Surprises for Christmas

Opening Question: We have been talking about Christmas now for three weeks … and you have heard sermons about Christmas … and music about Christmas. Have you read or heard or thought anything new this year? Have you had any surprises as you prepared for Christmas this year?


In a sense, each of our Christmas lessons has been about surprises. Tony started with a lesson that featured the surprise that Zachariah and Elizabeth received. Then a lesson on Gabriel’s surprise visit to Mary. Then a lesson on the surprises that greeted the shepherds in the field near Bethlehem. In our lesson today Mary and Joseph have yet more surprises. Even as they are actors in the first Christmas, they continue to learn its meaning. Let me give you the setting for the surprises we will discuss today:

Jesus was born into a devout Jewish family, and, shortly after his birth, his parents carry him to Jerusalem to participate in some part of the ritual in which devout families participated around the births. There were three:
· Jesus needed to undergo the rite of circumcision
· Jesus’ parents needed pay a temple tax to buy back their son. [In the Hebrew mind, every male child was sacred to God … belonged to God in a special way … and the family paid a temple tax of five shekels to release him to their family.]
· Mary needed to undergo a rite of purification. After the birth she was ceremonially unclean for 40 days, after which time she was to offer a lamb and a pigeon as an offering. [This was a pretty stiff offering. If you were poor, you could offer two pigeons and you will note that this is the offering that Mary and Joseph provided]
So, as the family traveled to Jerusalem to take care of one or more of these obligations, they were met by two old people, Simeon and Anna. [I must tell you that it gives Claire and me comfort to see old folks at the center of this exciting story.]

Both Simeon and Anna are waiting quietly but confidently for the arrival of the messiah. Before I turn you loose to read their part in the story, let me remind you of the two strains of messianic hope that filled the hearts of the Jewish people.

A substantial party of people believed that when the messiah came, he would lead the Jews to triumph over all nations. They harkened back to their memory of King David, a time in which their nation had some military success. In the messianic period, they believed that Israel would rule and all nations would be subservient. In particular, Israel would throw off the shackles of Rome. There were some of this party who were not content to wait for the messiah and constantly maintained a low grade warfare against the Romans. They were called Zealots. This low grade guerilla war occasionally flared into open rebellion, and one such flare-up led to the destruction of Jerusalem about 62 years after the events of the first Christmas.

Another group’s ideas about the messiah came from other sources. In God’s original promises to Abraham in Genesis 12, part of the promise was that “all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you and the nation that comes from your people.” And this theme is repeated in other parts of the old testament. This group, called “The Quiet in the Land” by Barclay, were less certain about what the messianic period would look like, but were sure that when it happened, God would bless not only the Jews, but others as well. They waited for the Messiah, attempting to live exemplary lives and saturate their lives in prayer and obedience. Out of this group come Simeon and Anna.

Read Luke 2: 21 – 36 and think about these questions.

What might have surprised Joseph and Mary about what Simeon had to say?
§ A light of revelation to the Gentiles
§ This child will cause the falling and rising of many
§ The thoughts of many hearts will be revealed
§ A sword will pierce your heart
Why was/is Jesus good news for some and bad news for others?
How did/does the light that Jesus represents expose their/our hearts?

And the surprises were not over, for no sooner than the old man had departed than the old woman Anna came trotting up. Read Luke 2: 36- 38.

In Barclay’s study of Luke he makes three insightful comments about Anna:
Anna had known sorrow … but had not grown bitter because
She had never ceased to worship
She never ceased to pray