January 3, 2025 

Today’s Reading: Colossians 3:12-17

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 63:1-14; Luke 2:21-40

“…my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:30)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Simeon is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. He was not a political ruler or official of the temple. He was not a man of wealth or social standing. As far as we know, Simeon held no worldly power or influence, and yet Luke tells us that Simeon was a “righteous and devout” man of God who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” This means that Simeon was waiting and watching in faith. He was a man who had lived his life on the lookout, and – through the Spirit – he had been given a special revelation that he would not die until he had seen the promised Christ.

There must have been days when Simeon questioned and maybe even doubted the Holy Spirit’s promise. “Is my mind playing tricks on me? Is my age finally catching up? What about my sins? How can God reveal the Messiah to a scoundrel like me?” And there, amid this storm of expectation and doubt, of anticipation and disbelief, of hope and despair, the Spirit acted again. Luke writes that “(Simeon) 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” (Luke 2:27-28).

In a knowledge that could only have been divinely revealed, Simeon recognized the Christ. His eyes were opened, his forgiveness was assured, and his hope was confirmed. In unimaginable joy, he took this baby boy out of his mother’s arms, and there, in the temple courts, Simeon shared the Good News that he had waited his whole life to experience: “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” (Luke 2:29-31). These famous words of praise, called the “Nunc Dimittis,” illustrate with poetic and prophetic clarity the Good News that the Scriptures were written to proclaim: that in this baby boy, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Without God’s action, we are left like Simeon to wait and wonder while life slips away. Without God’s action, we are left to fend for ourselves in a world where the strong survive and the weak are trampled. Without God’s action, we continue to walk blindly in the way of our sin, and it is a way that can only end in death. But through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God acts and our eyes are opened, our sins are forgiven, and life begins.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, thank you for revealing salvation in Jesus to our eyes by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

-Rev. Thomas Eggold, pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

What makes a church “good?” Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.