Christmas Playlist. 4: Simeon's song – How did God do it?

Four songs that bring you to the heart of Christmas

4: Simeon's song – How did God do it?

This Advent in our weekly sheets we're going to be looking at the four songs of the first Christmas, which were heard before, during and after the birth of the baby who lies at the heart of the real Christmas. The reflection will be adapted from Alistair Begg's book, 'Christmas Playlist' (buy it here). This week we're looking at the final song, Simeon's song – How did God do it?

Sometimes we're not sure what to say when we hold a little baby, but our fourth and final 'singer' was in no doubt about what he would say when he held the infant Jesus when he was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time. His name was Simeon and his song is known as the 'Nunc Dimittis' (Luke 2:27-32). He was a devout believer in God. He was patiently waiting for the promises God had made to be fulfilled. Not only that but God's Holy Spirit had told him that he wouldn't die until he saw these promises begin to unfold on the pages of history.

The angels had brought the news that a Saviour had been born. Likewise, Simeon announces the truth that he is looking at God's salvation, lying in his arms. And Simeon understands that this Saviour has come to save not only “your people Israel” - the ancient people of God, the descendants of Abraham – but he has also come “to the Gentile” - everyone else. If you carry on reading Luke's Gospel, you find the adult Jesus living this out. As the angels promised this child would be good news of great joy for all people. There is no-one who does not need Jesus to offer them salvation, and no one to whom Jesus does not offer that salvation.

So this old man is now content to die. He has been waiting his whole life for this one sight, and now he has seen it – the Sovereign Lord's salvation, in the shape of a human, lying in his arms.

But Simeon did not only speak of salvation. He spoke of suffering too (Luke 2:34-35), not just announcing that this child would bring salvation, but hinting at what it would cost him to bring it. He was the child who would cause many to fall, and others to rise. He would reveal the deep secrets, and the true attitude towards God, that lies in every human heart. He would be opposed verbally; and one day, his mother's soul would be torn apart emotionally.

My guess is that Mary never forgot Simeon's words, nor that she really understood them, until the other end of her child's life. Because unless you understand the events of Easter, you'll never grasp the heart of Christmas. Simeon understood that – which is why he pointed forwards to Good Friday even as he welcomed the baby at the centre of Christmas.

In describing the events of Good Friday (Luke 23:32-47), Luke doesn't want you to feel only sympathy for Jesus as a sufferer – because he wants you to put your faith in Jesus as your Saviour. He wants you and me to grasp not only what Jesus suffered but how he saves.

At the crucifixion, Luke describes darkness during the day, which in the Bible is a signal of God's displeasure and God's judgement. Here we see God's Son, punished as a sinner by his Father, even though he had never, ever sinned – never failed to love his Father and his neighbour. Why? Because Jesus was bearing the the burden of the world's sin. He was paying the price to redeem people. He was going through hell so that he could save people from hell. It is what some people call the great exchange. God the Son took on the penalty due to sinful people and so God the Father declares guilty sinners who trust in Jesus as forgiven, guilt-free. I deserve to be on the cross; Jesus hung on it. My sin deserved punishment; Jesus took it.

Luke also describes the 80 foot high curtain in the Temple being torn by God from top to bottom. This curtain was a huge visible reminder of the truth that there is a separation between sinful man and the perfect God. But God tore it to show that Jesus' death opened the way to him so that we need not be stuck with our sin and separated from him.

And this is why the wooden food trough led to the wooden cross, and why you will never get to the heart of Christmas if you don't grasp the meaning of Easter. Christianity is not good advice about what we should do. It is the good news of what Christ has done. Christianity does not proclaim that you are worth saving or able to save yourself. It announces that God is mighty to save.

Luke's Gospel finishes in a very similar place to where it began. We began with angels appearing and we finish in the same way. We began with an angel announcing the presence of life where it is, humanly-speaking, impossible – in the wombs of a woman who was infertile and a woman who was a virgin. We finish with the angels announcing the presence of life in a tomb (Luke 24:1-7)- the resurrection of a crucified criminal to eternal glory.

And between the events of the first Christmas Eve and the first Easter Sunday, simeon's words had come true. Jesus had reached out to those who were outsiders, excluded. He had been opposed. He had revealed what people really believed. Physical nails had pierced his hands as an emotional sword pierced the soul of his watching mother. And, as he hung on the cross, he had redeemed his people – he died the death that tore the curtain and he paid the price that brought the salvation that Simeon had spoken of all those years before.

He died on the cross because Simeon, Mary, Zechariah, the shepherds, you and I are sinners – and because he loves them, and us, anyway.