Redemption's Focal Point
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“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 child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. – Luke 2:27-33, NIV
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. – Hebrews 9:24-28, NIV
“Simeon’s final words point to the revelatory function of Jesus’ work. People declare themselves by their attitude to him. We cannot ultimately be neutral. When people see Christ suffer, their reaction shows on which side they stand.” – Leon Morris
“Not all within Israel are poor and godly. The role of the King will be to effect a judgement. The reversal already begun will include a surprising reversal within the leadership of Israel.” – C. T. Davis III
“…the child’s coming would lead to judgment as well as salvation, for people would lead to judgement as well as salvation, for people would be revealed as they really were in their hearts, and Mary herself would suffer anguish at the consequent treatment of Jesus.” – I. Howard Marshall
One of the assumptions we often come to the Bible with is that Jesus is the focal point of God’s redemptive work. This is a good assumption to make, in that it is correct. However, it does have the danger of diminishing our understanding of the dramatic shift that happens in the redemptive work from the perspective of God’s people. The Tabernacle, and the Temple after it, were the focal point of God’s redemptive work as far as the people of God were concerned. Until Jesus came, the Temple was the place you as a worshipper must go. You want to meet God? Go to the Temple (or the Tent of Meeting, Tabernacle). You have sinned against God? Go to the Temple. You need to celebrate Passover or Yom Kippur or some other religious festival? Go to the Temple. Once the gravity of this starts to dawn on us, we are able to understand more profoundly the distress that the people of God experience when the Temple was destroyed. It is more distressing than it would be if our church building was destroyed. Our way of accessing God is not cut off if a building is destroyed, because our access is now in and through Jesus. Under the Old Covenant, with no Temple, there was no focal point for God’s redemptive work. How do you meet with God when you are unable to go where He says you must go for the meeting? This also explains the dramatic sense of importance that comes in the laying of the new foundation for the Temple in Zerubbabel’s day. God’s people would again have a place to meet with Him and He with them. The value of all this is not some Old Testament minutiae. Rather, the hope is we start to get a more profound understanding of Jesus. And that’s where our passage in Luke 2 comes into focus. Here Jesus is at the Temple. Here are the people of God doing the very thing that God has been asking of them for millennia. Making sacrifices at the temple for their cleansing and redemption so they might be pleasing to Him. And in that moment, in that space, Simeon takes Jesus and pronounces with clarity (but much more poetically), “This child is the way to God.” No longer will the Temple be the focal point of God’s redemptive work. Humans who want to be near to God now, who want their sins forgiven, who want to be pleasing to Him must now come through Jesus. No wonder Jesus will be the great divide in humanity. Either you draw near to God in this Son or, you move away from God by rejecting Him. Jesus becomes the “watershed” of the redemptive work of God. Your response to Him determines your forever relationship with Him and His Father.