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December 27, 2009
“Out With the Old, In With the New?”
Luke 2: 22-38
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Another Christmas has come and gone. Some of us have received some rather elaborate presents or a large quantity of presents and we will soon be faced with the need to clear out some of the old stuff to make way for the new stuff.
With that in mind, I want you to notice that this passage of Luke also deals with the old interacting with the new.
Mary and Joseph had something new. A Baby. This year our family had a new baby and we are all aware that a new baby really changes the lives of all those who are in that family.
But Mary and Joseph’s new baby was way more than just a new person in the family. He was the one who would bring in a whole new way of understanding and relating to God. And most importantly, he would bring in a whole new understanding of the promises God had given to the people of the world.
The new ideas about God and about people that Jesus would bring would eventually change cultures and nations.
But there was so much that was new in and about Jesus, that it is sometimes difficult for us to remember that there was a lot about Him that was a continuation of some of the old customs and beliefs that God had instituted in the Old Testament.
As this passage begins, we see Joseph and Mary taking Jesus to Jerusalem to fulfill two of the old obligations that had become a part of the Jewish faith about 1,400 years earlier when the Jews were in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.
It was set forth in the book of Leviticus that sometime after his 31st day of life, every firstborn Jewish boy was to be taken to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated. It was also written in Leviticus that sometime after the 41st day after giving birth, the mother had to go to the temple to be purified from childbirth.
This passage from Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph did both of these things on the same trip to Jerusalem, so that would mean that these events happened on or after the 41st day after Jesus was born.
This passage also tells us that at the time, Mary and Joseph were considered to be poor. Leviticus informs us that the offerings for the purification process were to be a pigeon or turtledove and a lamb less than a year old. But it is also written that if the mother was poor, she could substitute another dove or pigeon for the more expensive lamb. Luke informs us that that was the offering that Mary gave.
So the beginning of the life of this new baby who was to bring so many new ideas and beliefs and standards into the word was marked with old observances and rituals.
This oldness being mixed with the new is also personified in two People who met the baby Jesus that day.
The first was an old man named Simeon. Simeon was a firm believer in the old Jewish religion. He understood that the old religion or what we refer to as the Old Testament Scriptures, promised something new. Sometime during his life, Simeon had somehow been promised by God that he would live to see this new person who would fulfill the Old Testament promises. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit of God guided Simeon into the Temple while Jesus was there. Simeon recognized Jesus as the promised one, the Messiah, and gave thanks to God for him out loud in the temple courtyard.
He first of all told God that he could die in peace, now that he had seen Jesus. By the way, as I have occasionally pointed out to you places where the NRSV bible, the translation we use here at Faith Church, does not give the best of the possible translations, I am pleased to inform you that in the case of the beginning of Simeon’s speech the NRSV gets it right and does better than most translations. In many translations Simeon is quoted as saying something like, “Now you can dismiss your servant”. The NRSV helps us get the right message. Simeon understood that by presenting Jesus to him, God was in fact dismissing Simeon. He no longer needed Simeon among Israel to wait for the Messiah. And Simeon proclaims that he is ready to die in peace.
And that provokes an obvious question from me to you. Does your faith in Jesus, does your having met Jesus at least in spirit, given you the confidence to pass from this world when your time comes without fear or regret? Now I know we all have some plans for the rest of our lives and that is a good thing, but if those plans are not completed, would that be a horrible thing, or are you ready to be with the Lord, confident of eternal life whenever God calls? If not, maybe you need to think about your faith and your relationship with God.
Now I want to look at the rest of Simeon’s speech. Simeon told God that he knew he was being dismissed because he had seen the Lord’s Salvation. He knew that Jesus was the Savior. He also pointed out that Jesus was the savior for all peoples, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel”.
Jesus is to reveal God to the Gentiles and to bring the glory of God to Israel. The last half of December is one of the times of the year when the differences of the beliefs of Christians and Jews become obvious. But I think as we celebrate the Savior many Jews do not honor, we need to pray that the day when they will honor Christ and recognize him as their Messiah, the one who has brought God’s Glory to their people will come soon.
Simeon also said to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed…”
People in and outside of Israel have and will rise to heaven or fall to hell depending on how they react to Jesus. Those who accept him will rise to heaven. Those who reject him will be lost eternally. It all depends on how you feel about Jesus.
Simeon also predicted that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart. She would experience suffering and agony because of Jesus. She would watch him be rejected and be tried and be put to death.
Another title for Mary is the Mother of Sorrows. She watched her son suffer and die. Mary provides a lesson for us that Jesus was not born to give us an easy life. He did not come so his followers would not suffer. From the beginning of the church Christians have suffered and are suffering today. God did not send Jesus to give us an easy or a pleasant life on this earth, he came to give us eternal life beyond this earth.
Luke tells us there was another old person in the temple that day. Her name was Anna and she was eighty four years old or a hundred and four or more. She had lived as a widow in the temple court for years. But she had not lost hope in God. Instead of allowing the death of her husband to cause her to be angry with God, she turned to God, spending all her daylight hours worshipping, fasting, and praying.
You know, in my years of being a pastor, I have observed many people experience loss and suffering. Some just try to go on with life as it was, trying to adjust where they have to, but really trying to keep life as it was. Some allow their suffering and loss to take them away from God and his people. Some of them do this because they blame God for their sorrows. Others just sort of drift away. Then there are some who like Anna use their life after loss and sorrow to draw closer to God and his people. They receive many blessings and become a blessing to others. How are you adjusting to your sorrows and losses?
Anna was blessed and blessed others by recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and telling others who were waiting for the Messiah that he had come.
Now a question: Where Anna and Simeon Old testament people or New Testament people? They are mentioned in the New Testament, but they both died before Jesus died to pay the penalty for their sins. Are they Old Covenant people or New covenant People? Yes. They were people who were led by God to see the promises of the Old Testament and to recognize that Jesus came to fulfill those promises. They were a part of the old that had to fade some to make way for the new. But they were also very much a part of the new. Because they recognized Jesus as the Messiah they are in God’s eternal kingdom. They got to the real new thing God is doing before we did, but Jesus will take us there too.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 479006
Posted by faithpres at December 27, 2009 11:19 AM