The Fall And Rise Of Many
Text: Luke 2:33-40
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
The
atmosphere of Christmas continues for most people well past Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day. All the Christmas left
overs, all the Christmas treats, and all the Christmas gifts will continue to
bless you into this next week. The
decorations will stay up in your houses for a while longer. Christmas songs will continue to flood your
memory and you will hum them around the house.
Indeed, the aura and feeling of Christmas continues on and on and on, that
is until we meditate on today’s sad thoughts in our Gospel reading from
Luke.
Today,
with reluctance, our happy and warm Christmas thoughts are brought before our
Gospel reading, where they collide with sad thoughts. Otherwise stated, our celebration of the
manger and our humming of, “Silent Night,” bump rather harshly and rudely into
Simeon’s confession that the baby-Jesus is destined for the falling and the
rising of many in Israel. Yes, fresh
from the manger we meet Simeon’s confession that this Christ-child will be a
sign that will be opposed.
I
know how you might be feeling. Two days
ago we heard, “Merry Christmas; unto us a child is born!” Now, we hear that this child will wreak havoc
and stir the pot.
Considering
this, why has the historical church meditated on Simeon’s confession and why
has it chosen to do this the Sunday after Christmas, when we haven’t even
packed up the decorations and put away the tinsel yet? Otherwise stated, “Why does the Church ask us
to meditate on these sad thoughts while still within the sight of the
manger? Surely, [the historical church]
wishes us to celebrate a joyous and happy Christmas. Yet [the church has assigned] this [Gospel
reading to the Sunday immediately after Christmas] to remind us that Christmas
is not sheer poetry.”[1] Dear friends, to rephrase this, “When all the
‘Silent Nights’ and “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehems’
are sung, when we’ve all oohed and aahed over the diapered deity swaddled in
the manger, there remains the reality that God did not send His Son into the
world to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.” [2] But rather, Jesus came down from heaven to
redeem a real broken world, not some marshmallow world with ‘snow and
mistletoes and presents under the tree,’ but a real world – with all of its
ugliness and hurt and pain. Yes, Jesus
came to redeem this world and to do that would require hurt and pain and blood
and conflict and all sorts of raw suffering.
This redemption would truly rattle the earth, confuse earthly wisdom, divide
mankind, cause some to fall, and some to rise.
This
is exactly what Simeon points out to Mary, Joseph, you, and me in Luke’s Gospel
account. More specifically, as Simeon
took the young baby into his arms, we get the sense that he became very serious. He beheld an appalling sight. As he held the little baby Jesus in his arms,
he confesses that the child would be the rise and fall of many. Indeed, Jesus and His life would bring about
much opposition in Israel. Instead of
being accepted and loved by all as the Savior, Jesus would be met with rejection
and suffering. This was a dark picture
and a terrible announcement to which Mary – His mother – had to listen. For us today, this is not a very pleasant
announcement as well; it is not a very Christmasy message for us to hear only
2-3 days after Christmas.[3] Furthermore, it challenges the modern day
assumptions that Jesus is only about love and roses and peace and happiness and
tolerance.
In
the midst of our pleasant Christmas feelings, we most definitely hear the
jarring message from Simeon that our Lord’s birth marks the beginning of a
hard, bitter, life for Jesus. For Mary,
she would hear the jarring message from Simeon too; hearing that a sword would
pierce her very own heart. “She who once
placed her two hands on her extended belly, wondering what kind of boy she
would have, would eventually stand drenched in tears as she looked up at that
boy, grown into a man, whose two hands were extended upon the cross-beams,
drenched in blood, to save her and the messy world He so love[d]. Each nail that pierced His hands, each thorn
that bit into His brow, the spear that punctured His side – they all were a
part of the sword of sorrow that was thrust deep into [Mary’s] heart.”[4]
Because
this Child in Simeon’s arms brings a rising and a falling to many, and is a
sign that is opposed, and pierces the heart of Mary, we must ask today: does
Jesus causes you and me to rise or to fall?
There is no room to wiggle out of this question, for Jesus Christ – the
gift of Christmas – caused many to rise and to fall, as stated by Simeon and taught
by Scripture. This
Christ is like a rock that caused people to stumble or to be raised; He will either
cause you and me to stumble over Him or He will lift you and me up high on a
solid foundation.
For
Mary and Simeon, Jesus was a sign for their falling ‘and’ for their rising. Falling: Simeon knew that His salvation was
not in himself; rising: he knew that salvation lie resting in his arms. “Mary learned that she had a son, yet she did
not have Him – He really had her.”[5] On the other hand, for many others in Israel,
Jesus was a sign only for falling. For example: in their response to Jesus, the
religious big shots of the day showed what they were. Their hearts were
revealed. They did not want to be reduced to point that they were nothing but
receivers and they refused Jesus’ invitation to pick them up. Their pride was insulted by the idea of falling
to the status of poor miserable sinners.
Furthermore, Jesus did not meet their specifications. From their perspective, they had no use for
what they perceived as an unremarkable, weak, Beggar-Savior. They wanted
someone useful. Someone who would advance: their social hope, their political
agenda, and their religious endeavors…
Dear
friends, what say you? Is this Child who
was born that Christmas Eve your falling or your rising?
To
you who spiritually pull yourself up by your own bootstraps; to you who say,
“Help me up, but don’t do everything for me, for I am not a beggar, but I am
capable of doing some of it by myself”; to you who consider yourself a bit less
sinful than your neighbor; to you who depend upon your own works and seek your
own righteousness: Christ is a stumbling block to you. Like it or not, you cannot do Christianity
and life apart from the Lord, thus making the Lord less than almighty. If you cling to what you imagine must be
true, if you cling to your demands and what God must produce for you, you are
undone – you trip upon the rock - and remain under judgment. Indeed, you cannot stand in the presence of
Christ, for Christ calls for faith, not works.
He seeks sick-sinners, not the self-righteous. He comes to give to beggars, not receive from
the self-important empty elite.
Repent
one and all. Christ is your falling. Fall upon the rock of Christ.
Let
there be no mistake this morning, the person and message of the one in in
Simeon’s arms – Jesus -causes our falling.
However, do not be discouraged, you who have fallen with me, Jesus is
also our rising.
Yes,
when we are shown what we truly are, when we despair of self, and when we are
made to be a poor beggar, this Christ-child is a rock for our rising.
You
see, the Lord pours faith into poor miserable sinners like you and me. He places the gifts of forgiveness, life, and
salvation into your open hands. He draws
you up out of the black waters of sin and hopelessness, and so saves you from
eternal death. This happens wherever the
sign of the Cross is held on high. The
shepherds, Simeon, the Magi, the prophetess Anna, Mary, Joseph, many loyal
souls of ages past, martyrs, and you blessed Baptized Saints this day, have
been raised upon the rock of Christ.
This day you stand upon the rock of Christ, despairing of your own
efforts, and trusting in the Lord’s gifts.
These gifts - faith, forgiveness, life, salvation - come to us by way of
a sign: an infant in Simeon’s arms, the man dying on the cross, water splashed
upon you in the name of God, and the bread and wine for you.
Simply stated, we
fall in repentance. We are raised by forgiveness. We must all fall, so that we all can be
raised.
Simeon
received the baby-Savior that brought him his death and his salvation – his
falling and rising. You too have fallen and been raised: you have been plunged
into His death in baptism; you have been raised anew in the new-ness of life in
baptism.
As
it goes with Simeon, it goes with us.
The thoughts of all hearts and minds are drawn out into the open when
Jesus shows up. Jesus collides with you, which is the death to: your
self-esteem, your religious endeavors, and your spiritual resume. It is death to your specifying who God must be
to you. Take comfort though, the one
that draws near to you is also the cause of your rising.
Baptized
Saints, you are with Christ, together with Him in the falling and rising. As it goes with Him so it goes with you.
All
this we rejoice in as we join with Simeon’s rejoicing.
We
rejoice in this Savior in whom we have our falling and rising; our strength and
preservation; our departure and our salvation.
All of Him is with us; together in our falling and rising, rising never
to fall again.
Merry
Christmas to you in the name of the one causes your falling and rising, Christ
Jesus the Lord: Amen.
[1] Fred H. Lindemann: The Sermon and The Propers: Volume 1, (St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 99.
[2] Chad L. Bird, Christ Alone: Meditations and Sermons (Copyright © Chad Bird,
2014), 122.
[3] Fred H. Lindemann: The Sermon and The Propers: Volume 1, 98.
[4] Chad L. Bird, Christ Alone: Meditations and Sermons, 122.
[5] Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel (St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House, 2004), 33-34.
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