Waiting With Simeon and Anna
26 October, 2009, 1:37 pm
22 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 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 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 marveled 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.”
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. [2] She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Jesus was still an infant – less than two months old when his folks made the trip to Jerusalem to present him at the temple. For a couple thousand years the people had taken seriously this thing about the firstborn being special. That went way back to when God spared the Firstborn of his people at the passover – when the firstborns all over Egypt died.
That’s why they went to the temple. They met a couple of people (a guy named Simeon, and a lady named Anna) who had been waiting a long time to meet this young boy. While they waited, they were making the world better. Serving in the temple they were helping people who needed to get in touch with their creator. Certainly people who were hurting from the effects of the fall came into their lives every day. Simeon and Anna watched all this and did what they could do while they waited to meet this child.
My favorite part of this is that Luke says she was telling all the people about Jesus who were “waiting on the redemption of Jerusalem”
There’s a cool phrase really. Waiting on the redemption of Israel – God’s People needed to be redeemed – or bought back – made into what they were always supposed to be – a perfect created people group who would only make the world better.
We still wait.
Only now we know what we are waiting for. Jesus the king has come and will come back again. In the meantime we wait and like Anna and Simeon, we work to make the world better one litttle bit at a time.
