New Year's Revolution
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:22-38
Do you know what an internet “meme” is? If you’ve used any kind of social media, you’ve almost certainly come across a meme. Per Apple Computer’s Dictionary app, a meme is “an image, video, or piece of text, typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.”
One of the more famous memes features the elderly woman whose narration bookends the movie Titanic. In the movie, the woman, Rose, recounts in the present day her experience of having been on the Titanic. She begins her story with the words, “It’s been 84 years….”
For years now internet users have seized upon that phrase, and Rose’s plaintive expression as she says it, to create a meme that suggests a comically exaggerated sense of impatience. For example, a clever caption to the image of Rose saying, “It’s been 84 years,” would be something like: “Me waiting for two-day delivery of my Amazon package,” the idea being that waiting two days for a package to arrive feels more like 84 years.
Waiting is not something that many of us have much patience for. In an age of high-speed internet and next-day (or even same-day) delivery, “wait” is truly a four-letter word. In today’s scripture passage from the Gospel of Luke we encounter two Jewish seniors who have been waiting their entire lives for salvation to come to Israel. We’re even told that one of them, Anna, has actually been waiting for 84 years, just like Rose! Together Anna and Simeon at last glimpse Israel’s salvation, as well as the world’s, in the face of the newborn baby Jesus.
The first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke, which cover the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, contain some of the most beloved passages in all of the Bible. From encounters with angels to miraculous pregnancies to regular people prophesying through the power of the Holy Spirit, the revelations and wonders come in quick succession. Today we’re focusing on one such wondrous passage, the highlight of which is the Song of Simeon, which we’ll get to in just a bit.
Before that, however, let’s note that of the four Gospels, Luke is the only one that is addressed to a particular person, someone known as Theophilus. It’s a Greek name that means “one who loves God.” Likely a convert to Christianity from paganism, Theophilus would have had little knowledge of Judaism and Jewish ritual practices. That’s probably why in this passage Luke repeatedly explains that such and such was done “according to the law of Moses,” or “as it is written in the law of the Lord,” or “according to what is stated in the law of the Lord,” or as “was customary under the law.”
Luke is helping to ground his reader’s understanding in the highly Jewish context of Jesus’s birth. We should never lose sight of the fact that Jesus was through and through a devout Jew, beginning from his earliest days on earth. His parents fulfilled all the religious obligations that were expected of them and their newborn son.
Jesus was also poor. This can be seen in the sacrifice that his parents offer. The sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons was an allowance made for those who could not afford the standard sacrifice of a lamb. It’s not by any means the main point that I want to make in this sermon, but remembering that Jesus was a Jewish peasant helps counteract our innate tendency to construct a Jesus in our own image.
Speaking of all things Jewish, the setting for this passage is the temple in Jerusalem. While Mary and Joseph have brought Jesus to the temple to complete certain religious rituals, others have come to the temple as is their normal course: to hear the scriptures read, to listen to a sermon, to praise God in song, and to pray.
But among the many people at the temple this day, there is one man who is drawn there by something more than duty, habit, or even genuine devotion to God. Luke writes, “Guided by the Holy Spirit, Simeon came into the temple.” Simeon is driven by a deeper force, a force outside himself—the Holy Spirit. I wonder, was Simeon aware of what drew him to the temple this day? Did he have any sense that this day would be different?
Luke describes Simeon as righteous and devout. He writes that “the Holy Spirit rested on him.” In fact, the Holy Spirit is busy at work in the life of Simeon, guiding him to the temple, resting upon him while he is at the temple, and revealing to him that he would not die before laying eyes upon the Messiah, the savior of Israel. This is what Simeon has long been looking forward to…the consolation of Israel.
Simeon is not alone in that regard. While Simeon had been guided by the Holy Spirit to come to the temple this day, Anna, a widow “of great age,” was there night and day, fasting and praying and longing for the redemption of Jerusalem. She is like one of those pillars of the church, those lifelong church members who, when it comes to life and to the church, have seen it all, while they themselves often go unseen. They’re just always quietly there, worshiping from the back, working behind the scenes, and doing whatever needs to be done to serve and support the church.
Only those who are old enough to have seen it all have the experience and the wisdom to recognize when they are in the presence of something truly new.
The church could not function without its Simeons and its Annas. Not only do they keep the church running, they are repositories of wisdom. Only those who are old enough to have seen it all have the experience and the wisdom to recognize when they are in the presence of something truly new. And in this newborn baby named Jesus, Simeon and Anna recognize something not only new but revolutionary.
Simeon sees it the moment he lays eyes on Jesus. Taking the baby in his arms, he praises God, saying:
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
Simeon sees in the face of this child the salvation that has come to Israel.
Around the time that Jesus was born there was throughout Israel both a longing and an expectation for a savior who would deliver Israel from the hand of Rome. There was a desire for God to restore Israel to its former glory as it was under David. The people looked to their past for inspiration and hope. They remembered the story of how David, as a young boy, had slain the giant Goliath. And so the hope in Israel was that a David-like figure would emerge and lead Israel to defeat the giant that was Rome.
All that was needed was the right leader—a man of strength, a man who was not afraid to fight, a man who could rally the people, a man who could make Israel great again! But that was a false nostalgia, a longing for a time that never was. And that is not what Simeon sees in the face of Jesus. What Simeon sees is much larger than a return to military glory for Israel. In this cooing infant that he holds in his arms Simeon sees a light for revelation to all people—not only Israel but all the world.
This revelation is also a revolution…but not that kind of revolution. Don’t think of the American Revolution. We’re not talking about a ragtag band of citizen soldiers overthrowing an empire. The revolution that Jesus leads will not be directed toward overthrowing the power of Rome (at least not directly) but rather the powers of sin and death.
Jesus does not come with an army that stretches across the horizon but with outstretched arms that embrace sinners.
Jesus came to overthrow the old order…the order of might makes right, the order of an eye for an eye, the order of the first ensuring that the last would always remain that way. Against the tyranny of sin and death—sin that ruins relationships and death that destroys hope, Jesus came to conquer. But he came to conquer not at the point of a sword directed at his enemies but rather at the point of the nails that would pierce his own flesh. Jesus does not come with an army that stretches across the horizon but with outstretched arms that embrace sinners.
This revolution of grace may not have been what many were expecting. Nor is it something that all will welcome, not in Simeon’s day and not in our own. Some are simply too invested in trying to maintain the old order. Simeon, in his Spirit-filled wisdom, foresaw that as well.
To most people who were in the temple on the day that Jesus was dedicated, I imagine that he seemed like any other ordinary child. And in some sense that would’ve been true, for Jesus embraced our full humanity—the joy and the sorrow, the triumph and the tragedy, the spectacular and the ordinary. But Simeon and Anna saw something more. They saw God’s promised salvation come into being before their very eyes. They saw the old order passing away and giving way to God’s revolutionary grace.
I’d like to end on a personal note. Along with the old order, the year 2023 is passing away as well. For some of us it was a year that can’t end soon enough. For others it was a year that we wish could continue. I am more in the latter camp. I am so grateful that 2023 brought me here to this community, especially after enduring such a long wait. Although it had been only two years that I had been seeking a call, it did feel, as the meme says, more like 84 years.