~ "READY TO DIE" The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord February 2, 2020 Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church Glenshaw, Pennsylvania TEXT: "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word; for my eyes have seen Your Salvation." Luke 2:29, 30 (ESV)
This past Wednesday marked the forty-seventh anniversary of my father's death. The only reason why I mention that is that as I studied this story from Luke's Gospel about Simeon "waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 1:25) and the elderly prophetess Anna talking "to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 1:38), I was reminded of how many of my relatives over the years have lamented the fact that my Dad--who was a committed Christian, very active in his church--did not live long enough to see his son become a pastor. (Personally, if I were Dad, I would prefer being with Jesus to listening to me preach about Him.) Anyway, we do seem to have certain goals that we set as prerequisites to our death--things that we want to see happen before we die--our "bucket list," if you will. For some of us, setting goals like that may only be a stall tactic. We are, after all, quite proficient at avoiding the subject of death in general and our own death in particular, but that's another whole sermon.
I strongly suspect that there are very few people whose "
bucket list" is as noble and spiritual as Simeon's was. He wanted to live long enough to see . . . what? --not his mortgage paid off or his children married and graduated from college. No, he wanted to live long enough to see God fulfill His promise to His ancient people--His promise that from among them would one day come the Messiah--the Christ--the Anointed One--the Savior who would deliver, not only the chosen people of Israel, but all people who are held captive to sin and Satan. That's a pretty big goal--a pretty bold hope to hold onto. But the Holy Spirit Himself had revealed to Simeon that it would become a reality in his lifetime. Like it or not, every one of us is going to die. That is a cold, hard fact of life. "Sin came into the world through one man," the apostle writes to the Romans, "and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). But in this morning's Gospel the Lord shows us in Simeon what we really need to be ready to die.
One thing that you need in order to be ready to die is peace. I suppose that most of us feel sorry for people facing death with "unfinished business"--you know, unsettled arguments or disputes, unanswered questions, unfulfilled dreams. But the people who I really feel sorry for are the people facing death with unfinished spiritual business. I'm talking in particular about the millions of people who think that their eternal destiny will be determined on the basis their works. These people can never die in peace--nor even live in peace, really--because they will forever be haunted by the nagging question: How good is good enough? When you take a test of any kind you know what percentage is required for you to pass that test. In the test of life God's Law tells us that one hundred percent is required. Perfect--that's how good you have to be if you intend be judged by your works and get to heaven. That's how good you have to be if you want to live and die in peace, knowing that heaven awaits you as your just reward.
Simeon seeks peace also. But he's an intelligent man, well versed in the Scriptures. He knows that his works are lacking. He knows that if he is to be judged on the basis of his merits, he will never experience the joy of everlasting life. So instead of arrogantly trying to take matters into his own hands, he waits for the Lord to do what only the Lord can do: redeem sinners like Simeon and us through the coming of the Savior that He had promised. Once Simeon knows that God has indeed come through for him and for all sinners, he is ready to "depart in peace." We need to learn that lesson as well. Instead of trying in vain to attain the peace that will always allude us, we need to find that peace not in ourselves or in anything to be found in this world, but in the God who is faithful to His promises.
The source of the peace that Simeon experienced--the peace that made him ready to die--is the knowledge that salvation has come to him. The deliverance that God's people had awaited for centuries and that Simeon had anticipated throughout his life had finally arrived. It arrived in a little Baby barely a month old, brought to the temple by His pious Jewish parents, who desired to do for Him what the Law of God demanded. According to the Law every firstborn male belonged to the Lord and had to be "bought back" by the offering of a sacrifice. How ironic! Simeon meets the One who came to buy back him and all sinners just as that One Himself is bought back in accordance with the Law. But it's really no wonder. Even as an Infant Jesus lived in obedience to God's Law and met its every demand.
Salvation and deliverance--all of that power and grace embodied in a little Child! But that's the way God works. Don't try to make any sense of it; it doesn't make any sense to the human mind and it never will in this life. That's what the Lord had said through Isaiah the prophet: "'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isaiah 55:8, 9). God has always done mighty things in unpretentious ways--very often even in unnoticeable ways. He created the universe and everything in it just by saying the Word. He changed water into wine just by having the water drawn and tasted. And don't forget His greatest miracle of all: He conquered the greatest evil powers that exist just by suffering and dying as a common criminal, and then rising from the dead. And He continues to do His great works in simple ways: Look what He has done through His Holy Spirit for each of us with just His Word and a few drops of simple water.
Call me a party-pooper if you will, but I've got to get us back to the somber subject that we began with: our death. Are you ready to die? What do want to see before you go? What will it take for you to truly be ready to "depart in peace"? Now I'm not going to suggest that we all go home and die tonight, but, friends in Christ, we've already experienced it--all that we need to be ready to "depart [this life] in peace." Like Simeon, we have seen our Salvation. We've seen it in Jesus. We've seen this morning as we looked around into the faces of all these people who He has saved. We heard it as His Word was read and sung and proclaimed. And we're about to taste it when we kneel at His table to receive His true body and blood, broken and shed for us so long ago. May that experience of salvation, which we share with Simeon, fill us with the peace of God--peace that will carry us through every adversity of life and even death itself, and finally bring us into His glorious presence through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.
May the God who caused light to shine out of darkness cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all people, as His love abounds for us; and may the glory of His Son be manifested to you and in you, that you may be witnesses to all nations now and until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.