25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 And His father and His mother marvelled at what was said about Him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
There is a question we often hear each Christmas: If Jesus was born today, rather than 2000 years ago, would we be ready? We’d like to think the answer would be yes, and that we wouldn’t make the same mistake as the innkeeper. We would make room for Jesus, wouldn’t we?
Whether we would be as ready as we’d like to think is a whole discussion on its own, but there were some people who were prepared for the birth of the Messiah. Joseph and Mary were certainly ready. By now they’d had enough time to process all that had happened to them, and although the circumstances surrounding the birth of her first child were unique to say the least, they were as ready as any expectant couple could be for the birth of a child. And we all know the story of the Magi or the wise men, who followed a mysterious star and travelled a great distance to see this newborn King of the Jews. They were ready to meet Christ.
Another person who was ready and waiting for the birth of the Promised Messiah was Simeon. We know very little about Simeon. In fact, apart from the 11 verses of Scripture in Luke 2 which we’ve just read, nothing more is said about him in the Bible, but we have so much to learn from Simeon’s brief cameo in the Biblical narrative, in particular his psalm of praise in verses 29-32.
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” This brief psalm is also known by its Latin name, “Nunc Dimittis,” which roughly translated means, “Now you are permitting me to depart.”
Simeon had been waiting patiently to see the Messiah, and when he finally meets Him, his long wait is over. For us to better understand this wonderful privilege that Simeon was given, we need to look at the verses leading up to Luke 2:25.
“At the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’” (Luke 2:21-24)
Joseph and Mary were devout Jews, and here in these few verses we see them closely following three Old Testament laws. All male children were circumcised at eight days old, after which the mother needed to go through the ritual of purification on day 40, and then, as in the case of Jesus, all first-born sons were to be presented to the Lord with a sacrifice of either a lamb, or a pair of turtledoves or pigeons if the parents could not afford a lamb.
These may seem to be minor details, but they are important because they help us to understand the timeline of events after the birth of Jesus, and Simeon’s place in the story in particular.
Also, we know from these verses that Jesus was born into a devout, law-abiding family. Paul writes in Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law.”
Jesus is often regarded as some kind of revolutionary or rebel who disregarded the Law of Moses, but this isn’t true. He certainly spoke out against the Pharisees whenever they abused the law for their own purposes, but He Himself obeyed the law perfectly. He said Himself in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
So now, Joseph and Mary bring their 40 day old first-born son to the temple where, in accordance with the Law of Moses, they will present Him to the Lord, and provide a sacrifice to redeem Him. As they arrive at the temple, they meet Simeon. Again, we don’t know much about him, but in verses 25 and 26 were learn a lot about the kind of man he was.
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”
These verses tell us that Simeon was a righteous and devout man, and that he had been faithfully and patiently waiting for the promised Messiah. More importantly, he was filled with the Holy Spirit who had told him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes. We can only speculate as to how long he had been waiting for this event. Days? Years? Decades? We just don’t know, but we can imagine his anticipation each time a father and mother brought their young son to the temple. Could this be the one?
And then finally, one day, Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple. Just a simple carpenter and his wife, and this time, when Simeon asks, “Lord, is this the one?” The Holy Spirit says, “Yes.”
There is a small detail in verse 28 which is easy to miss. When Simeon saw Jesus, we’re told, “He took Him up in his arms.”
Two of the most precious memories I have is holding my children for the first time. There is something very special which is hard to describe when you hold a baby in your arms, particularly when that child is your own, but we can only imagine how Simeon must have felt, knowing that this child he held in his arms was to be the Saviour of the world…
It is here where Luke records Simeon’s psalm of praise. “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32)
Verse 29 appears to imply that Simeon was an old man, and he seems to know that he won’t live to see Jesus grow up. The miracles, the teachings, and of course, Jesus’ death and triumphant resurrection, he didn’t live to see with his own eyes, but inspired by the Holy Spirit, in the few words of Simeon recorded in the Bible, he tells us just who this child is.
Firstly, in verse 32 Simeon calls Him “the glory of Israel.” In this child, Simeon sees the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of generations of the Jewish people stretching back more than 2000 years to when God said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
These promises were repeated to Isaac and Jacob. The Old Testament prophets consistently told of this Messiah who would come into the world, and now, finally, Simeon saw Him, and he calls Him the glory of Israel.
Secondly, in the same verse, Simeon calls Jesus, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” This Jewish Messiah would go to the cross to save both Jew and Gentile. Simeon says that this child will not only be the glory of His own people Israel. He will also be the light of revelation for the Gentiles. Jesus did not come into the world to save only the Jewish nation, but all who come to Him by faith, as John 3:16 reminds us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The great hope of Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us, is that He came for each of us too. Simeon is telling us that by sending His Son to the earth, God is not only fulfilling His Old Testament promises to the Jewish nation, but He is sending a Saviour for all people everywhere, of every generation.
Simeon then goes on in verses 34-35 to say something to Mary which is of crucial importance. “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
What did he mean by talking about the “fall and rising?” Simply put, Jesus Christ is the great divider of humanity. He will cause many to fall, and He will cause many to rise.
The apostle Peter quotes from various Old Testament prophecies when he writes in 1 Peter 2:6-8, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. So the honour is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.”
Jesus Christ is either the cornerstone and the foundation upon which we live lives that honour God, or He is a stumbling block and a rock of offence.
Each of us needs to decide just who this child is in our own minds. The reality is that there is no room for neutrality when it comes to Jesus Christ. Every time you see Jesus, you will either be drawn closer to Him or you will move further away from Him. That’s what Simeon meant when he said Jesus will cause the rising of many and the falling of many. People rise or fall according to their personal response to Jesus.
The truth is that there are only two kinds of people: Those who believe in Jesus Christ and those who don’t. You are either saved and reconciled to God through your faith in Christ, or you are lost, still in your sins and under the judgment of God.
The world seems to think that you can sit on the fence and be neutral about just who Jesus is. Many are quite happy to call Him a good teacher, a good person and a great moral example, but nothing more than that. Simeon however, makes it clear that doing so is not an option. Each of us has to make up our minds about Jesus. Either He is the Son of God from heaven, or He’s not.
You might have heard these words from C. S. Lewis quoted before, but today is as good a time as any to hear them once more: “I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else He would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Who is this child we celebrate each year? Who is Jesus to you?
Remember, there are only two options. He is forgiveness or guilt, joy or sorrow, salvation or condemnation, life or death, heaven or hell, and He is everlasting life or everlasting punishment.
Simeon is not one of the great characters of the Bible. He makes a brief appearance in the Gospel of Luke, and we hear nothing more from him, but what he does do is make each of us sit up and listen to what he says. This little baby who is the glory of Israel, who is the light of the world, is also the great divider of the human race. You’re either on one side or on the other regarding Jesus. How you respond to this baby in the manger who went to the Cross of Calvary determines your eternal destiny, because He is the great divider of mankind, and He has always been.
Just after He was born, King Herod and the wise men from the east made their choices. One tried to kill Him and the others worshipped Him. Some 30 years later Peter repented of his sin and was restored, while Judas did not repent and ended up taking his own life.
Pontius Pilate tried sitting on the fence by washing his hands of Jesus, but in reality he rejected the one who could have saved him from his sins, while one of his own soldiers had the courage to confess, “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54)
There were two men crucified on either side of Jesus. One of them cursed Him and rejected Him, while the other was saved. From the very beginning of His life to the very end, Jesus divided the human race, and He continues to do so today. Someone once said that Jesus backs each of us into a corner. We might delay our decision for a while. We might think we can stay on the fence, but we can’t, because there is no fence. There is no neutrality when it comes to deciding who this Christ child who went to the cross is.
Who is Jesus Christ to you this Christmas morning?
When Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms, he said, “Lord, I’m ready to go home now. I can die in peace.” The bottom line is this: No one is ready to die in peace until they have seen Jesus Christ with the eyes of faith. Once you have seen Him and put your faith in Him, death is no longer an enemy.
If, like Simeon, you are able to say at the end of your life, “I have seen the Lord’s Christ,” you will have received the greatest gift of all - salvation from the penalty of your sins and the promise of eternal life, because of the one who came into our world as a baby all those years ago. Jesus Christ, God with us, is the greatest Christmas gift to you, because He came into this world for the specific purpose of offering His life for you. The purpose of the manger that we are reminded of each Christmas was the Cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world to die.
Simeon’s words to Mary in verse 35 must have broken her heart. “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” He was not to know exactly what he was saying as the Spirit inspired him tell this to Mary. Without him knowing it, Simeon was talking about the cross.
And as Mary watched her son die, a sword pierced her soul, because the Christmas manger stands in the shadow of the cross. This little baby was born to die.
It’s that time of year again when we speak about joy, hope and peace, but you will only truly experience these things through faith in Jesus Christ, and you will have these things for all of eternity.
Eternal life is God’s gift to you, offered through Christ, and Christ alone, but you need to reach out to Him in faith, and receive it for yourself.