12/28/08 - Christmas 1 - Luke 2:25-40

CHRIST AND NOTHING ELSE
- He is whom we live for
- We are whom he died for

Today in our gospel reading we meet two very interesting people. A man named Simeon and a woman named Anna. Both of them were faithful Christians. Both of them were some of the first ones to see the Son of God as a true human being. Both of them are painted in a very positive light by the gospel writer Luke. But neither of them is mentioned anywhere else in all of Scripture. The only things we know about Simeon and Anna are found in 13 short verses tucked into the middle of the second chapter of the book of Luke. But although we don’t know a whole lot about the lives of these two individuals, we can say this: Life to them was “Christ and nothing else.”
Take Simeon for example. He was an old man. And he knew he was nearing the end of his life. And so there were many things he probably could have been doing as he approached the day of his death: preparing for his departure from this life, getting things in order for those he would leave behind, spending valuable time with family and friends, visiting places he had never been but had always wanted to see, finishing projects he had started or tying up loose ends. There are plenty of things for any person to do before he or she leaves this earth. But in Luke 2, we don’t find Simeon doing any of these things. We find this “righteous and devout” man “waiting for the consolation [the comfort] of Israel… (because) it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Simeon was waiting. He wasn’t planning, he wasn’t preparing, he wasn’t traveling, he wasn’t visiting, he wasn’t doing anything of any outward significance. He was just waiting because he wanted to see Christ. That’s all he wanted! He wanted to see the Savior. That’s all he cared about! That’s all he focused on. And when he was finally fortunate enough to see the Lord himself, “He praised God saying, ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’” That was it! Simeon’s life was completely fulfilled as far as he was concerned! He wanted nothing more! He was ready to die. Because to him life was always Christ and nothing else.
Anna wasn’t much different. She, too, was a faithful servant of the Lord just like Simeon was. She, too, was well along in years. She, too, was in the temple that day Mary and Joseph brought their son on his eight day. Anna was a prophetess - a position that probably dealt with some sort of formal responsibilities within the synagogue. And Anna was also a widow and had been for the majority of her life. After only seven years of marriage her husband had died. And at the time of this story she was 84 years old. There could have been many things Anna had the chance to do during those decades alone. But Luke says that “she never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” Just like Simeon, Anna wasn’t doing anything outwardly significant. She wasn’t changing the world. She wasn’t too concerned about her livelihood or retirement savings by living off a meager stipend taken from the funds brought in by the church. But that didn’t matter to her. Her life was Christ and nothing else. She prayed and she fasted and she worshiped the Lord night and day as often as she could. And when she was also given the privilege of seeing the baby Jesus in person, “she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” Christ was on her mind. Christ was on her tongue. And she wanted nothing else.
Both Anna and Simeon are great models for us to follow. Their lives were built around Christ. Their minds were focused on Christ. Their actions were motivated by Christ. Their words were inspired by Christ. And their souls longed to see Christ - and nothing else. There are few people in Scripture that would be better for us to try and imitate than these two elderly Christians who played brief cameo roles in Jesus’ young life.
I spend quite a bit of time preparing for sermons and Bible classes and catechism throughout each week. And I need to spend a lot of time on those things to do them well, to make sure that God’s name is glorified in what I present to you. But there are times when family life gets a little hectic, a special trip takes up a few more days of the week, and extracurricular activities of various sorts use up even more time. And during those particular weeks I find myself scrambling to get things done the way they should be done. I have to find time to prepare and to read and to write and to memorize everything I need to accomplish. It’s times like those when Christ doesn’t seem to be my main focus, but rather something squeezed in wherever I can fit him.
I love to read my Bible. And I try to do so every day. Every night at about 9:30 or so, I read the assigned section of Scripture on the reading list I follow, striving to understand exactly what God is telling me through his holy words. But there are days when that time doesn’t seem to work - I’m at a conference or on a vacation or something different is going on at home - and my daily Bible reading is overlooked or even pushed aside. It’s days like those when Christ seems to be something I have to put on hold in my life for a more appropriate hour.
I pray as often as I can. And I make it a point to pray for different things many times throughout the day. But sometimes, at night, after a long day or at the end of a late evening, my prayers suffer. I’m too tired to pray with my mind and my heart fully concentrating on what I am saying - and sometimes I’m too exhausted to pray at all, falling asleep without going to the Lord even once. It’s nights like those when Christ seems to slip through the cracks without more than a thought until the next morning.
What I’m getting at is: “Christ and nothing else” doesn’t seem to be the motto of my life most of the time. “Christ when it’s convenient” is probably a more accurate description. And I wonder if it can be any different with you… We fit Christ into our lives when we have the time or when we have the chance or when we find nothing else to do. We get to church when there’s nothing else really important going on Sunday morning, we read our Bible only when it crosses our minds, we pray to our God only when it is a habit to pray at that particular time, we think about Christ during a regular day only if by accident. “Christ when it’s convenient” is the way we usually live our lives because we have so many other things going on that take up our time and our thoughts and our energy. It really is a disappointing way we live as Christians, isn’t it? We say that Christ is everything to us but he usually only ends up being a small part of our thoughts and our actions on a regular basis.
But we are no worse than Simeon or Anna. They were just as sinful. They had just as many faults. They were no more righteous, they were no more godly, they were no more Christian than you are. But that’s exactly the reason why they focused on Christ and nothing else! They knew they were sinners. They knew they had faults. They knew whom they needed. They needed the one whom Simeon held in his arms. They needed the one whom Anna praised and proclaimed They needed that 8 day old boy. They needed Christ and everything he would do for them.
And what Christ would do for them and all people is described in these verses in unique and beautiful ways. Remember Anna spoke about Christ “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem was under the rule of the Roman Empire at the time, and many people expected the coming Messiah to free them from that foreign authority, but that’s not what Luke had in mind when he wrote these words that described believers. Luke didn’t mean the physical city of Jerusalem would somehow be rescued; he was using “Jerusalem” to refer to the holy Christian Church on earth - all believers in Christ - just like the Old Testament prophets did on a number of occasions. One of the more prominent prophecies about the redemption of Jerusalem comes from Isaiah 52 - and maybe Luke even had these words in mind: “When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:8-10). The little boy that Anna saw that day would bring this prophecy to life. He would redeem Jerusalem, he would win salvation for all mankind, he would die to gain eternal life for those who believed in him. And because he would redeem Jerusalem he would also bring “the comfort of Israel.”
That’s what Simeon was waiting for. He was waiting for “the comfort of Israel” Scripture says. And again an Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah comes to mind when we talk about the comforting of believers: “Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2). The comfort of Israel - the comfort for all believers is this: that our sins have been paid for, that our hard service in this life is done, and that we will receive more love and grace from the Lord than all of our sins combined. That was Simeon’s comfort and that is ours. We are forgiven. The sins we have committed against the Lord are taken away from us and placed on the baby Simeon held in his hands, the boy whom Anna praised. We can be comforted because Christ was not. He was treated brutally, both by sinful men and by his own heavenly Father. Christ experienced the exact opposite of comfort; he experienced hell for our salvation. And so now we can live in peace and rest in peace knowing that that we are the Jerusalem whom Christ has redeemed, we are the Israel whom Jesus comforts.
“Christ and nothing else.” When we see everything that he has done for us, when we review all of the sacrifices he made for us, it’s hard not to have that as our life’s theme. “Christ and nothing else.” Because what else is there? What is more important? What else could possibly be more pressing or serious or crucial than Christ? That doesn’t mean you have to dedicate your life to be a full-time worker in the church like Anna was, or resolve in your later years to simply wait to see Christ face to face like Simeon did, but to have Christ as your focus and your motivation and your joy in whatever you do, to remember everything that he has done for you, everything he has promised to you, and everything that he is for you - that is the life of a Christian. That is Christ and nothing else. And there is really no more enjoyable life to live than that because that is the life you will be living in heaven. Your life will be Christ and nothing else. It will be Christ forever.
Amen.

“May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17