Read LUKE 2:22–32
Many have tried to understand the Trinity through analogy. Perhaps the Trinity is like a person’s roles or relationships, as when one person is simultaneously a father, son, and friend. Perhaps it is like water, which can exist as gas, liquid, or solid. Or perhaps it is like an egg, which is one thing yet consists of a shell, yolk, and egg white.
These analogies are sometimes heretical and always inadequate. They cannot truly explain how God can be three Persons and yet one God. This divine mystery demands our faith even as we continue to seek understanding. That’s how Simeon lived his life, and he was richly rewarded in today’s reading.
Simeon had waited all his life for the coming of the Messiah, and God granted him the privilege of seeing Jesus in person before he died. The Holy Spirit was with Simeon and had revealed that this would be so. On that day, the Spirit
led him to a specific young couple in the temple courts (vv. 25–28).
Simeon took the incarnate Son of God in his arms and rejoiced! The Messiah had come; the time of waiting was ended! Jesus was God’s salvation for “all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (vv. 29–32). Responding to Him, whether in acceptance or in rejection, would determine people’s eternal destinies and relationship with God.
Mary and Joseph had come to the temple because God the Father had mandated that all firstborn sons be dedicated to the Lord (v. 23). This was a reminder of the nation’s liberation from slavery in Egypt, the tenth plague, and the life-saving blood on the doorposts (see Exodus 13). Now God the Son fulfilled this symbolism—the first person to be perfectly consecrated to God and to live a perfectly holy life.
APPLY THE WORD
Simeon’s meeting with Mary and Joseph (and that of Anna in verses 36 to 38) in the temple courts is an example of a “divine appointment.” Mary and Joseph were surely surprised, but they responded with humble attentiveness and faith, just as we should when God brings people across our paths. Are we ready for our next divine appointment?
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