Jesu Juva
“The Present-tation”
Text: Luke 2:22-40; Exodus 13:1–3a, 11–15; Colossians 3:12-17
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
What do you want for Christmas?
How many times did that question get asked this past month? And in how many different ways was it answered? We won’t hear it again for a while now, but it will come back. Next year. It always does.
But today I want to think about this: not how you answered that question, but how would Simeon have answered that question? The righteous and devout man we heard about in the Gospel today. This man waiting for the consolation of Israel. What did He want for Christmas?
Well, he wanted to die.
For, you see, he had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So Simeon wanted to die, because that would mean this promise was fulfilled for him. He would have seen the Lord’s Christ, the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world - His Saviour.
So that day, the fortieth day after Jesus’ birth, when Joseph and Mary come into the Temple to do for [Jesus] according to the custom of the Law, Simeon received his present. Joseph and Mary came to present Jesus to the Lord, as it had been written in the Law since the day God brought His people out of Egypt in the Exodus, but it was Simeon who received the present. And that’s why he bursts out in joy, as we often do when receiving a special and much-wanted present. And so Simeon proclaims in joy, with his present in his arms, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. He was ready to die. Gift received.
Now, we don’t know when Simeon died, whether it was soon after this day or many years later. This is the last we hear of him. But neither does it matter - to us or to him. For he was safe in the arms of this one he now held in his arms. The arms not of a baby, but of the Almighty God who came in human flesh.
So while this day is called The Presentation of Our Lord, maybe we should say that a little differently today, and called it The Present-tation - the day Simeon’s present was given to him.
Of course, Jesus isn’t just Simeon’s present, He is ours as well. God’s Son is His gift to the world, to save the world. That all of us, like Simeon, may depart in peace when it becomes our time to depart this world.
And while that means death, it also means life. Because of Jesus, death is not the end of us, but the beginning of a new life.
And maybe to understand that, we need to go back to the Exodus where, as we heard in the Old testament reading, this custom of the Law began. As you remember, Israel had been slaves in Egypt for some 400 years. They had gone down under the Pharaoh’s protection and with his blessing, but later Pharaohs forgot that, and it all quickly turned sour as Israel was subjected to a long, hard slavery. Which included death - not only under the harsh Egyptian whip, but also the commanded drowning of all the males babies born to Israel in the Nile River.
But into this life of misery and death, God came and rescued His people. Long before Simeon, they were the first to depart in peace - and joy! - as they departed the misery and death of Egypt for a new life.
And now Simeon was following in their footsteps. His Christmas wish wasn’t really to die - he was already doing that! As we are. He wanted to live. Like Israel wanted to live. Simeon wanted to depart this dying world and live the new life God had for him. So when he talks about what receiving his present means, he is really doing what Moses told the people of Israel to do so many years before. For Moses said, as we heard earlier: when you are asked, hat does this mean? you shall say, By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. So Simeon proclaims what Jesus in the Temple means. What does this mean? Jesus, as the Lord’s strong hand, is doing it again and rescuing his people, bringing us out of this world of slavery to sin and death to life. What He did for Israel in Egypt He is doing again . . . only on a much larger scale. And with the strong hand of this baby, His Son.
So that’s our Christmas present, too. Not just a baby and not just a Saviour, but life. A new life to live. Set free from our slavery to sin and death, and set free from the fear of death, to live. Because like Simeon, we’re dying. We don’t wish for it. It’s our reality. From the sudden and unexpected tornadoes in the south, to the pandemic in which people were so afraid of dying that they were afraid of living, to accidents, to all the other and myriad ways death comes upon us . . . the reality is that death is never far from us. We need life. And we need to be able to live without fear of what’s going to happen to us.
So Jesus is born to give us just that. Simeon had his promise. So do we. Many, actually. Like, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). So when Jesus comes to us, like He came to Simeon that day, and we hold Him - not in our arms - but in our mouths as we receive His Body and Blood, we proclaim what this means: life! We sing Simeon’s very words and make them our own: Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word.
And since we can now depart in peace, we can also live in peace. Not in fear of condemnation, not in fear of death, but alive in Jesus. The kind of life St. Paul described in the Epistle today: where the peace of Christ rules in our hearts. Peace which overflows in forgiveness and love and thanksgiving. Lives filled with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Because of our Christmas present: Jesus, and His life. His life He gave for us on the cross, and the resurrection He promised us in His own.
That’s also the kind of life St. Stephen lived. Although we kept white on the altar today, we could have had red - for today is the Feast of Stephen, the commemoration of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Maybe you know it from the song, that Good King Wenceslas went out on the Feast of Stephen. That’s today. The day after Christmas. And while I don’t know if Stephen died before or after Simeon, I do know he departed in peace, like Simeon. For after confessing What does this mean?, what Jesus’ birth and life meant (Acts 7), and while he was being stoned for that confession, he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:60).
And Stephen received his Christmas present, and lived.
And that’s your Christmas present, too. That you can depart in peace and so live in peace. Maybe sometimes we think other Christmas gifts more important than this one. If so, we need to repent - which is really just to receive a far greater gift than the ones we think so important! And you if find yourself not living that new life that Paul talked about, and living in fear, not peace, take Jesus’ words and promises up again - in your ears and in your mouths - and with the people of Israel, and Simeon, and Stephen, rejoice in them. For that is the present Jesus has for you. A new life in Him.
So after we receive the Lord’s Body and Blood today, sing Simeon’s words again today, and sing them like he said them - with gusto and great joy! Lord, you’ve done it! And I, I can depart in peace, according to Your Word. Gift presented. Gift received.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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