Here we
are, the other side of Christmas. During the Advent and Christmas Seasons, we
have had many messengers and models to encourage and direct us on our walk of
faith. If you were involved in the Advent study Pastor Cliff and I did, you
have heard from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel speaking to us in the Hebrew
Scriptures about the coming Messiah. We have also heard from angels, Mary,
Joseph, and the shepherds. Today we see Mary and Joseph again, for a couple of
verses and then meet two aged sages, Simeon and Anna. By their examples, these
four Biblical characters proclaim the gospel message and share with us a simple
but profound lesson on our faith and our relationship with God.
However
before we read, let us pray:
Luke
2:22-35
Approximately
40 days after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, being faithful Jews, went to
the temple to present Jesus to God—as was the custom of the Jews and they
dedicated Jesus to the service of God, which would have involved paying a
redemption price to the temple. Mary also went because childbirth rendered a
woman ritually unclean and she would have to make a sacrifice for “cleansing”
following the birth of Jesus (Lev. 12)
Each year we also go through a ritual cleansing…every Dec. 31st
we look back over the year and take an inventory of our lives. Then we make
some sort of promise to ourselves to do something different and to change our
lives. Last year for me, it was I was going to lose weight, and grow my hair
out. So on Dec. 31st of 2016, I sat in my house, counted down the
New Year while watching the Ball Drop in New York and suddenly it’s like I had
a new, clean slate to start over again. As one of my favorite authors, L.M.
Montgomery wrote in Anne of Green Gables “Tomorrow is a new day, with no
mistakes in it…yet.” However, my long hair didn’t last, and I didn’t get the
slender figure that the fad diets I tried promised me. But you see this secular “cleansing” had
absolutely nothing to do with God… and it certainly wasn’t ordained by God, as
the Day of Atonement was.
And as
I studied for this sermon today, I realized that the Sacrificial System of the
Temple and New Year’s Countdowns have something in common:
They
don’t effect permanent change.
You
see, Mary and Joseph weren’t just following the Law of Moses when they came to
the temple, and Simeon knew this. Mary and Joseph may not have realized it
100%; but they didn’t just present their first born son at the temple and
dedicate Him to God; they presented at the Temple the unblemished, perfect lamb
that would bring permanent change into people’s lives, bring in a new kingdom
for anyone who wants it. The sacrificial system could not achieve this.
Why
not? What was insufficient about the sacrificial system?
First, in the long run,
no animal sacrifice was ever sufficient to deal with the problem of sin – you
had to keep going back. Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all, he bore the
punishment of death on behalf of all people for all time (in human flesh). So
that we can be totally forgiven and freed from death.
But there was a second
issue … in the Old Testament, when a sin offering was made, it wasn’t only the
priest and God who made the exchange. A person would place their hands on the
animal to acknowledge their sinfulness (their need to change), and then the
life of the animal would be offered for their sins. There was always an element
of repentance.
The
Law that God set before Moses was clear: if the people obeyed they would be
blessed in the land, if they disobeyed they would be cursed … but, as
Deuteronomy chapter 30 says, though they had sinned, if they turned to the Lord
(if they repented), he would restore them and have compassion on them. It goes
further to say that he would gather them from exile and circumcise their hearts…In
other words, where there is repentance, God will forgive and bring about a
permanent change of the heart … so that there’s no going back year after year
after year. As Jeremiah (31) and Ezekiel (36) prophesied, God was going to
create a new covenant, in which he would bring about a permanent change of
heart.
The problem with the
Mosaic covenant wasn’t only that the people continually sinned and needed
constant forgiving … God is a forgiving God, which is why he gave the gift of
sacrifice … he is ready and willing to forgive and start again … the problem
was that they were required to repent … and repentance itself had become a
problem.
Repentance had become
a problem for Israel, not because they stubbornly wouldn’t do it but because
they didn’t even know how to truly repent. They were a people, as Isaiah
prophesied, living in darkness, a spiritual desert/wasteland. Their eyes and
ears were shut from knowing the truth. They were seeking a physical kingdom;
not a heavenly/spiritual kingdom. They had allowed themselves to just go
through the motions.
In the Anne of Green
Gables series there is a “scene” that plays out where Marilla tells Anne she
can’t go to an Ice Cream Social until she tells her where a favorite brooch is.
Well if you know Anne, she made up an elaborate story for Marilla and then begs
to go to the Social. She only “apologized for losing the brooch” out of
obligation to get what she wanted.
Just as in the old
covenant, the Jews had started to “repent without change” out of obligation to
the Law of Moses. Repentance had become a ritual. Repentance was always the
necessary requirement for any sacrifice and it remains the way we access the
benefits of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice. This was John the Baptist’s message:
Jesus is coming to save you, prepare the way for him by repenting.
As Simeon took Jesus
into his arms, he thanked God and said, “My eyes have seen your salvation which
you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light that will disclose the
truth to a multitude of people and the glory of your people Israel” (v30-32)
The prophecy goes on …
he says to Mary:
“He is destined for
the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed
so that the inner-thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your
own soul too.” (v34-35)
Sin isn’t just
something we do; it’s something we think and feel. It begins in the heart and a
good (I would say) 90% of it, remains hidden and we live in denial about who
we’ve judged, who we’ve hated, who we’ve been jealous of and what we have
coveted.
It’s like the person
who on the surface is fit, the picture of health, and physically beautiful and
they go to have a scan, and find their body full of cancer. Only small symptoms
have begun to emerge, but how it looks on the outside, is no indicator of
what’s inside the body.
Sin is like a cancer.
It goes unnoticed, even by ourselves. Until we come into the presence of a holy
God, who shines a light and exposes everything that is hidden…Jesus’ light is
like a cat-scan over the body, or a sword that pierces the soul.
In Hebrews
4 it says that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing
until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the
thoughts and intentions of the heart. Before him no creature is hidden, but all
are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an
account.
Here’s the good news:
Because we are forgiven we can stand before a Holy God, without fear and we can
face the truth in our hearts, because we know he has already paid the price for
it. And that means we can do something no one can do outside of being hidden in
Jesus Christ: we can repent. His light shows us the sin in our lives, we can
face it and repent of it.
We don’t need to live
in darkness, making New Year’s resolutions, and never understanding why we
can’t change, despite our best efforts and intentions.
He has put his Spirit
within us, who counsels us and shows us the sin in our heart. The secrets of
our heart will be disclosed to us …
Today we celebrate the
beginning of a new year, but more importantly, that God made with us a new
covenant … a covenant that does lead to permanent change.
Hymn (Please Stand as we sing...)
BENEDICTION:
Go in peace, knowing that you, like Simeon and Anna have seen, and experienced
God’s Salvation. Amen
