NOTES for Luk 2:33

Joseph and Mary were truly devout people who kept the commandments, as can be seen from the way they observed the feasts and performed all the prescribed rites. At the appointed time they brought the infant Jesus to the Temple to “present Him to the Lord.” There they were met in turn by Simeon, a longtime guardian of Scripture who, despite the apparent absurdity of the prophecy about the Savior, continued to await its fulfillment. This faithfulness is rewarded by God: He shows them His salvation.

Is this not the same faithfulness that the Lord expects from us? The promise to make us children of light, which each person receives at baptism, begins over the years to seem like something unreal. Our baptismal garment becomes covered with the marks of the passions, so that it is already difficult to understand what it once looked like. Only faith that the promise God once gave us cannot be false enables us to experience anew our encounter with Him: faith in His love, which overcomes all things.

The word "Sretenie" is Slavonic; in Russian it means "meeting." What meeting is being discussed? The meeting of the Savior's parents with Simeon? Their meeting with the prophetess Anna? Of course, that too. But first of all the Gospel story tells us about the meeting of the people of God with their Messiah.

It is not surprising that this people was represented by those who were awaiting the Messiah's coming. Something else is surprising: on behalf of the people He is met by people who, it would seem, were not the most prominent among those awaiting Him. Of course, in this sense there is no point speaking about the Temple priesthood: the priesthood was reserved and skeptical toward popular messianic expectations. But there was also the Synagogue; in the synagogue environment messianic expectations at that time were very intense. And yet God showed the Messiah not to the leaders of the Synagogue, but to people who, though known, were not among the leaders of the people.

The choice may seem strange, but on closer examination it is quite understandable. Of course, if not everyone, then very many in the Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah at that time. But most of those waiting for Him had their own ideas about the Messiah, about what He should be and what He should do. Meanwhile, He was not going to do almost anything that both ordinary people and learned rabbis expected from the Messiah.

They expected the Messiah to restore an independent and strong Jewish state, to drive the Gentiles from the holy land, and to establish a new rule based on the Torah that would become Israel's golden age. And, of course, they expected miracles from Him, miracles that would solve all the problems at once, both of the people as a whole and of each person belonging to it in particular.

Everyone expected triumph, and no one expected Judgment. Only Simeon, who possessed the prophetic gift, understood everything correctly. He understood that the Messiah is the One who would cause many to fall and many to rise, just as one could expect on the day of Judgment. Such a person could be allowed to see the Messiah: this would not produce in him either excessive, unjustified expectations or unnecessary excitement. Everyone else still needed to wait. They needed to wait for the day when the Father would bring the Son out into His earthly ministry.

In the Gospel we read about how the infant Jesus is brought to the temple for the first time, what happens there, and what is said about it. Knowing the Gospel story and remembering how throughout the past twenty centuries Jesus has remained "a sign that is spoken against," we need not be surprised by anything. The prophet Malachi brings us back to what escapes us against the background of the heavy words of Simeon's prophecy. The Savior's first appearance in the temple is described this way: "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple." Everything here is unsettling. Does a person know what kind of God he is seeking? Are we seeking the Child who constantly causes contradiction and strife? You are waiting for God, and suddenly a little Child is brought in, and you stand before the need to accept that this very Child is the light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.

Today's reading continues the account of the witnesses connected with the Nativity. And if the first witnesses were shepherds, now righteous people and prophets come to take their place. It would seem that these people are not at all like simple shepherds. But there is something common that unites them: all of them are waiting for the Messiah and are ready to receive him as he is. For a prophet, the revelation received from God is most important; he hears God directly, and for him there is no question about whether he can trust what he has heard.

The prophetic experience of direct communion with God is, of course, unique every time, but with all its uniqueness, none of those who had occasion to hear the voice of God raised questions of what modern theologians call theological verification: any prophet receives the revelation given to him as a direct instruction to act. And if God points to the infant brought into the Temple as the Messiah, then that infant truly is the Messiah, whoever may say otherwise and whatever doubts learned rabbis and teachers of the Torah may express on this matter.

Righteousness is a phenomenon of another kind, but a righteous person too is often given the ability to hear God. And if at times his mystical hearing is not as sharpened as a prophet's hearing, the habit of trusting God unconditionally helps the righteous person become certain of the authenticity of the revelation received. What unites these people with simple shepherds is not only the expectation of the Messiah, but also their attitude toward God and toward the will of God. One could say that, unlike the same Pharisees, for example, they are not very religious. Of course, all of them are members of the Synagogue, but there they are apparently not in the front rows: there are people there whose activity makes them barely noticeable, and sometimes completely unnoticeable.

In theological and religious-political disputes, so frequent in the synagogues of the Gospel period, they apparently either take part rarely and unwillingly, or do not take part at all. They do not belong to any religious school and perhaps do not even have what is usually called a religious worldview. They simply trust God, who long ago became the center and meaning of their life, and they live while listening attentively for what he will say to them. Or they pasture their flocks, like the Bethlehem shepherds. Of course, compared with learned theologians they may appear simple people, even, like the shepherds, ignorant. But they will certainly have no problems with the theological interpretation of what they have heard from God. Nor will they have needless doubts about the reliability of what they heard. That is why they are granted to see the Messiah before others. Including those who were sure they would see him first.

Every person knows that someday he will die. Death is a unique phenomenon: it is completely obvious and completely closed to those who have not yet experienced it. God speaks with a person, and that person remains alive. On the basis of this Gospel passage, one can say that a person who speaks with God, not somehow but face to face, receives both life and death: life full of His presence, the light of revelation for all, and death as the fulfillment of the promise, as the possibility of a full and final encounter.

How do we look upon the Lord? As the One with whom unity is joy and following whose will is a blessing? Or do we look upon Him as a superior standing over us, issuing orders that are incomprehensible but must be obeyed? If it is the latter, we risk moving very far away from Him and adding new obstacles to the many heaps of sin that already hinder our communion with Him.

Yet He was born among people and took upon Himself not only the commandments that He commended to us, but also the many laws and rules of human society. Through circumcision He united Himself in the flesh with the people whom He chose for His coming into the world, and therefore submitted to their laws. Although He was greater than the temple, He was brought there in fulfillment of the law binding upon every fragile child.

The law was also fulfilled in that two people, Simeon and Anna, prophetically testified that the Child brought to the temple was the Messiah: under Jewish law, the testimony of two was considered sufficient to establish the truth of a statement. Of course, for those who do not wish to accept Jesus as the Messiah, no testimony, however often it has resounded over the past two thousand years, will be sufficient. But that, as they say, is another story altogether.

In addition to the other biblical parallels, today the evangelist tells how Jesus, like the ancient prophet Samuel, was brought to the Temple in order to dedicate the Firstborn to God. But unlike the other firstborn sons, who were only symbolically "offered as a sacrifice" to God and redeemed from Him with sacrificial animals (for example, a pair of doves; compare Leviticus 12), Jesus Himself is called "redemption," a term connected with sacrifice.

In the Temple, Jesus becomes sacrifice, sign, salvation, and the fulfillment of the prophecies, bringing together in Himself all biblical symbols and realities. For the evangelist Luke, this very moment becomes a sacrifice in which Christ accomplishes the redemption of the people and of the "Gentiles."

By taking part in this service, Simeon fulfilled his purpose in this world and can now depart, showing the readers of the Gospel that their goal in this life is also to become participants in the redemption and salvation of the world.