Christmas 1

Today is the fifth day of Christmas. Five golden rings for those who like to count along with the song. There isn’t a deeper meaning to the song, despite what you might read on social media – this is just to note that the twelve days of Christmas begin on December 25, and continue through January 6 – the feast of the Epiphany. THIS is the season of Merry Christmas, not the days of Advent. These 12 days gives us a chance to quickly cover the events of Jesus first days before the Wise men show up on Epiphany – January 6. Luke doesn’t record these events just to amuse us with stories of a cute baby doing baby things. Instead we have the Circumcision of Jesus in the verses immediately before this, and now the purification after 40 days. The Law said that every firstborn son was holy to the Lord – they belonged to him. This went back to the Passover, where the firstborn of Israel was saved from the angel of death by the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. God claimed all firstborn sons after that. And he also gave a path to redeem them from that claim. A sacrifice – for the wealthy a lamb. For the poor, a pair of turtledoves or pigeons. The Law of God is actually quite gracious in its demands. Nothing too severe. The decision about wealth or poverty is made by the family. No income guidelines where you need to check your tax bracket. Joseph and Mary – like most people of their day – can afford the sacrifice for the poor. But the two birds are a stand-in for a lamb. A lamb which is given to redeem the firstborn son. It’s all pointing to Jesus isn’t it? The blood of the lamb on Passover, the firstborn son when any father can say “My Son My only Son whom I love”, being holy to the Lord, the lamb slain to redeem from that claim. Jesus, Jesus, and only Jesus, as far as the eye can see in the law. The Law is given to point to Jesus.

Now Jesus is here. The accounts of his earliest days are included to show us first, how Jesus fulfills the law of Moses, and second, how that law was always pointing to him. He perfectly fulfills that ceremonial law as a way to point us to him fulfilling the moral Law – the ten commandments, the law written on our hearts. The Law which we break each day and so deserve punishment – both temporal and eternal. Jesus also fulfills the moral Law for us. By his holy life, conversation, and ministry, Jesus is for us the fulfillment of the law, just as he is the fulfillment of the prophecies – as we’ve been hearing from Isaiah since Advent started.

Today we have another prophecy – given one on one to Simeon. Though very old, he is told he will not die until he sees the Lord Jesus, the promised Messiah. His whole life was one of longing, waiting, fasting, praying in the temple. Focusing on the Word and promise of God, not on worldly things. And as reward, he is told he will get to see the Messiah arrive: The one the prophets spoke of, the one the patriarchs longed to see but did not. Simeon is given a special blessing. And that blessing finds its fulfillment in about 2 minutes on this day in the temple. Simeon comes, as he always does, sees Jesus, and God reveals to him: This is it, What you’ve been waiting for, You are looking at the promised redemption. Simeon doesn’t get to see the death and resurrection of Jesus. He doesn’t get to hear him preach. He does get to see God in the flesh, and know what he is seeing. And he is blessed enough by this, that he says, “Ok. Ready to die now as you promised, O Lord.”

Anna comes in about the same time, and has a similar reaction. We aren’t told about any promise to her. We are told that she also knew who Jesus was, what he was about as soon as she saw him. Everyone else in the temple thought it was business as usual that day. Simeon and Anna know the truth: God is in his Holy Temple, in the flesh. She and Simeon both give praise to God for this.

God set this whole thing up for us as a witness to who Christ Jesus is. Back in Moses day he told the people to offer this sacrifice. This means Jesus would have to be brought into the temple at 40 days old. When God made a promise to Simeon, when God looked ahead and saw Anna’s devotion, he was setting it all up so those two old saints would see righteous Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary bringing the little Lord Jesus in the flesh into the house of the Lord, and they would recognize who he is, and be given the chance to praise God and, in the Spirit, prophesy about him. And they do. The culmination of their lives – 84 years for Anna, untold years for Simeon, but obviously quite old, and all of their hopes and longing are centered on a few seconds on this otherwise ordinary day.

The promise made to them was not because of their great works, but because of God’s Gracious promise. Because God wanted them to receive this gift, and to serve as a witness to us of the Savior. Already at such a small age, he is called out as the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Light to lighten the gentiles, and glory of His people Israel.

Simeon takes Jesus in his hands, holds the body of this small infant. If Luke were telling amusing stories, there would probably be a long description of the shocked look on Mary and Joseph’s faces. But Luke just says Simeon took him and began speaking in the Spirit. “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant, depart in peace, according to Thy Word.”

This blessed prayer of Simeon – what we call the Nunc Dimittis – was picked up as a prayer in the church in early days – a prayer spoken before bed. It’s a more sophisticated version of the children’s prayer, “If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Simeon is ready to die because God has kept the promise made all those years ago to him – Simeon has seen, touched the flesh of God in this world. Now, he is ready to die and go to Abraham’s bosom, to be gathered to his fathers. To rest in the Lord until the day of resurrection of all flesh, with all the saints who will be awakened on that day.

His prayer – his prophecy - is moved – as a part of the Reformation – from evening, to immediately after receving the Sacrament of the altar. We still sing it there. It is a confession that our life is centered on the flesh and blood of Jesus given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins. There is no higher gathering than gathering to receive him who comes to us in his body and blood. We touch the flesh of God, we take eat and take drink of it according to his command and promise, and are given life and salvation. We are now ready to depart this world like Simeon. It is a confession that the body and blood are the true body and blood. Not mere symbols. But the true flesh and blood of God in this place for our salvation. And, having received him as he has promised, death has now lost it sting, and we are ready to “depart in peace” as Simeon was.

The long lives of Simeon and Anna are fulfilled that morning, in an instant. When we come forward and take eat and take drink, our lives are fulfilled, salvation is given as God has promised. There is no higher or better moment for us in this world than joining together to receive the Lord Jesus according to his promise. The angels and archangels sing with us, the saints who have gone before join us in the feast. (They get the fullness, we get a foretaste.) But we join with them in the feast for those few moments – as we eat of the tree of life and so live forever. It’s prelude to the joyful reunion in heaven. It is the sign for us that death is dying, has already lost its power, and will be utterly destroyed when our Lord returns.

Our lives are now the fulfillment of that promise. We find fulfillment in the things of God which he gives through his Holy Word. We no longer live according to worldly patterns of success and power and wealth. We have a treasure beyond price – the forgiveness of sins given in the body and blood of Jesus, promised in His word, and offered for us in His Holy Church. And this new life which Jesus offers is a life where faithfulness to him and to his word is the highest aim. As we provide for loved ones, show love to our neighbor, help the poor and helpless, serve as Christlike example to those around us, and return to hear and be fed by the Word of Jesus, and to take eat and take drink of his body and blood, as that Word promises. This is what the life of the new man is like. We fulfill our Christian calling each day, and rest in the mercy and grace of the Lord each night, receiving in the church forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. All the while awaiting the final fulfillment of the promise.

A promise God continues to fulfill for us as we return again and again and again to the table of the Lord, approaching it as if we are going to our death, so that when we approach our death, we do so as if we are going to the table of our Lord. Time and distance lose meaning at this table. Eternity bleeds into this world for a few moments as the veil is torn, as we – by faith join with all those on earth and in heaven who sing the praises of the Lord.

And so we continue to come, to eat and drink, to be joined to Christ flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood, to be joined to all Christians of all times and places. And God is with us, and we are with God, and in communion with Him and with all the saints in heaven and earth. It is too great a blessing for us, more than we deserve. But the Lord, in his mercy, gives it to us this week, and every week when we gather at his table.

In Christ Jesus there is no death, there is no goodbye, there is no tear in our eyes. Our grief in this world is not as those who have no hope. Our hope is in Christ Jesus, that baby held aloft by Simeon, the same body held aloft on the cross, and now held aloft at his table, joining us together in a way the world can not know, or acknowledge or accept, but which binds us to him and to each other. And in the resurrection, those cords of love and salvation will be seen, woven into a beautiful tapestry – the history of salvation in Christ’s church, culminating in the joyful reunion in heaven. Peace and joy without end.

May the Lord grant such a blessed end to each one of us, for Jesus sake and in his most holy name.

Amen.