Real-life joy of real-life saints at Christmas

Sermon for the Sunday after Christmas

Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

It’s the 5^th day of Christmas. The Christmas decorations are already starting to come down. The Christmas songs are pretty much gone from the radio now. The Christmas movies are almost gone from the TV lineup, except on the Hallmark Channel, and they won’t be around there much longer. And in a way, I’m glad. Because the picture those decorations and songs and shows paint of Christmas is mostly “fake news” anyway. Whether it’s Santa or the Polar Express or the secular holiday songs that completely ignore the birth of Jesus, or whether it’s the movies that make His birth just one small part of Christmas, or whether it’s the songs (or the sermons!) that tell us what a cute little baby Jesus was or what a wonderful teacher He grew up to be and what a shining example He left us in teaching us to be kind to one another, as if that were the heart of His Gospel—it’s fake. It’s not real, the utopian view of Christmas, the idealistic view of Christmas, the Hallmark Channel view of Christmas. Even the Christmas card view of Christmas is necessarily limited in what it can portray.

So let’s spend this 5^th day of Christmas with Simeon and Anna, shall we? In Simeon and Anna we see two elderly, real-life saints who celebrated Christmas with extraordinary faith and extraordinary joy—real-life joy that doesn’t ignore the reality of Christ’s mission or of the opposition that awaits Him and His people in the world.

We meet Simeon and Anna on Jesus’ Presentation Day, 40 days after He was born, according to Old Testament Law. The Feast of the Presentation always falls on February 2^nd, which happens to be a Sunday this year. But that day also happens to be Transfiguration Sunday this year, so let’s spend a few moments on the Presentation today, along with the Gospel you heard earlier.

Luke tells us, when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” In Leviticus 12, Moses had given the Israelites God’s command about purification after childbirth as part of the ceremonial law. The flow of blood always made a person unclean, but childbirth was a special case. Childbirth made a woman ceremonially unclean for 40 days after the birth of a son, 80 days after the birth of a daughter. At the end of those days, the mother was to take two offerings to the Temple to be sacrificed: either a lamb and a turtle dove, or, if she couldn’t afford a lamb, then two turtle doves, which is the offering Luke indicates that Mary brought. The purification rite was a reminder of original sin, and that the blood of sinners is impure. It was also a sign pointing forward to Christ, to the only baby boy in human history who was not a sinner, but whose blood could purify the whole sinful human race before God.

So they went to the Temple in Jerusalem, first, for the purification of Mary. But they also went for the Presentation of the firstborn. The Law required that the firstborn son of any Israelite be redeemed from God (bought back from Him)—a reminder that God Himself had redeemed the firstborn of Israel by the blood of the Passover lamb, and a sign pointing forward to Christ, the firstborn Son of Mary, by whose blood the whole human race would be redeemed, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle: Christ was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons..

But before any lamb could be offered to redeem the true Lamb of God, God interrupted the ceremony by sending Simeon at just that moment.

Who was Simeon? Simeon was an old man, an aged Israelite, a real-life saint, not because he never sinned, but because he lived a life of hope in the true God. Luke says that he was righteous and devout, and waiting for the consolation of Israel. In other words, he was a penitent sinner who was eagerly waiting for the Christ to arrive, to console Israel by making atonement for sin and by offering forgiveness to all who believed in Him. And as Simeon waited, he lived his life in service to the Lord. He faithfully and dutifully carried out his vocations. Somehow, the Holy Spirit had informed him that he would not die, he wouldn’t be “dismissed from the Lord’s service on earth,” until he saw the Christ with his own eyes. And somehow, the Holy Spirit made sure he recognized the Child Jesus as the Christ just as His parents brought Him in, to do for Him according to the custom of the law. And Simeon took Him up in his arms and blessed God with those famous words we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.

First, Simeon announces that he is ready to depart—to be dismissed from the Lord’s earthly service, to die, in peace. Now, Simeon, Luke tells us, was just and devout, a good man, a godly man. And yet this godly man had no peace and was not at all ready to die except for one thing—except for this Child whom he held in his arms. Simeon was what we would call a “good man,” but even the best of men are sinners before God and will not be let into His paradise, except for one thing—except for faith in the Son of Mary.

Faith in Him, for what? For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. Sinners need saving, need rescuing from the condemnation we deserve. For that salvation to take place for any sinner, two things are necessary: The atonement or redemption has to be made, and faith in that atonement has to be created. That Child was the atonement; His blood was the redemption price. And He was also the One who would send His Holy Spirit to create faith in it. For whom would He pay the redemption price? “Prepared before the face of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel.” No one on earth, Jew or Gentile, no matter how sincere or religious they may be, will be saved, unless they believe in this Child, held by Simeon, in Jesus, the Christ, the salvation of God. He was offered for all men on earth, and He is offered to all men on earth in the preaching of this Gospel, so that all might repent and believe in Him, both Jew and Gentile.

That was Simeon’s Song. He was so joyful to be holding the Christ in his arms! And his words caused Mary and Joseph to marvel. 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.” This was the first time anyone had told Mary and Joseph that their Child 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 was 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 and die and to bring judgment on those who do not believe in Him.

Jesus did cause the fall of many in Israel. How many people have stumbled over Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles! Even today, most of the physical descendants of Israel are celebrating Hanukkah, not Christmas. Jesus is, in the words of St. Peter, “a stone of stumbling” and “a rock of offense.” People stumble over Jesus and fall, because He calls them sinners and insists that they abandon their sins. Or they stumble 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.

But, as Simeon said, that Child was 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.

Anna was one of those who was raised up because of Jesus. Here was this old Israelite woman, a prophetess, Luke says—one of only a few mentioned in Scripture. She was over a hundred years old if you add up the years Luke gives us. She had lost her husband over 80 years ago and had spent those eight decades, 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 Anna. She’s always here in the temple, praying and prophesying.”

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.” Clearly there were many who were not looking for redemption. They thought they were doing fine on their own. But to all who recognized their sins and had heard and believed 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: The Christ has been born. Redemption has come!

There was nothing fake about Simeon or Anna. They were real Christians, real saints, who found real joy in Jesus, joy that was still there, in spite of their own earthly trials and the troubles of old age, joy that was still there, in spite of what that Child would suffer later on in His life, in spite of what His Christians would also suffer because of Him. In your real life as Christians, you will not be able to avoid the troubles that are common to mankind, and you’d better not even try to avoid the troubles that come with confessing Christ. But you already know that the joy of Christ is not a matter of finding utopia here on earth. It’s about a God who loved you so much that He entered our non-utopian world in order to redeem you from sin and death, to bring you first into the joy of His Church and then, finally, into the joy of His heaven.

Learn from the example of Simeon and Anna, both in leading serious, godly lives all the way up to old age, and in the joy that they found in finding Christ. When we sing our next hymn in a few minutes, picture Simeon and Anna singing along together with all of us here: Oh, rejoice, ye Christians, loudly, For our joy hath now begun; Wondrous things our God hath done. Tell abroad His goodness proudly Who our race hath honored thus That He deigns to dwell with us. Joy, Oh, joy, beyond all gladness, Christ hath done away with sadness! Hence, all sorrow and repining, For the Sun of Grace is shining! Merry Christmas! Amen.