Do You Know What You Have Seen?
Luke 2:22-40
by Jim Westmoreland
The rush of Christmas is finally over. All the harried, frenzied shopping is
done. The gifts have been exchanged. The big meals and family gatherings are now part of
the past again. There is one more interruption in our routine, and that is New Year's.
Then we can begin to settle back into our routines.
We all know what Christmas is about. We know what to expect, what the sermons and the
Christmas carols will be. We may think that it is repetitious, that we know what the
message is, that there is nothing new or personal to be heard from God. It is, after all,
the "same old story."
However, we may be like the man, years ago, who bought a radio, brought it home, and
placed it on the refrigerator. He then plugged it in, turned it to WSM in Nashville (home
of the Grand Ole Opry), and proceeded to do the most unusual thing. He pulled all the
knobs off! He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear, and so he chose
to limit his radio reception to one station.
If we begin to relate in our spiritual lives like this man did to his radio, then we will
miss what God may have to say to us. We will miss His leadership and direction. We will
miss out on the joys of continuing to grow spiritually as a follower of Christ, and we
will miss out on the direction He gives us as a church.
In our reading from Luke today there were two people who were tuned into whatever God
might show them, and they had not pulled the knobs off of their spiritual tuners. They
could still hear something knew and respond to it, even though they were considered old
and not likely to learn or do anything new. They were Simeon and Anna. The rest of
Jerusalem went about its routine. There was nothing new for them. As they looked around,
everything was the same as it had always been, But, Simeon and Anna looked around and saw
something different, something new. They had seen God's anointed Messiah, and they
knew what they had seen, and it was not the same old things. They were open to God's
spirit and not locked in to just one radio station!
Mary and Joseph probably stayed in Bethlehem at least 40 days. This was to complete the
time of purification and cleansing required in the Levitical law found in Leviticus 12.
According to v. 2 Mary was considered "unclean" for seven days after the birth
of her child and v. 4 said she had to remain in ceremonial isolation for another 33 days.
The little town of Bethlehem was just a few miles from Jerusalem, and when Mary was
considered ceremonially "clean" and able to go out in public, they left
Bethlehem to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to present Jesus. Luke tells this part of the
story as a kind of dedication to God. It is reminiscent of the story of Samuel's birth to
Hannah and Elkanah in 1 Samuel chapter 1 when Hannah takes Samuel to the house of the Lord
in Shiloh to dedicate Samuel to the Lord, because God had answered her prayers after she
had been barren so many years and had given her a son.
In Jerusalem there was a righteous and devout old man named Simeon who was looking for the
consolation of Israel, which meant he was looking for the fulfillment of the Jewish
messianic hopes. Luke makes a point of telling us that this man was sensitive to the Holy
Spirit. Luke says that the Holy Spirit was upon him, that the Holy Spirit had revealed to
him that he would see the Lord's Messiah before he died, and that Simeon came "in the
Spirit" to the temple the day that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be dedicated.
Here is a man who listens to the leading of the Holy Spirit and who is willing to see what
God would reveal to him, and then he sees Mary holding Jesus in her arms. Others would
have been there. They would have seen her and the baby too, but they only "saw"
and did not "know." Also in the temple was a woman named Anna who is called a
prophet. She is a widow woman, and we are told that she never left the temple. In Simeon
and also in the prophet Anna, when they see Jesus, the Spirit reveals to them that Jesus
is the Lord's Messiah. They "know what they see."
Simeon says that he has seen God's salvation . . . a light of revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of the people of Israel. Anna began giving thanks to God when she saw Jesus,
but she did not keep her good news to herself. The scripture tells us that she began to
speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Simeon's words continue a little longer past the place where we normally stop reading
after he says "For my eyes have seen Thy Salvation." In v. 34 after Simeon
blessed them, he said to Mary, "Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rise
of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed -- and a sword will pierce even your own
soul -- to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."
Simeon had heard what Israel refused to hear. He saw what they refused to see. He saw that
God's Messiah was not only for Israel but that He was to be a Light of Salvation for all
the world, including the Gentiles. He was to be a gift for all mankind. So, when we
celebrate the manger and Jesus' birth, He is not just a gift for us, but we are to share
this gift of God's Son, the Messiah, the Savior, with all of the world.
Simeon not only saw a baby held in his mother's arms, he also saw that God's redemption
involves our choices and God's judgment. The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus is
not just about a sweet baby in a manger. Jesus came to seek and to save those who are
lost. There is a sternness in the word "lost." Many today don't even like to use
it because they think it implies superiority or looking down on others. Jesus would later
describe his spiritual mission was not to send peace but a sword. To Israel and to all
people he would bring a judgment. When Jesus comes to us, He exposes the darkness within
us. The Pharisees and other religious leaders reacted angrily and defensively to Jesus.
Why? His light exposed their pretense, their self-righteousness, their lack of real love
and mercy for others in need. When Jesus comes, there is always a death. We must die to
ourselves. And, when Jesus comes, there is always a cross. We must take up our cross of
sacrifice, giving ourselves completely to Him, and then we must follow Him.
There are two well-known pictures, each with the same title, "The Shadow of the
Cross." One by Holeman Hunt depicts the interior of a carpenter's shop, with Joseph
and the Boy Jesus at work. Mary is also present. The Boy Jesus pauses in his work, and as
he stretches himself the shadow of the cross is formed on the wall. The other picture is a
popular engraving which depicts the Infant Jesus running with outstretched arms to his
mother, the shadow of the cross being cast on the ground by his form as he runs. Both
pictures are fanciful in form, but their underlying message is true. If we read the
Gospels just as they stand, it is clear that the death of Jesus Christ was really in view
almost from the outset of his earthly appearance. At first sight there seems little in
them about his death, but as we look deeper we see more. It was part of the divine purpose
and plan for him from the first, and very early we have a hint of the cross in the words
of the aged Simeon to the mother of our Lord: "A sword shall pierce through thine own
heart also." --James W. Cox, The Minister's Manual 1985, New York:
Harper, 1984, p. 70.
I believe that God still has some things to say to us and to teach us about Christ's
birth, things for us to learn at Christmas. We must not only turn our radios on, but we
must leave the knobs on them and be willing to hear whatever he might say to us. We must
look, not just in one direction or not just see things one way, but we must be open to
seeing what we have missed before or what He is revealing to us today.
One of the important things that Christmas speaks to us about came out during a
fascinating conversation on Rush Limbaugh's talk show a while back. Having just completed
Tom Brokaw's wonderful book The Greatest Generation, a book filled with inspiring stories
of the WWII generation, Rush had taken the position that the current generation of young
adults, those in their 20's, are, for the most part, a bunch of whiners. He said that
while they are constantly whining and moaning about the difficulty of their lives in fact,
when compared to the hardships faced by their grandparents' generation, they've actually
got it easy. Their grandparents had endured truly devastating events like The Great
Depression and WWII. The current crop of young adults, he concluded, doesn't even have a
clue about real hardship.
Once Rush had finished his monologue, a self-professed member of this younger generation
of adults called in to offer a different perspective. Bright and extremely articulate, the
23 year-old caller said that, while The Great Depression and WWII certainly created
terrible hardships for the people who faced them that he, nonetheless, believed his
generation faced an even greater hardship.
Limbaugh asked, "And what exactly would that be?"
The caller said, "The loss of hope." He said that his experience indicated that
many of today's young adults had simply stopped believing that things were going to get
better. They didn't expect to live as well as their parents had lived. They weren't
expecting a brighter future. They have simply given up hope.
He said, The Great Depression, as terrible as it was, in many cases brought families
together as they worked side by side in the hope of saving their families. Most of his
friends, he said, grew up in families in complete disarray and have given up the hope of
ever having a real family experience of their own.
He said, WWII was a terrible event that obviously cost thousands of Americas ' young men
their lives. Then he said, and even though they knew the risks they still enlisted
voluntarily by the millions because they saw it as a cause worth dying for. Most of those
in his generation, he said, can't imagine anything worth dying for and they're committing
suicide in record numbers because many can't imagine anything worth living for.
He said, "Mr. Limbaugh, The Great Depression and WWII created terrible hardships. But
I submit to you that the greatest hardship of all is living without hope." --Tom
Marcum, Sermon: Rediscovering the Hope of Christmas
We live in a very materialistic and undisciplined society. While many still say they are
members of churches, they do not have the hope of Christ living within them. Christ does
make a difference. We may face hardship and disappointment. We may lose a job; we may face
health problems; we may grieve over failures. Many see God 's activity, but they don't
perceive it. It is going on right in front of their eyes, but they don't understand it.
That's why I ask us all, Do you Know What you Have Seen?
For the rest of Jerusalem, everything was normal and routine, but Jesus was in their midst
and they did not know Him. Christmas has past. The story has been told again, and we are
quickly returning to our routines. But, the question that Simeon and Anna ask us today
from the Bible is this, Do You Know What You Have Seen? And, how are you
different because of it?