- Jesus has arrived to change the world…but it’s going to get rough out there; that’s part of the deal. Go tell everybody, anyway.
All kinds of things you can do with the Christmas story. What we shouldn’t do – be satisfied in it.
After Jesus was born, Joseph took the young family to the Temple for apparently two major reasons talked about in the Law – for Mary’s post-birth purification and to present Mary’s firstborn to the Lord.
As they walked in, Simeon—a man of whom Luke says, “the Holy Spirit was on him”— spotted the trio and recognized Jesus for Who He was. And Simeon pronounced one of the famous prayers of Scripture:
“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.”
While Joseph and Mary looked on in amazement, Simeon uttered a sobering reality – “…this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…and a sword will pierce through your own soul also…”
“Joy to the world!” and, “Blessed are those who mourn”…all in one brief, holy Temple moment.
An elderly widow named Anna, another mainstay at the Temple, approached the baby. Recognizing the same thing Simeon apparently saw, she gave thanks and then departed to tell “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Of the two, Anna is my favorite, honestly. Simeon announced that he had seen the promised one and, therefore, was ready to die. Not Anna – her response is to share the message with the considerable number who were waiting for the Messiah.
This event contains a profound mini-theology of evangelism.
First, God is going to use whom God is going to use. In the foregoing passage, the heavenly host shows up to the night-shift, shepherds who in that culture were frequently looked down upon. Anna, for her own part, is from the tribe of Asher—one of the forgotten tribes of Israel. No elitism here. And both she and Simeon are old; neither is part of the priesthood or among the religious powerbrokers of the day.
Tom Sine, in his book The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, says we shouldn’t be surprised: “Jesus let us in on an astonishing secret. God has chosen to change the world through the lowly, the unassuming, and the imperceptible…. the conspiracy of the insignificant.” For instance, Sine reminds us, He uses slaves to show the most powerful culture in the world that they can be toppled. He sends a vast army to flight with 300 guys carrying lamps and blowing horns. He chooses an unimpressive shepherd boy with a slingshot to lead his chosen people. And then, in the epitome of humility, the Lord of the universe comes as a baby in a cattle trough—Immanuel, God with us—to offer His salvation to the nations.
It’s the way God does His business.
Second, just as the shepherds heard that this baby in the manger was “good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” Simeon articulates that salvation has been prepared “in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles…” This Messiah, this Lord,—Jesus—was not to be contained within a Jewish framework; He is an outward-bound Savior to the nations of the world.
Finally, nothing is ever sugar-coated in the telling of the good news. Jesus has arrived to change the world…but it’s going to get rough out there; that’s part of the deal.
Go tell everybody, anyway. Go on. Get moving.
Matt Friedeman
