Christmas Blessings from Unexpected Sources--Luke 2:22-38

            Our news outlets are all abuzz these days with stories about who the President-elect is appointing for various government positions. Everyone is asking, “Who does he want by his side? Who is he selecting to help him carry out his plans? Who does he believe he can trust?”

            As people who desire to serve God and do his will, we would do well to ask the same kind of questions about him. Who does he know he can trust? What kind of people does he select to help him carry out his plans? If we want to be used by him, what kind of people should we be?

            We’re going to answer those questions today by looking at a couple of lesser-known characters in the Christmas story – a godly man named Simeon, and a devoted prophetess named Anna. These believers make only a brief appearance on stage in the Christmas story, but even that brief appearance is enough to illustrate for us what kind of person God delights to use to do his will.

We find their story in Luke 2:22-38. Before we jump right into that text, let me put these stories into context for you by pointing out two striking features of the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel.

Two Striking Features of Luke 1-2

            The first striking feature of these chapters is that God is communicating. Now you might think, “What’s so striking or unusual about that?” It’s striking because of the historical timeframe of these events in Luke 1-2.

            These events mark the end of a 400-year span of time that is known as “The Silent Period,” because during that time, God had not been giving any new communication to mankind. Many people don’t realize this, but 400 years elapsed between the time of Malachi (the last prophet of the Old Testament) and the birth of Jesus. During those years, God had not sent any more prophets to the people of Israel – as even the Jewish people acknowledged in their own historical documents!

            So for all of those years, there had been no new communication or revelation from God. Then all of a sudden, there was a great burst of communication from God to his people, as we read about in these chapters. We read about three angelic visitations to various people, and we read about several people being moved by the Holy Spirit to make prophetic statements. So out of silence, there is all of a sudden a great burst of communication.

            The second striking feature about these chapters is that God is communicating through and to people whom their society would not have expected to hear from God. Every character we meet in these chapters was one or two steps down the social ladder of their time. Whether it was their age, their income level, their occupation, their marital status, or a physical defect, every one of them had some factor in their lives that would have placed them in a lower social standing in the eyes of other people.

            Yet here they are, hearing from God and being called to play important roles in the fulfillment of God’s plan. What was it about these people that caught the attention of God? Why were they entrusted with the parts that they played?

            The common denominator that unites all of these characters is obedience to the commands of God. Even though their obedience may have been imperfect – as in the case of Zechariah, who doubted the words of the angel – it was nevertheless genuine and from the heart. So we learn, then, that it is obedience that God looks for when he selects those whom he will use to carry out his plans. We see this obedience exemplified clearly in the lives of Simeon and Anna, so let’s take a look now at their stories.

The Story of Simeon

            Speaking of obedience, the stories of Simeon and Anna come about because of the obedience of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary. They crossed paths with Simeon and Anna when they obediently went to the Temple to carry out everything that the Law of Moses called them to do. Let’s read about this [READ 2:22-24].

            Let’s briefly make sure we understand these details of the Old Testament Law. When a child was born in a Jewish family, the parents were to appear at the Temple after a certain period of time to offer sacrifices to the Lord. The Law called for them to offer a lamb and a pigeon or a dove. If they were poor, however, they could offer two birds instead of one bird and a lamb. We can see in verse 24, then, that Joseph and Mary were giving the offering that was allowed for poorer folks.

            Now if the child was a firstborn son, a special financial offering was also supposed to be given. Firstborn sons had been given a special place in Israel ever since God used the deaths of the firstborn sons of Egypt to free the children of Israel from slavery.

            So Joseph and Mary had come to the Temple to comply with everything that the Law of the Lord had called them to do. Their obedience brought them into contact with a godly man named Simeon [READ vv. 25-26].

            Let’s make sure we don’t overlook this token of kindness from the Lord. God did not have to make any promise like this to Simeon. His plans could’ve rolled along just fine whether Simeon was alive to see any of it or not. But God kindly blessed Simeon with the opportunity to see the beginning of the salvation that Simeon had desired to see for so long.

            Simeon responded by praising the Lord and giving testimony about God’s promise [READ vv. 27-32]. Those final statements reveal that Simeon truly did know God well. He understood something that many of his countrymen struggled to understand – that the coming of God’s chosen one, the Messiah, was not just a gift for the Jewish people but for the entire world. Simeon knew that even the Gentiles were loved by God, so they too stood to benefit from the coming of Jesus.

            But this was not all that Simeon had to say, and his next words would take on a rather somber tone [READ vv. 33-35]. Wow – those are some heavy words to hear, aren’t they? No wonder we don’t find these words of Simeon on the front of Hallmark cards around this time of year!

            Yet perhaps we should remind ourselves of these words around Christmas, and perhaps we should encourage others to take heed of them as well. During the Christmas season, we tend to emphasize nothing but happiness, nothing but joy. But the Christmas narratives in the Bible are not so exclusive. The Bible will not let us forget for a moment that the blessed baby of Bethlehem is also the crucified Christ of Calvary.

            Jesus did not come into this world just so we could have a holiday about a cute baby. He came so that the thoughts of the hearts of mankind might be revealed. It is a very humbling thing to have the true nature of your heart revealed, and so naturally, we are going to respond one of two ways to this – we will either trust Jesus and embrace him to save us from the sinfulness of our hearts, or we will reject him and oppose what his teachings reveal about us.

            That is what Simeon meant by “the fall and rising of many in Israel.” For some people, Jesus has become the cause of stumbling and a fall into the disaster of rejecting God. For others, he is the one and only reason that we have arisen from underneath the burden of sin and stand confidently before the Lord today as his forgiven children.

            This is the message that we must proclaim all throughout the year – Christmastime included! The Holy Spirit knew exactly what he was doing to move Simeon to speak those words at that time, and he has preserved them for us in precisely this place so that we will know from the very beginning of Jesus’ story that we must make a choice of how we will respond to him.

Simeon responded with praise, because he was a man who was already obedient to God. Anna was just the same, so let’s read about her response now.

The Story of Anna

            [READ vv. 36-37]. These details highlight just how devoted Anna truly was. She had made a decision early in her life to devote herself to worship, fasting, prayer, and undoubtedly serving others as well.

            She was widowed from a very young age. Luke tells us that she had lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. Jewish girls at that time typically got married when they were around 13 years old, so we can guess that Anna was around 20 when she became a widow.

            What a difficult thing to deal with so early in life! Anna could’ve chosen to get remarried and there would’ve been nothing wrong with that choice at all. But instead, she decided to devote herself to worshiping God, and she invested her life and that purpose for 64 years.

            You can imagine her joy, then, when she learned that the Savior had been born. Let’s see how she responds [READ v. 38]. Anna the prophetess became one of the first evangelists, we might say. And notice who she spoke to – “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

            That phrase highlights an important principle for how to be the kind of person whom God uses to carry out his plans. How do we follow in the footsteps of such faithful people as Simeon and Anna? Where did they find the spiritual strength to be righteous and devout, and to serve the Lord with such devotion for decades on end?

            We find that the key lies in eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of God’s plans. Notice how verse 25 said of Simeon that he was, “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” And in verse 38, we read that Anna was among those who were, “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Those phrases both refer to the plans that God had revealed in the Old Testament. Simeon and Anna believed the word of God, and they knew that if God said something was going to happen, it was as good as done! So in that confidence, they anxiously prepared themselves to be ready for the fulfillment of God’s plans.

            That’s the kind of active response that Luke has in mind when he says that these two godly saints were “waiting.” This is not the kind of waiting we do when we are on hold on the telephone with the insurance company – where impatience builds with every moment and our attitude sours and we begin to lose confidence that someone is ever going to pick up.

            No, we’re talking about the kind of waiting that children do on Christmas morning when grandma and grandpa are coming over with presents. This is “standing by the window” kind of waiting; this is “so anxious I can barely stand it” kind of waiting. This is when we are so confident that God will fulfill his promises that we shape our lives to make sure we are ready when that day comes so we don’t miss out on the tiniest blessing that we otherwise could have had if we had been ready.

            That is the kind of waiting that can sustain us until the day comes when God fulfills his promises. It’s the kind of waiting that the prophet Isaiah referred to when he wrote, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31).”

            If the holiday of Christmas teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that God keeps his word! He said he would send a savior, and he did. He also has said that Jesus will come again to this world, and so he will. So we must ask ourselves, “Am I ready?” We prepare ourselves for that day by embracing Jesus as our Savior from sin by faith, and then as God’s adopted children, we live in obedience to his commands so that we will be fully prepared for Christ’s return, without any reason for shame and anxiously awaiting his kind rewards and the blessing of living with him.