"My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation!" based on Luke 2:22-40
First
Sunday after Christmas - B,
Pastor
Troy Slater - Our
To say that the temple in first
century
Who knows how many parents brought
their first born baby boys into the temple on the day that Mary and Joseph
presented the infant Jesus to the Lord? Who knows how many mothers were
there for their rite of purification after giving birth? To the rest of
the people in the temple, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would seem to be just yet another
family fulfilling the Law that God gave through His servant Moses.
So how then were Simeon and Anna able
to pick Jesus out of the crowd? How did they know that this was the one -
after all these years of awaiting the Christ, how did they know that this Jesus
was to be
Well the inspired words of Luke give
us the answer. You see Luke connects Simeon to the Holy Spirit three
times. "The Holy Spirit was upon him" Luke says. Also,
"It had been revealed to him by the
Holy Spirit." And then finally
Luke points out, "and he came in the
Spirit into the temple." In other words it's as Martin Luther
reminds us in his explanation to the Third Article of the Creed, it's the Holy
Spirit who "calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies."
It's the Holy Spirit who called
Simeon to the faith. Luke tells us that he was righteous and
devout. He was righteous in God's eyes.
He was a faithful believer.
It's the Holy Spirit who enlightened
Simeon. The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he would see God's Christ before
he died.
It's the Holy Spirit who gathered
Simeon. He led Simeon to the temple at just the right time for him to see
Jesus. Luke gives us the impression that
Simeon was waiting for Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought Him into the temple.
We can just imagine Simeon waiting
near the entrance to the temple and watching parents bring their first-born
sons to present them to the Lord. Then when Mary and Joseph entered with
Jesus, we can imagine the Holy Spirit telling Simeon, "This one! This is the Christ!" Can you imagine
Mary's surprise though when she entered the temple and this man reverently but
suddenly removed Jesus from her arms and began to worship Him? Yes the surprise as Simeon began to utter
those words over a baby Jesus, "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.” Yes Simeon was able to hold in his arms the very
one who was the salvation of the world. He
had seen Him and so now he was ready to depart this life. …
Now we might be inclined to downplay
this event. We might say, "Well, wasn't it nice that God made this
special arrangement with Simeon. The story about Anna is also very
nice. These are truly heart-warming events, but what have they got to do
with me? What have they got to do with
me?" …
Just as the Holy Spirit led Simeon
and Anna to Jesus in the temple, He also leads people to Jesus today. The
Holy Spirit is the only way anyone can see Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the
only one who provides and strengthens the faith that allows us to see the truth
about Jesus.
Now I don't mean that no one else in
the temple saw Jesus. Anyone who looked in the right direction that day would
be sure to see Joseph, Mary, and the cute little newborn son. They could
see Jesus with their eyes, but they would not, could not understand that Jesus
was special. They would not understand that here is God in the flesh,
here is the Savior of mankind. …
Much the same thing happens today,
doesn't it? There are many people who believe in the historical
Jesus. They will be quick to admit that Jesus lived on this earth - even
the Muslims and Jews do. There are many who will agree that Jesus did
good deeds, taught good teachings, and is a fine example for anyone to
emulate. They are ready to praise His bravery in criticizing the
oppressive, political establishment of His day. Anyone who is
intellectually honest must agree that Jesus changed history in a big way.
They must agree that His influence continues even to this day.
They see the historical Jesus - a man
who lived once upon a time - but they don't see the Son of God come to
earth. They may even go to church, but
it's out of habit or because it's just what they think they are supposed to
do. They see the historical Jesus, but
they don't see the Savior of mankind - they don't see their Savior in this one
born of Mary. For only the Holy Spirit can reveal the true Jesus to our
eyes through the gift of faith. Only the
Holy Spirit can reveal who Jesus truly is.
And so it is that the Holy Spirit
opens our spiritual eyes so that we become aware, first of all, of our need for
a savior. The Holy Spirit shows us that we have not loved God with our
whole heart and that we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. He
shows us that we have not done what God commands. By the power of the
Holy Spirit, we see the reality of the terrible, eternal punishment that we
deserve. The Holy Spirit convicts us of
our sin and of our desperate need for a Savior. …
However, the Holy Spirit does not
leave us in that predicament. No.
For He gives us the same faith that allowed Simeon to see God's
salvation that He has prepared in the presence of all peoples. He gives
us faith to see in the baby in Simeon's arms one who would grow up to take our
sins and our guilt to the cross. Simeon told Mary that "This child
is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in
Later in today's service, at the
close, we will sing a paraphrase of Simeon's words that He joyously spoke as he
held the baby Jesus in his arms. "O Lord, now let Your servant depart in
heav'nly peace, for I have seen the glory of Your
redeeming grace: a light to lead the Gentiles unto Your holy hill, the glory of
Your people, Your chosen Israel."
It's called the Nunc Dimittis
which is simply the first two words in the Latin version for, "now let us
depart". Of course we normally sing that just after receiving our
Lord's Supper, right, where He serves us His body and blood given and shed for
the forgiveness of all our sins. The
Lord graciously comes into our presence at His Supper - gives us His gifts - and
we behold the salvation that only He can give.
Jesus comes to us and so we respond with the Nunc
Dimittis, "O Lord now let your servant depart in
heavenly peace … for my eyes have seen Your
salvation." …
So how can we be using it today to
close our service? There's no communion
today. Well, Jesus is still here today. Jesus has come to us, to you today, through
His word. And while we may not hold an
infant Jesus in our arms as Simeon did, we do behold Him, don't we? We behold Him in faith - that faith given us
by the Holy Spirit. We behold our Savior
crucified for our sins and risen for our salvation. We behold the one born in
And with that we are ready to depart. Our eyes of faith have seen the Lord's
salvation and so now we are ready to depart.
Depart not just this place - but even this life. For you see there is another time we use the Nunc Dimittis, it's toward the
end of the Christian funeral service.
Quoting from that service we say for the deceased, "Lord now let Your servant depart in peace according to Your Word,
for his eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face
of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Your people
Jesus is what we have seen. Faith in Jesus is what we have been given by
the Holy Spirit. And so yes we are ready
to receive the goal of our faith - to behold our Savior face to face in the
joys of paradise. Yes our eyes have seen
the Lord's salvation and so now O Lord, let us depart - in Your
time - according to Your word - let us depart in heavenly peace. Amen.