Luke chapter 2.
Did you grow up attending a traditional liturgical church? If you did are these words familiar?
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
The words were slightly different in the Lutheran liturgy I grew up with. These words are from the NIV version, Lutheran liturgy used the RSV. We would sing them, the tune is playing in my mind right now. Back then I had no idea that these words were taken from the Bible, that they were the song of a very old man named Simeon. Simeon had been promised by God that he would not die until he saw with his own eyes, the savior that God had promised so very long ago.
Jesus, the promised messiah, the one who will and has saved us from our 2 greatest enemies. He has saved us from sin, all our ugliness, our lies and lusts and licentiousness, saved us from an eternity of paying for our mistakes in torment and misery, because God loves us, he has had mercy on us He has sent his son to die in our place.
God made a promise and he kept it. He promised Simeon that he would see the promised one. God made a promise to mankind and he kept it. He sent Jesus.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
Will you claim your promise today of forgiveness and everlasting life?
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