Simeon and Anna – Ponderings

Luke 2:25 – 38

Preliminary thoughts: Why didn’t any of the religious leaders go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem? (Matthew 2:1 – 6).

In Luke 2:21 – 38 Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to Jerusalem; neither Herod nor the religious leaders knew what Child was in their midst. The same can be said for the religious leaders in Luke 2:41 – 47.

But then we have Simeon and Anna, they knew – they may not have known much, we don’t know how much they knew, we don’t know the breath of their understanding, but they certainly had a depth of understanding, of connection, they knew the Child…and knowing the Child was enough. Is knowing the Child enough for us? Not that we shouldn’t be growing in the grace and wisdom of our Lord Jesus, but if simply knowing Him and being in His Presence is all we had would it be enough?

Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel”. Anna, after seeing Jesus, spoke “of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” It appears that there was a “people within a people” in Israel, a remnant within a people. The perfunctory, and often political, practice of religion in Jerusalem was not what this remnant understood to be in keeping with the Law of God. Christ came to two representatives of this remnant, Simeon and Anna.

Since the fastings of the Bible are related to intercession (and if there is an exception to this forgive me for missing it), I think Anna’s fastings must be related to seeking the God of her fathers for “the redemption of Jerusalem”. (Yes, intercessory fastings result in our continued spiritual formation; and I do not mean to suggest that we may not fast for clarity and devotion in our individual and familial lives, but the thrust of Biblically – based fasting is not ourselves but God and others. When Jesus fasted in the wilderness He fasted, I think, in preparation for what was to come, and also as the Representative New Man, New Humanity – just as we were once in Adam, we are now in Christ.)

Daniel fasted and interceded in relation to the deliverance of his people from captivity – what we see played out in Ezra and Nehemiah is the result, in some fashion, of the workings of God through the intercession of Daniel (and others perhaps?). God spoke a promise of deliverance from captivity through Jeremiah, Daniel read the promise and Daniel engaged in intercession in response to the promise.

Simeon and Anna knew the promises of Yahweh, their covenant-keeping God, for the redemption of His people Israel and all nations of the earth, hence their hopes, their prayers, their intercessions.

Well, what about us? What are we looking for? Are we looking for our Lord Jesus?

Paul writes in Philippians 3:20 that we are “eagerly waiting” for our Lord Jesus from heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9 – 10 we read that we have been redeemed “to serve a living  and true God and to wait for His Son from the heavens.” Hebrews 9:28 speaks of those who are “eagerly” awaiting Him. What about us? We are eagerly looking for Jesus? Are we eagerly awaiting Him?

The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. Simeon comes into the Temple in the Spirit. How do we come when we assemble as God’s People? Do we come in expectation? Do we come prayerfully? Do we come in the Holy Spirit?

It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. This reminds me of Hebrews 11:33, that our fathers and mothers of faith “obtained promises”. Note that the promise given to Simeon was for Simeon and that it was not normative for Simeon’s contemporaries, including those of the remnant.

I have seen much heartache and confusion within the church when people, especially people in authority, attempt to make an understanding or perspective that is particular to them and their relationship with Christ normative for others. Often such a perspective or understanding is in its infancy, often it is misunderstood, often it does not reach maturity in a context of Biblical support and understanding, and often (perhaps nearly always) it is not vetted and tested by mature brothers and sisters. We have a common relationship with our Lord Jesus, and we, of course, have our individual relationships with our Lord Jesus – there is a mystical reciprocity and interchange in all of this, it is Trinitarian in nature for it is rooted in the Trinity.

What was it like for Simeon to awake each morning? Will this be the Day? Will this be the Day?  What about us? Are we looking for our Lord Jesus? Will this be the Day? Certainly our Lord will come to us today, if it is not the Day it is assuredly a Day – a Day in which Jesus comes to us, lives with us and in us, comes to us in other people, comes to us in the vicissitudes of life, comes to us in and through the Scriptures and prayer, comes to us as we see His hand in creation.

Are we looking for Jesus today? How is He coming to us?

Musings on the Incarnation

“Christmas” is nice, but I think “Incarnation” is better. Yes, “Christmas” does have historical roots, but I’m not sure it makes us stop and think the way the word “Incarnation” can. Yes, I agree, “stopping” is seldom done, as is “thinking”, but we can keep trying.

There is something about “And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory” (John 1:14). Have we also seen His glory? Have I? Have you?

Hebrews Chapter Two unveils the Incarnation in its many-faceted mystery, which quite frankly, even though I see it I don’t pretend to understand it. God’s love is so utterly unlike who I am that it overwhelms me, to think that God in Christ would die for me, His enemy (Romans 5:6 – 11), is more than I can comprehend.

Christ came to “taste death for every person” (Hebrews 2:9). He came to deliver us from the “fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15). He took on “flesh and blood” (Hebrews 2:14) and was made like us “in all things” (Hebrews 2:17).

Then there is the enigmatic suffering which Jesus Christ experienced, He was “made complete…through sufferings” (2:10); “through death” He rendered the enemy “powerless” (2:14); He “made propitiation for the sins of the people” (2:17); He faced temptation “in that which He has suffered” (2:18).

In Hebrews Chapter Two we also see that Jesus came for His brothers and sisters, and that through Jesus Christ the Father is bringing “many sons [and daughters] to glory” (2:10). In 2:11 we see that Jesus Christ calls us “brethren” because those who He is sanctifying are from His Father (see also John 15:16; 17:6, 14 – 26).

As Athanasius wrote in the fourth century, “He became as we are, so that we might become as His is.” Jesus is calling us back to our Father, ever calling us, ever sanctifying us. John writes, “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 1:16).

We now call out to God, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).  As Paul writes (Galatians 4:7), “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

The Incarnation continues in the sons and daughters of the living God. The Creator has come to re-create us into His image. That which was marred is being restored. That which was dead is brought to life.

Is the Incarnation continuing in me?

In you?

Born of a Woman

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord…” (Romans 1:1 – 4).

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4 – 5).

God Himself was born of a woman, sharing in our flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14), being made like us all in all things (Hebrews 2:17), yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus shared in our flesh and blood so that we might share in His flesh and blood (John 6:53 – 52 – 58). This is something to ponder.

Jesus is born of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3) and He gives help to the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). Jesus shares in humanity that He might taste death for every person (Hebrews 2:8 – 9). So we have this great cosmic mystery in which Jesus Christ comes to us through the seed of David, the seed of Abraham, the seed of humanity made in the image of God (Matthew 1:1; Luke 3:38).

Can we see this vast flow of Divine purpose? Do we see this promise of the Gospel of God? Are we participants in this unfolding mysterious drama – playing out before things seen and unseen?

Jesus Christ was “born of a woman” that He might be born in us; that from Christ and in Christ and through Jesus Christ a new humanity would rise from the dead and cry “Abba Father!” (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15).

And so in Christ we are His Bride; He “gave Himself up” for His Bride (Ephesians 5:25 – 32); and from the union of Christ and His Bride children are born; that which Adam and Eve did not do, Jesus Christ came to accomplish – perfecting His Bride and bringing many sons to glory (Ephesians 5:27; Hebrews 2:10 – 13).

This is something to ponder.

Angels and Prophets

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”  (Luke 1: 8 – 20.)

This is the first of much recorded angelic activity surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ (see Matthew chapters 1 and 2 and Luke chapters 1 and 2). It is also the first prophetic – angelic activity recorded in the Bible since the prophet Malachi, who lived around 400 – 450 years before Zacharias and the birth of Jesus Christ. There has been 400 years of silence – and now, in the above passage, God is speaking once again to His people and to the world. After 400 years of darkness the true Light is shining, the Star is appearing, God is coming to earth to recreate humanity. “Let there be Light” is playing out once again.

Gabriel’s words to Zacharias concerning Elijah turning the hearts of the fathers back to the children are from Malachi; in fact, Gabriel’s words contain a portion of the last verse of the last book of what we call the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6.  God had not spoken for 400 years and when He begins speaking again He takes up where He left off.

(Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that God wasn’t speaking to individuals during this 400 years, God is ever looking for those who desire to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth and desiring relationship with them).

There is another connection in Luke Chapter 1 with Malachi; much of Malachi is focused on the degenerate priesthood and the degenerate worship of Judah. In Zacharias we see a priest serving in the Temple – so again the prophetic Word of God picks up where it left off. There is a contrast, however, in that in Zacharias we see a man “…righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6) contrasted with the degenerate priests of Malachi.

Was Zacharias’s petition (Luke 1:13) concerning a child, or was it concerning the People of God and the coming Messiah? Could it have been both? Would Zacharias not have prayed for a child? Would he also not have prayed that the Messiah would come and that God’s People would be delivered from Roman dominance? While I do think that prayer for a child is the most immediate sense (a prayer that he had no doubt ceased to offer quite a few years prior to Gabriel’s appearance), I don’t think we need discount prayer for the Messiah.  

Sometimes we just don’t believe when our prayers are answered (Luke 1:20). Here is Zacharias, a righteous priest, performing acts of worship in the Temple, chosen by lot among the priests to offer incense, with people outside praying, and an angel appears at the altar of incense, the angel is quoting Malachi – the last words of the Law and the Prophets – Malachi, a prophetic book judging a corrupt priesthood, corrupt Temple-worship, and a corrupt people; and yet a book with promise, promise of restoration, promise of true worship, promise of the Messiah. O if Zacharias had only made the connection between the present and the past and the future, if he had only “seen” the Word of God from eternity past to Malachi to the words of Gabriel. But of course, God knows we are frail both in body and in understanding – His mercies are everlasting.

How is the Word of God coming to us today? Are we living in the Word of God? Are we breathing the Word of God? Has God’s Word taken up residence in our lives? In our souls?

Or…as Zacharias…are we mute?