First Sunday after Christmas - 12-27-09

The Church Season of Christmas,

1st Sunday after Christmas,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (December 27, 2009)
One Year Series

“See your Salvation”

Readings:
Is 11:1-5
Gal. 4:1-7
Luke 2:22-40


Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 2nd chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse.

Luke 2:22-40 (NIV)

26 It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

The Christ Child is born. He who is without bounds had for a time been held safely in the womb of Mary. Then after His birth and according to the Law, Jesus was washed, rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4), then swathed with bandages (Job 38:9; Luke 2:7, 12). On the eighth day after His birth, Christ shed His blood for us when He was circumcised according to the Law. Now forty days after His incarnation, Jesus ascends to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Holy family is obligated, “according to the law of Moses”, (Luke 2:24) to travel to the temple for the purification of Mary and the presentation of the firstborn Son. Jesus is carried to the temple by His parents and they meet a man named Simeon who was carried to the Temple Courts by the Holy Spirit.

And when Simeon’s eyes first gazed upon the infant, Simeon gathered the Christ-child in his arms, he lifted Him up and praised God. And the words Simeon spoke are the words which we still sing in our liturgy to this very day, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: 30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”(Luke 2:28-32) In keeping with God's promise, Simeon saw God's salvation with his own eyes, he saw the light all the nations and the person who was Israel's greatest glory.

We do not know how long Simeon had waited. Maybe he had waited for an entire lifetime. But for this very instant, Simeon was moved by the Holy Spirit, in the Temple of God, with the Son of God in his hands, and his salvation was now perceived by his own eyes. And for Simeon this was a sight good enough to die for.

And at the very moment Simeon was marveling that he held his salvation in his hands, a prophetess named Anna walked up, and she too saw the infant and, “she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward for the redemption of Jerusalem.”(v. 38) Anna was a widow who had waited many years to see her Lord, “worshipping night and day, fasting and praying.”(v.37) Now she too, guided by the Holy Spirit recognized Jesus as the one who would redeem Jerusalem. Anna returned praise and glory to God in the highest for the peace He had sent to all the people on earth.

Oh, how we long to have been there with Simeon and Anna, to sing the praises of our Lord. To see that baby, to kneel down before Him, to take Him in our arms and sing our praises to Him. To see Him take His first footsteps, to see Him grow in wisdom and stature, and then maybe we could walk in His footsteps too. All of that would be moments for us to die for. But, if we say we could be so pious to see and recognize Him in such lowly estate, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

For if we were on the temple mount that day, we would see Jesus as just another crying baby in the temple of God. A child whose parents, we would gladly usher to the cry room, so that we could pretend to be pious, while paying no attention to the words of the Holy Spirit. Oh, “To be sure some of us [would] praise and bless him, as long as he did what we desired and as long as he allowed us to be what we wanted [to be].”(Martin Luther AELW 52:109) Yet as soon as that same Christ reminds us of the demands of the Law, that we should live by the commandments and forsake our thoughts and ways. The idea that we should let Christ and Christ alone guide us by His Word, well then that would be too much to bear. We do not want to see that Christ.

In fact, we loose sight that God sent His Son in the very simple form of a child to see to the salvation of the entire world. We are blinded by sin and fail to see that Christ came to save us, the simple and the sophisticated, the well dressed and the poorly dressed, those of high stature and those of no stature. Simeon’s words proclaiming salvation to us would indeed be welcome news to our ears. But when that news also proclaims the inclusion of the bedraggled world worn weary it would be too much of a sight to bear. How dare God offer those kind of people the promise of salvation. Those people who have not lifted up Christ in their praise, those who have neither worked nor waited for the Lord, and we would say they are just the opposite of Simeon, or Anna, or us. That would be too much of a sight too for us to bear.

Repent. For our eyes are glazed over our by our own sin, and we cannot see to our own salvation. We do not gain heaven by waiting and working for the Lord. The Holy Spirit brings us to see Him. When only forty days old, Simeon was given Jesus to hold in his hands, and He saw His salvation. But those hands, nor yours, could ever grasp, the salvation which you see by faith. Though you did not stand on the Temple Mount with Simeon and Anna, the Holy Spirit brings you to faith and to your salvation in the waters of your baptism. Today in the Holy Supper of our Lord, your salvation is given to you in Christ’s true body and blood shed for you. It is not given to you to be held in your hands and lifted up, rather it is to be received by you in faith, for the remission of your sins.

The Christ child always had his eyes on our salvation, and prepared Himself to see it through for all His people. For Christ is the One who came into this world as a child and fulfilled the Father’s Law for you. It is the same Christ who was brought to the temple by Mary and Joseph who would one day go back to the temple mount to be tried, convicted, and crucified, for you. It is Christ who brought Himself to the cross to pay for our sins. There on the cross He saw to your salvation.

Rejoice. For even before the eyes of the infant Christ could focus, God had his eyes firmly focused on your salvation. For He had prepared all the things for this world. In the hearing of the Word, the Holy Spirit has carried you to faith, and prepared salvation for you. The Holy Spirit has given you faith to see your salvation, and for Jesus Christ that is more than mere moment, it is your eternity for Him to die for, so that you may depart in peace. Amen.

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