Or, A Christmas Call to Consolation Luke 2:21-38 December 26, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Here we are on the last Lord’s Day of the year, during the sermon part of Consecration, the part of our liturgy which focuses on setting us apart to the Lord. Consecration belongs with our sanctification; we are being conformed into greater Christlike holiness and transformed into greater Christlike glory. There has maybe been no greater test of my sanctification this past year than following the Snohomish Health District on Twitter.

Hold that in mind for a moment, because it connects to it being the day after Christmas, the day after our feasting over the Incarnation of God’s Son. Perhaps today is a tough day because you spent most of your energy getting ready for, and hopefully then enjoying, your day yesterday. Often, when a big event is done, it’s tempting to want to be all done.

What you may need is comfort, consolation. Because the Lord is the one in charge, He decides when we are done, and when He has more for us to do.

The SnoHD knows that the last couple years have been tough for people (not self-aware enough to consider how they have played a part in that). But to help us out, they’ve been sharing every week under the hashtag #WallpaperWednesday images of snowflakes or sunsets or cozy couches with some sentimental comment like a cat poster. Last Wednesday’s wallpaper was a cup with a peppermint stick in a festive setting with the words “comfort and joy.” No source or reason for either, just an exhortation to share comfort and joy with others rather than your (usual) jerk self. You can see what a test that could be.

True consolation, not as in a second place prize, but as comfort, the easing of grief and burden and pain, only comes in the Savior, Jesus Christ. He must be named, He must be believed. There is no other hope.

Jesus is called “the consolation of Israel” in Luke 2. He was identified by a man named Simeon, by the Holy Spirit, in the passage following the angelic army choir celebrating Christ’s birth. In this advent season we’ve looked at the Annunciation, the Magnificat, the Birth in Bethlehem, and the shepherds receiving the good news of great joy. The next paragraphs happen a little more than a week and a month later. We’re post Christmas. God is still in flesh, and yet there is a ways to go.

As in the previous messages we’ll look at the story, a doctrine, and a use.

The Nunc Dimittis – Luke 2:21-38

All the law is being fulfilled by Joseph and Mary. They name their son Jesus, they have him circumcized at the right time (eight days later), and they present their first-born at the Temple (according to Exodus 13:2), while making Mary’s purification offering forty days after the birth (according to Leviticus 12:6). The turtle-doves were a poor man’s option, confirming that Joseph was not wealthy in worldly terms.

At the Temple they were met by a man named Simeon. Luke identifies Simeon as “righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (verse 25). It is somewhat unique that the Spirit was upon him, and the phrase “consolation of Israel” is definitely unique. Consolation is a cognate of the well-known Greek word parkletos. The comfort of Israel is not a phrase found in any other passage; Anna, in the next paragraph, calls Jesus the “redemption of Israel.” In Jesus Isaiah’s words ring true: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1).

The part that really stands out is verse 26:

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Though not identified as a prophet or a priest, nor necessarily as an old man, the impression is that Simeon had been given special, supernatural revelation by God, and had been waiting for a long time. The same Spirit took Simeon to the[...]