Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Oh my, it’s Monday December 30 and that means Christmas seems very far away as our focus is riveted now on the rapidly approaching ‘turn of the page’ from 2024 to 2025. Are you ready? Just as you could not have imagined all that has transpired in our world, and probably in your life, in ’24, I doubt any of us can imagine what life will be like one year from now! I wonder how many of us on the “Walking with Jesus” journey will actually walk right into heaven in 2025 as our earthly journey comes to an end?
For a last time let’s rejoin the Biblical story of that first, world changing Christmas. I left you yesterday, spending the weekend in the great Temple in Jerusalem. No other structure in Jerusalem, 2000 years ago, was even close in grandeur or size. This magnificent structure, built on the huge Temple mount, dominated the skyline, the society and essentially every aspect of life in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ birth.
(a 1/50 scale outdoor model of Jerusalem in the days of Jesus,
currently in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum.
The Temple dominated the city)
Yesterday we watched as an old man named Simeon, a man of high integrity, a spiritually devout and passionate man, approached Joseph and Mary, took infant Jesus in his arms, and praised God that the Messiah had arrived!! (Luke 2:22-35) Simeon was desperately praying for the day God would hear the cry of His people Israel and send the long-awaited Messiah to console and comfort Israel by bringing deliverance. As a nation and people, it had been 600 years since Jerusalem had NOT lived under the domination of some non-Jewish empire power like the Babylonians or Persians or Romans.
Simeon felt confident God had promised he would not die before his eyes would see this Messiah, but when and where God had not made clear! I’m sure Luke gives us only a small glimpse into all that was said in that shocking encounter between Joseph, Mary and Simeon, but as with every story in the Bible, we have enough for us to understand what God wants us to know about that historic moment for our world.
As often happens in public encounters, other people are watching! In this case a special woman was paying close attention to this encounter between Simeon, Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus. She’s described in Luke 2:36 as a very old widow woman who actually had lived in the Temple courts and rooms since the death of her husband many years before. Her name was Anna, and she is identified by Luke as a woman of worship, prayer and fasting. (Luke 2:37)
Pause for just a moment. Consider what we have seen in the old man Simeon and now old Anna. When you and I are ‘very old’, what reputation will we have? Because of Anna’s reputation I imagine many people made sure their visit to the Temple included a few moments with this wise, prayerful woman of God. As we prepare to enter ’25, when people think of a possible few moments with you and me, what enters their mind based on the reputations we have?
Dr. Luke identified Anna ‘a prophet’ and perhaps you think those people called “prophets” are only Old Testament men like Elijah or Elisha or Jonah or Isaiah? But did you know ‘prophets’ have important roles in the New Testament, and even in the modern day people of God, the world-wide Church? The apostle Paul wrote to first century Christians: “So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-13)
All through the Bible ‘prophets’ are both men and women who have been uniquely called of God for one primary purpose: courageously calling God’s people back from their spiritual drift to a revived relationship with God and a renewed priority of focus on God’s Word. Often Biblical prophets boldly declared God’s warnings to His people that if they did not forsake their rebellious ways and return to God then His judgment would fall upon them. Sometimes prophets would predict future events God wanted His people to know were going to happen in God’s future purposes for His people and our world.
While we are very fortunate to have many accounts of messages Biblical prophets received from God and proclaimed to His people, we do not have any specific record of messages the prophet Anna may have spoken. We do have Luke’s record of this one encounter she had with Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus. Luke describes her approach to them as Simeon was praying over them: “Anna never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:37,38)
While we do not know the words she said, it’s clear Anna affirmed the strong and shocking words Simeon proclaimed over infant Jesus declaring Him to be the long awaited, God sent Messiah! I also notice that Anna, perhaps for the rest of her life, “spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” Because Anna was already quite old her ministry of declaring her eyewitness encounter with young Jesus may not have lasted long, but we can be sure she proclaimed His Messianic identity with great confidence and boldness to any and all with whom she spoke.
As 2024 draws to a close I invite us to see Simeon and Anna as two very important role models for you and me and our world. Both were old people who had lived long lives and gained much real life wisdom through those many years. Both were people deeply committed to living God honoring lives and spending extensive time in knowing God’s Word and in prayer with God. Both were people ready to share with others the spiritual wisdom they had gained in their long life journey and their growing spiritual maturity.
Who are the Simeon’s and Anna’s in your life and mine, my friends? How have you sought to learn wisdom from them in ’24 and what important role will these wise, old people have in our lives in 2025? Are some of you Simeon’s and Anna’s for your family and younger generations around you? Would you agree our world desperately needs wise prophets like these and might this be God’s calling for your life in 2025?
If so, could there be any greater calling and what path will you pursue that will nurture and nourish your God given wisdom so you have God wisdom to give others?
Would you speak with God about that possible calling for you? Here’s a worship song that calls us to consider the significance of spiritually influential people like Simeon and Anna:
Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:36-38.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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