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I think one of the things people these days find
hard is having to wait. Delayed gratification is one of
those things that have been forgotten in our age of fast
food, instant communication and short attention spans. I
see you can even buy an air conditioner now, that you can
telephone on your way home from work to turn it on so you
don't have to wait for the room to cool down when you get
home. I remember when Di was pregnant with each of our
children, there was that long wait, of some eight months
from when we found out until the baby was born. Eight
months of anticipation, but also 8 months of wondering
how we'd cope, whether it'd be a boy or a girl, whether
it would be healthy or not. Well these days people do
ultrasounds to find out the sex of their baby and whether
it's healthy, etc. Because it's difficult to wait isn't
it? |
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But sometimes it doesn't hurt to have to wait.
Delayed gratification can be a helpful thing. For example
it allows you time to prepare. Imagine if you found out
you were having a baby the day before it arrived! You'd
be lost, wouldn't you? You just wouldn't be prepared. But
on the other hand, if the wait gets too great, you start
to wonder whether it will really happen. |
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In today's gospel reading we discover a number
of people who have been waiting for a very long time for
their great hope to arrive. First of all Simeon, who's
described as waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Secondly there's Anna and the people that she speaks to
who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Both are
looking for the same thing. These people were looking
forward to the fulfilment of prophecies such as Isaiah's
which told of the restoration of Jerusalem, of the coming
of the Messiah to restore the fortunes of Israel, and to
establish God's Kingdom here on earth to bring salvation
to all peoples. At the end of Luke's gospel we're
introduced to another person, Joseph of Arimathea, who
was also waiting expectantly for the Kingdom of God. |
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All these people were waiting for God to act.
They'd been waiting for many years most of them. We're
not told how old Simeon was, but the implication is that
he'd lived beyond the normal span of years as he waited
to greet the coming Messiah. Anna we're told, is 84,
which I take to be a great age for the period. But notice
that their time hasn't been wasted. Rather they've spent
their time in worship of God. Simeon is described as
righteous and devout. That is, his life was exemplary. He
was a regular worshipper of God. He was open to God
speaking to him, and responded when he heard God's voice.
Similarly Anna never left the temple, but worshipped
there with prayer and fasting night and day. What a great
example of a godly woman. And what a great example of a
woman who acts as a mouthpiece for God. Anna is a great
example of a woman who God uses to teach his people
about who Jesus was. |
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Here are people who are faithfully waiting for
God's promised Messiah to be revealed when suddenly he
appears among them. But if you look at the account that
Luke gives of this event, it's clear that by itself,
no-one would have noticed it. The event of Jesus' birth
happens in a very unspectacular way, and in fact Luke
tells it in a very sparing way. Only seven verses for the
birth of Jesus. But then the rest of chapter 2 is devoted
to three separate events, three sayings about this child
who has been born. The birth by itself might have been
missed, but the events that surround it, the words that
accompany it, ensure that we fully understand it's
significance. |
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First the angels come to the shepherds and
announce good news of great joy to all the people. This
day is born a Saviour who is Christ, the Lord. The baby
had already been given a name, Jesus, by the angel
Gabriel in the previous chapter. |
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Jesus was a not unusual name for the time. It
meant "The Lord saves" the same as Joshua. It's
a name that occurs from time to time through the Old
Testament. But in Jesus' case it had a hidden
significance. As the angel announces, this Jesus is to be
the Saviour. God is about to bring the salvation
that people have been waiting for, once and for all.
"Peace on earth" has meaning only because of
what this baby will do. That's because not only is he the
Saviour, but he's the Christ, the Messiah. All those
prophecies of the Servant of the Lord are to be fulfilled
in this person who is God's anointed one. And he's
"the Lord." Luke has just referred to God as
"the Lord" some twenty times in the previous
chapter, so this title used for Jesus has staggering
implications. Here is God incarnate, God in human form.
God coming to save us himself. No wonder the shepherds
have to go and see for themselves this wonder that the
Lord has made known to them. |
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Then in the next scene, we find Simeon and Anna
speaking of Jesus. It's Simeon's words that we have
recorded for us in detail, in the familiar words of the
nunc dimittis. What he says isn't that much different to
what the angels said, except that the range of his words
spreads wider. Whereas the angel brought news of great
joy for all the people, that is the people of Israel,
Simeon says this salvation is for all peoples. The light
that Jesus gives will bring revelation to the Gentiles as
well as glory to Israel. In fact it had always been God's
intention that through Israel all the nations of the
earth would be blessed. That was part of the original
blessing on Abraham, in Gen 12. And it had been predicted
by Isaiah: (eg. Is 49:6 NRSV) "[The Lord] says, 'It
is too light a thing that you should be my servant to
raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors
of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the
earth.'" And now it was taking place in the person
of Jesus. |
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But Simeon gives Mary a warning. He says this
salvation that's offered to all peoples, won't be taken
up by all. Some will stumble over it. Some will oppose
it. Simeon probably didn't understand the full
repercussions of this but we now know that some
are offended by the way it comes about, by the shame of
the cross. Some are offended by it's simplicity, thinking
we should have to do more to earn our salvation. Some are
offended because this light that Jesus brings shows up
the evil of their hearts. Simeon, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, warns Mary that their opposition in the end will
mean Jesus death, and so Mary's heart would be pierced as
well. |
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When Anna has her chance to speak, we're not
given her words. But we're told that she gave thanks to
God and spoke about him to all those who were looking
forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. It's fairly clear
that her message was similar to Simeon's. That is, that
this was the one whom God had promised would come to
rescue his people and restore God's reign to Jerusalem. |
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The final scene of this chapter, and indeed of
Luke's account of Jesus' childhood, is the visit of Jesus
to the Temple. This time the voice we hear is that of
Jesus himself. They go up to Jerusalem when Jesus is 12,
possibly in preparation for his Bar-mitzvah in the coming
year. Anyway, when it comes time to return home Jesus
stays behind, unbeknown to his parents. When they
discover his absence they go back to look for him. After
three days of searching they finally find him. Now you
can imagine by this time they'd be getting a little
frantic. I used to get worried when my teenage children
were an hour or so late getting home. Imagine with a
twelve year old, who's been missing four days. But there
he is in the Temple, sitting among the teachers listening
to them and asking questions, and everyone is amazed by
his understanding. Well, you get the feeling that this
amazement is somewhat lost on Joseph and Mary. They're
ready to throttle him. You don't quite get the intonation
of Mary's question in Luke's written account, but you can
probably imagine it. "Child, why have you treated us
like this? Look, your father and I have been searching
for you in great anxiety." 'We've been to the
police, we've rung all the hospitals. How could you be so
thoughtless.' I know just how she feels. But Jesus is
unfazed. He says "Why were you searching for me? Did
you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
There's a childlike simplicity to these first recorded
words of Jesus that belies the significance of them. You
see, they imply a relationship between himself and God
different from and deeper than, anything that had ever
been known before. Oh sure, the Jews had always referred
to God as their father, but all they really understood by
that was that God had brought the nation into being. If
anything Abraham was their true father. But here
was Jesus claiming a special relationship with God as
Father that overrode even his relationship with his human
parents. It was a relationship that later on he would
teach his disciples applied also to them. He'd teach them
when they pray to pray to their father and they'd learn
to use the intimate name "Abba" (Dad) to
address God. |
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Just as in John's gospel we're told from the
outset that Jesus came so that all who received him would
be given the power to become children of God, so here in
Luke we discover that Jesus has come as God's Son, which
means that all who come into relationship with him, will
also come into relationship with God the Father. |
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So can you see how Luke has taken this fairly
unimpressive event of the birth of a peasant child, in
the stables of an inn in the little village of Bethlehem,
and shown through these three subsidiary incidents the
real significance of Jesus coming among us. Here are
three omens, three voices, that point beyond the physical
event to the spiritual significance of what's
happening. As always in Scripture, the event is
accompanied by words that explain and fill out the event,
the image. One can imagine that without the words, those
who were waiting patiently for Jesus' appearing might
well have missed it. Certainly we who look back from the
distance of centuries would know nothing if not for the
words recorded by the writers of the Scriptures. |
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The coming of Jesus into the world would mean
nothing if it weren't accompanied by God's own
explanation of it. So Luke has recorded for us the
angel's words that tell us who Jesus is, the prophets'
words that tell us who might benefit from Jesus' coming,
and Jesus' own words that remind us that to grasp fully
this message of salvation we need to follow the one who
already knows God as his Father, so that we too might be
brought into that same relationship with him. |
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We too are people who are waiting. Not for the
coming of a Messiah to save his people. No we're people
who are waiting for that Messiah to return, to take us to
be with him in the Father's presence. But like those
people who were waiting for Jesus to come, we need to be
ready. We need to be preparing ourselves. How? By
devoting ourselves to worship of God, by reading and
studying his word so we can be more like him when he
returns, and so we can understand the days in which we
live, and by telling others of what we've discovered in
that word; sharing the revelation we've been given of the
significance of this Jesus who was born all those years
ago, but who is still alive today, and who still speaks
to his people through the Scriptures. |
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My hope in this coming year is to see us grow as
a congregation who are ready to meet the Lord when he
comes and who are working hard at learning how to share
our faith with those around us; who are taking the events
of our lives and sharing them with others so they too see
that God is at work in the world. Let's pray that we too
might be voices that reveal to the world that a Saviour,
who is Christ, the Lord, has come. |
