Title: What They Saw That Day
Text: Luke 2:25 – 35
FCF: It’s easy to miss him, but we need to see Jesus
SO: I want people to envision what it would have been like to see Jesus, and understand that while Jesus’ is not a plastic polyanna, he is hope and glory.
Outline:
I. What Everybody Else Saw (A Temple)
II. What Mary & Joseph Saw (A Baby)
III. What Simeon Saw (A Man of Sorrows)
a. He saw that Jesus brought Death – both for himself and for others
b. He saw that Jesus was his Salvation – his deliverance
c. He saw that Jesus was ultimately, his Glory.
I want to take you on a journey of sight of today . The irony of this is that I just found out that the name “Simeon” actually means “hearing,” and yet, as I read this portion of Scripture, I realize that what was so important to Simeon was what he saw.
What I want you to see today is not a manager in a stable at an overcrowded inn but rather the Temple. We just heard that a few days after Christmas, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the Temple, and what they saw that day is important to understanding what it means to grow up in Christ. So often, we focus on that little baby surrounded by sheep and donkeys that we forget why the story is so central to our Spirit.
Now, in order to see the Temple, it may help you to understand a bit of the geography around you as you envision this edifice. If you’re standing on the Mount of Olives, you’re on a ridge from which you can look down to the Jordan Valley on one side, and two little hills on the other. You’ve probably heard of these mountains before. One is Mount Zion and the other is Mount Moriah. The Mount of Olives is maybe about as tall as Bull Run Mountain up the ways, and Mount Zion & Mount Moriah aren’t quite as tall as that. But, there’s a deep valley between you and Zion that makes the Mountains look like mountains. The city of Jerusalem is pretty much all on Zion, and the Temple sits on Moriah.
Now, here’s the cool part. Herod rebuilt the Temple Mount around Moriah. He wanted to build a really impressive Temple so as to illustrate his power and beneficence to his people. Unfortunately, he was constrained as to the actual dimensions of the Temple, since they had been written down long before him. So, he decided to literally raise up a mountain around Moriah with which he could frame the Temple. He started with a base that was 35 acres of perfectly cut stone. Each of these stones was over 50 tons. You can still see that base today when you go to the Western Wall, and even without a Temple, its still impressive.
Smack dab in the center of that huge base was the Temple itself. Two gold pillars in front, a striking marble cube - it rose another 50 feet into the air . Now, imagine yourself walking up the great staircase as you go up into the Temple. Once you got to the top of this grand edifice, look around. Real quick – if you’re just seeing white stone, you need to remember– there was color, and lots of it. Even if this is Jerusalem, remember, you’re in a Roman city, and they love color. You’ll be seeing some gaudy blue and bright red – it’ll catch your eye. On the side of the staircase, you might have caught a glimpse of some of the graffiti. The old cities were no different than today.
At the top, you may have noticed a poor couple, going to the moneychangers to exchange their money for Temple coins, with which they are then going to buy two pigeons. They’re nothing spectacular – after all this impressive Temple is designed to distract you. Problem is, even though this building was erected as a sign of God’s special protection on Israel, you just missed the very fulfillment of that promise.
That was Mary, Joseph, and a squawking little baby, wearing some old rags as a diaper. In other words, that was Jesus.
Now, don’t be worried – a lot of people didn’t see anything special that day. If you don’t believe me, just read ahead and see what the prophetess Anna was doing. She was telling the very same people in the Temple what they had just missed. That happens. That’s almost was the Temple was designed to do – to hide the fact that God himself is in our very midst.
You know, Christmas has a tendency to still do that to us today. I’ll admit, I occasionally watch the “Simpsons.” And this year, I watched their Christmas special. To make a long story short, after skewering just about every Christmas tradition from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” to a 1980s ‘California Raisin’ singing a marketing version of O Holy Night’; Homer and Ned Flanders, after recreating “How the Grinch stole Christmas,” wind up in the Town Square having an epiphany about the meaning of Christmas. When they do, Ned pulls out a Bible and starts, just like Linus in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to read the real Christmas story. He gets about a sentence in when Mayor Quimby stops him and says “Hey wait you can’t do that on public property!” and the Mayor points to a sign that says “Springfield City Hall, God-free since 1963.” So Homer chimes in with a summary that I bet most people would say. He says “Okay, so let’s just say that a million years ago some really nice guy did something really nice for us. The end.” And then, and I still don’t know if this is just irony upon irony, or The Simpsons just not getting it, they start singing “Hark The Herald Angels Sing.”
Now, I wonder if you’ve ever just read the lyrics to that song. If you want to pack as much theology into the meaning of Christmas as you can, this is a great place to start. Listen to what Charles Wesley wrote:
“Peace on Earth , and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled.
“Late In time, behold him come
Offspring of a virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail the Incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, Our Immanuel.
“Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace, Hail the Sun of Righteousness
Light and Life to all he brings.
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild he lays His Glory by,
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of Earth, Born to give them second birth
Hark! The Herald Angels sing. Glory to the newborn King!
Well, there were two people there who did notice that day. Mary and Joseph had Jesus. They saw this cute adorable little baby. This cute, screaming little baby whose diaper needed changing every few hours. This cute little baby who consumed all of their time. A year ago, Susan & I had Rachel. She’s cute, but I’m biased. Truth is, no parent ever really sees their child the way others see him, but in this case, I think Mary and Joseph, and justifiably so, didn’t really see what a pain Jesus was going to be. See what the text says here – when Simeon tries to tell that that Jesus is “destined for the rising and falling of many,” they’re amazed. They’re seeing a baby That’s not the Jesus they knew!
So often, its easy to get stuck on the baby and miss the fact that Christmas isn’t so much about a baby born in a manager, it is about God laying his Glory by, and being born so that man wouldn’t die. While Christmas is about a birth, it is the birth of a baby who himself is born to die for others. It’s about a baby who is dying for me.
The problem with seeing Jesus just as a child is that his religion becomes a faith fit only for a child. If not tempered by the knowledge that faith must involve death before resurrection is essential to knowing the correct character of Christ.
The person who really saw what was going on that day was Simeon. He saw Jesus, and the first thing he recognized, was that he, meaning Simeon, was going to die. But, here’s the thing – he was cool with that. If you don’t believe me, look at what he says “Master, let your servant now depart in peace.” He also understood that it wasn’t just his own death – look at the last thing he says. In verse 34, he says, “This child is destined for the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.” In other words, Simeon knew this Jesus was going to be a troublemaker. That trouble, by the way, means that more people around Jesus are going to die than he ever resurrects. We know that Jesus raised Jairius’ daughter, we know he raised Lazarus, and we know that he raised himself back from the dead. But, if you’re keeping score:
- Paul would be beheaded on account of Jesus.
- Peter would be crucified upside down on account of Jesus
- James, the brother of Jesus, would be pushed off a mountain on account of Jesus
- One disciple would boiled alive on account of Jesus
- Countless martyrs died in the Roman Persecutions on account of Jesus
- And even in this last century, more Christians have been martyred for their faith than in the previous 1900 years combined, all on account of Jesus.
The list goes on and on. Jesus caused death, but these are all worthwhile deaths. All of these deaths were chosen, because the people who chose these deaths realized that Jesus had given them something preferable to the earthy, worldly life that offered nothing but bondage to a world system lacking what Jesus freely gave.
Indeed, Paul will tell us that death is central to what it means to be a Christian. “I have been crucified with Christ,” he writes, “it is no longer I who live.” Or, remember, “For me to live is Christ, to die is to gain?” Remember that a seed cannot grow if it does not first die, and be buried. Only then can its glory be known.
So why, if Jesus is going to be the cause of so much death and upsetting trouble, would Simeon be so OK with this? Look at what Simeon says here – Let your servant now depart in peace! That’s a joyful cry, precisely because Simeon knows that this troublemaker Jesus will bring deliverance. It’s interesting here to see what Simeon means by “Let your Servant Now depart in Peace. ” The phrase that Simeon uses is exactly the same one that a master would use when freeing a slave. Now, we know that for Simeon, he’s talking about dying, but it’s interesting how much he sees death as being freed from something too.
In your Bible, it probably says that Simeon says, “I have seen your salvation.” Now, that word salvation, in Greek, is σωτήριόν, and sometimes we talk about soteriology when we are talking about investigating what we mean by salvation. Soteriology can, in fact, be translated “Salvation,” but it can also mean “deliverance.”
I like that word “deliverance.”
When Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, he was their “Deliverer.” Put another way, he was their salvation in Egypt. In Isaiah 45, the Persian King Cyrus, who broke the yoke of Babylonian oppression and let the Children of Israel rebuild their Temple, was called their “Messiah” – their anointed deliverer, their salvation. To Simeon, the anointed Deliverer-Messiah was a very real freedom in the here and now.
And, I think we do ourselves a disservice when restrict our notion of salvation to the after life. Yes, there is deliverance there, but as you can see, there is such a thing as salvation here too.
What Simeon saw that day is that Jesus is our deliverer. Jesus is my deliverer. Remember, Salvation is freedom that which binds you. Salvation is the expectation of deliverance. Salvation is the death of that which came before. In my life, I am bound by sin. It oppresses me. It hems. But that sin dies because of that baby who was born that day. I am delivered specifically because of the death that he brings. That Death is a great thing, because it brings me deliverance.
For most people, they don’t see it. They’re so caught up in the trappings of this world, distracted by the pomp and circumstance of this mortal existence, that they don’t realize the very walls - these magnificent structures built by human hands – they’re admiring their own prison walls. They are locked into a life that may be flashy, but lacks any substance. They are limited by the eye, and cannot see the true glory that comes with the freedom from sin in faith of the Saviour.
Some people, like Mary and Joseph, see that there is a baby, and on some level they think that this baby might be special, but they don’t realize the implications of what that baby means. They need to grow up.
But if you’re here today, it is my prayer that like Simeon, you can know that message of Christmas isn’t just a baby born in a manager. It is the message of a man who grew up, and died, so that you can be free.
As we prepare to sing of hymn of invitation, let me invite you to look beyond the sheep and the donkeys and the hay. Let me invite you to see the Christ Child who was born there that day. Let me invite you to see the Christ Child who died there, and delivered you for his glory.
If you don’t know why that baby came, let me invite you to come forward to accept the deliverance he brings. If you did, you might feel that you need to follow this Jesus by becoming a member of this church. And, if neither applies to you, perhaps you, like Anna, need to go out and tell others about what happened there at the Temple that day. You can start by telling this congregation of what you saw.
Please pray with me now.
Benediction:
“Go, depart in peace.”
