A SIGN WHICH SHALL BE SPOKEN AGAINST
Luke 2:28-35
28] Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
[29] Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
[30] For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
[31] Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
[32] A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
[33] And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things, which were spoken of him.
[34] And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
[35] (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
When Jesus was 40 days old, his parents brought him to the Temple at Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, a ceremony that was required by Old Testament law. While his parents were there, a righteous man, named Simeon, came and took the child Jesus into his arms. This was no accident. He was already acquainted with this Child whom he had never seen. From the promises of the Bible, he knew how a child would come to save the world from their sin and he trusted this Child as his personal Redeemer. Now, an old man, Simeon, hoped that somehow he might get a chance to see this Child before he died. The Holy Spirit does marvelous things. He gave him the opportunity, not only to see Jesus, but also to hold Him in his arms. Simeon was so happy that he couldn’t thank God enough for this privilege. He broke forth into one of the most magnificent songs of Scripture. He declared that this Baby would be highest glory and honor of the Jewish people, to whom the promises was first made. Remember what the angel had promised Joseph,” He shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21” Now, moved by the Holy Spirit, Simeon extended this promise to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike. He declared this Child to be a “Light to lighten the Gentiles,” and that includes you and me. Jesus is our Light who shines the comforting brightness of the Gospel into our sin-darkened hearts.
Could anything have excited Mary and Joseph more? Simeon was talking about their Son, Jesus. His parents knew from the words of the angels that He would be great, that He would redeem the world from sin and death, that He would usher in a new era of peace and good will, and that His kingdom would be worldwide and last forever. It is hard to imagine the happiness Mary and Joseph must have felt at this moment. Think of the plans that they had for their Son. If you have ever raised a family, you know the absolute joy that an infant can bring into your lives. You also know the expectations you have for your children when they grow up. For the parents of the infant Jesus to learn that their Son would be the glory of the Jews and a light to the Gentiles was as good news to them as for you or me to learn that our son would be a future president. This announcement was almost too good to be true. In a sense, it was.
Not everyone was going to recognize the greatness of their Son. What promised to be the brightest future for this family could easily turn out to be the greatest disappointment. He prophesied: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” This dreadful announcement must have shattered all the dreams this poor mother had for her Son. What comfort is there in being the mother of a Son who would cause many to stumble and fall? She needed to know, however, that the fault would not be with her Son; or with herself as a mother. The fault lay squarely with the self-righteous Jews and the world at large. Christ came to be their Light and Savior, so that all might be saved by faith in Him. Anyone who seeks his righteousness outside of Christ with works must naturally stumble and fall in unbelief, as Isaiah prophesied: “He shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense, and many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.” Isaiah 8:14 But the opposite is also true. Those whose faith is founded on Christ will rise. They will find this Son an immovable rock as we read in St. Matthew, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18.
You and I need to recognize this paradox in our own lives. The Christchild will either lift our souls to heaven by faith, or break us on the rock of our own works. The Gospel is decisive: either darkness or light, either truth or falsehood. Either we fall by our works, or we are saved by God’s grace. There is no middle ground.
Simeon further prophesied: “He shall be a sign which shall be spoken against.” That sign is everything that Jesus Christ stands for. He is the Light and Savior of the world, but the world will not receive Him. They speak against Him at every turn. They are offended by this sign of a Savior and delight in living contrary to His will. They delight in darkness rather than light as Christ Himself says, “The Light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light.” John 3:19 Simeon did not intend to crush Mary’s spirit with his strong words. He wanted to be real. He wanted her to learn that the world and the unbelieving Jews would never accept what her Son stands for. She must learn that the opposition of the world and their love of darkness is inevitable. Jesus truly called the devil the prince of this world and no one can rightly expect the ruler of the world to allow God’s sign of salvation to stand.
What Simeon said to Mary he at the same time is saying to you and me! We, too, must learn, if we have not learned it already, that when we walk with the world we are in real danger for we are walking with the enemies of light. The advice and counsel of the world is not the advice and counsel of God. St. Paul warns us about that when he writes, “Let no man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8 Fixing our hearts on what this life has to offer, property, goods, and fame, can only destroy our faith. “Love not the world; neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15 We need to realize how dangerous it is to go along with the thinking and life-style of worldly friends who know not Christ and who ignore His will, and who find their pleasure in the excesses of the flesh, drink or drugs or adultery. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God,” James 4:4, writes St. James. This is a clear call to repentance, and none of us is exempt. While we may not have a love affair with the world about us, we can’t keep the world from rubbing off on us. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to forgive us our worldliness and to give us the strength to live as children of God.
This is especially true regarding the teachings of the Bible. The sign must be spoken against! Christ’s doctrine will always be rejected, denied, and persecuted as the worst heresy, not only by the world but also even by men of the cloth who pervert the Gospel with the righteousness of men. What an encouragement these words of Simeon are for us to expect the opposition of the world, for where this sign is not spoken against, we have neither Christ nor faith nor the Gospel.
For Mary the text closes with the saddest prophecy of all: “a sword shall pierce through thine own soul.” It describes the worst kind of suffering, not suffering of the body but suffering of the soul, of the heart, of the mind. Think of how Mary, 33 years late, saw her own Son killed by His own people. A sword truly pierced her soul. Why did Simeon seem to spoil this glorious moment for Jesus’ parents? It was because he wanted Mary not to fix her eyes on the person of her Son and the shamefulness of his death, but on His gracious work. For only then would the greatest tragedy would be turned into the greatest blessing, the salvation of her soul. The sign of Christ, the saving Gospel, was to be the difference for Mary between the deepest sadness and the highest joy.
O Lord, through Your holy Word, create in us a new heart and a new spirit that like Mary we may be enabled to look beyond the death on the cross to the unparalleled life that it brings.
This sermon was preached by Pastor Robert Dommer on January 13, 2008.