Isaiah 11:1-5; Galatians 4:1-7; St Luke 2:22-40
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
You heard from the prophet Isaiah this morning. The righteous reign of the Branch. Life shooting forth from death and destruction. David’s kingdom will be utterly wiped out. Yet from the stump of Jesse a new and greater David will come. A King whose rule will affect human history to the end of time. The promised Messiah.
Later the prophet will speak similarly concerning the destruction of Israel’s enemies. The Lord Himself will enact it. He will execute judgment against all her foes. He will tread the winepress and trample down all who oppose Him. All who reject His salvation. The Day of vengeance will come.
In response to this, Isaiah sings: I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that He has granted them according to His compassion, according to the abundance of His steadfast love. For He said, “Surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely.” And He became their Savior (Is 63:7-8).
You heard it in the Last Sundays of the Church Year. It is now here. The shoot and branch have come. The advent of the Messiah ushers in the Day of vengeance.
This is the thought of Simeon in the Temple. For what does Isaiah’s song mean but that God is faithful to His people, even when they are faithless? What does Simeon’s song mean but that the Lord is the Master and he the servant, asking to be released? These two are verses of the same hymn.
As it was in Isaiah’s day, so also in Simeon’s. Things were dark indeed. Herod the Great, that despot, sat on the throne. The Sanhedrin were puppet priestly rulers. They were utterly corrupt and evil, in bed with whomever was currently in power. Meanwhile, the Pharisees were oppressing the people with legalism and false law. The Holy Spirit had not sent a prophet in the four hundred years since Malachi.
But now He lit upon Simeon in the Temple. And the Messianic age dawned upon the earth. Simeon may have known of the fuss at the Temple with Zechariah. He may have heard the prophecy we call the Benedictus, which Zechariah spoke at John’s circumcision. But the prophecies accompanying Christ’s entrance into our world didn’t occur at His circumcision, as with John the Baptist. They began here, at Mary’s purification and Jesus’ own presentation in the Temple, over a month later.
Whatever Simeon may or may not have known from Isaiah or Zechariah, by the Holy Spirit he knew this: Mary’s baby Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior who insists that faithless Israel is faithful and will ever be His people. He knew that this Little One is the tender shoot from Jesse’s stump bearing fruit unto the Lord in place of David’s failed kingdom. So also he knew that this Baby was set for sorrow and suffering and sacrifice.
Paul taught the Galatians that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law. To be born under the Law means to be born under the curse. Though our Lord is without guilt and the concupiscence of original sin, He is nonetheless under its curse. He eats bread by the sweat of His face. He is returned to the earth upon death.
To be born under the Law means submitting to the Law’s many demands. Early in those demands, chronologically, followed 40 days after birth, that the mother is to be purified and the son presented in the Temple. Though poor, Mary and Joseph bring two sacrifices. The turtledoves and, nestled within the Virgin Mother’s embrace, the Lamb.
The One born of woman, born under the Law, comes now to redeem you, who were under the Law, enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Bound to your passions and entangled in your false worldviews and myths.
But Simeon is a true son of God by faith. He received the Spirit from the Father. He saw through the glass dimly. By the Spirit of wisdom and understanding he was privileged to judge this poor couple coming to do according to the Law, actually bringing in their Son the very end and fulfillment of the Law’s curses and demands. He sees the Shoot come forth and the buds of the Branch beginning. He speaks the truth Isaiah proclaimed. The Day has come.
For what Isaiah says is the essence of the Gospel: God declares that sinners are saints in the Christ. This is why Simeon rejoices despite the terrible sorrow of the Christ and St Mary. It is why he is hopeful despite he terrible state of the world and the Church in which he lives. We are privileged to learn from him.
The Lord’s love is steadfast. His great goodness and mercy are abundant. The Lord who parted the Red Sea and delivered His people from slavery had not changed. Isaiah tells the rebellious Israelites, who hate God and run after idols, that God says, Surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely (Is 63:8). And in that saying, that holy promise and setting of His will, He became their Savior. He declared sinners to be holy.
His father and Mother marveled at what was said about Him. So ought we. For this Child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. He would bring down the mighty from their thrones and exalt the lowly. He would fill the hungry with good things, but the rich He would send empty away. He will unit Jew and Gentile, reconciling not only man to God, but also man to man. In Him all humanity will be united under the fatherhood of Abraham. He will bring peace.
But what is good for us is terrible for Him. The Messiah, this Jesus, will also cause division. He will be rejected by many. This will be accomplished by His sorrow and suffering and self-sacrifice. And this will also bring sorrow and suffering on His Mother and His followers.
Being the Mother of the Messiah, of God Himself, is the greatest honor bestowed upon any creature, human or angels, in all of the universe. St Mary is the most blessed of women. But it is also a terrible burden. A sword will pierce her own soul, even as, to a lesser degree, we are all pierced by the Law. Simeon sees in this Child the fulfillment of the Law. His death shall bring the Law to its proper end.
But His death also shows us the awful price for our sins. This is what justice demands for what we have done: a man, tortured, naked, dying on a Cross, betrayed and abandoned by His friends, and worst of all, forsaken by God His Father.
This is what it takes to pierce our hearts so that they may be drained of selfish idolatry. Pierced that we would repent and throw ourselves upon God’s mercy.
But His suffering is not only the price of your redemption and freedom, but also the payment of the same. This is the cost of your adoption as sons. He dies in our place. He is Mary’s purification and our ransom. From under the Law He meets and answers the accusations of the Law for us who were pressed down under the Law.
And this horror is not only horror, it is also the Light for revelation to the Gentiles and the Glory of His people Israel.
This is what Isaiah and all the prophets were interested in. They recounted the steadfast love of the Lord which culminates in the Messiah. We learn this from Simeon and it is why we sing his song to this very day. In the Eucharist your eyes behold the Salvation of the Lord, the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem. And though the world and her rulers are corrupt and the Church is by schism torn asunder, God still sends the Spirit of His Son into your hearts by which you cry, Abba! Father!
You are not slaves, but sons. And if sons than heirs.
But no Christian is above his Master. We all go the way He has gone. The way that St Mary went. The sorrows of these days reveal the thoughts of our hearts. They reveal who we really are. They uncover and expose us. We need the constant baptismal clothing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this take heart, dear children. You are not your own. You are His. You belong to Him. He defines you as His people, even as He is your Savior.
Thus we are bold and eager like Simeon, to receive our Lord and await the end. So too do we rejoice in the sorrow of our Messiah that He endured for our joy, even as we are then able to rejoice in our own sufferings. Petitioning our Lord that He keep us firm in His Word and faith until we die. Lord, let us depart in peace.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
You heard from the prophet Isaiah this morning. The righteous reign of the Branch. Life shooting forth from death and destruction. David’s kingdom will be utterly wiped out. Yet from the stump of Jesse a new and greater David will come. A King whose rule will affect human history to the end of time. The promised Messiah.
Later the prophet will speak similarly concerning the destruction of Israel’s enemies. The Lord Himself will enact it. He will execute judgment against all her foes. He will tread the winepress and trample down all who oppose Him. All who reject His salvation. The Day of vengeance will come.
In response to this, Isaiah sings: I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that He has granted them according to His compassion, according to the abundance of His steadfast love. For He said, “Surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely.” And He became their Savior (Is 63:7-8).
You heard it in the Last Sundays of the Church Year. It is now here. The shoot and branch have come. The advent of the Messiah ushers in the Day of vengeance.
This is the thought of Simeon in the Temple. For what does Isaiah’s song mean but that God is faithful to His people, even when they are faithless? What does Simeon’s song mean but that the Lord is the Master and he the servant, asking to be released? These two are verses of the same hymn.
As it was in Isaiah’s day, so also in Simeon’s. Things were dark indeed. Herod the Great, that despot, sat on the throne. The Sanhedrin were puppet priestly rulers. They were utterly corrupt and evil, in bed with whomever was currently in power. Meanwhile, the Pharisees were oppressing the people with legalism and false law. The Holy Spirit had not sent a prophet in the four hundred years since Malachi.
But now He lit upon Simeon in the Temple. And the Messianic age dawned upon the earth. Simeon may have known of the fuss at the Temple with Zechariah. He may have heard the prophecy we call the Benedictus, which Zechariah spoke at John’s circumcision. But the prophecies accompanying Christ’s entrance into our world didn’t occur at His circumcision, as with John the Baptist. They began here, at Mary’s purification and Jesus’ own presentation in the Temple, over a month later.
Whatever Simeon may or may not have known from Isaiah or Zechariah, by the Holy Spirit he knew this: Mary’s baby Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior who insists that faithless Israel is faithful and will ever be His people. He knew that this Little One is the tender shoot from Jesse’s stump bearing fruit unto the Lord in place of David’s failed kingdom. So also he knew that this Baby was set for sorrow and suffering and sacrifice.
Paul taught the Galatians that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law. To be born under the Law means to be born under the curse. Though our Lord is without guilt and the concupiscence of original sin, He is nonetheless under its curse. He eats bread by the sweat of His face. He is returned to the earth upon death.
To be born under the Law means submitting to the Law’s many demands. Early in those demands, chronologically, followed 40 days after birth, that the mother is to be purified and the son presented in the Temple. Though poor, Mary and Joseph bring two sacrifices. The turtledoves and, nestled within the Virgin Mother’s embrace, the Lamb.
The One born of woman, born under the Law, comes now to redeem you, who were under the Law, enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Bound to your passions and entangled in your false worldviews and myths.
But Simeon is a true son of God by faith. He received the Spirit from the Father. He saw through the glass dimly. By the Spirit of wisdom and understanding he was privileged to judge this poor couple coming to do according to the Law, actually bringing in their Son the very end and fulfillment of the Law’s curses and demands. He sees the Shoot come forth and the buds of the Branch beginning. He speaks the truth Isaiah proclaimed. The Day has come.
For what Isaiah says is the essence of the Gospel: God declares that sinners are saints in the Christ. This is why Simeon rejoices despite the terrible sorrow of the Christ and St Mary. It is why he is hopeful despite he terrible state of the world and the Church in which he lives. We are privileged to learn from him.
The Lord’s love is steadfast. His great goodness and mercy are abundant. The Lord who parted the Red Sea and delivered His people from slavery had not changed. Isaiah tells the rebellious Israelites, who hate God and run after idols, that God says, Surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely (Is 63:8). And in that saying, that holy promise and setting of His will, He became their Savior. He declared sinners to be holy.
His father and Mother marveled at what was said about Him. So ought we. For this Child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. He would bring down the mighty from their thrones and exalt the lowly. He would fill the hungry with good things, but the rich He would send empty away. He will unit Jew and Gentile, reconciling not only man to God, but also man to man. In Him all humanity will be united under the fatherhood of Abraham. He will bring peace.
But what is good for us is terrible for Him. The Messiah, this Jesus, will also cause division. He will be rejected by many. This will be accomplished by His sorrow and suffering and self-sacrifice. And this will also bring sorrow and suffering on His Mother and His followers.
Being the Mother of the Messiah, of God Himself, is the greatest honor bestowed upon any creature, human or angels, in all of the universe. St Mary is the most blessed of women. But it is also a terrible burden. A sword will pierce her own soul, even as, to a lesser degree, we are all pierced by the Law. Simeon sees in this Child the fulfillment of the Law. His death shall bring the Law to its proper end.
But His death also shows us the awful price for our sins. This is what justice demands for what we have done: a man, tortured, naked, dying on a Cross, betrayed and abandoned by His friends, and worst of all, forsaken by God His Father.
This is what it takes to pierce our hearts so that they may be drained of selfish idolatry. Pierced that we would repent and throw ourselves upon God’s mercy.
But His suffering is not only the price of your redemption and freedom, but also the payment of the same. This is the cost of your adoption as sons. He dies in our place. He is Mary’s purification and our ransom. From under the Law He meets and answers the accusations of the Law for us who were pressed down under the Law.
And this horror is not only horror, it is also the Light for revelation to the Gentiles and the Glory of His people Israel.
This is what Isaiah and all the prophets were interested in. They recounted the steadfast love of the Lord which culminates in the Messiah. We learn this from Simeon and it is why we sing his song to this very day. In the Eucharist your eyes behold the Salvation of the Lord, the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem. And though the world and her rulers are corrupt and the Church is by schism torn asunder, God still sends the Spirit of His Son into your hearts by which you cry, Abba! Father!
You are not slaves, but sons. And if sons than heirs.
But no Christian is above his Master. We all go the way He has gone. The way that St Mary went. The sorrows of these days reveal the thoughts of our hearts. They reveal who we really are. They uncover and expose us. We need the constant baptismal clothing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this take heart, dear children. You are not your own. You are His. You belong to Him. He defines you as His people, even as He is your Savior.
Thus we are bold and eager like Simeon, to receive our Lord and await the end. So too do we rejoice in the sorrow of our Messiah that He endured for our joy, even as we are then able to rejoice in our own sufferings. Petitioning our Lord that He keep us firm in His Word and faith until we die. Lord, let us depart in peace.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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