Bible Text: Luke 2:23-40 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Christmas 2019 | When St. Paul says that God sent His Son in the fullness of time, he’s not simply saying that it was the perfect time in human history to send Jesus. Now, it was that. You couldn’t pick a better time, when all the known world was under Roman control, when the Greek language was spoken everywhere – St. Paul’s missionary journeys prove this – he can go through all Turkey, through Thrace, through Macedonia, through Greece, all the way to Rome, and speak the same language the entire time with no need for an interpreter or a passport. You can’t do that today and you couldn’t do that at any other time in history. It was the perfect time for the spread of Christianity to the nations. But that, again, is not all St. Paul is saying. Nor is it simply that all the prophecies are now fulfilled – though again, this is true, hundreds of prophecies, detailing Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem, the virgin birth, the kind of death he would die, are all fulfilled in this fullness of time. Israel itself is fulfilled, all its laws, all its ceremonies, its temple, its sacrifice, its reason for existing, all of it. But not even this fully explains these beautiful words, “the fullness of time.” It’s not that God had to wait for the fullness of time to become a man, it’s that God becoming a man makes the fullness of time. It’s why time exists, why the world exists, why we exist. Why human history took the course it did up to Jesus’ birth and why it’s taken the course it has since his birth. People become obsessed with politics, with the direction of a single country at a single time, but no president, no impeachment, no form of government gives meaning to your time on this earth. Only Christmas, the birth of God in the flesh, the fullness of eternity coming to us in the fullness of time, can do that.
This is why Simeon speaks the way he does in our Gospel this morning. It’s a beautiful scene. This old man holding a baby in his arms and saying he’s now ready to die. It’s not because of anything he’s done, holding Jesus isn’t some final item on his bucket list he’s fulfilled, it’s that God is now a man, so Simeon can die in peace. Simeon sings to a baby, as most of us have done, but instead of some lullaby or baby talk meant to comfort a crying child, he addresses this six-week old as Lord and pours out his heart to Him. Imagine that. Simeon is holding God, but God’s a helpless baby, who needs Mary’s milk to live and Simeon’s old arms to hold him, and he tells God that now that he’s seen Him, now that he knows God’s come in the flesh, he’s at peace, death doesn’t scare him, hell doesn’t terrify him, sin doesn’t oppress his conscience, life on this sinful earth doesn’t enthrall him. He’s content. And it’s precisely because God’s become a baby. That baby in his arms hasn’t come to threaten him or punish him. He’s come as He said, weak and lowly, to bear away Simeon’s death and sin and open the way to everlasting life.
And Simeon doesn’t leave it there. This isn’t just some personal religious experience that means something for poor old Simeon, but nothing for anyone else. No, this child, Simeon says, will be for the fall and the rise of many in Israel. He will be a sign that is spoken against. He will reveal the thoughts of hearts. When faced with this Jesus, the world faces a crisis. You can either do as Simeon did, welcome Him into your arms, humble yourself and admit you need this little baby, that He is your salvation and your peace before God, or this little baby will be a sign of offense. There is no middle way. He who is not with me is against me, Jesus says. And he who does not gather with me, scatters. This is the universal relevance of Christmas. This is the fullness of time.
And it must be this way. Think of it. God became a baby. God walked on this earth. The eternal Creator. He breathed this air in His lungs. Simeon held his little body in his arms. He grew up in Nazareth. He preached and taught and performed miracles and then suffered torture and death on a cross. He rose again the third day. What do you think of Him? He can’t be ignored. He says He comes to bear your sin. He says you need Him. That He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one goes to the Father except through Him. He offers eternal life to all who trust in Him. He gives peace to the pained conscience, He gives meaning to lives that seem useless and futile. He reveals the thoughts of the Christian heart, yes I am a sinner, yes I have wasted so much time, yes I have obsessed over the most useless things, and I confess it all, vanity, vanity, all is vanity, except this baby in Simeon’s arms, there is no vanity there, except the body and the blood placed into my mouth. Here is life. Here is to know God, to know His love, to know I am a son and an heir of my Father through His Son Jesus Christ my Lord, that I have access to the ear of God, that He hears my prayers, that I don’t have to slave and work like a servant to win his favor, because my Lord Jesus has won His favor for me, He has given me His Spirit, made me a child of His Father in my Baptism. This is what Simeon means when he says that Jesus will be the rising, the resurrection, of many.
But he will also be the ruin of many. Jesus didn’t come to ruin. He came to save. But those who reject Him ruin themselves. And again, the thoughts of hearts are revealed. What do you think of this Jesus? That you don’t need Him? That you never asked God to become a man and bear your sin? That you don’t believe it? That it’s just religious muth? That your sin doesn’t require that kind of sacrifice? Or that your sin is somehow too great? Let God be true and every man a liar. The truth of Christmas, this fullness of time, why it remains the great crisis, the great point of decision for every human being on this earth, is that God did take on human nature, and what He took on needed redeeming. Why else would God become a man?
We were all, as St. Paul says, under the law. That means under the law’s condemnation. It requires perfection of us. To love God above all things and to love each other as ourselves. Countless religions tried to come out from under the law. The Jews tried, the pagans tried. They obeyed rules upon rules. They sacrificed and they worked. But none of it could stop the law’s accusation, you aren’t good enough for God, you can’t call Him your Father, you haven’t behaved like a son. The law always throws the slave out of the house. He can’t inherit with the children. But then the true Son steps in. The Son of the Father. He comes in the fullness of time. Born of a woman. Born under the law. He takes all the law’s accusations on Himself. He cries out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” He bears it all for us, to redeem us, to make us sons. Because if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
The time after Christmas is known as the most depressing time of the year. Did you know that? More suicides, more depression than any other time. It has something to do with being the middle of winter. But it has more to do with the obvious vanity of it all. We’re all like Ralph, wanting the red ryder bbgun, getting it, and then shooting our eye out. The good times pass so quick. Christmas is gone. The gifts you looked forward to once again didn’t give you the lasting pleasure you thought they might. The family came, but it wasn’t like old times. And once again the age old proverb proves itself – vanity, vanity, all is vanity. What is this life about anyway?
And that is why we need to remember that Christmas has ushered in the fullness of time. Let Jesus expose the thoughts of your hearts. All the sin, all the unfulfilled hopes, all the feelings of emptiness, all the continued expectations for the future in this sinful world, all the vanity. And let Jesus fill you with thoughts of Him. There is no vanity with Jesus. No emptiness. Only fullness. Pure love for You from God Himself. Adoption into the family of heaven. Sins erased. Enmity and bitterness broken down. An eternal future. Perfect peace and contentment. The Spirit of God living in you. His angels watching over you. That’s what Christmas means.
Simeon, by the way, still had to believe it. He was saved by faith, not by sight. It’s not like Jesus was shining in his arms. There’s nothing special about this baby on the outside. His parents are poor. They offer a couple pigeons for Mary’s purification, because they can’t afford a lamb. The baby is only a baby to the eyes. Simeon confesses, “My eyes have seen your salvation” because he believes God’s Word, that this baby is God, not because his eyes see some wonder. And the same holds true for us. When we sing Simeon’s song, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel,” we’re making the same confession, that we have seen nothing but bread and wine, we’ve tasted nothing but these common things, but our eyes have seen salvation, God in the flesh has touched our lips. He has given us peace and salvation. And so we’re ready for anything time brings, anything the New Year brings, for death, for life, because we are God’s children, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and this is His world, and He is ours and we are His.
Let us pray:
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child
Make thee a bed, soft undefiled
Within my heart that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for thee.