Simeon And Anna

Luke 2:25-38

Today we will take a look at two people who are a part of the post-Christmas story. Perhaps some of you might be unfamiliar with these two elderly people, Simeon and Anna.  They are only mentioned once, and very briefly in Luke’s Gospel, but there are some spiritual lessons that we can learn from them.  Let’s take a look.

When the infant Jesus was one week old, His parents Mary and Joseph brought Him to the Temple to have the Jewish rite of circumcision performed.  He was also officially given His name, and also dedicated to the Lord.  It is here that we meet the first of the two people, Simeon.  We are told that this man was just or full of integrity, and devout, and that he was waiting for the coming Messiah.  As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until his eyes would see the Messiah (vs. 25-26).  Though no age is given, it is probably safe to assume that Simeon was an elderly man.

Simeon wanted to see Jesus.  He waited, possibly many years, but he did not give up hope that God’s promise to him would be fulfilled.  Then one day the Holy Spirit spoke to him, telling him to go to the Temple, for God’s promise to him was to be fulfilled.  There he saw the infant Jesus with His parents, and he knew through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that He was the Messiah.  When Simeon saw Jesus, his eyes were opened to the identity of who the infant was.  He saw God’s salvation in human form at the right place and at the right time.  Jesus came to earth, not through royalty, but through an ordinary woman.

Holding the baby Jesus in his arms, Simeon then broke into prayer, a prayer that has become known as the Nunc Dimittis for centuries, from the opening words of the fourth century Latin Vulgate translation.  Simeon acknowledged the promise God had made to him years earlier, that he would not die until he had seen God’s Salvation in human form (vs.28-32).  He described Jesus as a brilliant light that would show the way of salvation, not just to Israel, but to the whole world.

Just two weeks ago, on December 21st, here in the northern hemisphere we had the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year.  In the days following, we have slowly had an increase in daylight.  Many people are quite happy when the days begin to get longer.  The times today are spiritually dark.  They were very dark back at the time of Jesus’ birth, as well.  Even in so much darkness, the Light that Jesus is, and that He brings to our lives, will never go out.

Simeon also prophesied that the Lord’s mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, would go through much suffering (vs. 34-35).  Not only did she go through shame at the hands of some who felt that her baby was the illegitimate offspring of an affair that she might have had with someone other than her betrothed, even possibly a Roman soldier.  Then when Jesus began His ministry, many in her family did not believe in Him, which would have been a heartbreak.  However later, following His resurrection, they did come to believe.  Then the greatest suffering the Virgin Mary went through would have been when she witnessed her Son’s crucifixion.  That would have been like a sword piercing through her heart.

The second person we read about in our Scripture today is the prophetess Anna.  Luke gives us a little bit more of her background then he did for Simeon.  We do not know Simeon’s age, nor from what tribe of Israel he was from.  Luke tells us that Anna was the daughter of Phanuel, and was from the tribe of Asher.  He also shared that she had been married for seven years, and then had been a widow for 84 more years at this time (vs. 36-38).  It was customary in Biblical days for girls to marry around age 14 or 15, so if she had been married for seven years, and widowed for 84 years, that would have made her at least 105 years old.

Anna remained in the Temple, serving God with fasting and prayer.  When she saw the infant Jesus that day in the Temple, she realized who He really was.  By grace her eyes of faith were opened to see that this Child was the Messiah who fulfilled all of God’s promises.  Immediately Anna began to give thanks.  She began to tell others that with this Child, salvation had come.

In closing, are we eagerly awaiting our Lord’s Second Coming with the same intensity that Simeon and Anna had been at His first appearing?  Anna didn’t even leave the Temple, she was that eager, and Simeon must have resided nearby.  They both greatly wanted the Lord’s Messiah to come, and because they did, the Lord blessed them by allowing them to live long enough to physically see Him.  Once our eyes were opened to see that Jesus is the Messiah, and we accepted Him into our heart as our Savior, are we telling others about Him, as Simeon and Anna did? Let’s follow the example of these two saints who close out the Christmas account in Luke’s Gospel.

A Bondservant To Jesus

Romans 1:1-7

As we begin the new year, let us take a quick look at the opening verses of St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, a group of believers that the apostle always hoped to visit, and then later did when he was imprisoned by the Roman government for his faith.  As he opens this letter to the believers in Rome, Paul says something that may seem rather odd or strange to our modern ears as we are a quarter through the 21st century.  The odd thing that Paul said was when he referred to himself as a “bondservant”, which is essentially a slave.  Let’s take a look at this specific point in our Scripture.

We all know what a slave is - someone who is in enforced servitude to another, one who has no rights whatsoever, who can be bought and sold at their master’s whim.  Slaves could be, and quite often were, beaten and the women assaulted, whenever the master felt like it, as slaves had no rights.  Most forms of slavery are now illegal in the majority of countries around the world, along with its cousin serfdom.  Who, then, would willingly call themselves a slave?  Not too many people would want to spend their life being a slave to someone else.  Yet Paul embraced that title and position, as we see here in the first verse of our Scripture, where he called himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

Paul could have rightly called himself an apostle.  He could have introduced himself as a missionary, as he definitely was that, or a teacher, or a preacher.  What would have been puzzling to many was the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.  Not everyone who was born within the Roman Empire were citizens.  As a matter of fact, only about 5 - 10% of the population of the empire were actually Roman citizens.  He was a Roman citizen due to his birth in Tarsus, one of a small handful of “free” cities in the empire.   Among the benefits of being a Roman citizen was that Paul could not lawfully be scourged or beaten before being lawfully convicted of a crime, and that he had the right to have any trial heard before the emperor.  He could have made mention of any of these in his greeting, yet he chose the word bondservant or slave, as he also did in his letter to the Philippians and to Titus.

Paul knew that he owed everything in his life to the Lord Jesus.  He knew that it was only through His love, grace, and mercy that God had saved him.  For several years, under his former name of Saul, he had viciously persecuted the early church, even traveling distances to arrest believers, throw them in jail, and testify in their court cases to ensure their deaths.  Yet after being committed to this, Jesus still had love and mercy on him, and appeared to him on the road to Damascus, where Saul became a believer and follower of the One that he had formerly persecuted.  Paul knew that God could have rightly condemned him then and there, but instead, Jesus saved him, so Paul considered himself the slave of Jesus for the rest of his life.

The truth is, as we read in the Bible, we are all slaves of something.  The Lord Jesus told us that whoever commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34).  Since we are all sinners, then we are all slaves to sin (Romans 6:16).  However, when we become saved, we are set free from sin, and should now give ourselves in servitude to the Lord Jesus and righteousness (Romans 6:18-19).  If we are not a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ we are a slave to sin, and separated from God.

As we face the beginning of a new year, let us look at who we are a bondservant to.  Is it a life of sin, with the evil master of the devil, or are we bondservants, like Paul, to the Lord Jesus Christ?  When he was known as Saul, he would not have considered himself a slave to sin and the devil.  He was a Roman citizen, a Pharisee, a former student of the great Gamaliel!  But he was a slave, nonetheless.  Now set free from sin, Paul willingly became a slave to the Lord Jesus.  What about us?  Who are we giving our allegiance and service to?