Advent 3 - Holding or Held

Text: Luke 2:25-32
Series: Sing the Songs of the Season
Theme: Holding or Held?
Place: Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, Myrtle Beach, SC
Date: December 13, 2009

Last week as I looked into the nursery at Conway Hospital with the 20 or so newborns lined up in their carts, there was one cart separated from all the others. This one had a preemie in it. The tiny little girl, maybe three pounds, was next the incubator with a machine, monitoring and measuring her vital signs. As I stood there, her parents came walking in to see her, escorted by a nurse. They washed their hands and then the father took his little girl in his arms and sat in a rocking chair with his wife in one next to him. When mom and dad walked in you could see the fear on their faces. But then it seemed to disappear for a little while as the father held his daughter, with his wife looking on. Occasionally they exchanged smiles as they looked at and held their tiny child.

You know what that’s like. Preemie or right on time! Even if you don’t have kids or your kids have grown up, moved out of the house, gotten married, and maybe they’ve given you some grandkids now. You know those wonderful feelings of holding that newborn baby or infant child in your arms.
Have you ever held a baby and wondered? Have you ever looked down into that little face with closed eyes and thought about their future? What will you do in your life? Where will you go? What will you see? What hobbies will you enjoy? What will you invent? Where will you live? Whom will you love and marry? How many children will you have?

For over 4,000 years, people watched and waited with bated breath for the Messiah to come. From Eve to Abraham, from Isaiah all the way down to Simeon, Israel’s eyes strained to see God’s salvation. Yet, it was prophesied. And so Mary’s soul magnified the Lord. It was promised. And so Zechariah praised the Lord, the God of Israel. When it was presented to the world, clothed in human flesh and blood, wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger, angels from heaven glorified God in the highest.

Then, one day, a man’s eyes gazed upon God’s gift to the world. Simeon was the man’s name. That day in the temple, Simeon held a baby. The feelings he had as he held Jesus far surpassed what I’ve felt holding my newborn son. Those feelings were made even more wonderful because Simeon realized that the baby he was holding actually was holding him.

No one else noticed who had come to the temple that day. Most people in the bustling temple courtyards rushed by the peasant couple carrying an infant not quite six weeks old. He was like so many other Jewish baby boys whose parents had brought them for dedication to the Lord. Long ago God had commanded that parents present their firstborn sons for service to the Lord, but could “take back” their sons through a sacrifice made on their behalf—a lamb and a pigeon or dove were to be offered. If they were poor like Mary and Joseph, they could offer two doves. So Mary carried the baby, while Joseph held a small cage with two doves. They looked like any other poor, faithful Jewish couple bringing their firstborn for presentation to the Lord. No one noticed that God in human flesh had entered their midst.

Except that man named Simeon. The Bible story books make Simeon look like an old man. We don’t really know if he was old or young. We aren’t told his age, but we are told he was righteous and devout. A man who was conscientiously and eagerly waiting for the special servant of the Lord who would come to bring comfort to God’s hurting people. He was waiting for complete comfort, through a comforting message and a comforting work. Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

We don’t know much about the man who swept the baby Jesus out of Mary’s arms that day in the temple. But we do know whom he was holding to his chest. Simeon knew it too. God’s Holy Spirit had revealed it to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. The same Spirit led him to the temple that day, to the holy family, ad to the baby in his arms. Best of all, the Spirit led him to see in that baby the salvation God had promised.

Can you imagine Simeon’s feelings as he held the Savior in his arms? He was holding God in human flesh…cradling forgiveness in person…embracing the answer to all his hopes and fears. We can almost image him squeezing the baby Jesus just a little tighter as he sang his joyful him of praise: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel.”

Don’t you wish you could take Simeon’s place? Don’t you wish you could hold the Christ child in your arms? Or are you holding in your arms the self-imposed stress and the frenzy of deadlines during this season of preparation called Advent? Are your arms wrapped around your own Christmas wish list, oh so tight? Promotion or pay raise? Always-perfect health or always-pleasant relationships? The absence of troubled relationships, turmoil at work, difficult decisions, and problems with aging bodies and broken dishwashers and unfair treatment? Are we wrapped up, holding on so tightly to me, myself, and I that we don’t pay full attention to the child in Mary’s arms and pass the miracle in all its simple glory?

With his physical eyes, Simeon saw a little baby. But with eyes of faith he saw more than the Christ child he was holding. He saw the Christ child holding him. He saw the One who would be the dividing line between heaven and hell, between some falling and some rising. He saw the One whose suffering would pierce his mother’s soul, but whose suffering and death would rescue sinners like Mary and Joseph and Simeon from the sword of Satan. That’s why he could speak so peacefully about death.

Remember what he said, You now dismiss your servant in peace. Those words don’t sound much like the abject fear the world connects with the monster it calls death. They sound more like the confession of a man who is ready for discharge from service on earth and who is eager for enlistment in heaven’s ranks. They come from someone who knows whose loving arms are wrapped around him and who trusts to those powerful arms to hold him into eternity.

My friends, isn’t it the same for us. Isn’t that the reason for our Advent preparation and Christmas joy? Mary’s baby, the one Simeon held in his arms, was born not to be a doctor, nor a physicist, nor a company arbitrator. He was not a synod official, nor a university professor, nor a bank president. Simeon held in his arms, Mary’s baby who was born to die, so that we, who can only die, may live forever. The Prince of life gave up his life to give us life that never ends. Behind the cradle stands the cross, and behind the cross, the cure for death. This baby Simeon held in his arms was all of God’s power and wisdom and might, everything God needed to accomplish the salvation of sinful man. Ours is never ending joy for this baby wasn’t just a cute, cuddly baby, cooing away in Simeon’s arms, but one who came to hold us in his arms because he extended his arms for us.

You see, Jesus arms are big enough to hold the whole dying world. Simeon recognized this and described the Savior as a revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. In his arms was the Christ. In his arms was the embodiment of all Old Testament prophecy. In his arms was the one who had come to make things right, not only for Simeon or the Jewish people, but for the world. When he looked at the face of Jesus he saw with his own eyes the salvation that God had always promised. In his arms he held the Savior of the world who arms are around us.

How do you know that? God in his grace, with that same Spirit that sent Simeon to the temple that day. The same Spirit makes it possible for us to hold the Christ Child, not with our arms, of course, but with our hearts. Faith’s arms may be invisible, but the Savior they hold is very real. We have not seen him with our own eyes or held him with our own arms, but we see him and hold in our hearts through faith. You and I have been taught by God’s Word our desperate need for him today we hold him. He’s the light for the Gentiles. Salvation prepared for the world – you and me included. A gift you haven’t deserved. One I haven’t either. But here God has revealed it to us. In his Word and Sacraments.

Lay hold with eyes of faith and see who has procured your salvation and puts his arms around you. That’s what we are here to do. We’re not here to pad our stats in heaven by attending worship or coming to Bible Class and Sunday School. We’re here because we need to see Jesus and here is. And he’s come.

Gods’ Word shows us Jesus. God’s Sacraments show us Jesus. We’re here to see him. With the eyes of faith by his power we don’t see just water, we see Jesus washing away sins. That’s what it is for Caleb… he washed away sins…what it is for all of us. Here we see Jesus at the Supper. And with the eyes of faith we look at the humble elements of bread and wine and see there the Real Presence of our Savior, meeting us in and with the bread and wine to forgive our sins and give us eternal salvation. Hold him in your arms. God’s Word is showing him to you. That’s what we’re here to see. The Means of Grace show us Jesus.

Through these means, he gives us the inner peace of knowing that all is right with God and that we too can close our eyes in peace, committing our lives and our deaths to our God. That is a greater comfort and greater security than anything else we could ever hope for in this world. And it is a comfort that is ours in Jesus.

I have a question for you? Are you holding or being held? My friends, it’s both and thank God it is! For by grace you are holding Jesus because by his grace he’s holding you! There’s no other way we’d have it! Amen.