from their words and from their examples. Christ was born for everyone, and if you continue to use the Means of Grace that He has provided so that you may know Him and have your faith in Him divinely sustained, then you, too, will be rewarded for your life of faithful service in God’s house. You’ll get to meet Jesus one day, not in terror as the rest of the world, but in thankfulness and joy, like Simeon and Anna. Amen.