Rising and Falling of Many: A Meditation on 1st Samuel 1 and Luke 2, for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,

Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel;

and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,

that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

 

In our Gospel lesson from Luke 2, Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the Temple according to the commands of the Mosaic Law, to redeem the child before the Lord.  Since every male who opened the womb was considered sacred to God, and in particular the first-born male as a remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, Jesus was brought to the Temple with a sacrifice to offer in his stead.  What was revealed to Mary and Joseph was that Jesus was sent not to be redeemed before God, but to be the Redeemer of the world, and a miraculous sign by which the thoughts of many hearts would be known.  Jesus, as the Incarnate Word and Eternally begotten Son of God, was the Messiah that had long been foretold and foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures for centuries, as in the stories of the Prophet Samuel.  Yet while Samuel was sent to rescue ancient Israel from political abuse by pagan civilizations, and religious corruption within his own land near the end of the age of the Judges, Jesus was sent in the fullness of time roughly 1,100 years later to rescue His people from sin, death, hell, and the devil.

 

The story of Samuel contains much foreshadowing of Jesus’ later arrival: his birth was an act of God and a gift to his previously barren mother; though sacrifice was made for him, he was not redeemed from service to God, but rather devoted to God’s service entirely; God spoke to Samuel, and Samuel was faithful to the Word of the Lord even when present religious authorities were not; God worked through Samuel to establish the Davidic Kingdom and the rescue of Israel from all their harassing enemies round about them.  Even Eli, who was the priest and Judge who allowed his sons to desecrate their priestly office and lead pious people into sin, recognized the blessing which was upon Samuel, harkening forward to faithful Simeon who greeted the Holy Family in the Temple at Jesus’ Presentation.  Samuel became the last and greatest of the 400+ years of Judges, and an important pivot from an era of tribal chaos into an age of order and promise.  Yet unlike Jesus, Samuel was merely a man in need of the same salvation that all other people required, and in his service to God and the people, he lived out his faith in repentance and hope, always grounded in the saving Word of the Lord.

 

It is a common and repeated problem across history that people misunderstand the purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, and of the foreshadowing of that momentous event found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.  Since the dawn of man and our fall into sin, and through the millennia which transpired until Jesus’ time, God promised a Savior to the world by His Word given to the Prophets, and His people looked forward in hope for that Savior.  While many saviors or messiahs were sent by God to rescue His people from the lesser perils of temporal calamity, such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, David, and others, the true fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation would come through Jesus Christ.  Jesus didn’t overthrow the Romans or their puppet government in Jerusalem, anymore than He would overthrow the religious authorities of the Sadducees and Pharisees.  While Jesus knew that people would need their daily bread and rescue from physical dangers, He also knew the greater danger and oppression of man was that of his sin—an enslavement of the mind and soul to the devil, destined for destruction in the fires of hell forever.  No matter what political or ecclesiastical phenomena were present in this or any age, the real need of man was rescue from his own just condemnation, and reconciliation to God their Creator.  No matter of temporal consequence held even the faintest candle to the consequences of eternity.

 

And so, Jesus came and accomplished His mission of salvation through His Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.  His Word, as the Word Incarnate, exposed the pride and hypocrisy in the hearts of fallen men, calling all people to faith and repentance that they might live in His grace rather than die in their sins. For Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world—they had accomplished that all on their own.  Rather, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, who could not of their own power save themselves from hell.  He became in His life, death, and resurrection, the Sign which would be believed by the faithful even as the reprobate rejected it, so that the true thoughts of all men might be brought into focus.  Jesus forced no man to receive His Light and eternal life, but offered it through His own shed blood to all people, so that the rain of His grace and providence might fall upon the good and the evil alike.  No one could be saved apart from Him, no matter how pious they thought themselves to be, and no one was beyond the preaching of His Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.  While the physical blessings of health, prosperity, and joy in our work are lesser things God would continue to grant according to His wisdom, grace, and measure, the riches of His grace in His Son would be lavishly poured out upon all who would call upon Him in faith.

 

Throughout the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, the Apostolic Age though the present parish and missionary work of the Church in every land and tongue, the work of the Lord has always been the salvation of His people.  No one is beyond the love of God in Christ Jesus, and no one is beyond the Vicarious Atonement of His blood shed for the sins of all people.  While He will grant the desires of a heart that prefers hell over His fellowship, His desire is that no one would be lost, and that all might come to a saving knowledge of the Truth:  that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners, just like you and me.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you this day, that you may live in faith and repentance before the throne of the God who has always sought you, will always love you, and will forever give to you the blessings of forgiveness, life and salvation—all for Jesus’s sake.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.