The Response to the Savior (Luke 2:22-38)

Simeon and Anna’s response is so amazing and such an example to us.

Simeon.

Devout and righteous. We can assume he was still attending the synagogue, hearing the Jewish Scripture (the OT), and was trusting God to be true and faithful.

Waiting for the consolation of Israel. Growing up I used to think that consolation meant second-best, and I never understood this verse.

I my middle school basketball tournaments, you ended up in the consolation round if you lost. The consolation round was for the second-bests.

But that’s not what it means here. Jesus isn’t second-best!

Consolation means to comfort or console God’s people. Jesus, the Savior of the world, had come into the world to redeem them—that’s the greatest comfort.

YouVersion reported that in 2019, the most looked up verse in their app was : “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (, ESV)

What’s interesting is that the word translated consolation is the Greek word paraklesis, which is the word for comforter, and is a name for the Holy Spirit— the paraclete.

Anna

She’s a prophetess, one who would speak truth and would be knowledgable of the prophecies about the Messiah.

Very few details are given about her, but we do know that she was married for 7 years, then her husband died. She was a widow until she was 84. Now, if she was 84 at the time she saw Jesus as a baby here, then imagine the situation:

If she married at the normal age of girls in that day, she would have been 15. She’s married for 7 years, so she was 22 when she became a widow. If she was 84 at the time of Jesus’ birth, then she would have been a widow for 62 years.

That could have been a very difficult life.

Maybe she is an example of someone who knew and experienced the fulfillment that comes in knowing the comforter has come.

Not only that, but as a prophetess, she would go and tell others, exactly what Luke records her doing. She went and told all that the redemption had come through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

As we go into this week of Christmas,

respond like Simeon and Anna. They were praising God for the Messiah they knew had come.

rejoice because the comforter has come. Realize that in a broken, fallen world that is tainted by the effects of sin everywhere you look—that Jesus Christ is the only One who can comfort you because he gives you the greatest hope!

That is the hope and promise that you can be forgiven of your sin, cleansed entirely, and that you can overcome the curse of sin, which is death. You can live eternally with Him.