“Magnificat.” “Benedictus.” “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” And “Nunc Dimittis.” That is the playlist at the beginning of Luke’s gospel. Of course those are Latin words, and there’s always the danger of sounding a little too big for your britches any time you work Latin lingo into everyday speech, but through the history of the Church, these are the names that are given to the songs or the speeches that we find in the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. In the Latin translation of the Bible, these are the first words of each song. “Magnificat” is Mary’s song in Luke chapter 1 verse 46. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” In chapter 1 verse 68, Zechariah, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and he speaks “Benedictus” – “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.” And the angels, they praised God before the shepherds in Luke chapter 2 verse 14 saying, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” – “Glory to God in the highest.”
And then, there is the blessing of Simeon that we come to tonight in Luke chapter 2 verse 29. It can be found on page 857 in your pew Bibles. It is “Nunc Dimittis” – “Now you are letting your servant depart in peace.” It’s not Spotify and it’s not Apple Music, but this is Luke’s playlist. And these four songs at the beginning of this gospel are the soundtrack for the story that is being told. They set the tone for these opening chapters. They interpret the significance of these events. But more than that, most of all, they show us that the birth of Jesus is reason to rejoice and is reason to praise God. And that really is the dominant note of these opening chapters of this gospel. It’s that this is good news! These are glad tidings. Christ, the Savior, has been born! This is good news of great joy for all people to the glory of God. So don’t miss that. Don’t miss the amazement and the wonder that comes with Jesus’ birth because it’s that amazement and it’s that wonder that is at the heart of advancing Christ’s mission to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. So we’ll see that tonight in this section of chapter 2 and that will be our outline. It will be, one – a Hebrew of Hebrews, and two – Joy to the World. A Hebrew of Hebrews and Joy to the World. Let’s go to God in prayer before we read His Word.
Our Father, we long to have wonder and awe and amazement before this revelation of who Jesus is and what He came to do. We long tonight to have joy and to praise You both with our lips and with our lives. And yet we can do none of it without the Holy Spirit. And so with that same Spirit that filled Mary and Zechariah and the angels and Simeon as well, would You fill us and give us understanding and insight, illumination into Your Word. Would You teach us and help us to respond to Jesus with praise and to go out to share the Word, the good news about Him wherever we go. And would You be glorified as we do that. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 21:
“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’ Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.’
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’
And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’ And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
A Hebrew of Hebrews
One of the remarkable things about Jesus’ birth and His childhood is how unremarkable it actually is. He was born in the way of natural childbirth and He was wrapped up in the way that is at least very similar to the way almost every baby has been wrapped up that has ever been born. Verse 40 says, “The child grew and became strong.” Jesus increased in “wisdom, in stature;” in other words, He got taller each year. Mary and Joseph, they could have marked his height on a door frame and it would have notched up little by little every year. You would have been able to plot his weight percentile, you know that number that we as young parents would obsess over as our children were little. You could have plotted His weight percentile as He grew up and got bigger from one month to three months to one year to six years and so on. Jesus would have outgrown His clothes. He would have needed new shoes. He would have learned how to talk by listening to His parents speak and by starting to try out new sounds and to form very basic words. He would have observed and tasted and touched and asked questions all in an effort to learn about the world around Him. And that would have included Him being taught the Scriptures and being taught how to pray.
All of the things that go into growing up were a part of Jesus’ childhood, but in all of those things, we hardly know any details. In fact, Matthew and Luke are the only gospels that tell us anything about Jesus’ birth and His early years, and even those gospels, the details are very sparse. We just don’t know that much about Jesus’ birth and childhood. But what we know, much of it seems very ordinary and I think we could even say commonplace, unremarkable. There’s not a lot in these verses that would make Jesus stand out from the upbringing of so many other families, Jewish families in that time. He was circumcised on the eighth day according to God’s command to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 17. He was presented in the temple to be consecrated or set apart as the firstborn son according to what God had said to Moses in Exodus chapter 13. We’re told that His parents took Him year by year to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover along with the rest of their relatives and their acquaintances. In fact, at one point, He even seems to get lost in the crowd. Now how could that be? It’s because He was a part of the crowd and He was deeply enmeshed among His own people. He was enfolded into the way of their life completely. In fact, did you notice how many times in these verses that we just read that we’re told that what happened, happened according to their law or their custom. Everything is “according to the law of Moses,” verse 22. It’s, “as it was written in the law of the Lord,” verse 23. It was, “according to custom,” verse 42. And when Jesus was found among the teachers in the temple, what were they teaching and discussing with Jesus? It was the Law. It was the Hebrew scriptures. This was Jesus’ way of life. He was unmistakably a part of the Jewish people.
Even His name, even His name was a common Hebrew name that came with a rich history that connected to this people and to this land. His name was, “Jesus.” Jesus is the English spelling that comes from the Greek word, “Iesus.” And “Iesus” is Greek for the Hebrew name, “Joshua” or “Yeshua.” Jesus’ name was Joshua. His name means, “God saves.” And this name connects Him back to the birth of the nation and the setting of the Promised Land that we have been studying together on Sunday mornings. In fact, this passage is full of familiar and historic Hebrew names. There’s Israel and Simeon and Asher. That takes us back to Jacob and the original twelve tribes of Israel. And then there’s Moses and Miriam even. In the Greek New Testament, Mary’s name is Miriam which connects her back to Moses’ sister, Miriam. And there’s Anna. Anna is the Greek spelling of the word Hannah, who was Samuel’s mother in 1 Samuel. These names have a long history in the pages of the Bible.
I have a favorite hat shop called, “Meyer of the Hatter.” It’s on St. Charles Street in New Orleans; St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, just off from Canal Street. And they have all kinds of hats. And I need lots of help protecting this head from the sun and from cold! And so I’ll stop in there, but as you look around the area around “Meyer the Hatter,” you see storefronts with names like, “Rubenstein’s” and “Kolb’s” and there was, around the corner, a “K & B Drugs” – “Katz and Besthoff.” These are storefronts, these are businesses that have an obvious and distinctive Jewish name attached to them. And you get a sense of the Jewish influence through the years on that part of New Orleans.
Well this part of Luke’s gospel is set deeply in the life and experience of the Jewish people. In fact, you can almost tell the history of the Jews up to this point by looking at the main features of this passage. You notice that there is circumcision and Passover and law and temple and prophets. Well what is that? That is the history of the Jewish people. There is God’s promise to Abraham in circumcision; to Abraham and his family. There is the people of Israel coming out of
Egypt at the Passover and going to Mount Sinai with Moses and receiving the Law. There is going into the land and the golden days in the land of Israel with David as king and Solomon and the building of the temple. And there’s the prophets and the expectation, the anticipation of the consolation of Israel that was to come. The whole history of Israel comes to our mind as we read this section of Luke’s gospel about the birth and childhood of Jesus.
And I think we could say in all of that that Jesus upstages them all, every aspect of the history. Now He does that by deferring and obeying and honoring the Law and the tradition and the history of His people. But don’t you notice that Jesus is the focus of attention here. There’s no missing that – that Jesus is the focus of attention. And we can say that Jesus, like Paul, is a Hebrew of Hebrews. That’s what Paul says about Himself in Philippians chapter 3. He says he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. And as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Well that’s basically the picture of Jesus, isn’t it, in Luke chapter 2. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews and He was faithful to the Law of the Lord. He was faithful in a way that Paul only thought that he was. There’s something ordinary, maybe even commonplace, about Jesus’ birth and childhood. He is clearly, fully human. He is a little baby. He is a young boy. He is a soon-to-be teenager. He is from a devout and a law-abiding Jewish family. And yet, and yet it’s against that backdrop of the normal and almost silent years of Jesus’ life that we have these outbursts of revelation that come to us; these outbursts of revelation that are revealing the wonder of who Jesus is and the wonder of what He had come to do.
I heard a story this past week about a paper cup called the “Jazz Cup.” You are probably familiar with the “Jazz Cup.” It’s a Solo Cup brand and it’s from like 1990. It has this teal, jagged stripe across the cup with a smaller purple jagged stripe that goes across it. You’ve seen it, probably, everywhere. It just screams 1990. It’s like “Saved By the Bell” on a cup. And it’s gone everywhere. It’s been around for years. It shows up on t-shirts and sweatshirts and backpacks and even on cars. I saw a picture of this design on a car. It’s just everywhere. And the person who was telling the story about the person who designed that paper plate and cups said that one of the things about it is that it’s so specifically tied to a particular time and space that it makes it almost timeless. It’s so particular that it’s universal.
Joy to the World
And that’s something of what we see in Jesus – that He is so specifically tied to the people of Israel, He is a Hebrew of Hebrews, and yet He is joy to the world. He is joy to the world. Jesus is anything but ordinary. In fact, the refrain that we find throughout chapter 2 tells us how Mary and Joseph responded to these messages that they were told about the baby they were holding and the one whose care was entrusted to them, and the refrain you find when the shepherd’s told them what the angels had said to them. It says in chapter 2 verse 19, “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms and he blessed God and it says in verse 33, His father and His mother “marveled at what was said about Him.” And then we come to Jesus’ first words that are recorded in this gospel in verse 51 – “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s house?” And how does Mary respond? His mother “treasured up all these things in her heart.”
You see, all throughout the opening chapters, the truth about Jesus is being reiterated. It’s being more fully revealed. It’s being unveiled to Mary and to Joseph. And at the same time, it’s being presented to us as well. Jesus is being unveiled to us. And what is the response of Mary and Joseph? What is to be our response to who Jesus is and what He came to do? It’s wonder. It’s awe. It’s gripped attention at this Savior, at the Christ. Why is that? Why is that the response? It’s because Jesus defies all expectations. Here is this one who is called the Son of the Most High, He is the Son of God, He is the Lord, and yet He comes and He is limited by the frailties and the helplessness of a little baby. How is it, how is it that this one who is the fulfillment of the promises signified by circumcision and He is the one who is the firstborn of all creation, He is the true Passover Lamb, He is the giver of the Law and the glory of the Temple and it’s this one who underwent circumcision and He observed the Passover and He submitted Himself to the Law. And when He went into the temple, He had to be carried in by His parents. How could that be?
You know we want to say about Jesus that Jesus knew everything and He could do anything. But that’s not right because we’re told here that he “became strong” and He “increased in wisdom.” Jesus is God and He never ceased to be God, and yet He became fully human. He became a Hebrew of Hebrews with all that that meant. And that is astounding. That boggles our minds. It sets us in wonder and awe. And this Hebrew of Hebrews, was He a Hebrew of Hebrews for the Hebrews? Up to this point it might seem like He had come to save Israel, that He had come to establish the throne of David, He had come to deliver Israel from their enemies. And the answer is, “Yes.” He had come to do those things. He is the King of the Jews. He is the consolation of Israel. What do we find in this chapter? We find that He came to His own and His own received Him. That’s what we find here in Luke chapter 2. He came to His own and His own received Him. Simeon and Anna, they were faithful and devout Jews and they had been waiting for Him; they had been waiting and expecting the Messiah. And when they saw Him they received Him and they rejoiced at His coming because they knew that Jesus is the hope of Israel.
But He’s more than that. He’s also a light for revelation to the Gentiles. He is the light of the world. He is the Savior “for whosoever believeth in Him,” as John 3:16 says. You see, Jesus is coming for those who are looking for Him; He also came for those who were not even thinking about looking for Him. And what does that say to us? It says that no one is outside of the bounds of the reach of God’s mercy and grace because He has come for someone such as you who is running away from Him, who is not even looking for Him. Jesus comes for such as that. He comes for the Jew and the Gentile.
And of course that was the plan all along, wasn’t it, because God had promised to Abram in Genesis chapter 12, He says, “I will bless you and be a blessing to you and through you bless all the families of the earth.” And the Gentiles had always been a part of God’s plan of salvation. Go back to Joshua chapter 2 and Rahab that we saw a couple of weeks ago. But it’s now in the coming and the birth of Jesus Christ that God’s mercy and plan of salvation will extend explicitly “to the Jew first and also for the Gentile.” His salvation is for the whole world. And that’s a startling revelation to this devout Jewish family who, throughout this chapter, what are they doing? They are doing everything that they have been commanded to maintain and to maintain their Jewish identity and distinctiveness. How can they reconcile these things? How could they reconcile Jew and Gentile? Law and grace? Judgment and mercy?
And how could they reconcile the promises of Jesus’ victory and His reign and His glory with this word that we find here about His suffering? Verse 34 said that there is “a sign that is opposed.” There is “a sword that will pierce your own soul also,” is the word to Mary from Simeon. You see, up to this point, almost everything in Luke so far has been a reason for joy, for delight and celebration. But now, here we find a note of trouble. Don’t we? There’s a hint of the suffering that is to come. There’s a glimpse of Jesus’ betrayal and His agony. There is a note here of the cross and His death and the tomb. Mary and Joseph do not know that that is the way of salvation. That Jesus’ resurrection over suffering and death is His victory over sin and death; that His resurrection brings about all of the promises of God’s kingdom for all those who believe in Him, both for the Jew and the Gentile alike. They don’t have the full picture, do they? They don’t know that at this point. And so Mary tucks these things away in her mind to ponder, to think over that, just as she did when Jesus was found among the teachers in the temple complex at the time of the Passover. “Why were you looking for Me?” Jesus says in verse 49. “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”
The Greek of that verse is actually not that clear. It says something like this. “Did you not know that in that of My Father it is necessary for Me to be?” Some translations, some versions say, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” In fact, there is a footnote in the ESV that includes that translation of that phrase. “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” Or, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” – however it’s translated, this is a clear indication of Jesus’ self-awareness of His identity and His role as the Messiah. He may not have ever said anything like this before. We certainly don’t have it recorded for us in any of the gospels. But I imagine as He grew up, Mary would have told Jesus about the stories and the events that surrounded the announcement of His birth and of His birth itself. He had been taught the Scriptures growing up, and when we come to this portion of Luke chapter 2, He had just been listening to and discussing and learning among the teachers of the Law and amazing them with His understanding and with His answers. And now He says, now He says that He must be about that of His Father. He is saying that He has come from God the Father and He has come with a mission to fulfill.
But not yet. Not right now. Because it says that He returned with His family to Nazareth. And nothing will happen for almost 20 years. The next thing we are told in Luke chapter 3 is that Jesus was around 30 years of age when He began His public ministry. So from 12 to 30, again, we know nothing. He recognizes something of His identity, doesn’t He, and yet He goes back home and He’s submissive to His parents and His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
What is it that we find out about Jesus in this passage? What can we see more clearly than Mary and Joseph and even more so than Simeon and Anna? What is it that Jesus is all about? Well He is a Hebrew of Hebrews for the Hebrews, but also for the whole world. He is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to the people of Israel. Isn’t that what we should be about too – to make Jesus known both to the Jew and to the Gentile? Do we ever think about how much of our spiritual heritage we owe to the Hebrew people? Do we think about how much our Jewish neighbors need salvation through Jesus Christ?
I taught a student, a Jewish student, at Belhaven a few years ago and he said early in the time that I knew him, he said that his biggest fear coming to Belhaven was to be converted. And along the way he dropped out of school because of some personal problems and we would run into each other and reconnect here and there. And then I hadn’t heard from him in almost six months. He hadn’t responded to any of my texts or attempts to reach out to him. And then Thursday this last week, I was on campus at Belhaven and decided to run into the cafeteria just to grab a quick lunch and to keep on going. And the one person I ran into was this student that I hadn’t heard from in several months. He was back in school. He had re-enrolled in school and he’s trying to make that final push to get to graduation. I wasn’t thinking anything of him or running into him that day; I didn’t think that was possible, and yet I ran into this Jewish student and we are planning to set up a time to get together and to reconnect.
And I think we all could have people like that in our lives. I’m praying for God’s work of grace in his life. I’m praying that his biggest fear would come true and that he would be converted and know Christ as the Messiah, the Christ of Jew and Gentile. Who is it? There are others in our lives, aren’t there – friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students – from Jewish families, Jewish backgrounds, who need Christ, who need to see the glory of Israel and the hope of Israel that has come in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And what about the Gentiles? The Gentiles need Him too. He is a light to the Gentiles. That means that Jesus is a light to Belhaven and to Belhaven Heights. Jesus is a light to downtown Jackson and to midtown Jackson. And we know that we all have elevated concerns about crime and safety and rightly so, but any talk about doubling down on our security efforts and recommitting to our own safety should also come with it a doubling down on our efforts to reach our neighbors and to recommit to live and to minister in this city to which God had called us. I need to do better with that. We all need to do better with that.
During the pandemic in Midtown, we had a Bible study at Jackson Manor apartments that was shut down because of the pandemic. And then the whole complex was shut down because of a renovation. And I have not been back there in months, maybe a year. And yet pandemic and disruptions and crime, they’re not excuses to ignore our neighbors with the Gospel. I read an article recently about Midtown Charter School. And they’re thinking about relocating into the old Brown Elementary school on Ash Street in Midtown. I couldn’t help but think but, “Wouldn’t that be a good opportunity for our deacons to partner with that school and help them get established there and to create some ministry opportunities for our church to serve and to minister and to love our neighbors in Midtown?” We are aware more than ever, right now, aren’t we, of the brokenness of our city, the brokenness and sinfulness of our world that needs a Savior, that needs redemption, that needs recreating in Christ. We are called to extend that mission of Jesus to our neighborhoods and to our neighbors. Jesus did not come to safety and to comfort, did He? No, He came to poverty and He came with the certainty of danger. He came to Jew and to Gentile and the wonder of Him doing that, the wonder of His love and commitment to do that for me and for you and for our salvation, that should send us out. It should send us out to tell others this same good news and to bring praise and glory to God, both here and around the world.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for the good news. We pray that You would not let it become dull and taken for granted in our own lives. Would You strike us again with the wonder of salvation. Would You astonish us as You astonished Mary and Joseph and Simeon and Anna. Would You cause us to store up these things in our heart, to marvel over them and having known more now than they knew then of how far You went and have gone for us and for our salvation, to seek and to search and to make us Yours, we pray that You would fill us with joy and praise and fill us with a boldness to tell Jew and Gentile, neighbor and stranger, about Your love and about the good news of salvation. Would You do that not because it would bring credit to us but because it would bring honor and glory to Your name. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.