Sermon for 12-28-25

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is just a section of our gospel lesson, Luke chapter 2 verses 34 and 35. Let’s rise for the reading of this word of our Lord. “Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, ‘Indeed this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign
that will be opposed, and the sword will pierce your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'” This is the word of the Lord. These are your words Heavenly Father, they are the truth. Sanctify us by your truth. Amen. You may be seated.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus, you know you probably know that we make kind of a thing in the church that Christmas isn’t just one day, that it’s rather a whole season. We talk about the 12 days of Christmas, and today we’re just on on day three. It’s not after Christmas, it’s the third, it’s the Sunday of Christmas, the second, or the first Sunday of Christmas, the third day
of Christmas. I sometimes say that those 12 days of Christmas, or the 11 following the big day, are for those for whom Christmas wasn’t such a good time. Perhaps they wept at Christmas. Perhaps they were involved in family fights. Maybe it’s the first Christmas that they spent alone, without a spouse, without a mom or dad. Perhaps it’s the first Christmas that they spent lonesome and blue because of all that. Today is when the tender time, what sometimes people think of as the ethereal fluff of that happy time, actually shows its substance.

In the words for today, we’re reminded that Christmas is a serious business. After all, we celebrate God becoming man, God incarnate to save us from our sins. The counterfeit Christmases, the ones that really don’t dwell on Christ, are never going to make it this far. They’ve already put the decorations away, they’ve already turned the lights off. Mere sentiment doesn’t cut it in the real world. But here today, even if there were no candles, in the clear cold light of day, we are reminded, and I remind you once again, that there really
was born for you a Savior, a child upon whom all the history of the world hinges. You’re acquainted with the first part of what Simeon said. I’m sure we sing that song after communion every Sunday. “Now let your servant depart in peace according to your word for mine eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” So Simeon is looking back at what he has now seen, what God has now done in giving us the gift of his Son. And now we’re in the second speech in which he is looking forward. “Led by the Spirit, then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, ‘Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed, and a sword will pierce your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'” Now remember, Mary and Joseph and Jesus are in the temple. It’s 40 days after Jesus’ birth. It’s the time for his presentation. What is he being presented for? Before we go to answer that question, we go back to the time of the Exodus. Remember that 10th plague was to bring about the death of every firstborn child, particularly every firstborn son. And so the decree was, God’s decree was that he didn’t take the lives of the firstborn Israelites, so therefore every firstborn son belonged to God and needed to be redeemed, needed to be bought back. And so he was brought to the temple and presented along with an offering, which you may remember was two turtledoves. That’s the offering of the poor in giving their gifts to the temple. And already in coming to the temple for this presentation and redemption, Jesus is drawing the curtain on the history of Israel, on what is past, and he’s beginning a new chapter. Now Malachi had foretold this in Malachi chapter 3. “See, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Now Luke records several occasions in which the Lord came to his temple. Here at his presentation, later as a 12 year old, and then in his ministry, especially when he drove the money changers out, and particularly here he comes to his temple and fulfills the Torah, the law of Moses, as well as the prophecies of his coming. Let’s go back to our text. “This child is destined to cause the fall and rising of many in Israel.” Things are changing. You see the point? What’s high comes low. What’s low will become high. In one respect, the history of Israel turns on this child because Israel was after all the beachhead upon which God’s invasion of this world would begin. It began there in Israel, and from there it would spread to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, from all the way to St. Helens, Washington, of all places. But it began here. God has come to his temple not just to reveal himself to his people, but to establish the throne of David forever. What is that throne of David where we’re told that Jesus ascended the throne of David upon his ascension, and from that time on he is ruled and governed all things for the good of his church, as David was lord over both church and state, lord over the head of that church on earth. And so Christ is the head of his church to build it out and to develop it there from Israel into the ends of the earth, and so overcome the world. And of course he did this how?

By taking our place, just as he’s doing right there. He took the place of every firstborn son who had been brought to the temple. He took the place of every human being who has ever been born amidst the suffering and death of this world. And so Simeon said, “Indeed this child is destined to cause the fall and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed.” And as a result, Israel was never to be the same again, because in opposing him, Israel fell. While in believing in him, many in Israel rose in faith even to heaven itself. And he fell, many rose. Who knows what would have happened if Israel as a whole nation had been faithful and had exalted Christ? We don’t know, because it didn’t happen. But now it becomes clear that the true heirs of the promise given to Abraham are those who share not Abraham’s physical descent, but those who share Abraham’s faith. And so those promises given to Abraham, that in him and in his descendant, all the nations of the earth would be blessed, have come true. And of course, all who share the faith in that promise and Abraham benefit from it. And so it is that things are never the same for Israel, nor are they with the history of the world.

We live in what is sometimes called the post-Christian era. And in this post-Christian era, people set out to make secular sense of the history of the world. That is, they try to make sense of the history of the world apart from Christ. And as we see these efforts, it’s interesting to see what human beings have come up with. One terribly influential idea that’s fashionable now is Marxism. The idea that you can understand this world in terms of the oppressor and the oppressed. Hitler and others saw things in strictly evolutionary terms. The survival of the fittest, where the best were to survive and those they considered unfit were to die. They sought a eugenic solution to the problems of the world. And that’s continued now with the abortion approach to the world. That we’re going to fix the world, at least fix myself, by killing people. That would be inconvenient. Then we have the idea that there is some society or culture that should be supreme in the world. They read Chinese officials speak of ending the brief aberration of Western significance in the world, which is really Christian significance in the world. And of course all these approaches to the world are wrong. What have they in fact brought to the world? But violence and death and war and poverty and disease and despair. The history of the world really turns, really and truly, upon Christ. Because the problem with this world finally is sin. It’s the fallenness of humanity. That humanity seeks to be like God and determine its destiny on its own terms without paying honor to the Creator. And this is of course the falsehood that all of those other philosophies reflect. The problem is compounded by the unbelief that exalts the material world at the expense of the living God. And we call that materialism. The idea that there is just a material world. Matter and energy and chance. Every biology lesson that credits non-life with creating life or that equates humanity, humanity that has been given an immortal soul with mere animals, compounds the lie. This is the lie in which the world lives. But because the sinful nature of man is the problem, those schemes built upon man will reform the human condition. Because sin’s the problem, the only solution is to remove sin and to cleanse the conscience and to renew the fallen nature of humanity. And because this is what Christ does, the history of the world really hinges upon him. Every rise and fall as well as the consummation of all things in which all will finally be set right. Now just as the world hinges upon Christ, so also your own history. Your life. There’s an interesting phrase of Simeon’s here as he speaks to Mary, “And a sword will pierce your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Now it certainly makes sense that Simeon is referring to Mary’s terrible suffering and witnessing the suffering of her son.

In some Catholic theology, the idea is that Mary then somehow is a co-redeemer with Christ. She suffers with Christ and contributes to the ransom of the world. Of course that’s baloney, so much so that the current pope recently announced that no, Mary is not a co-redeemer. There’s only one. You don’t get very much good out of the Vatican, but occasionally a glimmer of truth is welcome. No, Mary is not the co-redeemer. Certainly she suffered. But the terminology that Luke is using here goes beyond just referring to her suffering. Luke talks of a sword. The sword of Christ’s mouth. What does that refer to? Often the sword is mentioned as scripture as referring to what? It often refers to the word of the Lord. And Simeon said that this sword leads to the revelation of truth about human hearts. The thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And so I think the fullest understanding of this word of Simeon is that Mary will see the word and promises of the Lord play out in the life of her son. This is especially interesting when you think that Mary was probably one of the main sources for Luke as he did his research for the gospel. And so she would see the word and the promises of the Lord play out in the life of her son. And yes, it certainly pierced her heart in the sense that it gave her this wonderful knowledge and also seeing what happened caused her great pain. And in that sense of a sword, the swords of God’s word, that sword pierces our hearts also. It reveals the intransigent corruption of the world and of our own hearts. We finally understand that the problems with our lives are not just social and political. They’re not going to be solved by sociological schemes or by the next election. But the problems in your life and mine are rooted in sin, our sins, the sins of others against us, just the sinfulness of this world. The first teaching of Christ, after all, wasn’t vote for me. The first teaching of
Christ wasn’t a sociological theory. The first three preaching of Christ was simply repent, acknowledge your sins, turn around from them. And the fact that everybody is born alienated from God and must literally be saved from themselves. So repent and believe in that salvation.

Believe the gospel. All denials of that reality reject Christ. All attempts to make Christianity into a social movement or a political movement reject Christ and reject reality. If just trying hard gets us there, then we need no Christ. If doing our best counts, then we need no Christ. If passing the right laws brings paradise on earth, then we need no Christ. If we can find innocence in children, then we need no Christ. But all of those attempts end in futility. We need Christ. We need the Savior. The hope of the world hinges only on Him. Our life hinges on Christ and that rejecting our own righteousness is nothing we look to Christ and His righteousness. Let’s take something as simple as getting along with your wife, getting along with your husband, getting along with your kids, getting along with your parents. How do we do that? And just the most basic of social circumstances and just the basic building block of this world. Well, finally, the only way is by forgiveness. By not holding our spouses, our families, our friends’ sins against them. And conversely, by acknowledging our sin. “I’m sorry. I’ve fallen short. Will you forgive me?” Therein lies just the basic way to survive and carry on in this world. Jesus came to His temple in righteousness, and yet He offered up Himself for our sins. And thus He worked the greatest revolution in the history of the world or in our life, namely that forgiveness of sins. I don’t know all of you here, and yet I don’t care if we had a congregation of a thousand and I didn’t know any of them. I could still say your sins are forgiven. Not because of the plan for your life that I can give you. Not because of some inspirational task I can give you. But simply because Christ came to His temple. Christ offered up His life. He died for all, and that most certainly includes you. So therefore, you have been redeemed. Your sins are forgiven. Because of Christ, we have forgiveness, which means, as I said, that God no longer holds anything against you. Nothing at all. We’re free. Because of Christ, we have righteousness.

That is, God is pleased with you. Anything that you’ve done in faith, according to the commandments, is something that has pleased Him no end. Just as parents love to see a child accomplish some good thing, you’re righteous. The righteousness of Christ is yours. God looks upon you with approval, and because of that, we’re not ashamed. I’m sure every single one of us can think of things that we have done in the past for which we are ashamed, or should be. But in Christ, God has lifted us up and offers not shame, but honor. So Christ has changed every individual history of every believer, even down to our personal lives. As we enter this new year, I’m sure that we’re going to have plenty of opportunities to embrace counterfeit game changers. There are going to be political plans. There are going to be social plans. There are going to be, well, there are going to be things that if you buy, they’re just going to make your life wonderful. There’s going to be no end of schemes, no end of counterfeit saviors. Plans and things that people say would make everything right. But those who truly fall
or rise in Israel, or in the world, or in our individual lives depend entirely upon this child, the child upon whom history turns. It turns from darkness to light, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and therefore from hell to heaven. Glory be to Christ. Amen.

And now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.