“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 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 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’ 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. 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. 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, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.’ And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 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 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’ And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Even though we can’t understand the full weight of what it means, the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully Man shouldn’t be the hotly debated topic that it is. The divinity of Christ, His Oneness with God, was a subject that sparked some of the earliest heresies in the Church. From the idea that Jesus was a created being, to the notion that He never existed in a physical body but was only Spirit, there have been a whole host of ideas and theories spun up by a variety of cults, sects, false denominations and, perhaps the saddest of all, well-meaning individuals who embrace sensationalism rather than actually reading what Scripture says. Critics will sometimes accuse John’s gospel, the last of the four to be written, of adding to the narrative of Christ’s divinity, and forcing that element on the story when it’s not there in the other gospels. I’m not sure how people rationalize this when Mark, the oldest and most simply written of the four begins in Mark 1:1 by saying,

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

While it may lack the poetic quality of the opening of John’s gospel, Mark’s beginning is no less clear about the deity of Jesus – unless you’re trying to intentionally distort the message, in which case nothing is going to seem very clear. John’s gospel was never trying to create a new narrative, but rather to clarify the Truth that was being so heavily abused, lied about and manipulated by forces outside the church, to the confusion of many believers. There are very specific, very concrete passages that people will point to, to affirm the divinity of Jesus. It’s most explicitly stated in sections like Jesus’ statements in John 8:58,

“… Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

In John 10:30,

“I and the Father are one.”

And His discourse with the disciples in John 14:5–9,

“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?’”

It can also be seen quite clearly, though less explicitly stated, in passages like Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 12:8,

“For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

For who could be declared lord of the Sabbath but God? But while it’s helpful and beneficial to see the clear communication of Jesus’ Oneness with God, we can’t miss the fact that this message is clearly given again and again throughout the gospels. “Jesus is God,” may not be printed explicitly on every line of every page, but it is absolutely the subtext of every passage. Jesus tells His disciples in John 14:11,

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

We can miss the fact that Jesus’ miracles were more than just acts of mercy or displays of strength – from calming a storm with a word, to walking on water we see His complete mastery of the world that He created. From the cursing of the fig tree to the resurrection of Lazarus who had been dead for four days, we see His control and mastery over life and death. In the healing of the sick, blind, possessed, and leprous we see a reflection of the unimaginable spiritual healing that He offers to all. In the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount we see, not a revision of the Law, but a correction and clarification from the broken and wayward teaching of the religious rulers who had betrayed their calling – something that God alone had the authority to do. Every action in the life of Christ points to the fact that He is God made flesh – and this is no less true of His birth. Miraculously conceived, born of a virgin, his arrival proclaimed and celebrated by angels as we read last week. As we move into today’s passage we’re offered another example of Jesus’ divinity, though again, a less obvious one than some of the others. Through what we read of His ritual circumcision, and the responses of Simeon and Anna, we’re given a complete and harmonious picture of Jesus’ humanity, His divinity, and the nature of the work that He had come into the world to do that was achievable by God and God alone.

Fully God, Fully Man

1. The Humanity of Christ

“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

One of the most confusing Old Testament passages I’ve ever read is Exodus 4:24–26,

“At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ So he let him alone. It was then that she said, ‘A bridegroom of blood,’ because of the circumcision.”

Part of what makes it confusing isn’t just what’s written, but the timing of it, because this seems to come out of nowhere. This event is sandwiched between Exodus 4:21–23,

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.’ If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.”’”

And Exodus 4:27–28,

“The LORD said to Aaron, ‘Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.’ So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.”

We go from Moses being given his commission and the message that he is to relay to Pharaoh, to God seeking to kill Moses, to God speaking to Aaron, and the two brothers reuniting. From a purely narrative standpoint, the circumcision story can feel jarring and out of place, it doesn’t seem to fit with the flow of the other events that are taking place. I think everyone is guilty of this at some point, where we encounter something in Scripture that we can’t immediately rationalize, or doesn’t seem to gel with the rest of what’s happening, and because it’s confusing, rather than sitting with it we say, “Hmm, that’s weird,” and just keep reading. What we have to remember is that there’s nothing in Scripture that’s not there for a reason – whether it’s Jesus declaring the beautiful and simply packaged truth of John 3:16, or it’s Moses’ wife touching his feet with his son’s foreskin, there’s a purpose to the passage, and just because some parts are easier to make sense of than others, doesn’t somehow invalidate or diminish the parts that seem confusing or strange. The fact that God seemingly (to us anyway) did a 180 from sending Moses to deliver His message to Pharaoh, to seeking to kill him is not a small thing – Moses is one of, if not arguably the most significant human figure of the Old Testament, God seeking to kill him is kind of a big deal. So why? Why did this happen, and why is it relevant in regard to today’s passage. There’s a lot – like a lot that can be unpacked from the three verses of Exodus 4:24–26. The simplest and most relevant thing we can take from this piece of Scripture, especially as it pertains to today’s passage is that God’s covenants are not suggestions, they’re not conveniences to be manipulated and applied as suits our needs and purposes – they are fixed, immovable by any but God Himself, and they matter. We see the covenant of circumcision established by God with the newly renamed Abraham in Genesis 17:9–13,

“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.”

But perhaps the most significant part (certainly as it pertains to Moses in Exodus 4 is God’s closing statement, Genesis 17:14,

“Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Now, we don’t operate under this same covenant today – not because the Old Testament is unimportant or irrelevant, but because there was a new covenant created through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ which supersedes the first. Hebrews 8, which addresses the matter of the new covenant, closes by saying in verse 13,

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

This is made abundantly clear in Acts 15:28–29, where we read the Jerusalem council’s instruction to new believers, opposing the circumcision party’s insistence that all new Christians must first convert to Judaism and come under the Law before accepting Christ,

“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

We are absolutely held to a standard under the new covenant, it’s just not the same as the old covenant. I make a point to clarify this because the matter of circumcision is not particularly relevant in the life of a Christian today – it was however extremely relevant in the life of any Jew who came before Jesus’ death and resurrection. This applied to Moses’ son, and it applied to Jesus Himself. God called Moses from being a shepherd, a fugitive in a foreign land, and sent him back to Egypt to serve as His prophet, as His servant through which He would deliver His people from their oppression. But Moses goes bringing with him a son who he has not circumcised – he comes as a messenger from God to God’s people, but has not taken the necessary steps to bring his own son under their covenant with the Lord. Regardless of what was or was not intended on the part of Moses, whatever practical issues he may have encountered in having his son circumcised, this isn’t acceptable. It’s not okay for him to go before God’s people with his son uncircumcised, and it’s not okay for Moses to somehow think this is right or appropriate. The transgression, despite its brief description, is so severe that Moses’ life is in jeopardy over the offense. It’s Moses’ wife Zipporah, the foreigner, the daughter of a Midianite who comprehends the issue and resolves the matter, saving her husband’s life and bringing her son under the covenant – not just because he was circumcised, but because of why he was circumcised. Understanding the key theme of this story and the importance of God’s given covenant for all His people is so significant as we read today’s passage because we can see how this applied to the baby Jesus just as much as they did for any other Jewish child. Jesus came into the world, God made flesh, but He wasn’t God pretending to be, or somehow imitating flesh. He wasn’t a spiritual illusion of sorts as the Gnostics might teach, nor was He a “man” symbolically who remained distant and detached in His deity. Philippians 2:5–8 tells us,

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

And Hebrews 4:15 says,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus was no act or imitation, but defying all human comprehension, was simultaneously a complete human Man, while also holding all authority and divinity of being fully God. We can in a way see the extent of His humanity in His circumcision, that He didn’t stand on the ceremony of His own authority, or on the power of His sinlessness, but was fully and obediently brought under the covenant, that as God He may hold all authority, and as Man He may reveal the example of the perfect servant before the Father.

“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 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’”

While we’ve already seen that the covenant of circumcision was established through Abraham, hundreds of years before the Law was given, it’s actually recorded in the Law in Leviticus 12:1–3,

“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”

We also see reference to the command that God gives to Moses in Exodus 13:1–2,

“… Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

This is the practice that we see Mary and Joseph abiding by with the infant Jesus in today’s passage. Aside from showing us the obedience of Mary and Joseph, carrying out the standard legal practice of circumcision with a very human baby Jesus, we also gain insight here on the social and financial position of the young couple. Continuing in the same passage we just read from, Leviticus 12:6 tells us,

“And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering…”

You may wonder then at the absence of the required lamb that is supposed to be offer up at this time, but Leviticus 12:8 goes on to say,

“And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

Now, we could look at this symbolically and say that Mary did in fact bring a lamb with her, in that she and Joseph carried the Lamb of God Himself into the temple with them. But aside from poetic appeal this doesn’t offer much, nor does it make sense – while Jesus was very much the Lamb of God, Mary wasn’t at the temple to sacrifice her child, nor did she understand the full weight of what was in store for her newborn baby. The simple truth that we can glean from their offering is that the human parents to whom the baby Jesus had been entrusted couldn’t afford a lamb to sacrifice. The sacrificial system is filled with examples of substitutions like this, of lesser acceptable sacrifices for those who could not afford the required lamb, bull, or goat. The Law was never meant to financially break or extort God’s people – it was never about the animals themselves, as Hebrews 10:4 plainly says,

“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Rather it was about the spirit of the sacrifice, and so God created ways within His Law that all who worshiped would be able to offer appropriately. Even with the observation of something as significant as the Passover where a lamb was required, it wasn’t necessary that each household procure their own lamb if they were too few, but people were permitted to gather to share the Passover lamb, so long as it was eaten correctly, and none remained until morning. Cases like this reemphasize and consistently support that it is not so much about the sacrifice itself, but the heart of the one offering the sacrifices. It is not without reason that we see declarations from Scripture like1 Samuel 15:22,

“… Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”

Matthew 9:13,

“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

And Hosea 6:6,

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

This is important to understand because the sacrifice of Mary and Joseph is in no way spiritually inferior than if they had brought a lamb. However the limitations around their financial means give us a clue as to the worldly upbringing and experience of Jesus as a child, into the time that He grew into an adult. The men that Jesus chose as His twelve disciples are often noted for their lack of extraordinary origins – as John MacArthur wrote a book concerning, they were twelve ordinary men. A group that contained fishermen, lacking formal education and engaged in physical labor; a zealot, who would be akin to a Jewish terrorist in modern times; and a tax collector, a man in an occupation that was seen as betraying the Jewish people to the Romans. These aren’t the men that anyone would have expected the Messiah to choose as His closest followers, His primary students, and ultimately the ones that He would call His friends. And yet the presumptions of the people, the expectations or criteria of the religious elite had no impact on the work that God did in the lives of these men, or the work that He used them to do throughout the world. Similarly, if we look at the financial and societal position of the family that Jesus was born into, it’s not what the majority of Israel would have likely expected. The conditions were mundane – the young couple living in Nazareth, a place that seems to have essentially been regarded as a backwater town, in the northern, more culturally integrated and thus seen as less religiously significant, region of Galilee. His earthly father was a carpenter, a physical laborer – there was no grandeur, no lavish wealth. Jesus was not born into a family of the socially affluent or religiously powerful, His upbringing knew none of the detachment that seems to come with an excess of money or power. Rather He grew in an environment that was distinctly human, raised by two people who, despite the limited amount that we’re told about them, displayed extraordinary faith and obedience before God, rather than boasted material prosperity. Through this we can see the arrangement of God’s priorities in the lives of His people, and we can gain insight into the very human conditions into which Jesus, the Christ, God made flesh, was born.

2. The Divinity of Christ

“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. 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.”

The time during the intertestamental period is often referred to as the 400 years of silence. During this time there was no prophetic word from God to His people, but they weren’t left without guidance. The entirety of the Law and the prophets had been given to them, their orders had been provided, and their sense of direction established. It also should be acknowledged that God did not communicate with His people in a broad sense. There were no additions to Scripture during the intertestamental period, there was not a prophet who addressed the people as a whole, God offered no further communication at a large scale. But what we can see from today’s passage and the information concerning the man Simeon is that God didn’t necessarily stop speaking at the individual level. We know of course of figures like Zechariah (who would have had the opportunity to share what he’d been told if he hadn’t been struck dumb for his lack of faith), Mary who was visited by Gabriel, and Joseph who received word through an angel in a dream. But all these events took place so near to the birth of Christ that it’s easy to include them with the timing of the end of the time of silence. Simeon on the other hand appears to be a different case. He’s not a figure that is associated with the central story of Jesus, he is by all accounts a random figure compared to Jesus’ earthly family. And yet he is called righteous, much as we read concerning Zechariah and Elizabeth, he’s devout before the Lord, and we see that he’s waiting, not for a revolution to take place or for Rome to be overthrown, but for God to provide consolation to His people. Because of his dedication to the Lord and the work of God in his life we read that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon, and that through the revelation of the Spirit, God had made it known to him that before his life had ended he would bear witness to the Messiah. This is not a broad prophecy like we read of across the Old Testament, but it shows another layer to how God was present, working, and even communicating during the time of silence.

“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, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.’”

We’ve given a long look at the humanity of Jesus, understanding His flesh and blood origins and the ways in which He abided in the physical form that every person does. This is miraculous because He’s God, miraculous because we simply don’t have the capacity to comprehend how God (who we can’t fully comprehend to begin with) could take humanity upon Himself. But just as this is miraculous and mysterious beyond our understanding, so too the reverse defies our ability to properly wrap our minds around. God became Man, but while actively being Man He still maintained being God. We come face to face with this reality through Simeon’s testimony, as seeing the infant Christ he declares what has been revealed to him through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is a Man, or rather, still a newborn at this point – regardless, He is flesh, and yet what Simeon testifies concerning Him isn’t anything that is achievable by any man. There were so many who looked for the Messiah to bring about an earthly kingdom, to lead a revolution against the powers of the Roman empire, and to establish the Jews as the dominant people group throughout the world – but that’s not what Jesus came to do. Rather than coming to strike down the flesh and blood enemies of Israel, He came to strike down sin itself. Rather than grant liberation from the oppressive control of Rome, Jesus came to deliver freedom from the grave and eternal separation from the Father – not just for the people of Israel, but for the world. This isn’t the work of a man, it’s a work and a deliverance that lies beyond the scope of what any human could dream of bringing to fruition – rather this is something that God and God alone could work and will into being. David writes in Psalm 27:1,

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

And in Psalm 62:1–2,

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Jonah concludes his prayer from the belly of the great fish by saying in Jonah 2:9,

“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

There is no salvation, no deliverance apart from God. It belongs to Him and Him alone because only He is mighty enough, worthy enough to be able to deliver that which is so infinitely beyond the reach of fallen man. Understanding this reality, we have to see, as made clear through Simeon’s Spirit-filled pronouncement, the little baby he holds, despite the very real nature of His flesh and blood body, barely over a week old, is God. He is the Salvation prepared, the Light of revelation to the gentiles, the Glory of Israel. He is the newborn Son of Man, one with the Ancient of Days – and despite all the ways in which this defies our understanding, there’s a clear picture to be seen in the event of the infant Jesus brought to the temple to undergo circumcision, and this testimony offered up by the Spirit through Simeon, that Jesus is absolutely and completely both fully God, and fully Man.

3. The Work of Christ

“And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 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 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’”

There are a multitude of passages, each one worth discussion, that highlight the beautiful and inexplicable harmony that exists in the perfect balance of Christ’s humanity and deity. But what this all comes back to is, as we’ve already read from John 14:11,

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

In so many cases it comes back to the visible works – not because God was required to provide us with justification, but because we, are so limited in our sight and comprehension, can at least see, verify, and rationalize in part, the evidence of His miraculous work. This applies to His miracles, but also to the nature of His teaching, and ultimately, to the impact that His ministry left upon the world as the gospel spread throughout nations and tongues. As Simeon addresses Mary and Joseph he first tells them that Jesus has been, “appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” We can gain some clarification as to exactly what this means through passages like John 1:11–13,

“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

And John 3:17–21,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

As well as in Jesus’ words at the conclusion of the parable of the tenants in Matthew 21:43–44,

“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

It was not that Jesus had to come to condemn, but that people brought condemnation upon themselves when they rejected Him. Jesus in His perfect righteousness gave image to the standard of which we have all fallen short, and He is the only Way by which we can be reconciled to God. He is highly divisive, in that to one side is Life while on the other is death, and in this His great work stood as the dividing line for many that would both rise in redemption, and fall in condemnation, both in Israel and beyond. In Jesus was a sign opposed – opposed to the corrupt hypocrisy of the religious elite, opposed to the misleading of God’s people. He stood as a bright and shining Light in opposition to the darkness, and in His work there was a choice given – to repent and be forgiven, or to deny and cling to condemnation. Simeon next says directly to Mary, as if in an aside, to include her in what he is saying pertains to all people, that a sword will pierce her heart as well, that in the opposing sign that stands in Christ, thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:34,

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

This again speaks to the divide, the contrast that is created between righteousness and sin through the standard of Christ. Concerning the sword that is the Word of God Hebrews 4:12–13 tells us,

“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. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Again, the word of Christ is a word of opposition – not because Jesus operates in the spirit of discord, or is somehow counter to peace, of which He’s the very embodiment. Rather this is because He stands as the Light of the world, in the midst of a world that is obsessed and devoted to darkness. And so He exposes, He sheds light on that which longed to remain hidden and obscured. He forces reconciliation of the Truth in place of favored lies, and because there have been those who loved the darkness and cherished their lies above all else, He is hated. The dividing question on the identity, role, and nature of Christ is one that must be answered in the heart of every person. What we read from Simeon’s aside to Mary is that this is something that must take place in her life as well. The young woman who God chose as mother to Jesus, must answer the same question as every other person who comes face to face with the Truth of the gospel. While everything we see from her character supports her devotion and obedience before the Lord, there would come a point in her life where she had to reconcile the truth that the baby that she carried and delivered was far, far more than just a special child – He was God. Despite the role she was given, and despite the character she displayed, the sword would pierce her heart and divide her mind the same as any other, that she might fully embrace the truth of her own salvation, and know the redemption she had been afforded through the death and resurrection of her own Son, who was God made flesh.

“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Again, much like with Simeon, we see in Anna a figure that appears nowhere else in Scripture, and yet God is doing amazing, glorifying things in her life. We read that she’s a widow, and that she was advanced in age. Her life, rather than being focused on any mortal pursuit or fleshly comfort, was spent in utter devotion to God. Despite the fact that we don’t see a direct interaction between her and the baby Jesus as we do with Simeon, it seems that she witnessed the events surrounding His time in the temple, and from that moment on she began to praise God for what He had done, and to testify to His coming to those who had been in waiting. This woman is a picture of what the response of all Jews should have been to the arrival of their Messiah. Her life was a constant display of complete commitment to the Lord, and we read that she was not just a worshipper, but a prophetess, a recipient of divine word. As soon as she witnesses the reality that the Christ has come her message becomes about Him – she doesn’t stop worshiping God, but the way in which she’s doing this changes because the entire dynamic changes. She’s no longer waiting for something, the redemption of her people has arrived, the One who will do the work that was forever beyond all of fallen humanity has come. This is the work of God and God alone, but it comes to these people who have been eagerly, patiently waiting, in the form of a newborn baby. In these things we can see the might and deity of Jesus, we can see the reality of His flesh and blood existence, and we can understand in part the might of God, present in the Man and the work He did upon the earth, on into eternity.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVOEm08FeXY