Simeon – Advent and Christmas Living

Sime­on is a man who lived in Jeru­sa­lem at the time of the birth of Christ. He lived an Adven­tist life becau­se he was eager­ly wai­ting for the Mes­siah. But then it came to an encoun­ter with Christ: he saw Jesus with his eyes and even took him in his arms. The quint­essence of this Christ­mas encoun­ter is that Sime­on expe­ri­en­ced supre­me joy and was able to die in peace. Tho­se who encoun­ter Jesus Christ will still expe­ri­ence this today.

After the birth of her son Jesus, Mary was con­side­red unclean for for­ty days accor­ding to Jewish law. During this time she had to «stay at home». Regard­less of this, the child was cir­cumcis­ed after eight days and was named Jesus. After the 40 days, the who­le fami­ly tra­vel­led to the temp­le in Jeru­sa­lem to do two things:

• They brought the puri­fi­ca­ti­on offe­ring (Luke 2:24). Nor­mal­ly peo­p­le brought a sheep as a burnt offe­ring and a dove as a sin offe­ring. Poor peo­p­le were allo­wed the che­a­per opti­on: two turt­le­do­ves or two young pige­ons (Exodus 12:8). Jesus comes to his peo­p­le as a poor Mes­siah (Zecha­riah 9:9).
• Accor­ding to ano­ther law, all male first­born had to be con­se­cra­ted to the LORD (Ex 13:2). Accor­ding to the Old Coven­ant law, all male first­born among humans and live­stock belongs to God. The human first­born was trig­ge­red by a mone­ta­ry amount of 5 shekels.

Far from all the lack of space in the inns and the birth of Jesus in a man­ger, far from all the hea­ven­ly choirs of angels and she­p­herds» con­ver­sa­ti­ons, far from the arri­val of the magi with their gifts and the kil­ling inten­ti­ons by King Herod, the­re is a man cal­led Simeon.

Advent life

«In Jeru­sa­lem lived a man named Sime­on. He was righ­teous and God-fea­ring. Sime­on was fil­led with the Holy Spi­rit and eager­ly awai­ted the coming of the Christ who would bring com­fort and sal­va­ti­on to Isra­el. The Holy Spi­rit had reve­a­led to him that he would not die until he had seen the Christ sent by the Lord»(Luke 2:25f NL). Sime­on lived an Adven­tist life. The word Advent means Arri­val. Sime­on eager­ly awaits the coming of the Christ. We too are in the Advent sea­son. Are we wai­ting as eager­ly for the coming of Jesus? We no lon­ger have to wait for the events that took place 2000 years ago in Beth­le­hem. Nevert­hel­ess, this event should be repea­ted in our hearts. Are you eager­ly wai­ting for Jesus or is Advent just a roman­tic, annu­al time for you? God loves peo­p­le who have a lon­ging for Him. «If you seek me, you will find me; yes, if you ear­nest­ly, with all your heart, desi­re me, I will let mys­elf be found by you, says the Lord»(Jere­mi­ah 29:13f NL).

This Advent sea­son could beco­me an expres­si­on of this desi­re in a spe­cial way. Many child­ren have an Advent calen­dar. This swee­tens the wait for Christ­mas and builds up an exci­te­ment. Blai­se Pas­cal affirms that every human being has a lon­ging for Jesus within him: «In the heart of every human being the­re is a God-crea­ted vacu­um that can­not be fil­led by any­thing crea­ted but by God the Crea­tor alo­ne, as He reve­als Hims­elf to us through Christ.» Augus­ti­ne holds the same opi­ni­on: «We are crea­ted by God and for God. Our heart is rest­less until it finds rest in you, O God.»

The pro­blem is that we have lear­ned to ser­ve the­se lon­gings in other ways. When a child is fus­sy and whi­ning – regis­tering their cra­vings – par­ents give them a lol­li­pop, sit them in front of the TV or let them game on their mobi­le to keep them quiet. A hero­in addict enters a metha­done pro­gram­me to divert their cra­vings. In the same way, we often try to meet our deepest needs with a sub­sti­tu­te action such as enter­tain­ment, con­sump­ti­on, work, sport or food. Wri­ter G.K. Ches­ter­ton says: «Every man who knocks on the door of a brot­hel is in search of God.«Yet not­hing in this world can ulti­m­ate­ly satis­fy our lon­ging; no suc­cess, not the spou­se, no adre­na­line rush trig­ge­red eit­her by sport or sex. We tend to satis­fy our lon­gings through sub­sti­tu­te actions. The very fact that our lon­gings are not satis­fied in this world is a strong indi­ca­ti­on of God. C.S. Lewis: «If we dis­co­ver a need within our­sel­ves that can­not be satis­fied by any­thing in this world, then we can con­clude that we were crea­ted for ano­ther world.»(cf. Eccle­si­as­tes 3:11) That is why God loves it when peo­p­le have a lon­ging for Jesus. The­se peo­p­le are loo­king in the right place. By the way, you can­not long for any­thing as much as God longs for you!

Lon­ging is the run­way whe­re Jesus visits us per­so­nal­ly. We all have lon­gings. Jesus is the right address for them. He is enough and gives enough. How can we per­cei­ve them more as lon­gings for Jesus? How did Sime­on do it?

• He heardThe name Sime­on means lis­ten from God hears. Sime­on had a lis­tening rela­ti­onship with God. Let’s make time for that too!
• He was righ­teous and God-fea­ringSime­on was faithful to the ordi­nan­ces of God and he knew who he was and who God was. This rather speaks for a distanced and sober rela­ti­onship with God – which is also the case wit­hout Jesus.
• He often stay­ed at the temp­leSime­on loved to be in the place whe­re God dwelt among his peo­p­le. If you want to nur­tu­re your lon­gings for Jesus, it is good to be often in a com­mu­ni­ty whe­re God dwells.
• He knew the pro­phe­ci­esThe Mes­siah was pro­mi­sed many times in the Old Tes­ta­ment. Sime­on built his lon­gings on this. We should also hold on to the pro­mi­ses of the Bible. The­re are so many pro­mi­ses like: Jesus fills all your lack, he gives life in abun­dance, he is the bread that nou­ris­hes us, he is our peace, he gives enough, he is always the­re, etc.
• He was fil­led with the Holy Spi­ritIf the Holy Spi­rit then meets this bree­ding ground, a gre­at lon­ging grows out of it. The con­di­ti­on for the ful­film­ent by the Holy Spi­rit here and now is a per­so­nal rela­ti­onship with Jesus Christ, which is mani­fes­ted in bap­tism. «You have belie­ved in Christ, and he has con­firm­ed you as his own with the seal of his Holy Spi­rit, which he pro­mi­sed long ago»(Ephe­si­ans 1:13 NL).

In Eng­lish sinew After with long for trans­la­ted. This impli­es con­cepts like per­se­ver­ance, wai­ting or endu­rance. Sime­on wai­ted many years until his lon­ging for Jesus was satis­fied. Let’s stay tuned!

Living Christmas

And then it will be Christ­mas: «On that day, the Holy Spi­rit led him into the temp­le. When Mary and Joseph came to con­se­cra­te the child to the Lord, as pre­scri­bed in the Law, Sime­on was the­re. He took the child in his arms and prai­sed God, say­ing: «Lord, now I can die in peace! As you pro­mi­sed me, I have seen the Saviour whom you have given to all peo­p­le. He is a light who will reve­al God to the nati­ons, and he is the glo­ry of your peo­p­le Isra­el!» «(Luke 2:27–32 NL).

Jesus is not opi­um for the peo­p­le, as Karl Marx put it. He is not a pipe dream or a crutch for peo­p­le who can­not cope with life. The key word in Sime­on is see (4x in this text!). Sime­on heard, he gro­ped (took Jesus in his arms) and saw him. The divi­ne pro­mi­se through the Holy Spi­rit to Sime­on was, «that he did not see befo­re he can accept the Christ of the Lord. view­ed have»(v.26 Elb). And now Sime­on «the saviour view­ed». We should defi­ni­te­ly see Christ, the Lord, befo­re death! This is vital, becau­se now Sime­on had the cer­tain­ty that he could die in peace. Peace means at its core be fed up. In dying, it is decisi­ve whe­ther Jesus is enough for us. The ques­ti­on after dying, when we then stand befo­re God, is not: «Have I done enough good?», but: «Is what Jesus did on the cross enough?» And: «Have I accept­ed it for mys­elf per­so­nal­ly?«In Job it sounds like this: «Until now I only knew you from hear­say, but now I have seen you with my own eyes»(Job 42:5 NL). Have I seen Jesus or only heard about him? It is not about see­ing Him face to face, but it is about a per­so­nal rela­ti­onship. That is why Christ­mas is so important. Ange­lus Sile­si­us once said: «And if Jesus had been born a thousand times in Beth­le­hem and not in you, you would still be lost.«Jesus must be born in us. Christ­mas turns a britt­le and distant rela­ti­onship with God into an emo­tio­nal and ful­fil­ling and exis­ten­ti­al rela­ti­onship with Jesus.. Any distance is bridged. Now God is no lon­ger only the Holy One, but also our Dad­dy. Christ­mas makes God toucha­ble and visi­ble. Can you die in peace like Sime­on? Jesus also wants to be your peace, your being enough!

Sime­on knew even then that the Jew Jesus would not only be light to the Jews, but to all nati­ons (Isai­ah 52:10). All peo­p­les should see and know God through Jesus, the light of the world.

Jesus our destiny

«But Sime­on bles­sed them and said to Mary: «This child will be rejec­ted by many in Isra­el, and that will mean their down­fall. But for many other peo­p­le he will be the hig­hest joy. In this way, what moves many in their inner­most being will come to light. But a sword will also pier­ce through your soul».»(Luke 2:34f NL).

A life with Jesus does not only mean die in peacebut also in supre­me joy live. He is also alre­a­dy in life enough. And – Jesus is a bone of con­ten­ti­on. He is the cor­ner­stone on which many will take offence. «For Jesus is the stone you buil­ders rejec­ted, who has now beco­me the cor­ner­stone» (Acts 4:11 NL). This phra­se from Psalm 118:22 is quo­ted five times in the New Tes­ta­ment. It was the rea­li­ty in which Jesus lived. Your atti­tu­de towards Jesus also deter­mi­nes your fate bet­ween supre­me joy and des­truc­tion. Do you embrace Him – like Sime­on – or do you look at Him from a distance? Do you know Jesus only by hear­say or have your eyes seen Him?

At the end, Sime­on says to Mary: «A sword will also pene­tra­te your soul». With the Son, the Mother also walks the path of suf­fe­ring. The cli­max of this suf­fe­ring is rea­ched on the cross of Jesus, whe­re every blow of the ham­mer beca­me a «sword through the soul of Mary. Per­haps Mary col­lap­sed spi­ri­tual­ly and phy­si­cal­ly at that time.

Advent and Christ­mas living is a cycle. If we direct our lon­ging towards Jesus, we will be able to find him and embrace him. This leads to a life of supre­me joy and a dying in peace. Every human being longs for this in their inner­most being. Search in the right place. Search with Jesus!

Possible questions for the small groups

1. What lon­gings do you know from your life? How do you satis­fy them?
2. Do you belie­ve that Jesus satis­fies all our lon­gings? What does it mean that Jesus is enough?
3. How could we make Advent a time of lon­ging for Jesus?
4. What could it mean for us to expe­ri­ence Christ­mas and to embrace Jesus?
5. «Jesus divi­des minds and ways.» To what ext­ent is this sen­tence true or not true?