Jesu Juva

“The Saviour You Need and Have”

Text: Luke 2:22-40; Hebrews 2:14-18

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We commemorated Sanctity of Life Sunday last week, and then this week we were again reminded just how fragile life is, how quickly, suddenly, and unexpectedly it can be taken away, and how badly we need a Saviour.

When everything’s going well, it’s easy to forget that. We get busy with other things. Our studies, our work, our families, our hobbies. And those are all good things. Things God has given us to enjoy. So for that reason, God has strategically inserted days and times for us to regularly remember Him. So that when things go off the rails, when life is quickly, suddenly, and unexpectedly taken away, when the fragility of life rises up, we be ready. We know the Saviour we need is the Saviour we have.

That’s why we gather every Sunday. Maybe this past week you didn’t think about God too much. You had a thousand other things on your mind and an even longer to do list. You went to bed exhausted, and woke up still tired. Maybe you were tempted to skip church today - a few more hours to get things done or to rest up would really help, and it’s just one Sunday. But you came, and you got a break from life. This is what you needed.

For here is a God bigger than your problems. And a God small enough to care. A God loving enough to be here for you, in a world where love is often lacking. You didn’t come here today to do something for God - your to do list is long enough already! You came here for God to do for you. For God to forgive you, feed you, strengthen you, and prepare you, so that whatever comes your way this week, even the end of life, you be ready. God didn’t forget you. God didn’t get too busy for you. God doesn’t have bigger problems to worry about than you. He comes here for you, that the Saviour you need is the Saviour you have.

He comes here for you just as He came for Simeon, whose story we heard again today. We don’t know anything, really, about this Simeon. This is the only place in the Bible he is mentioned. But I’ll bet his life wasn’t so different than yours. Work problems, family problems, life problems. But the Lord had given him this wonderful promise, that before he died, he would see his Saviour. His Saviour would not only come for him but to him. And He did this day, this 40th day after Christmas, when the purification of His mother and His presentation as the firstborn son were required by the Law. And once He did, Simeon is ready to depart this life in peace.

But the amazing thing in this story isn’t Simeon and what he said and did, it’s Jesus. We just sang In His Temple Now Behold Him (LSB #519), See the long-expected Lord. And if you’re like me, your first thought is that Simeon got to see his long-expected Lord in this building - a Temple of stone and mortar. This Temple called the Lord’s house. This Temple that was first a portable Tabernacle built by Moses, then made a permanent structure by Solomon, later demolished by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, and then rebuilt by Herod the Great. The little Lord Jesus comes home. Or, as He would later say to His parents when He was twelve years old: Why were you looking for Me? Don’t you know I must be in My Father’s house (Luke 2:49)?

And on one level, that’s right. But if we stop there, I think we miss the greater significance, the greater miracle, the epiphany of this story. Because really, God had done this before, come to this structure, this building, before. When Moses dedicated the Tabernacle in the wilderness and when Solomon dedicated the permanent Temple in Jerusalem, God came both times and filled them with His presence. It was called His glory cloud. When that cloud filled the Tabernacle and Temple, you knew that God was there. It was an awesome sight to behold. A sight worthy of a large, powerful God.

And I wonder if that’s what Simeon expected to see, or something like that, when He was made this promise. Something big. Something worthy of a large, powerful God.

But it wasn’t what He saw. Because that wasn’t the Temple God would come to dwell in. Been there, done that. That’s the old covenant. The new testament is here. And for a new testament, a new Temple. And so the Temple in which Simeon now beheld his Saviour was a baby. Not God in a cloud, not God in a building, not big, not awe-inspiring, not a powerful presence to cower before - but this. God in human flesh, with human blood. A baby boy.

When God’s cloud and presence filled the Tabernacle and the Temple, everyone knew God was there. You couldn’t miss it! But that day, only two other people besides Simeon knew it: Joseph and Mary. Until others heard what Simeon had to say. And even then, besides Anna, maybe they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Couldn’t be! Not big enough. Not strong enough. Not awesome enough. Too small. Too weak. Too helpless. God wouldn’t become like us! We have to become like God!

And that’s the lie. Satan’s lie. The one he hissed to Adam and Eve in the Garden, and he’s still hissing into our ears. That we have to become like God. We have to do it. We have to improve. We have to get better. We have to be worthy. We have have to rise up from our sins. And our epiphany today is: NO! This baby boy is your God, come to save you. In His Temple of flesh and bone now behold Him! And this is even more stunning and impressive than the glory cloud filling the Temple. We have a fleshly God.

And this is important for us today because this is not only about how God saved us, but about who we are; about what it means to be human. This is what has come under attack in spades in our world today. That what it means to be human, what it means to be you, has nothing to do with your body. And, in fact, your flesh is holding you back and getting in the way. Your body is something to escape, to be set free from. It doesn’t matter what body the person you marry is in. You may have been born in the wrong body and so you should change it. You can live on without your body, cyberly, and that’s better. For then, you don’t have to eat or sleep or exercise. And, many believe, that’s what eternal life is - just living forever as a spirit without a body. Which is really a belief imported from Eastern religions, like Buddhism or Hinduism.

Against that is a God who comes in our flesh and blood. To save our flesh and blood. Because the truth is that you aren’t you and can’t be you without your body. This is how God created us, and it is good. We are enfleshed spirits. We are spirited bodies. There are spirits without bodies, they’re called angels, of the good and bad variety. That’s not you. And there are bodies without spirits, which are called animals. That’s not you either (though maybe we act that way sometimes!). You are a man or a woman made in the image of God. And on this day so many years ago, Simeon got to see God made man.

And because he did, he said: Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. I’m ready to die. Because You are here in my flesh and blood to save my flesh and blood. My body isn’t bad or something to get rid of, otherwise You wouldn’t have come in it like this. But you did. Mary came on this day for her purification, and that’s why You came, too. To purify us. She and Joseph presented You in the Temple, and You came to present us to Your Father. And this is greater. It’s not that the glory cloud was bigger and more impressive than a baby boy! This is far greater. For when You came in a cloud, animal blood was shed for us and animals died for us. When You came in the flesh, it was Your blood that was shed for us, and You who died for us. You blood for our purification, and Your death for our resurrection, to present us in our bodies to Your Father.

You see, satan wants to separate who you are from your flesh so that he can separate God from your flesh, too. For a God without your flesh is still God, but no Saviour. If His body didn’t rise, your body’s not going to rise. And if His body didn’t rise, death won. And if death won, sin won. And if sin won, we’re lost. Eternally.

So when Simeon held God in his arms that day, he was beholding God in His new, tiny Temple. And he saw his salvation.

And now it’s our turn. But no cloud here. No baby boy to hold here. Now, we behold Him in the bread and wine of His Supper. The same body and blood that Simeon held in his arms is now (after His death and resurrection) placed into our mouths. But now even greater. For from cloud to baby to bread is not less and less powerful and awesome, but more and more. For now it is not just Jesus that we receive and hold, but all He did as well - for here in His body and blood is His forgiveness, life, and salvation, too. And it is we who are purified. It is we who are presented to the Father. It is we who have been redeemed - not by a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons! - but by the Son of God Himself.

And so now it is we who say, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. I’m ready to die. Because of all you have done for me. Because the Saviour I need is the Saviour I have.

Which is good, for two reasons. First, and maybe more obvious, is because we do not know what tomorrow will bring. No one expected that mid-air collision. No one expected that plane to dive out of the sky. No one expects the doctor to come in with bad news. But with Jesus, when we are again reminded just how fragile life is, and how quickly, suddenly, and unexpectedly it can be taken away, the Saviour we need is the Saviour we have.

But then second, and maybe less obvious, is that this then sets us free to live. You don’t have to live in a bubble-wrap cocoon. You don’t have to live constantly looking over your shoulder. You can live in confidence and peace. You don’t have to serve and save yourself, you have a Saviour who did that. So you are now free to serve and live for others. For this is your promise: that when you die, you will see the Lord’s Christ. With your own eyes, risen from the dead, and with a life that cannot end.

I don’t know how long Simeon waited for his promise, and I don’t know how long you or I will wait. But as sure as Simeon’s promises was fulfilled, so, too, will our’s be. For from creation to cloud to manger to cross to altar, we behold our Lord. And the Saviour we need is the Saviour we have.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.