True Consolation
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Lk 2:22-35
22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Intro
Intro
Continuing to look through some of the familiar Christmas passages on the birth of Christ as we approach Christmas
Luke’s extensive, historical account of Jesus’ birth, told with different accounts, to Theophilus
To show their historicity
To point out the fulfillment of prophecies concerning Jesus, birth, life and death
To make the theological points he wishes to make
This familiar passage - the setting is the purification of Mary, forty days after the birth of Jesus, at which time they also presented/consecrated the firstborn to the Lord at the Temple, and the dedication to the Lord’s service
Simeon and Anna - two voices, one male, one female (humankind), waiting to affirm the Lordship of this baby boy and to give praise to God for his salvation which has appeared, Immanuel, God with Us
Simeon’s account noted for his longing for consolation of Israel and his readiness to die in peace once he had seen Christ
But the Simeon passage ends counter to the expectations of ‘peace’ and consolation/comfort - it talks about pain and the falling away of many and opposition to Jesus, a sword of division and hostility, and a sword that will pierce and pain the very soul of Mary
By carefully noting the entirety of Simeon’s prophecy to Mary (perhaps from Mary’s own account), Luke wants us to understand that there is something different about this Jesus, something different and unexpected about the consolation/comfort he brings
We are also longing for consolation and comfort but Luke wants us to ask, are we longing for the right consolation and the right comfort that is brought by Jesus? Because his consolation goes contrary to what we want and expect, so that if we hold on to our ideas of what comfort is and what peace is, then we might miss Him and miss His consolation.
And if we are not willing to wrestle with this idea of true consolation and what it might mean and cost, then we might become opposed to the King of King and Lord of Lords, as many would in those days
Luke is saying yes this is God who is a baby boy but if you domesticate him, try to make him meet your expectations, instead of encountering him on his terms, then the thoughts of your heart will be revealed and brought to the surface and He will make you see that you are not on His side, you are opposed to Him, you are in conflict with Him
That is a hard message for Christmas but it is a necessary one.
Even for those of us who have known this baby boy as our Lord and Saviour, and we are waiting for his appearing once again, to take us home to be with him forevermore, this is a message that should cause us to pause and examine our own life and lifestyle of waiting for Immanuel to come once again
Three points
The Longing For True Consolation
The Identity Of True Consolation
The Cost Of True Consolation
The Longing For True Consolation
The Longing For True Consolation
Three old people in Luke (Zecharias [advanced], Simeon and Anna [widowed, eighty four])
Shows the idea of waiting patiently - Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel, Anna did not depart from the temple
Waiting for God to act
On November 21, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter from Tegel Prison. “A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent,” he said. “One waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.”
Simeon was a layman, and the only character note that Luke gives of him is not his profession or his age but his spiritual condition of being a devout believer in God
True consolation and comfort is ultimately a matter of the spirit and not of the material aspects of this world (people, places, wealth)
It does not reside in the temporal, temporary things and institutions of this world but rather in God
The true consolation of Israel
Is 40:1-2
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
Is 52:9
9 Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
At this time in Israel, political uprising/rebellion. Like the Maccabees
But Simeon knew that Israel’s true consolation would not come from liberation from the Roman empire or to once again have their own kingdom, but from God’s redemption of His people from their sins
And when he looked at this baby boy of barely a month, he saw the promise of God fulfilled; the means by which God would redeem his people; that God had appeared in the flesh (the Lord’s Christ whom Simeon had been waiting for) to redeem his people from their sins
Whether you are in Christ or outside Him today, you will not find true comfort unless you find it in Jesus, and you are attuned to the spiritual needs of your soul, both for redemption from sin and for consolation from God
Ultimately, unless you are set right with God, nothing else matters, and no other comfort can suffice
That is the longing for true consolation that Simeon had, which ended when he laid his eyes on Jesus
The Identity Of True Consolation
The Identity Of True Consolation
Lk 2:27-33
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
Here Simeon is saying ‘My watch has ended Lord; my wait for your consolation has ended; it is time for me to die in peace’ because he has seen and identified the salvation of God
The identity of consolation
It is according to God’s Word; you cannot find God’s consolation apart from God’s promises in His Word
And those promises have come true in the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ
My eyes have seen your salvation
His father and mother marveled at what was said about him
So consolation is not an event or a result but a person, Jesus. He is our true consolation, our true comfort.
And this consolation is salvation, our being set right with God, because our sins have been paid for, our iniquity pardoned; we have been redeemed from the bondage of sin
This Jesus came down onto this world in the presence of all peoples (wise men, shepherds, ethnicity, class, etc) to save all people, Jew and Gentile, from their sins and to give them eternal life
He is the light that reveals the salvation of God to the Gentiles Is 49:6
6 he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
And He is the light that brings glory to Israel because it is through their heritage and history that the Messiah who would be the saviour of the world would come
And indeed has come now. This baby boy resting in the hands of Mary is that Messiah, God come down in the flesh.
And we notice that for Simeon, it is enough to know that God has begun the fulfillment of his promise of salvation to declare that it is time for him to die peacefully. He does not need to see the events that will bring about this salvation because he has seen the true consolation of God with his eyes, and he trusts in the sovereignty and faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his promises. So he has peace
He probably did not live 33 more years to see how that promise would be realized through the sacrifice of this very same Jesus on the cross of Calvary but he portends it in his next saying.
So true consolation is not to be found in events or changed circumstances, but in a person: Jesus Christ, who has brought us and has become our salvation, to be made right with God and to have everlasting life.
The Cost Of True Consolation
The Cost Of True Consolation
If this passage had ended at the previous verses, and we skipped ahead to Anna, this would make what many would say is an ideal Christmas passage: all joy, peace, hope, promises fulfilled, waiting ended, expectations met.
But it does not end there.
Lk 2:34-35
34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke carefully placed this saying (probably heard from Mary herself or someone close to her) so that Simeon’s praise would be seen and evaluated in the context of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and most critically, Jesus’ claims about himself, what he taught, and the supreme obedience and unquestioned allegiance from his followers that he demanded and expected without compromise; as we will see in the rest of Luke
Luke (through Simeon) is saying that if you think the peace of Christ means some fluffy idea of peace and comfort and relaxation that you may have, well I want to rid you of any such false notions.
This comfort is going to come at great cost to those who follow this child.
So Simeon says to Mary “This child you are holding is appointed or is going to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, that is many will be saved through him but as many or more will be destroyed because of him.
Notice that Jesus is the cause of the rise and fall; the rise and fall is not the effect of Jesus but He himself is going to cause it. In their responses to Him (and ours), either we rise or we fall. There is no other option
He will be a sign from God but a sign that will be fiercely opposed by many, so that the deepest thoughts of the hearts of men and women will be revealed, laid bare, brought to the surface in their response to the Messiah, God’s salvation
In Simeon’s words, we see the complexity and the cost of knowing and following Jesus. It is not simple; Jesus causes division and raging conflict between people
The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Peace through Conflict (Christmas)
The answer is because in himself he combined both an overwhelming repulsiveness of his claims and the overwhelming attractiveness of his life. If you understand both of those things: the overwhelming repulsiveness of his claims and the overwhelming attractiveness of his life, then you will see why he causes people to either rise or fall, but he leaves nobody alone. He leaves nobody in the middle.
Jesus had an attractive life; he cared for the poor, he uplifted the downtrodden, he established a universal brotherhood of all men and women; he established a way that changed the lives of billions of people and the course of this world and human history; his morality and ethics laid the foundation of the modern world. Hence, why many would like him just to offer the potential of human life or for how to be a leader or how to attract people to a cause
But then you consider what this man said about himself
John 14:6-7
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Hold on Jesus, a Jew would have said, you are saying that everything we have done for a thousand years before you ever walked this earth is now not enough, that we can now only approach God through you. More than that, we can only know God through you and that you are God and when we see you, we have seen God.
Lk 12:8-9
8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
So now, you hold the power of life and death before God that only those who follow you are going to live but everyone else, regardless of their religion and their good deeds and their knowledge/ignorance, they are all going to be consigned to eternal damnation in hell.
We know these exclusive claims of Jesus to be the only way to salvation is no longer deemed polite or correct to say in society today but can you imagine the uproar this would have caused among the Jews in Israel those days, the people of God who claimed to know and be the only way to God? Now this Nazarene with questionable parentage and radical thoughts is claiming to be the Messiah, not offer any hint of political revolution and yet say that He is God and he holds the keys of life and death for all people, including the people of God?
You think Jesus was crucified because he clashed with Rome over taxes or revolution? No, he was crucified because they could not stand what he said about himself, no matter how attractive his life was. Their hostile thoughts were revealed and the result was his death on the cross.
That is one cost of following Jesus: the conflict he brings between people. This conflict, no matter their differences, did not exist among the various Jewish sects until Jesus came and said ‘I am God, either you follow me or you are going to hell.’
You cannot escape it; the angels who proclaimed Jesus birth to the shepherds said that He is bringing peace on earth and goodwill to men, but Jesus said, before that happens Mt 10:34-36
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
He brought the sword of conflict and division to rupture the most basic and natural of human relationships by the exclusive claims he made about himself that would make enemies out of those who shared the same blood, the same womb, the same house.
And Simeon did not spare Mary. He said to her “This sword will pierce your own soul, your very heart.”
This is often thought of as referring to Mary’s pain at Jesus death but in context, it is referring to Jesus’ life and ministry that would cause her much pain and anguish.
And you can see the examples of the pain that Jesus brought to Mary throughout the gospels
Mary is called Theotokos - Godbearer
She comes to see him with his brothers
Mk 3:31-34
31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
- Lk 11:27-28
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Can you imagine the pain that Mary would have felt when someone came out from the crowd or came to her and said “Listen, this is what your son is going around and saying.”
All her claims of authority over him could not overcome the authority of his heavenly father over him and the necessity of his ministry, even at the cost of the relationship she would have expected to have with her firstborn
And it is not just in Mary’s relationship but in many of the things Jesus taught that we see how radically he redefined the necessity and importance of the things of this earth in relation to the privilege of knowing him and being his disciple.
Cost is not just division, conflict, but the utter submersion of natural relations and expectations to the supremacy of Christ
He didnt marry or have children.
Lk 14:26
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Not the type of verse we would expect to hear in a family friendly, family affirming culture but here is Jesus again throwing out our expectations of what is important in life.
This “turn your back” is of course terribly repeated, one may say aggravated, by Our Lord—“he that hateth not father and mother and his own life.” He speaks, as so often in the proverbial, paradoxical manner; hatred (in cold prose) is not enjoined; only the resolute, the apparently ruthless, rejection of natural claims when, and if, the terrible choice comes to that point. (Even so, this text is, I take it, profitable only to those who read it with horror. The man who finds it easy enough to hate his father, the woman whose life is a long struggle not to hate her mother, had probably best keep clear of it.) - C S Lewis
Lk 9:59-60, 61-62
59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
People criticize Paul and want to be red-letter Christians. Have they read the Gospels?
Thank God for Paul!
Mt 19:8-12
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”
Mt 18:8-9
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Mk 10:21-22
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
The thoughts of many will be exposed and brought to the surface
Why does Jesus so marginalize the necessary and important things of life?
Mt 10:38-39
38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Because he is saying ultimately, there is only one important thing. Do you know me? Are you willing to come under the covering of my blood to take away your sins?
Are you willing to hate everything and everyone and throw away all that gives you a sense of purpose and identity in order to follow me?
If you are not, then you are not going to find true comfort, true consolation. I am the consolation of Israel, the comforter of God’s people, I am the way the truth and the life.
If you try to find comfort in anything and anyone else, fixing your problems in your family and marriage and career without me being supreme over every aspect of your life, then you are just rearranging the arm chairs on the Titanic. You are fiddling while the ship is sinking; only I can rescue you from your sins and no one else.
And if you claim to be redeemed and my follower, then I dont want to be priority no.1. I dont want to be top of the list. I want to be the entirety of your list. I dont want to even entertain sharing my claim over your life with something or someone else.
I dont want my people to redefine their priorities, but to redefine their identity. I want to be your identity, I want to be your life, your purpose, your expectation, your comfort so that when someone looks at you and knows you, they know you belong to me, body, heart, mind and soul.
Everything else in life cannot bear the weight of your expectation and the burden of your sin. Everything we touch, we ruin them through sin, Jesus can bear the weight so that these things can be transformed. If you are willing to lose them (not just place them second), then you can find comfort apart from them and perhaps find peace in them as well.
The radical cost of true consolation
If Jesus was just about bring hope and peace and joy, everyone would be a Christian. And in the beginning of his ministry, that seemed to be so.
Bandwagon
Lk 13:34
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
He went resolutely alone to Jersualem to fulfill his ministry, the calling of his Father, the redemption of his people
Fictional heroes
Pilate presented their hero and they said ‘Crucify Him’
Lonely at the cradle, lonely at the cross
The comfort that the Lord provides may not be the answer we are seeking but it is the one that we need.
Lose friends, lose family?
Yes, because they were repulsed by me, they will be repulsed by you
Jn 15:18-20
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
That is the cost of true consolation while living in this world and making Christ supreme in our lives.
If you do not know this true comfort, may I ask you to consider Him this Christmas? With longing and right expectation
And for those of us who are still waiting for the completion of our consolation , know that he has not left us alone.
He has ascended into heaven, interceding for us at the right hand of God.
He is our comfort but He has also given us the Spirit (another comforter Jn 14:26 )
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
And the Word of God, Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
To comfort us and to restore us when we go astray. To reaffirm his supremacy over our life even when we do not submit to his claim over us
And he has promised to come back Heb 9:28
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Handel’s Messiah
Rev 19:11-16
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
He is the one who claims supremacy over your life.
Let us wait patiently, expectantly, paying the cost to find our true comfort