Nothing More to See Here

Happy sixth day of Christmas! The text is the Gospel, and I’ll quote from it as we go, beginning with v 22: “And when the days for their purification according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord” (ASV). This is the Word of God.

“Fulfilled”! That word keeps coming up in the Gospel of Luke because the Old Testament is a thousand rivers of revelation, rushing faster and deeper toward one huge Niagara Falls.

Jesus Is That One Waterfall of Grace to Which Every River of Revelation Rushes.

to Which Every River of Revelation Rushes.

Jesus is the unveiling of every divine secret, the answer to every holy mystery! When Luke says “fulfilled,” the Holy Ghost opens mysteries, tells us the secrets of eternity, pours the Niagara of the Law and the Prophets on us all at once, and we see all of God’s glory in the forty-day-old boy!

I. Luke heard those rivers rushing to Jesus.

Luke saw all the rivers clap together in one small unstoppable pouring.

One river was rushing from Daniel the prophet (9:24): “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.”

Luke heard that river rushing toward him. In 1:23, he said, “When the days of his ministration were fulfilled, [Zechariah] departed unto his house.” Then in 2:6 he says of Mary, “The days were fulfilled that she should be delivered.” In the verse prior to our text, 2:21, “When eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called Jesus,” and finally our text, v 22: “And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord” (ASV).

Luke did the math!

Gabriel’s appearance to Zechariah until the annunciation to Mary = 6 months = 180 days.

The annunciation (the conception of Jesus) until his nativity = 9 months = 270 days.

The nativity to the presentation of Jesus in the temple = 40 days.

180 days + 270 days + 40 days.

Total: 490 days = 70 weeks.

Because the writers of the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit—not only in the same way the Old Testament writers were inspired to see the rivers of God’s truth and write, but also to see where those rivers were going and to watch them join in Jesus Christ— Luke did the math! To be there on the seventieth week and write!

Luke saw another river rushing from the prophet Malachi (3:1–2): “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.” And again in 4:5: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (NASB).

Now, the Scriptures may be new to you, and you may ask, “Why the terrible day of the Lord? Isn’t God good?” Yes, he’s very good. So when I read his Commandments, which are simply commanding normal behavior, and I compare to that my own behavior, that’s where the prophet gets the word terrible. How about you? Yeah.

V 27 of our text: “And . . . the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law.” The Lord came to his temple, and how did anyone endure that day? The Jerusalem temple was only a picture! It was a cartoon of the real thing! Jesus, the true Temple, came to the temple! There should have been a meltdown! There should have been a cosmic implosion, like a red dwarf star landing on a paper house, outweighing it by billions of tons and consuming it in its unimaginable heat and gravitational pull! The Lord came to his temple! How did anyone survive?

II. Simeon looked for Jesus in those rivers and saw him.

V 25: “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.”

By the Holy Spirit, Simeon saw more rivers, sweeter waters coming toward him from the prophets, and he saw those rivers meet in his arms, because he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He held the consolation of Israel, he saw the light of revelation for the Gentiles, he touched the glory of thy people Israel! How did he survive? Because the Greek word translated consolation is parakleysin. That means the Advocate, the one who’s on our side. The Comforter. Simeon saw the river coming from Isaiah (40:1): “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” And again in 61:1–2: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me . . . to comfort all who mourn.”

Simeon’s eyes saw the river coming from the prophet Haggai (2:9): “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.” Solomon’s glorious temple, along with the rest of Jerusalem, was destroyed six centuries earlier by the Babylonians. All of the sacred things were taken. How could the glory of that latter Jerusalem temple Haggai talks about be greater than Solomon’s? The ark of the covenant from Solomon’s temple was long missing. There were no tablets of the Law, no heavenly manna, no rod of Aaron. In this latter temple, there was no Mercy Seat, that atonement cover over the accusing Law.

But Simeon’s eyes, looking from this new temple, also saw the rushing river of the psalmist: “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (24:7).

When Simeon saw that poor young couple coming into the temple to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (v 24), his eyes saw the glory and his eyes saw the sacrifice. He knew it was not Mary and Joseph who would redeem their son with the humble sacrifice of pigeons. Simeon knew that their son would redeem them, because he was the sacrifice! Simeon’s eyes saw the ark of the covenant for real in the Jerusalem temple for the first time ever. He held the Mercy Seat in his arms, not the three hundred pound gold model, but the twelve pound reality, the Lord, who would grow in stature and literally bare his holy arm bloody before the eyes of all the nations! His eyes saw the great and terrible day of the Lord because the falls are spectacular for everyone but the falls! The falls crash to the bottom. To be the falls is to be the end of the line, to die. The Lord was the sacrifice! It was Jesus who would not survive his own great and terrible day!

Simeon’s eyes saw the face of God and lived! And yet he asked to die. “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word” (v 29).

III. Do we see the waterfall?

Not necessarily because he was old. He might have been, but the Bible doesn’t tell us his age.

We assume he was old and spent, because why else would anyone be ready to die? I only want to see God once I’m spent on everything else. Right? After Holy Communion, we sing the Nunc Dimittis from the heart, don’t we?

Now, Lord, you dismiss your servant in peace,

as you have promised,

’cause this is all well and good,

but there’s a lot more important stuff

to life than Communion.

I have big plans for the weekend,

and I thank you,

that Church fit into my pla-a-a-a-an-s this time.

We’re not ready to die because we’re just barely coming alive, and our eyes are barely opening. We’re still too distracted, playing in our stagnant mud puddles, to look for rushing rivers bearing gifts. Lord, have mercy.

He does! Simeon was ready to die because those rivers he read, rivers he knew . . . once he beheld them clap together at last, he longed to be released from this life of shadows and types, of stone models of the true temple, of gold mock-ups for the true Mercy Seat, and of animal rehearsals for the blessed Savior offered up once for all on the cross to make complete atonement for all human sin! His eyes had seen the real thing, he had bathed in the falls that fulfilled every river of revelation, and he wanted to go home! Thus saith Simeon:

“Nothing more to see here.”

But how is it that his eyes could see? Why did the Nunc Dimittis pour out of him like the falls he was bathing in? Mary and Joseph were an obscure poor couple, and Jesus looked no different than any other baby. He could see because the Holy Ghost was upon him. He could say, “For my eyes have seen your salvation” (v 30) because God opened his eyes. Yes, it was a miracle. But how had the Holy Ghost been upon him? By his Holy Scriptures.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus could not see that it was Jesus, alive from the dead and walking with them. It was when he opened the Scriptures to them, showing them the rivers of revelation that always join in him that their hearts were burning within them! And then, the miracle, when he broke the bread, they recognized him.

When by his Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost is upon us, we can see the rivers of God’s Word rushing toward his salvation, joining in the Virgin, and taking on our flesh by the power of the same Holy Ghost, wondrously restoring your human nature, and Jesus living a perfect life for which we sinners are given credit! See with opened eyes the forty-day-old child being presented to the Lord as holy, on your behalf, as if the whole human race was offered there and called holy. See Jesus being sacrificed in your place, buried in your grave, and rising with your resurrection secured! Recognizing him in the breaking of the bread, we sing, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Yes, it’s a miracle. With opened eyes, with obscure bread and plain wine, see Christ’s body and blood given to you: “take, eat; take, drink.”

Like Simeon, with opened eyes, depart in peace, because you’ve seen his salvation, and every river is fulfilled in Jesus, pouring out on you. Amen.