The First Sunday after Christmas 2024

Luke 2:23-30

December 29, 2024

There are two questions to ask when reading the Bible:

First, What does it mean?

And then, How does it apply to me?

For the first question, What does it mean?, we use grammar, context, and history. We ask questions like, What is the definition of these words? Are there any figures of speech? Is it poetry? What was happening at that time? It’s all about what those words meant to the people who first spoke them, heard them, and wrote them down.

The second question, How does this apply to me?, recognizes that these words were written down for us, for our instruction. The Scriptures are God’s Word for us. It’s history, but more than history. It’s literature, but more than literature. The Biblical authors themselves tell us this.

After recounting the punishments God visited on the Israelites, St. Paul says, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” [1 Cor. 10.11]. And the Apostle writes to Timothy, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” [2 Tim. 3.16f].

So, God’s Word gives us examples, admonition, doctrine, correction, and instruction in righteousness. It is given to us so we grow and become complete, become what God meant us to be.

We see something similar in Ps. 19[:7f]:

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

And St. John tells us why he wrote his gospel:

Truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. [20.30f]

Summing these up, God’s Word makes us wise, gives us joy, illumines us, and teaches us what we are to believe. Therefore these are the things we look for when we read any passage of the Bible. We are looking for instruction in how to live now, and what Jesus is giving us.

So let’s apply all that to today’s gospel reading. The context is Joseph and Mary coming to the temple, forty days after Jesus was born. When an Israelite boy was born, mom and baby boy would go to the temple on the fortieth day to bring an offering and get a blessing. But Mary gets a very strange blessing. They meet a man named Simeon. The Holy Spirit had told Simeon he would not die before he saw the Messiah.

But Simeon was getting old. Day after day, year after year passed without anything happening. Perhaps it seemed God wasn’t keeping His Word. Now, in the fullness of time, Joseph and Mary appear. The Holy Spirit indicates to Simeon that this is the Child. He takes the infant Jesus in His arms, and what does he see? This at last is the fulfillment of all the Holy Spirit promised down through the ages. This infant is the Savior promised first to Eve, then to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and to the house of David, the great king who was from a little town called Bethlehem. “Now,” Simeon says, “Now I can die in peace.”

His words became the song we sing every Sunday after Communion. The Church’s liturgy is from Scripture, but it isn’t just random bits strung together. One thing leads inexorably to the next: We confess our sins, hear the words of Baptism all over again in our forgiveness “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” then we sing of God’s mercy, the angels announce the birth of Jesus, “Glory to God in the Highest,” and tell us that this means peace to the world. Then after hearing special instruction from God’s Word, we are brought into the presence of God where angels sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” then it’s Palm Sunday, as we sing with the crowd, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” then we hear Jesus tell us He is giving us His body and blood. After that, John the Baptist points us to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We eat the Passover Lamb, His blood marks our door; and after all that, we say with Simeon, “Now I can die in peace.”

Outside the temple there is no peace. You have challenges in your family. You feel arthritis settling in, or some other part of you is aging. Friends turn against you. Irrational people will give you no peace.

But here, in Jesus, all is resolved. Now, because of Jesus, I can die in peace.

Those words of Simeon, “Now I can die in peace,” are what Joseph and Mary are marveling at in the first verse of today’s Gospel. Everything seems great. They’ve had visits from angels, shepherds, and magi. Everything is awesome.

Then the bomb drops. “Behold.” “Behold” in the Bible is like the bell at worship. The bell means, “Pay attention, this is important.” “Behold” is bell in text form. “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also).”

Don’t they know the Hallmark Christmas script? It ends with Joy to the world, Peace on earth, and the right couple falling in love. No crying the baby makes. Everyone lives happily ever after.

It doesn’t end with people stumbling and falling, slandering the Baby, and a sword stabbing the mother’s heart.

But the Christian religion is no myth, no fairy tale, no feel-good film. God’s Word has hard truths. The world’s sin, your sin, must be dealt with. Death must be overcome through the Messiah’s arduous trial.

That’s what Simeon’s blessing is saying. And to this, Mary and Joseph say nothing. They don’t always understand, but they always listen, ruminate on God’s Word, and keep it in their hearts.

What they cannot yet see, Simeon foretells. Peace comes at a cost. The infant He holds is destined for the cross. Jesus will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah :

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Is 53:4–5 NKJV)

Simeon can die in peace, you can die in peace, because this Child takes the chastisement for our peace upon Himself.

So why does Simeon say Jesus will bring about the falling and rising of people? Jesus reveals what’s in our heart. Not only man’s fornication but the lust that drives it. Not only murder but the hatred that drives it. Not only our hoarding of money but the greed and envy that drives it.

Jesus says, “Come to Me, for all these sins I have taken on Myself and laid them with Me in the grave. Now come with Me and die, crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal. 5.24). Abandon the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, for all that is empty. In Me is resurrection and life unto the ages.”

Some men say to all this, “No! I will not repent, I will not turn away from my desires.” To these, Christ becomes a stumbling block, and their eternal ruin.

But to those who confess their sins and say, “Yes, I am fallen, made low by my nature and still lower by my own sins; I have made, in this hellish world, even more hell for myself and others. Dear Jesus, help me, save me, have mercy!”—to these, this Child is for their rising; they stand again by the free gift of Jesus. They stand now in faith and, despite the grave, again at the resurrection.

So whatever hell this world throws at you, whatever rage the devil threatens you with on account of your sins, whatever sword pierces your soul, you have a companion. You have a companion in Mary, who endured the pain while looking to her Son; you have a companion in Simeon, who had a long wait before receiving God’s promise; you have a companion in Anna, who all the way to her very old age gave thanks to God and told everyone of redemption, rescue in Jesus. You have a companion in Joseph, who fulfilled all his duties as a husband and father faithfully. And most especially, you have a companion, friend, and brother in our Lord Jesus, who knows every one of your sufferings and sins, and has already taken them on Himself.

So be glad, dear Christians, this Fifth Day of Christmas. For Joy to the World still rings out to all the earth, and receiving this Child at His own table, we with Simeon can die in peace. +INJ+