This passage from Luke isn’t often used in funeral services, but a comment from Jan when Denise and I were here a couple of weeks ago made me think of this passage.  Because of Pop’s declining health, he and Jan were not able to travel to Springfield this fall to get to see the birth of his first granddaughter, Anna Sloan.  I can only guess how hard that must have been for him.  A picture of Anna Sloan may be worth a thousand words but a picture pales in comparison to being there and holding her.  When it became apparent that Pops was not doing very well, we knew we needed to come and see him.  If for nothing else, he needed to see his new granddaughter.  Though he didn’t have a whole lot of strength he was able to hold her for a little while and while he couldn’t express it, I figured that it meant a lot to him.  How much it meant to him was later revealed when we got back to Springfield and we got a call a couple of days later saying that Pops had taken a turn for the worse and that he probably wouldn’t make it.  When I asked Jan why she thought Pops went down hill so quickly once we left, she thought that he had been holding on until he could see his Anna Sloan.  Once he had seen her and held her, he no longer had to hang on.

Perhaps you can see now why I thought of this particular passage from Luke 2.  As Simeon was waiting to die until he saw the Lord Jesus, I think Pops too was waiting to die until he saw Anna Sloan.  All of their strength and energy focused on staying alive until they could behold these babies.  Now, we aren’t told a whole lot about Simeon here other than he was a devout and righteous man living in Jerusalem waiting for the consolation of Israel.  That Luke specifically mentions his devotion to God and moral purity casts a dark shadow on the spiritual climate of Jerusalem, which was called the city of God as it was the place where God’s presence dwelt in the temple.  Yet despite it’s spiritual heritage and significance, the people had turned away from God.  You might say that they had lost their religion and were not interested in finding it.  This was likely exacerbated by Roman occupation in Jerusalem, which was a consequence of Israel’s rebellion against God.  There were those who were longing for their freedom, including Simeon, but they believed that their greatest need was freedom from Rome.  They had lost sight that their greatest need was freedom from sin and death, which had enslaved them since the fall of Adam and Eve.  Simeon had not lost sight of that and was looking for God to fulfill his promise to once and for all vanquish the curse of sin and death through his Messiah.  Judging from this and other texts, he was one of a handful who were waiting for this consolation.

Luke also tells us that Simeon was full of the Spirit and that it had been the Spirit who had communicated to him that he would not die until God had revealed his Messiah to Simeon.  As Simeon wandered in and out of the temple for his daily worship, surely he must have wondered, “Is this the day?”  “Will I finally see the promise fulfilled today?”  One day turned into two, which turned into 7 and then 30 and then 60.  We really don’t know how long it was between the promise and its fulfillment, but one wonders if he experienced any doubts that he would ever see the Messiah.  Like Abraham did he think the promise made to him couldn’t possibly be fulfilled as old as he was?  And yet one day something seemed different and he felt compelled by the Spirit to go to the temple courts.  As he was watching all the individuals and families come and go from the temple, he was led by the Spirit to a particular family.  They had just come into the temple to fulfill one of the customs of the law for first-born sons…a custom that had been in place since the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt some two thousand years earlier.  The custom was that parents of first-born sons were to pay 5 shekels of silver into the temple treasury as a ransom price for their first-born sons.  The custom was based on the salvation God provided for the Israelite first-born sons in Egypt when the angel of death passed over all of Egypt and killed all first born sons in the land because of Pharaoh’s hardness of heart.  The custom served to remind all in Israel that God is the author of salvation and was to foreshadow a greater salvation that would come in the person and work of the Messiah.

The family that Simeon was led to speak to was Mary and Joseph and the 5 shekels of silver they were presenting as a ransom-price was for their first-born son, Jesus.  As he approaches Mary, he takes Jesus into his arms, and begins to praise God.  He blesses God for fulfilling not only his promise to him of letting him see the long-awaited Messiah before he dies, but also for fulfilling his promise of salvation to all of mankind.

I wonder if you can see and appreciate the irony of what is taking place.  Joseph and Mary are paying the alloted price to redeem their son according to the custom, which was 5 shekels of silver and when Jesus grows up and fulfills his role as the Messiah, he also pays the alloted price to redeem all of mankind, including his parents Mary and Joseph, according to God’s justice, which was his life.  The freedom that we long for and cannot secure for ourselves, is the freedom from sin and death that Jesus alone secured for us.  He did that by living the life that we were made to live in complete love and obedience to God the Father and dying the death that we deserved for our lack of love and obedience to God the Father.

But for the gospel to really be good news, death not only must be conquered but we must also be raised to new life…life that is nothing like life right now.  I don’t know about you but I long to live without the threat of death before me or the threat of illness or violence or unmet and unfilled desires before me.  I long to live where there is no night and no fear of darkness.  I love that God is not going to scrap this creation and do something completely brand new, but he’s going to renew, restore, regenerate and heal it.  No longer will we be subject to the curse of sin and no longer will we subject others, including God’s good earth, to the curse of sin.  Thankfully, Jesus did rise from the dead, giving us hope and assurance that if we are in him, we will rise with him to.  We will live eternally in his love and will, like Simeon, praise God for his salvation.

I wonder what you are waiting for in this life to fulfill you.  What are you waiting for to bring you your own personal salvation and happiness in this world.  There are so many things, a lot of them good things, that we look to in the hopes that they will satisfy us and give us joy…so many things that we look to to give us a lasting sense of fulfillment.  But instead of fulfilling us, they fill us with greater longing and restlessness and expose the brokenness of our world.  So what are you waiting for?  The great hymn writer, Charles Wesley, gives us the answer in these words:

Come Thou long-expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the saints Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Come Thou long-awaited Emmanuel.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Come Thou long-awaited Emmanuel