[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the gospel reading today, especially about the prophet
Simeon, please be seated.
Speaking of Simeon, it would be no surprise if you’re jealous of him.
Because in that gospel reading today, he not only saw baby Jesus, he got to hold him.
let’s talk about the ultimate baby fix huh yeah he probably would post a
picture of it on Facebook you know look here me and Messiah you know take it
yeah come on that was funny y’all come on sort of Simeon this was such a big
event for him because he had been looking for years for the Messiah that
promised one from God to come and deliver his people and he was promised
that he would not die until he saw this.
So this might have been a relief for him
that he pretty much says to God,
okay, you can kill me now.
I’m ready to go.
Literally, he could check this off of his bucket list.
Saw the Messiah, there we go, okay.
Like Simeon, it’s not unreasonable
to want to see Jesus as a baby or not.
Oftentimes in surveys,
there’s there could be the question what famous person would you like to have
lunch with and Jesus often gets a good number of votes maybe it’s because he’s
more he would most likely pick up the tab too I don’t I don’t know but but
there’s often this fascination with wanting to see Jesus and he’s been
is spotted everywhere.
His image has supposedly been
on a tortilla, a pancake,
a grilled cheese sandwich,
on the side of a mixing bowl,
in bathroom wall mold,
on a sock, a telephone pole,
a flower, a pizza,
a tie-dyed t-shirt,
a sticker on a toilet,
a piece of candy,
a sand dune,
a piece of ravioli,
and on a dirty frying pan.
I’m not making this up. These are all reported, supposed images of Jesus
appearing on these things. It appears that food is the medium that Jesus
prefers to reveal himself and be seen. And perhaps the most fascinating item
that has the supposed image of Jesus on it is the the Shroud of Turin. Maybe
you’ve seen it or heard about it. Basically it’s a sheet of cloth 14 feet
by four feet that appears to be the image of a man on it
that has wounds that are consistent with the beatings
and crucifixion that Jesus had.
Now, it’s got a storied history,
and there’s plenty of discussion about it,
Pro and Con, about the Shroud of Turin,
but there’s this fascination.
We want to see Jesus.
We want, even if it’s only His image, we want to see Him.
And why?
Why that fascination?
Well, to people’s credit,
I think we just love to see
people that we love
or have a picture of them, even.
Parents, grandparents,
they have pictures of their kids
in their wallet or purses.
Couples have pictures
of their significant other
in their wallet or on their desk
at work or whatever.
And with Jesus,
Jesus, we want to see the one who loves us.
We want to see the Messiah.
We want to see the one who died and rose again for us.
We want to see our Savior.
Like Simeon, we want to see our consolation.
We want to see God’s salvation
and the revelation of that.
We want to see the Chosen One
who was sent to deliver all of those promises and sometimes I wonder what
it’s like to be around Jesus you know to actually see him and what a privilege it
must have been for those who got to see him in person to see his miracles to to
hear the words of good news about the kingdom of God to to get it directly from
the one who is that word sent from God. To see it in person, the one who is God
in person. And that’s a big part of Christmas. In fact, really, that is
Christmas. God coming into our world in person to live with us. God appearing to
us in a body that we can see. But we can’t see Jesus, at least not in the same
way that Simeon and Anna did. And no, we can’t see him in a tortilla or a pancake or a grilled
cheese sandwich or whatever food item he supposedly appears to be in. That’s not where we see
him. Simply put, Jesus hasn’t promised to be in those things and to be seen in those
things, not even the Shroud of Turin. No, we can’t see him like Simeon and Anna did,
but we do get to see Jesus in ways that they didn’t.
We get to see Jesus in ways
according to the promise of the coming Messiah.
I mean, Simeon saw Him
in light of the promise of Him coming.
Basically, he saw Jesus
in the light of Old Testament eyes.
He and all of Israel
who were waiting for that consolation
and that salvation
that was to come in the Messiah.
They were looking for God to fulfill that promise
of the prophecy of a Deliverer,
and then He got to see it and hold it.
He got to see that promise fulfilled in person in Jesus.
But we see with New Testament eyes.
We don’t see Jesus in person,
but we see what He did in person.
And we see what He’s doing in person.
We see the promises that He made and fulfilled that give us consolation and salvation.
And that would be the promise of the forgiveness of our sins.
And there are some places that we actually see this.
Where we see Jesus and His consolation and that revelation of salvation and forgiveness.
There are places that we see that today. One is in the Word, the Scriptures, the
visible written words of Christ’s life. His teachings, His miracles, His healings,
His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and ascension are all there. What He’s
done, we can see. For those who are sight-impaired, they touch it in Braille. We also see the
word, we see in the word the good news, the gospel, the salvation of Jesus, forgiving
us through his death and resurrection. That’s the gospel. That’s that good news. That’s
what the scriptures, that’s what God’s word has
and we see when we read it,
that salvation is in the word.
Romans 1 says,
I’m not ashamed of the gospel, Paul writing this.
I’m not ashamed of the gospel.
It is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes.
And there’s consolation in the word.
Jesus said in the book of John,
peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give it to you and he also
said let not your hearts be troubled and don’t let them be afraid in God’s Word
we see what Jesus gives to us consolation and salvation now we also
hear that when God’s Word is proclaimed vocally and you see it if if you’re
you’re hearing impaired through sign language,
but we also get to see it in writing.
In the Scriptures, in God’s Word,
we see Jesus in it.
And another place where we see God’s consolation
and salvation, where we see Jesus,
is in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
in them, we also see the gospel. We see Jesus at work in them. We see Jesus at
work forgiving sins, giving consolation and salvation. In baptism, in the waters
of baptism, which in the the book of Titus calls a washing of regeneration
here I lost my place. Sorry about that. We see the book of Titus calling it a
washing of regeneration and a renewal of the Holy Spirit. In baptism God cleanses
His church and His people by forgiving their sins. There was a time in the
New Testament when Peter, the Apostle Peter, was was proclaiming the gospel to
group of people and they were very very struck by that and convicted of their
sins and they asked Peter oh what do we do about our sins what do we do and
Peter said to them repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your
sins and you will receive the Holy Spirit in baptism there’s God’s
salvation and consolation.
In baptism, we see Jesus at work.
We see Him forgiving sins through water
and the promise in God’s Word.
And we see Jesus at work in the Lord’s Supper.
We can see Him in the bread and wine,
which are His body and blood.
At the first Lord’s Supper,
Jesus took bread and He said,
take and eat this is my body and he took the cup and gave it to them saying
drink of it all of you this is my blood which is shed for you for the
forgiveness of sins the Lord’s Supper now there’s a place where we do see
Jesus in a food item okay not in a tortilla or grilled cheese sandwich and
like that but in the bread and wine which are his body and blood we see
Jesus at work. We see him there forgiving sins, giving salvation, giving consolation,
the Lord’s Supper, baptism, God’s Word. That’s where we see Jesus today. We see
it in water and bread and wine, in imprinted words or a person proclaiming
that’s words, they are all visible means of God’s grace to us. Places where Jesus
is seen because he’s promised to be seen in those things. Yeah, Lutherans, we talk
a lot about that, about God’s Word and the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord’s Supper. We talk about them because they’re worth being talked about.
out. They’re very dear to us. They are a big deal because they are wonderful gifts of God
and that He shows and gives us forgiveness. It’s where God shows and gives us Jesus. That’s
where He’s promised to be. Because Jesus is only seen where He’s doing His work of consolation,
salvation, grace, and forgiveness.
That doesn’t happen in a tortilla or a pancake
or a grilled cheese sandwich
or any other thing like that.
Jesus hasn’t promised to be in those things.
He’s promised to be where He forgives our sins.
But, oh, man, do we ever want to see Him sometimes?
We would really like to see Jesus in person.
And even the first hymn we sang,
Oh that we were there. Oh that we were there in heaven to see Jesus. Well that
day is coming, okay? Right now we wait for it. One day Jesus is coming back and to
take us to be with Him. I love 1st John chapter 3 says this,
Beloved we are God’s children now and we know that when He appears we will be
like Him because we will see Him as He is. We will see Jesus in person. We have
that to look forward to but for now we have God’s Word and the sacraments to
see Jesus in and we look forward to the day that we see Him in person like
Simeon did and in fact every time after the Lord’s Supper after we receive it
and the pastor gives the final blessing,
we sing together something that’s called the nunc dimittis,
in Latin means now departing.
We get to sing those words of Simeon,
the same ones that we depart from here,
having received that consolation
to go out and live our lives in the world this week.
So like Simeon, we do see the Lord’s salvation.
We don’t need to be jealous of him or Anna.
We see it in the Word and in the sacraments. We see it in that salvation
that He’s revealed to us in them. We see it in the work of Jesus for us today in
that. May you always have great consolation in these great gifts. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
