Advent: Simeon’s Song (Luke 2:22-35)

(2) The second movement in this Song announces that the key to everlasting life in Jesus is available to all. Jesus is "a light to the Gentiles" and "a glory for" the people of Israel. These are the words of that from our season of Epiphany.

Christ has appeared as not only the Promised One of the Old Testament covenant people but to every ethic group, every tribe and tongue on the face of the earth. God's rich bounty of grace and mercy, of forgiveness of sins and new life is an announcement to the whole world!

There are many advertisements around for financial companies who encourage us as we prepare to die. They don’t say it quite like that, but we are sold on buying insurance policies, estate plans and so forth, in order to get things ready. They rarely add the object: to get things ready to die!

I had a fine Christian gentleman in a former congregation who became a grandfather, really, to my son. Before he died, he began to put everything in order. All of his financial matters, his estate and his gifts that were to go to the church and to the work of evangelizing future generations were set. He was doing what he was supposed to do. He did not, though, just fade away but tragically fell and inured his head in the fall. The accident propelled him toward his grave and in the process robbed him of otherwise lucid moments that he might have spent with us, taking care of relationships as well as he did financial matters.

Beloved, follow Simeon's Song and take care of the most important things right now. You are not ready to leave and go out onto those highways until you get things right with God! You are not ready to die until you confess Christ as Lord, until you commit to follow Him, until you confess your sins and turn from them right now.

That’s the lesson in the Song.

There Is, Finally, a Lesson in Simeon's Sermon

This fourth lesson is most difficult: there is a cost to following Christ.

The Bible says that Simeon's Song brought amazement to Mary and Joseph. God had already revealed the truth of His Son to them, but now they knew the truth. God was not keeping His Promise a secret.

But then, after that, there is a change in the mood of the Song. We preach and then sing a hymn of response. Simeon sang his Song and then preached a sermon of response—and the sermon was poignant and direct. While the whole piece starts with a lilting, joyous folk tune in a major key, it ends as a prophetic solo in a somber strain in a minor key.

The Sermon of Simeon is aimed at Jesus' mother and tells of the greatness of her Son and the impact of Him on her personally. Jesus, Simeon prophesies, will cause some to rise and some to fall. I quote the great commentator William Hendriksen:

"In other words a person's relation or attitude toward Jesus would be absolutely decisive of his eternal destiny. Some would reject Him; others would by sovereign grace accept Him. The former would fall; that is, they would (unless they repented) be excluded from the kingdom. The latter would rise; that is, they would be welcomed to the kingdom and its wedding feast."¹