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Sermon for the Sunday after Christmas
Isaiah 11:1-15 + Galatians 4:1-7 + Luke 2:33-40
Merry Christmas to you on this fifth day of Christmas! Now are the days fulfilled, as we just sang in the hymn. Now are the days fulfilled, as St. Luke wrote in his Gospel: So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for [Mary] to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger. Now are the days fulfilled for the growing of the Branch that Isaiah prophesied. Now are the days fulfilled, as Simeon and Anna realized with joy on that day so long ago in the Temple in Jerusalem, 40 days after Jesus’ birth. Now the days are fulfilled. God has truly kept His Word. He has sent His Son into the flesh. The promised Seed of the woman has been born. And there is just as much reason for us to rejoice as there was for Simeon and Anna on the day of Jesus’ presentation.
The feast of the Presentation falls on a Sunday this year, February 2nd, 40 days after Christmas, so we’ll save our discussion of the Presentation itself and the related Levitical laws for that time. Today our Gospel turns our attention to the encounter of the holy family with Simeon and Anna on that same day. Old Simeon and Anna are the ideal representatives of the Old Testament remnant, the faithful leftovers in Israel who lived in daily repentance and devotion to the Lord, who waited long years for the days to be fulfilled in which the Lord would fulfill His promise to send the Messiah.
Simeon, Luke tells us a little earlier, was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. He had been given a special revelation by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he waited. And then finally, one day, Mary and Joseph come to the Temple carrying a one month old baby. And God makes sure that Simeon is there to see Him, and to recognize Him. Now are the days fulfilled!
That’s when Simeon took the baby Jesus up in his arms and blessed God and sang the words of the Nunc Dimittis that we sing every Sunday. Again, that part of Luke’s Gospel will be read on the Feast of the Presentation. Today’s Gospel picks up the story just after Simeon sang those words about Jesus.
It says that Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. Of course they did. Everything about Him since the moment of His miraculous conception was marvelous. The angel’s words to Mary and Joseph about the child who would be born. Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary when Mary went to visit her. The shepherds visiting them on the night of Jesus’ birth and their marvelous story of angels appearing to them in the fields. The wise men, too, may have already visited them yet by this time with their strange tale of following a star to worship the newborn King. And now, Simeon’s excitement at seeing their son.
The next words he said must have made them marvel even more. Then Simeon 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.” So far, Mary and Joseph had been told that Jesus would be a King and the Savior of His people. This was the first time anyone had told them that He would cause “the fall and rising” of many, or that He would be spoken against. And this omen about a sword piercing Mary’s soul—an obvious reference to Jesus’ crucifixion, with His mother right there watching, helpless.
And so the reality of Christmas begins to set in. It’s the joy of God fulfilling His promise to send His Son to make peace between God and man. It’s also the realization that God sent His Son to suffer persecution and death. Christmas is nothing without Good Friday and Easter, and Good Friday and Easter are nothing without Christmas.
We are reminded of that in the Church Year by the feasts that are assigned to the three days after Christmas: St. Stephen, the first martyr. St. John the Apostle, who lived to see all the other apostles be slaughtered. And yesterday, the Feast of the Holy Innocents—the baby boys of Bethlehem who were slaughtered by King Herod in his attempt to kill Jesus. Yes, He was a sign that was spoken against, even from His childhood.
And He did cause the fall and rising of many in Israel. How many people have stumbled over Jesus! He is, in the words of St. Peter, “a stone of stumbling” and “a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word.” People stumble over Jesus and fall, because they love theirs sins too much to listen to Him, or because they trust in themselves and their own works to save them. They stumble over Jesus because He claims that only His words are true and life-giving, and that the only way to be justified before God is by faith in Him.
Many stumble over Jesus and fall. But, as Simeon said, He is also destined for the rising of many in Israel. That word “rising” in the Greek is the same as the word for “resurrection.” This Child is destined for the resurrection of many in Israel! All who acknowledge that they have sinned against God and deserve only His wrath and condemnation, but who look to Christ alone for salvation, are forgiven by God and are raised up by His Holy Spirit to new life, eternal life! As St. Peter also says, Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.
Simeon’s prophetic words have come true. Now are the days fulfilled. Christ is born. Christ is crucified. Christ is risen. And throughout history, men have either stumbled over Him and fallen, or trusted in Him and been raised up to new life. And so it will be until the end of days.
Mary and Joseph weren’t finished marveling on that day of Jesus’ Presentation. Anna also surprised them.
Here was this old Israelite woman—over a hundred years old if you add up the years Luke gives us. Here was a woman who had lost her husband over 80 years ago and had spent those years, not in mourning, not in shaking her fist at God or “moving on,” but in prayer and devotion. She did not depart from the temple, Luke says. So she must have been well-known in Jerusalem. Hardly a trip to the temple could be made without someone saying, “There’s old Anna. She’s always here.”
And see how God blessed her on that day. She waited for the Lord, and the Lord made sure that she didn’t miss what she had been waiting for. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
“To all those who looked for redemption.” Everyone in Jerusalem knew Anna. But not all were looking for the Lord’s redemption. The self-satisfied Pharisees and the secure sinners thought they were doing just fine on their own. They weren’t looking for the Lord’s redemption. But the sinners who recognized their sins and had heard God’s Old Testament promises of a Savior—they were looking for the Lord’s redemption, and how happy they must have been to hear Anna’s announcement: Now are the days fulfilled. The Christ has been born. Redemption has come.
That’s what Paul wrote to the Galatians. When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. God had promised long ago through the prophet Isaiah, The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob. Now are the days fulfilled. Christ has been born of a woman, born under the Law, so that by His perfect obedience to the Law He might redeem those who have broken God’s Law and stand condemned by it. That’s you. That’s me. That’s everyone. As St. James says, whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. You sinners, born of woman, are law-breakers. But God’s Son, born of woman, is the Law-Keeper. And by faith alone in Him, you are redeemed, and you, too, are counted as Law-keepers, because God now sees you in Christ. You sinners were not born into God’s house. No one is born into God’s house, except for God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And now the days are fulfilled, and God has sent His Son, so that, by faith in Him, you have received by adoption what He has by right. You—baptized believers—are now sons of God and heirs of heaven by faith in Christ Jesus.
Rejoice today with Simeon and Anna. Now are the days fulfilled, and God has kept His Word. He will always keep His Word. All of His promises are Yes in Christ. So keep Him as the treasure of your heart, and let no sin or anger or bitterness or affliction turn your eyes from your Redeemer. Amen.
