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JESUS WAS BROUGHT IN SO THAT WE CAN DEPART.
In
the name + of Jesus.
Do you remember the first time you were
brought to church? Probably not. Odds are you were brought to church as an
infant. It is worth asking: Why did your
parents bring you to church at such a tender age, at an age where you could not
understand what was going on? One
practical reason is that your parents could not leave you home alone. They took you everywhere because they had
to. But why did they make it a point to
bring you to church? I guess you could
say, ‘To be baptized,’ and that would be true enough. But then they brought you back, week after
week. For what purpose? It is because they knew you were going to die
one day.
We gather in God’s house because here God
delivers good things to us. Here, the
Holy Spirit strengthens and keeps us in the one, true faith. Here, the Lord prepares us to depart from
this life in peace. For those who bear
the guilt of sin, God brings the forgiveness sins. For those who struggle to be faithful when
all your friends tell you that it doesn’t matter, God gives strength so that
you continue to devote yourself to good works.
For those who weep over losses, especially of loved ones, God brings
consolation and hope for an eternity without tears. For those who feel anxious or weary or
helpless, God invites you to rest in his mercy and to let him care for
you. For those who are going to die, God
assures you of the resurrection of your mortal body to incorruptible,
imperishable glory.
Your parents or friends brought you to
God’s house because they knew you need all these blessings. They brought you back because they knew that
you would need them all throughout your life.
Now that you are older and have learned for yourself that life on earth
is hard and temporary, you recognize that you need God’s gracious
blessings. And you bring your own
children and family and friends here because you are eager for them to have
what you have. Why? It is because you know that one day you and they
and everyone are going to die. And only
Jesus Christ allows you to depart from this world in peace.
When Jesus was forty days old, he was
brought to the temple for the first time.
St. Luke tells us the purpose. “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. (As it is written in the law of the Lord,
‘Every firstborn male will be called holy to the Lord.’) And they came to offer a sacrifice according
to what was said in the law of the Lord, ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young
pigeons’” (Luke 2:22-24). Jesus was
entrusted to parents who were faithful to the Lord. They took God’s word seriously, which had
commanded them to redeem the firstborn.
The Lord had delivered the firstborn of Israel from death at the first
Passover. So, the Lord declared that
every firstborn was his. He commanded the
parents that their firstborn was to be redeemed with a sacrifice and would then
be regarded as their own. And so, two
birds were slain for Jesus in fulfillment of God’s Law.
The presentation
of our Lord at the temple served another purpose. It allowed the Lord to keep his promise to
Simeon. “It had been revealed to him
by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s
Christ. Moved by the Spirit he went into
the temple courts. When the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the
law, Simeon took him into his arms and praised God” (Luke 2:26-28). I wonder if Simeon was surprised to see the
baby Jesus. God’s promise to him was
that he would see the Christ. Did he
think he would meet a full-grown man who had come to do great things? Did he expect to see a royal figure preparing
to establish his throne in Jerusalem? I
don’t know. But what he did see was a
baby who was brought into the temple by his parents. Jesus was years away from fulfilling his
mission. But Simeon was not
disappointed. On the contrary, he was
comforted. God had kept his word to
Israel; the Messiah had come. God had
kept his word to Simeon; he saw the Lord’s Christ. Jesus was brought in so that he could depart
in peace.
Although Luke
does not say it specifically, we presume that Simeon was an old man. A compelling reason for this presumption is
that he is paired with the prophetess, Anna, who was an elderly woman. If Simeon was an old man, he knew that the
coming of the Christ was imminent. He
did not have much time left to see the Lord’s salvation for himself. When the Holy Spirit finally led him to the
Christ child, “Simeon took him into his arms and praised God. He said, ‘Lord, you now dismiss your servant
in peace, according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation’”
(Luke 2:28-30). Jesus was brought in
so that Simeon could depart in peace.
What could
have produced such peace in Simeon? It
is the same thing that produces such peace in you. Simeon knew that he was about to die. There was no escaping it. But wait!
There was! The Christ child would
do what the prophetess Anna said he was going to do. “She kept speaking about the child to all
who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Now, if there is a redemption, that means a
price is being paid. It is a ransom
payment. Jesus would ransom you from
death and hell. He was brought in so
that you could depart in peace.
The Bible
reminds us, “Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through
sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). All have sinned, and therefore all are going
to die. The only way to escape death is
for sin to be removed. The Christ was
brought into the world to remove sin and its curse. He would pay the price that sets us
free. And the cost to set you free is
the life of God the Son.
Now, God
cannot die, but man can. So, in order
for God the Son to die, he had to become a flesh-and-blood human being. Jesus is God who became a man to exchange his
life for yours, his innocence for your guilt.
You do not rely on the blood of sheep or turtledoves to redeem you. You have the blood of God’s Son which has
redeemed you. He is the ransom payment
which had been paid to deliver you from all guilt. The little child whom Simeon held in his arms
would go into death for him and for all people.
On the third day, the lifeless body of Jesus resumed his life. He overcame death at his resurrection to
prove that the payment to redeem you is sufficient. If the payment were not enough, Jesus would
have remained dead. But Jesus lives! The grave has lost its power. It will have to give you back at the command
of Jesus when he returns again on the Last Day.
Therefore,
there is an escape from death. And therefore,
like Simeon, you can depart this life in peace.
You know that your future is a heavenly one. You know that your eternity will be spent
living in glory. You know that your
body—no matter how frail it might get, no matter how much pain it suffers, no
matter how serious a disability it has taken on—your body will be raised
up. It will be renewed to
perfection. It will never again suffer
any corruption. And if that is your
future, you have no reason to fear.
Jesus was brought into this world so that you can depart from this world
in peace.
This is why
your parents brought you to church week after week. This is why we invite our own family and
friends to be at church with us. Better
than a polite invitation is to actually bring them. This will make them more comfortable coming
to an unfamiliar place. And if they are
not ready to set foot in church yet, then bring them to your house to talk
about the faith. Your pastor will be
happy to meet with them and answer whatever questions they have. You know that you can depart from this life
in peace because you know what your judgment is and you know what eternity has
in store for you. Imagine facing death
without any such assurance!
The Lord Jesus
was brought in so that we can depart in peace.
The Lord Jesus was brought into this world so that no one should have to
live in terror. Sadly, that will still
happen. And Simeon warned that it would. Simeon foretold it: “Listen carefully,
this child is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a
sign that is spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).
There are many
who feel no need for Jesus. In some
cases, they love their sins too much.
Even though Jesus took their sins away, they have taken them back and
live in them. In other cases, people
believe that they are good enough to stand before God in the judgment. They speak against Jesus, insulted that they
should need a Savior. They exalt
themselves and trust in their own decency.
But those who raise themselves up will be forced to fall before Jesus
when he comes again. They have rejected
the ransom price and remain captive to sin and death.
On the other
hand, those who fall before him now in repentance will be raised up on the Last
Day. Rather than exalting yourself
before Jesus, you acknowledge what you are—one who is a sinner who cannot
deliver yourself from sin or death. If
you cannot do it, you must trust in Jesus to deliver you. And he has.
He has paid the ransom price for you.
He presents you to his Father as one who has been purified by his
blood. Those who fall before Jesus in
repentance will be raised up and exalted by Jesus.
Jesus was
brought to the temple where he was redeemed by the blood of two birds. But now he lives to redeem you by his own
shed blood. And he delivers that blood
to you here from this altar. This is why
God’s people come to God’s house. You
were first brought here to be cleansed in the waters of baptism. You come back to be fed with the body and
blood of Jesus. You do this because you
know you are going to die one day, but Jesus is your refuge and your ransom from
death. Having taken the body and blood
of Christ into ourselves, we sing along with Simeon and rejoice with him. For, we have seen the Lord’s light and glory
and salvation. We can depart from this
house and from this life in peace.
Jesus was
brought into this world so that you could depart from this world in peace. Like Simeon, you can be at peace even when
death comes because death is not forever.
Life with Jesus Christ is. You have
nothing to fear. Jesus lives!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
