David Bahn - Reflections

It's easy to get into a conversation these days. Mention COVID. Ask about families' health. Comment on masks, vaccines, or mandates. You're likely to unplug a pent-up spew of words - all emotionally-laden and charged. But what if we would learn to see Jesus at work in our lives. What if we would marvel at his grace toward us? What if we made a point of bringing people words of grace and life.

Anna couldn't help herself in that moment. Perhaps you'll experience a moment like that as well, when God has shown up, and reminded you of his goodness, faithfulness, and love. Maybe we could pray for such moments. That's what Anna had been doing prior to this encounter.

We don't often think of Jesus as needing help. He is the Son of God after all. He is the Word who was in the beginning with God; who was God. He is the one to whom every knee will bow. He is the alpha and the omega.

But Jesus does need help. He cannot do the things required of in the Law of Moses. He had to rely on his parents to bring him to the temple. He had to rely on the priests to perform their duties. He had to live from his earliest age in dependance and obedience to his parents. He would need to learn and grow and become a man in the truest and fullest sense. Why would he choose to put himself in that situation?

Jesus did all this in order to redeem and save us.

Anna is noted for her relentless pursuit: She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She pursued God. Day and night. In the temple. Worshiping and praying. And because of her habitual presence there, she was present when the baby Jesus was brought for his dedication and circumcision. She pursued God, and God showed up.

We don't know much about Anna. We know she was a prophetess. But we don't fully know what that means, and how that would compare to John the Baptizer. We know she was devoted, and regularly and often in the temple. But we know little of in what capacity she was there; though we might surmise that she was there to worship and pray and prophesy. We know she saw the baby Jesus and immediately began to tell everyone about him. So Luke tells us that Anna was a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, and completely devoted to worship by fasting and prayer.

One commentator (David Guzik) says, "Anna was a remarkable woman. As a widow she knew pain and loss but had not become bitter. As an elderly woman she had not lost hope. Perhaps it was because she was a woman of worship and a woman of prayer." 

Follow me online at https://davidbahn-reflections.com 

Jesus came not just for this small and insignificant, beleaguered and oppressed nation of people. And that out of that nation came the Savior of the world. And the Savior of the world, coming from the Jewish people came for gentiles as well as Jews.

So radical was this idea that there is an entire chapter devoted to the issue in Luke's Acts of the Apostles. This was radical. That a nation would share its god with other nations! That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be the God of Greeks and Jews alike, not to mention people from all over the world. Nearly unthinkable.

A well-loved and ordered life is not a sign of God's favor. It may be a gift of his kindness and grace. It may be a hint of a better and even more full goodness to be experienced in the life of the world to come. But it is not a sign.

Jesus has appeared. And we are the richer for it. We can look back on what God has done in Jesus to save us. Yet we, too, must wait, hope, and trust. For although we have been saved by Jesus, we are yet being saved day-by-day through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. And yet we look forward to the time when we will be saved on the Great Last Day. Then all of God's promises will be fully fulfilled. Then we will be fully consoled. Then our hearts will have no rival god to woo us from the True God and his salvation.

Powered by the Holy Spirit, we wait. Secured in Jesus we hope. Emboldened by God's promises we trust. That's the trinity of faith we must all embrace until we see it ourselves, and we see Him face to face.

God has acted. He has taken on human flesh. He has revealed this to shepherds in the fields. He has announced it with the praise of angels. The shepherds have told everyone they met of the message of the angels and birth of the Savior. Now he is letting Simeon know that he can depart in peace. He has fulfilled his promise. Jesus is God's salvation, and Simeon has seen it with his own eyes.

I need to recalibrate my spiritual chronometer. God does not work on my schedule. I need to align myself with his timing. I also need to be open to seeing just how he is working today through people who may seem inconsequential. There is only one Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, born 2000 years ago. But there are many people who God uses each day to further the cause of his kingdom. I wonder who I might see today? Those two perspectives go far to a life of peaceful joy.

You may recall my previous post regarding Mary's song. I used the Rick Warren, "If-my-bullet-fits-your-gun,-shoot-it" rule, although I applied it to the "bullet" supplied by Alistair Begg. He had an excellent message on Mary's song, and noted that she points us to a God who is mighty, merciful, and mindful. Those three words are actually in her song. Not all three words are in Zechariah's song, but the same three apply to his witness to God's character here.