Behold, This Child - Luke 2:22–35
Isn’t it true that we can continue our traditions and do all the typical things of the Christmas season, but lack the hope that the season should bring? We can miss the joy; in fact, an emptiness can linger. But also, there can be a temporary satisfaction unrelated to the real reason for all the festivities. The best and most beneficial thing we can do at this time of year is treasure Jesus; as the Scriptures say, to behold him. “Behold” was their way of saying, “Look! Pay attention!”
On Christmas Eve we will look at the night of Jesus’ birth, but this morning, we’re looking at an event that occurred a little over a month later. Jesus was still a baby, and his parents took him to the temple. This was 40 days after his birth, and they went, as verse 22 says, “according to the Law of Moses.” According to the laws given to Moses by God for the nation of Israel, a woman’s firstborn son belonged to God. With the firstborn being the heir to everything, this represented God’s claim over everything.
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The firstborn son belonged to God, i.e., everything they possessed belonged to God. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy all state this. It was law. And so they went up to Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord.” The book of Numbers says that parents would give an offering of five shekels to redeem or ransom the child, that is, to exempt him from serving in the temple. And also, they would bring animals for a blood offering to make purification.
Joseph and Mary brought “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Incidentally, Leviticus states that a lamb should be offered as well, unless the family could not afford it. Jesus did not come from a wealthy family. Also important to understand here is that the 40 days after giving birth was a time of purification for Mary because of bleeding during the birth. The time of purification would end with this sacrifice.
The law required that all people - men, women, and children - who came in contact with blood must go through ritual cleansing and wait for a time before entering the temple. There was a practical aspect to this - for health reasons. But also, a theological aspect. The Israelites were to understand that they were naturally unclean because of sin, and that this uncleanness was in their blood. Sin had contaminated the whole person.
This is why they offered the blood sacrifice. Each person owed God their own blood or life as payment for their sins. But God would take the blood of another - of an animal - as a sacrifice and show the people grace. Sacrifices were a regular thing, and some were for certain occasions, like the birth of a baby. So Mary and Joseph came to Jerusalem, the primary place of worship, to make the sacrifice to purify Mary and pay the ransom for Jesus. It was not just a ritual; it was worship. Think about this in light of what Paul says in Romans 12, [1] I appeal to you...by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
God has commanded now that we trust not in the temporary atonement provided by an animal’s blood, but in the permanent atonement provided by Jesus’ blood. And what we present to God is not a ransom fee and an animal, but. Our whole lives. We learn something essential through what Jesus’ parents did on that day at the temple. You, and everything you have or ever will have, belongs to God. You want to give a wonder gift to someone this Christmas? Give yourself to God. Give your children to God. Give your marriage and your future and your career to God.
But understand this: those things already belong to Him anyway.
Now, Jesus was not your average baby. Luke states in no uncertain terms that Jesus was born of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that he was the Son of God, and that he was the descendant of David who would rule eternally and save God’s people from sin. Fascinating, our redeemer has a five-shekel redemption fee and a blood sacrifice made for him. Why? Paul tells us in Galatians 4. He says that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law.
Jesus was born under law to purchase our freedom; to ransom us from the sin that has corrupted every part of us. The absolute corruption of sin was on display in the history of the people of Israel. And by the time of Jesus’ birth, their nation was a shell of its former self. That’s what sin does. When it goes unchecked, it destroys. When it goes unchecked, idolatry begins. Love of the world replaces love for God. Worship gets replaced. Prayer gets replaced. Empty traditions pop up and turn into law. And the people of God begin to look and act and sound like the rest of the world.
But always there remains what the Scriptures call a “remnant” - a small minority who hold to what is true. Mary and Joseph were part of that remnant, and they would encounter another member of it. Notice verse 25, a man “whose name was Simeon.” He’s generally thought of as being an old man because he has seen the Messiah and now he’s ready to die.
Verse 25 says Simeon had waited “for the consolation of Israel.” In other words, the comfort of the nation. Look again at 25, “and the Holy Spirit was upon him. [26] 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.” God has assured him he would behold the Christ child before his death. He would see the Lord’s Anointed One. Simeon knew that Jesus was the One. Now he viewed by sight what he always longed for and seen by faith.
Can you imagine the thrill and the comfort? Can you imagine the relief? This is a glimpse of what God’s people will experience on the last day when Jesus comes again. Look at verse 28: he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, [29] “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; [30] for my eyes have seen your salvation [31] that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, [32] a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
What a holy moment! No less thrilling, I think, than when the shepherds came to the manger 40 days earlier. God had told the prophet Isaiah that the Christ would be “a light for the nations.” Why did they need light? Why do we need light? Paul says in Colossians 1 that Jesus, “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Life without Jesus Christ is darkness because it is living under the rule of the king of darkness. Sin is darkness.
Earlier we read 1 John 5, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” I wonder if you believe that. Not just the terrorists around the globe or the evil leaders, not just those producing immorality on TV or in movies, music, or on the internet, but the whole world - all of those apart from Jesus Christ - even the nice people lie in the power of the evil one. Without Jesus Christ, they remain in the guilt of their sin and in darkness, and they suffer the confusion that comes along with the darkness. Jesus was born into our darkness.
Why? To dispel our confusion. Just as with our need for redemption, Jesus could accomplish this only from the inside. And so he was born under the law to free us from the law’s demands. And he was born into darkness to free us from the confusion of darkness. Everyone, at some time, has been in the dark and could not find your way. So you felt around and tried to figure it out. Simeon, and those like him, knew that God would reveal to every nation what Israel already knew and, for the most part, rejected.
Verse 32 says that the Messiah would be “for the glory of (God’s) people Israel.” The Christ would show that Israel’s God was the one true God. The neighboring nations had mocked them; now Israel would be vindicated, proved right. The Christ would shine light on who God truly is and what he truly requires. The Christ would do for the nations what had been done for Israel when God led them out of slavery in Egypt: Jesus would shine the light so they could see and understand how to live, both with God and with each other.
God’s people still have to wait and walk by faith, but we are not confused about how to live.
We don’t have to search for life’s meaning. We don’t have to wonder about our purpose. We don’t have to fear our future, because God has shined the light into the darkness, and the light has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Simeon looked into the face of the incarnate Jesus Christ! He held his redeemer in his arms!
Have you looked intently to Jesus this month in the midst of all the craziness? Isn’t it ironic that this holiday could create so much anxiety and self-absorption? It actually makes sense, when you acknowledge that sin is in our blood. The materialism, vanity, and striving to secure our own self-worth creeps up on us. Confusion creeps up on us; but where there is the light of God, there is no confusion. Now, notice these final verses about Simeon. Joseph and Mary were amazed at what Simeon said about Jesus, though they had heard similar things before.
However, what Simeon says goes beyond what the shepherds had told them. But next Simeon says something different. We learn that the tranquility of Jesus’ life that we sing about in “Silent Night” was temporary. Jesus was born to face tremendous opposition. This would evident when word spread to the evil king Herod. Matthew tells us that Herod was threatened by the birth of God’s king, and so he commanded that all the baby boys of Bethlehem be put to death.
Incidentally, we understand this event with Simeon to take place before that, before the Magi visited Jesus and before Herod commanded the genocide. Often, manger scenes put the Magi or “three kings” at the manger. That was not the case. Also, they were not kings. They were more like priests or court advisers. But aside from that, notice what Simeon foretells, verse 34, “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...so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Where it says, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also” is parenthetical. Simeon says that directly to Mary, obviously referring to Jesus’ death, which she would witness. But what Jesus would accomplish would not come easily.
Why the opposition? Because he was going to bring some people down. He was going to call people out. He would reveal what is hidden; he would expose secret thoughts and deeds and desires. Generally speaking, people don’t like their secrets brought out in the open. They don’t like to know that their secrets are not secret to everyone. Jesus was going to expose what was counterfeit.
This is why Herod didn’t like Jesus. Herod was a fake king, installed by the Romans because he would do their bidding. Herod did not descend from David. In fact, Herod was not a descendant of Jacob. He was a descendant of Esau.
So Jesus was born facing opposition, not only from Herod, and eventually from the religious leaders who would put him to death. He would expose them for they truly were. Later in Luke 8, Luke quotes Jesus saying, “nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
When Jesus shine his light on your whole life - every thought and desire and deed - you don’t naturally welcome it. You and I don’t want to see what is deep inside our hearts. We want to bury it; we don’t want to deal with it. Deep down in our hearts is our fears, our worries, our disappointments, our lusts, our bitterness, our experiences in life that we’ve never fully come to terms with. Things we don’t want others to know about.
The hearts of people are deep. In fact, your heart is like the oceans of the world. The National Ocean Service, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, gives data about the world’s oceans. What percent of the oceans do you think has been mapped, observed, and explored? Less than 20 percent. The National Ocean Service confirms that more than eighty percent of the vast, underwater realm remains unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored.
The hearts of people are similar. Much of the human heart is hidden, unexposed -- to us. But not to God. Hebrews 4 says, “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” How does Jesus expose these things to us now? Again Hebrews 4, “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.”
Jesus exposes our secrets by the power of His Word and His Spirit. On the last day, every secret will be exposed. But Jesus has come to open up our hearts now, to expose these things now, and lead us to truth and freedom. Do you want Jesus to do that in your life? Are you open to this? Opposition is natural, because sin runs through your veins. Some people in the first century were not open to it, and they killed Jesus for this. People have rejecting Jesus’ - and his followers - ever since.
As we go to the table today, we come to behold this child who grew to be a man and who is the only One who could purchase your freedom, dispel your confusion, and expose your secrets so that you can know God and live at peace with him and others. This is why Jesus was born, and why each of us must turn from our sin and receive him as Lord and Savior. Have you trusted in Him?
Let’s pray together.