The Challenge of Jesus
December 29, 2024 Speaker: Ben Janssen Series: Blessing Mary
Topic: Eschatology Scripture: Luke 2:22–40
In this series called Blessing Mary we’ve been striving to see why Mary holds such an important place in the Christian faith. But blessing Mary is not the same thing as simply honoring Mary. Blessing Mary is one to teach ourselves about the Christian hope and message which begins with Christmas. When we are blessing Mary, we are saying that the beliefs and practices that Mary exhibited are the Christian way, the way of human flourishing. We say she is blessed in spite of how it might have looked to anyone else who saw her and saw nothing particularly admirable about her.
As we wrap up this series this morning, we turn now to this passage in which we see how Mary was challenged by Jesus. This child to whom she had given birth would be everything she had hoped for, but certainly not in the way she had expected. Jesus would be a challenge, not because he was a difficult child, but because he presented a difficult path to the salvation that he would bring to the world. That remains the case today, and you and I are blessing Mary when we also remain faithful to Jesus in spite of the challenges he presents to us.
How does Jesus challenge us? To see him as satisfying, convicting, and relieving.
Jesus Is Satisfying
First, the challenge of Jesus is to find him satisfying. Our text begins with Mary and Joseph bringing baby Jesus back to Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord according to the instructions in the Mosaic Law. Verse 25 tells us about a man named Simeon who was there at that time and who encountered the holy family at that moment.
Righteous, Devout, Waiting
We aren’t told much about Simeon. The text doesn’t say he was a priest or anything like that. It does say he was “righteous and devout,” indicating his commitment to God. Luke tells us this in order to establish Simeon’s credibility for what he has to say about Jesus.[1] But notice that Luke also says he was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” The word consolation is the Greek word for encouragement or comfort. This is the particular feature of Simeon’s piety that Luke highlights for us. Simeon is someone whose life has been singularly focused on the anticipation of God finally doing what he had said he would do throughout ancient Israel’s long story. For example, Isaiah 40 speaks of God’s consolation, his comfort for his people, as her warfare ends and her iniquity is pardoned (Isa 40:1-2). Simeon believed God would fulfill this prophecy. He staked his whole life on that hope.
Simeon parallels a figure who will appear toward the end of Luke’s Gospel. It is said of Joseph of Arimathea, who took the body of Jesus down from the cross and placed it in his own tomb, that he was “a good and righteous man” who “was looking for the kingdom of God” (Lk 23:50-51).
We tend to think of the righteous and devout mostly in moral terms, the kinds of people who don’t do bad or questionable things. But here is Simeon, just an ordinary person like you and me, whose godly life is characterized not so much by what he doesn’t do but by what he does do. He waits with expectation. He doesn’t give up hope regardless of the situation. He believes God will do what God has said he will do.
The Messiah Is the Consolation
Luke also says about Simeon, in verse 25, that “the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Again I imagine that we will get all sorts of different ideas about what that looks like, but Luke seems to be staying with the ideas that the prophet Isaiah had spoken about. The prophecy was of God’s servant who had “the Spirit of the Lord GOD” upon him, anointed to bring good news and to proclaim the year of God’s favor (Isa 61:1-3). As one commentator notes, Luke is describing Simeon in these terms in order to move forward the more general hope of divine deliverance in Isaiah to the more nuanced ideas about the coming messianic deliverer. Simeon represents for us the fact that the promised “consolation of Israel” would be fulfilled in the appearance of the Messiah.[2]
This is a subtle point that Simeon is here to help us see. Whatever the “end” of the story might look like to you, whatever you might imagine “heaven” to look like or even the promised new creation, the comfort we need is a Person, not a place. The comfort we need is Christ.
Dying in Peace
Simeon had been given a promise that he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah. And so, when he sees the child in verse 27, he scooped him up into his arms and offered up a prayer of thanksgiving in verses 29-32. And then, in verse 33, we are told that Mary and Joseph marveled at what was said about Jesus, encouraging us to consider how Simeon’s words in verses 29-32 are a development in the story.[3]
It's not just that seeing the Messiah was the last thing on Simeon’s bucket list. It’s that seeing the Messiah was just as satisfying as seeing what the Messiah would do.
In verse 30, Simeon says, “for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Notice how strange this is to modern Christian practice. We might expect to hear something like that said in an obituary or at a funeral, the kind of thing you can only “see” if you die first. But “salvation” is not what Jesus does or the benefits Jesus brings. Salvation is not a thing or a place; it is a person.
And since that person was now here, Simeon says, the end is now here. Jesus is the end, the one we are looking for, the one in whom all our hopes are realized. Jesus himself is our satisfaction. And since he has come, we, like Simeon, can die in peace, even if we die too soon or in some horrible or tragic way. Simeon teaches us what he first taught Mary, that because we have seen God bring his salvation, there is nothing else we have to see him do to find satisfaction in life. With Christ, life is complete.
Jesus Is Convicting
Next, the challenge of Jesus is not only to find him satisfying. We see here that he is also convicting. In verses 34-35, Simeon turns from praising God to prophesying for God, and the prophecy he offers doesn’t sound very comforting. Nevertheless, this prophecy comes with a blessing; see it there in verse 34? Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, but then he directs his prophecy specifically to Jesus’s mother.
Destined for Dividing
“This child,” Simeon says, “is appointed.” He has his own purpose and destiny.
Now back in verses 29-32, Simeon spoke of Jesus as “salvation” and “a light for revelation.” But now we see that these metaphors are not only words of consolation; they also signal an “eschatological crisis.”[4] This is not out of place, because in Isaiah 51 we find that light can represent the display of God’s justice. And so we get the first explicit statement that God’s salvation will not be gladly received by everyone and that the story that follows will involve conflict.[5] This conflict will be seen in two surprising places.
First, Simeon says, “this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” It would be one thing to speak of Jesus being challenged by the Gentiles, that would be what one would expect. But to put the spotlight within God’s own chosen people? That is not what was expected.
The expectation was that the Messiah would unite Israel, not further divide them. At the same time, this is what was right there all along. The prophet Isaiah spoke of God setting up a stone which his people would stumble over (Isa 8:14-15), and the Apostle Paul also refers to that “stone of stumbling” (Rom 9:33) as part of his argument that not “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Rom 9:6).
The Sign Resisted
Another aspect of this child’s destiny is to be “a sign that is opposed.” Remember what we saw last week, when talking about the sign of the baby in a manger, that a sign is an announcement, a declaration, a statement. Signs say something. And this sign, make no mistake, will say so much, and it will all be good, good news of great joy!
And yet, he will be opposed. The word means contradicted, refused, rejected. People will oppose the good news this child himself represents.
Now in certain ways, this is the kind of thing we have come to expect. We see how Jesus was opposed as the story develops, but this is the first time Mary hears about such a thing, and we need to recapture with her the surprise and challenge of this sobering news.
As wonderful as Jesus is to us, he is not that way to everyone else. To be a Christian may still be seen as a positive in some places in modern society, but it hasn’t always been that way, and we need not be surprised when or if that positive evaluation dissipates. Christianity flourished when it was in the minority. It can do so again. To repurpose President Biden’s observation, “You can’t love Jesus only when he is a winning argument in society.”
The Revelation of the Sword
This is more challenging than many of us will want to admit. In verse 35, Simeon’s words turn to confront Mary herself: “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.”
One commentator lists ten different interpretations of what this sentence means,[6] but at the very least we can observe that the opposition Jesus will generate will challenge even the most devoted. The destiny of this child is to be one who will create the sharpest and most polarizing division in all of history. Even those who embrace him will do so only after he has challenged the deepest desires and emotions of their heart.
So, before we start talking about all those crazy people “out there” who oppose Jesus, we had better come to terms with how we crazy people “in here” so easily find ourselves at odds with Jesus.
Verse 35 ends with a concluding remark: “so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” This is the effect that Jesus has on all of us. As God’s promised salvation, what Jesus does challenges every aspect of our existence, revealing just how resistant to God and his way we all are. Jesus will begin to make plain to everyone whether it is God and his kingdom or us and our kingdom that we desire most of all.
As Mary pondered this, it surely put before her the challenge we all must confront. We who sit here on Sunday’s and sing songs to Jesus, will we remain faithful to Jesus when it is not so easy to do so? Do we allow him to pierce our own soul and reveal our own thoughts, what is really there in our hearts? Do we welcome his rebuke, his light that reveals our own idolatries and insecurities? If the answer is, yes, then how freely do we confess such things to him, and to one another?
I am not intending to be judgmental. I simply ask us to consider how Jesus reveals the thoughts of our hearts that do not line up with his. Do you even know what that piercing sword feels like or have we so resisted him that we don’t feel anything anymore?
There are a few occasions in the Gospel stories where we see Mary confronted with the realities of Jesus that brought conviction to her own soul (Mark 3:32-35; John 2:1-5). When was the last time you experienced it? I walked away from a woman who asked me for some money the other day, telling her, “I don’t have any cash,” when I had $15 in my pocket. As I walked away I felt the sword. I didn’t go back, but I did wrestle with it. What does this say about me and my commitment to Jesus as my salvation? That is a constant question that any true believer in Jesus ought to be pondering with regularity, as Mary herself had to do throughout her life.
Jesus Is Relieving
Finally, our text shows us another challenge of Jesus. The challenge of finding him relieving. Yes, Jesus is convicting, but the good news is that there is relief to be found from that conviction, and Jesus is also where that relief can be found.
Fasting Night and Day
Luke tells us here about another person who encountered Jesus and his parents on that day in Jerusalem: a prophetess named Anna. She was a regular in the temple, “worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”
This again may make us think of another pious person, but notice that she was in some sort of regular state of fasting. For Luke, who often tells stories of lavish meals, Anna’s fasting is important. “Fasting constitutes a form of protest, an assertion that all is not well.”[7]
Why was Anna fasting?
Look has told us one possible reason: Anna’s circumstance as a widow. She has been a widow for a very long time, and to be a widow in her day especially makes one vulnerable. Anna’s circumstance as a widow screams: not all is well.
Certainly, this story teaches us that Jesus cares about you and your sorrow and pain, that Jesus is in some way the relief to those kinds of very personal circumstances that you wrestle with day by day. Jesus is this personal, and we should never forget it. He doesn't always provide escape from the suffering and the pain, but he does provide the equipment to endure it.
But there’s another reason Anna may be fasting. Luke tells us in verse 38 that she was “waiting for the redemption of Israel.” These are words that are similar to Simeon's earlier in this passage, and to the way Joseph of Arimathea is described at the end of Luke’s Gospel. Anna is waiting with longing for God to do what he said he would do.
Thanksgiving Begins
Her fasting ends apparently on this day when she meets Jesus. She began to give thanks. Her fasting was over. The days of mourning were turned into dancing because a new day had dawned.
And so it is with us, brothers and sisters.
Look, I pray that all of us will prosper in all sorts of ways in the year ahead. I hope all goes well for you in 2025, but we know enough, don’t we, that prosperity in our life’s circumstances can become another form of suffering. Prosperity can paralyze us and desensitize us to the relief the world is crying out for and that only God can truly provide. The relief that God has in fact provided in Jesus.
As we gather together on the Lord’s Day, we are provided with the opportunity to stop our working, to worship our Lord as a form of protest against the temptation to see in our own work the relief the world needs. Our weekly duties are incredibly important and beneficial, but nothing we do is salvific. Only Jesus can bring relief and true rest to a world reeling in turmoil.
Speaking of Him
Yes, there is a lot that is left for us to do, but as the story comes to an end here, we see Anna beginning “to speak of him” to everyone who’s looking for this true relief. And may this be yet another one of the challenges of Jesus, the challenge of boldly speaking of him to one another and to the world, declaring him to be the rest and relief that the world is yearning for.
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[1] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 143.
[2] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 146.
[3] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 146.
[4] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 149.
[5] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 149.
[6] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, vol. 1: 1:1–9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, vol 3a, ed. Moisés Silva (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994), 248-250.
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