First Sunday after Christmas
December 31, 2023
“Departing in Peace” (Luke 2:22-40)
Are you ready to go? What I mean is, are you ready to leave? No, I don’t mean right now. It would be nice if you’d stick around until the end of the service. But then, at the end of the service, will you be ready to leave? Will you be ready to depart in peace, satisfied and content and ready for whatever comes next?
What makes you ready to leave, to leave any situation? For instance, this year is coming to an end. Are you ready to put 2023 behind you and move on to whatever 2024 may bring? What makes you ready to leave, even to leave this life? That day could happen any day, you know, any hour. Are you ready to go? If the Lord were to call you home, even today, would you be ready? If not, why not? If so, what makes the difference?
Today in our Gospel reading we meet a man who was ready to go. He was ready for whatever might happen next. And today we’ll find out why he was ready to go, what made the difference. This man’s name is Simeon, and I think we all can learn something from him today about “Departing in Peace.”
The situation is this. It’s forty days after the birth of Christ. We’re in Jerusalem. We’re going to the temple. Why? Because forty days after the birth of a firstborn son, the father and mother were supposed to go to the temple and offer up a sacrifice to the Lord. It’s in the Law of Moses. And so Joseph and Mary are taking their baby boy into the temple to do just that.
But there was nothing special about this couple and their baby to make them stand out. No halos around their heads. No angels announcing their presence. Just another ordinary Jewish family coming into the temple. And that’s how it would have appeared to Simeon, too, had the Lord not given him a special revelation by the Holy Spirit.
As our text says: “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. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God.”
Simeon was waiting for “the consolation of Israel,” it says. He was waiting for the comfort the Lord had promised to his people. “Comfort, comfort my people,” the prophet Isaiah had spoken centuries before, and Simeon was waiting and wanting to see the fulfillment of that promise. Now, here it comes. The consolation, the comfort, is being carried in right before his eyes.
The consolation comes in the person of this little baby. The Holy Spirit reveals to Simeon that he is seeing the Lord’s Christ. This is the Messiah, the Christ, the promised deliverer, who will bring in God’s kingdom of comfort and consolation. Promise fulfilled! The Lord had told Simeon that he would not die before the arrival of the Messiah. Now the Christ has come. Simeon thanks God for fulfilling this special promise to him, and so now Simeon–presumably an old man–now Simeon is ready to see death, if that is what is in store for him.
Simeon takes the little baby in his arms and utters this beautiful song of praise: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
And so here’s what it means to be ready to depart in peace. It is to know and experience the salvation that the Lord has prepared and promised. That’s what Simeon experienced when he saw that baby with his own eyes and held him in his arms. Because of this salvation, coming in the person of the Christ child, Simeon knew he was at peace and ready for whatever might come next, even his own death. Now he could depart in peace.
How would that peace, that salvation, come about? That’s where our text goes next. Joseph and Mary marvel at what Simeon says about their baby. Simeon blesses them and says to Mary the mother: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
The consolation will come through opposition. The salvation will come through sorrow. The peace will come through a sword piercing Mary’s soul, when she will see her son suffering shame and humiliation and death on a cross. But that is how the salvation will come. Jesus Christ, Son of God and son of Mary, true God and true man, will suffer and die for the sins of the world, winning our forgiveness. And with Christ’s sacrificial death comes the salvation, the peace, and the consolation that we need so very much.
So how is it with you, dear friends? Are you ready to depart in peace? Can you say with Simeon, “Yes, Lord, I’m ready to go, I’m ready for whatever comes next”? Now you may not have laid your eyes on the Christ child being carried into the temple. You may have not held that little baby in your arms. But here’s what you do have. You have the same word of God, the same promise of consolation, given to Simeon. Your eyes have seen, with the eyes of faith, what God has laid before you: the path of peace, leading all the way to heaven, through faith in Jesus Christ. And you have received, and you will receive once again today, the very body and blood of your Savior in his Holy Sacrament. Dear Christian, Simeon has nothing on you. You are just as blessed. You are just as comforted. You are just as ready to go.
You know, this is why the church sings Simeon’s song right after receiving the Lord’s Supper and right before the end of the service. It’s because we can identify with what Simeon experienced. We have received the same Savior. And so we sing Simeon’s song, the Nunc Dimittis: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” Yes, we can say this too! We can sing this with joy! With joy and gladness we praise God for the salvation that has come to us in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now we can face whatever comes to us in the year to come. I know for myself, I’m ready to depart in peace. I mean that in a couple of ways. For one, I’m ready to depart this congregation. Today is my last day as your pastor. Oh, I’m ready to leave, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some heartache involved. There is. I will miss you dear people deeply. The bonds and attachments that are formed over the years are hard to leave behind. But I know that my departing is the right thing to do. And I know the good Lord will provide you with a pastor to preach the gospel, administer the sacraments, and care for your souls. I’m ready to depart in peace.
And the other way I mean that is this: Like Simeon, I’m ready to depart this life, if that’s what the Lord has in store for me. As many of you know, 2023 has been the most difficult year of my life health-wise. This summer I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Then I went through many rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, which took quite a toll on my body and my strength. In the fall, things were looking good. But then the doctors took a PET scan to see how things were going, and they saw two things: One, there was a new spot of cancer on my other lung, and two, they detected a problem in my heart, a bad aortic valve, which will need to be replaced. On top of all that, I had a bout of pneumonia earlier this month. So for 2024, things could go either way. Either the Lord grants me healing and health, or the Lord calls me home to himself. Either way I win!
And for you also, either way you win! Whatever the personal trials and afflictions you are facing, the Lord will be with you on your journey. The consolation, the peace, and the salvation you have in Christ–this is what will see you through! Whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s. And so in any case, dear Christians, you and I are indeed ready, ready to depart in peace.