Presentation of Our Lord
02 February 2003
St. Luke 2. 22-32
Today is the 40th after Christmas and on this day the Church celebrates the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of our Lord. Both of these events were grounded in the law of the OT. After the birth of a son, an Israelite woman had to remain home for 40 days. When the time was up, the family would go to the temple and do two things: first, for the purification, they would bring a year old lamb and a young pigeon as a sacrifice so that she would be purified from the sinful and cursed birth that happened through her. If they were poor, they could bring 2 turtle doves and 2 young pigeons.
The other thing they had to do was for the presentation; they would present their young first-born boy to the Lord and redeem him with a set sum of money. This was done in remembrance of the first born of the Israelites who were spared when the angel of death slew all the firstborn of the Egyptians. From then on, every first-born boy baby was set aside for service to the Lord. Although the Lord later assigned the tribe of Levi as the priestly tribe to serve Him, the first-born were still considered holy to the Lord–belonging to His service–so a payment was made to redeem the child from a special, priestly service to the Lord, which the tribe of Levi was to carry out.
But this “buying back” of the first born boy baby at the presentation was also a reminder that the new-born child was born in sin and had to be redeemed. Mary and Joseph did all this with Jesus even though He was without sin. By the sacrifice of the pigeon Jesus’ sacrificial death was foreshadowed. By the money paid to redeem the child, also Jesus’ suffering and death were foreshadowed–that suffering and death by which the whole world would be ransomed and redeemed from its sin. Why would this have to be done for the holy sinless God born of the virgin? –Not only did He fulfill every part of the Law for us, but also because our sinful and cursed birth and the sins of the world were laid on Him. There the pigeon sacrifice and the money paid to redeem Him served notice that the Christ Child Himself would have to cleanse and redeem the whole world by HIs sacrifice and suffering and death. Now it was as good as done!
Our text: When the time came for them to be purified according to the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord: ‘Every first born boy should be called “the Lord’s holy one”’) and to offer a sacrifice according to the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or 2 young pigeons. Here we see Joseph and Mary offered up the alternate sacrifice–the one for the poor– which means that Mary and Joseph were not wealthy; most would consider them insignificant because of their poverty. In the eyes of the world, Mary and Joseph would be regarded as insignificant believers.
This is important: they were without great earthly blessing. Wouldn’t out usual way of thinking be that since the Holy Family was made up of the Son of God, the Mother of God and the Son of God’s foster father, that God would have opened the heavens to rain down every sort of material blessing on them? He didn’t! In fact later on Jesus would say of Himself: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man doesn’t have a place to lay His head. What does this teach us? –Earthly, material blessing is not necessarily a sign of God’s blessing; that if you’re rich you’re in good with God, but if you’re poor, God is against you.
But look at Mary and Joseph–they seemed to be insignificant believers, but they were believers! Their sacrifices were accepted and pleasing to God. They were enjoying every heavenly and spiritual blessing and were truly wealthy in the Lord. They were insignificant believers but they enjoyed significant spiritual blessings!
Now we also meet Simeon: Now, there was in Jerusalem a man by the name of Simeon. He was a righteous man, fearing God and waiting for the One Who would comfort Israel. The Holy Spirit was on him. Simeon was typical of the OT believers–a righteous, God- fearing man who was waiting for the Messiah. And, like most of the OT faithful down through the centuries before him, Simeon was insignificant and lowly.
Except for these few words the Holy Spirit recorded here, we know absolutely nothing about Simeon. He was not anyone important; he wasn’t a priest; at this point, he was likely an old man. But though Simeon was not at all significant to the world, he was significant to God. God blessed him with a faith that endured! And He gave Simeon a great gift: He told Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah–and God kept that promise!
That’s how God works! Remember what St. Paul wrote: You see what happened, fellow Christians, when God called you. Not many of you are wise as the world judges, not many in positions of power, not many born of noble parents. Yes, many of our Lord’s dear Christians are insignificant believers, are poor and lowly–but remember this is the Holy Family; and this is precisely how Jesus came: He, the almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth, became also one of His creatures, became true Man, flesh and blood, in order to save and rescue us. And Simeon–with the eyes of faith–saw that Baby Jesus, just 40 days old, is the one and only Savior of the world. That Baby Simeon held in his arms seemed to be a very insignificant Savior. But was Jesus insignificant? Hardly! He’s the only Savior, He’s the only way back to God.
What we hear about lowly and insignificant Simeon, is also said of all of our Lord’s Christians: He was a righteous man, fearing God. Yes, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus we are righteous–where it counts: in the sight of God. Yes, we all sin greatly; in and of ourselves we have no holiness and righteousness–only sin. If God were to note our sins, none of us could stand. But the righteousness we have, dear Christian, is not our righteousness but the holiness of Jesus. Through faith clinging to Jesus and His saving work, Jesus’ perfect holiness/ keeping of the Law is ours. In confession, we give Jesus our sins and through faith we receive and are covered with His perfect robe of righteousness, We are forgiven our sin. What Scripture says of Abraham, it could say of Simeon and each Christian: Abram believed the LOrd, and so the LOrd counted it to him as righteousness.
Like Simeon, forgiven our sin and covered with Jesus’ righteousness, we, dear Christian, are God-fearing, that is we now–in love and thankfulness–strive to live a life of good works. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are conscientious in our life to try not to sin against God. We, dear Christian, may seemingly be insignificant, but by God’s grace and working we are righteous in His sight and our lives begin to show God’s work in us.
Yes, the lives of us insignificant believers are filled with significant blessings. The very fact that we are Christians, that the Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts, means that we have experienced God’s grace and salvation, that we enjoy great spiritual blessings. Our text: Moved by the Spirit, Simeon went into the temple. When the parents brought in the Child Jesus to do for Him what was customary according to the Law, Simeon took HIm in his arms, praised God, and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant go in peace as You promised, because my eyes have seen Your salvation….
As Christians, one of these blessings we enjoy is the Holy Spirit enlightening us. Unless the Holy Spirit had done His work first, we wouldn’t even be Christians to start with. How was it that Simeon recognized that 40 day old Baby in Mary’s arms was the long awaited Savior? –The Holy Spirit showed Him! In the same way the Holy Spirit works through the word we hear and the sacrament we receive. He teaches us to know Jesus rightly, to believe on Him, receive Him into our hearts confessing, Here is my Savior. As much a miracle as it was that Simeon knew by the Holy Spirit which 40 day boy Baby was the Savior, an even greater miracle is that we know Jesus as our Savior.
With Luther we confess: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Not only does the Holy Spirit bring us to faith, He also keeps us in the faith–like He did Simeon waiting all those years for the Savior to come.
The Holy Spirit didn’t do it in a vacuum, but worked through the word Simeon heard; and with each sacrifice Simeon saw, the Holy Spirit reminded Simeon of the coming Savior and His suffering and death. In the same way, the Holy Spirit works through the word we hear, read and study; He works through the Sacrament we receive to strengthen and keep us in the faith that looks to Jesus as our only Savior and to strengthen us as we wait for Jesus to return in glory on the Last Day. The Holy Spirit keeps us in this faith and fervent longing. What a tremendous blessing!
Our text: Simeon took the Child Jesus in his arms, praised God, and said:...my eyes have seen Your salvation. Simeon not only sees and recognizes Jesus with the eyes of faith, but also with his own physical eyes he saw the Lord’s salvation, that is, the One who brings about the salvation of the world. In Simeon’s arms is the One who would bring the forgiveness of sins to the whole world. What a blessing for Simeon,
We, too, dear Christian, share a similar blessing. We can’t see with our physical eyes and hold the 40 day old Baby Jesus in our arms like Simeon did, but we have the tremendous blessing of the Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Communion. In our very mouths we receive the very Body of Jesus–that same body Simeon held, that same Body that carried our sins and was cursed for us on the cross. In this holy Sacrament, we drink the very blood that was poured out for our forgiveness.
Simeon saw and held in his arms the Savior of the world–a significant blessing for a seemingly insignificant believer; we receiving our mouths the Body and Blood of that Savior and the blessings He brought about for us–a significant blessing for us insignificant believers! That’s why after Holy Communion we sing this song of Simeon–not only are we joyful for the blessings we received–the forgiveness of sin–but we are also confessing that we have just received Jesus’ body and blood: my eyes have seen Your salvation.
And one more significant blessing for our Lord’s insignificant Christians: we will have a blessed death. Simeon had a blessed/ peaceful death because what the Lord promised him–to see the long promised Messiah–had been fulfilled. Simeon could now die blessed in the fact that his Savior had come.
Like Simeon, our life is one of watchful waiting. We, dear Christian, have the promise that at the end we will see God. Our hearts have peace as we wend our way through life–our eyes are fixed on the end of the road: eternity with our Lord in heaven.
Simeon could say Lord, now You are letting Your servant go in peace for in Jesus the Savior, we have peace with God. Our sin that separates us from God, Jesus has dealt with once for all; He reconciled us to God. As we by faith recognize and cling to Jesus, we are fit and prepared for death; we can approach God with a clear conscience because Jesus rescued us from our sin.
What significant blessings of forgiveness of sin, life and salvation our gracious Triune God gives us insignificant believers! That is His love and mercy toward us! How great is our peace and joy in Him. INJ Amen.