The Songs of Luke's Gospel

Jesus: Song of Peace

TEXT: LUKE 2:22-39

LISTENING TO THE TEXT
The setting for this passage is back at the Temple in Jerusalem. The new parents, Mary and Joseph, have brought their baby Boy to do for Him what the law required. In that ceremony they hear some things said about their Child that must have been at once fulfilling and frightening. Everything was going quite well as Simeon blesses the Child and speaks prophetic words about Him. He is so blessed by this moment that he breaks out in song. He praises God because he believes he now holds in his arms the One who will redeem Israel. It had to be amazing and a bit fearful to hear those kinds of words spoken about your son. The doxology sung by this old man would have been fine by itself, but the scene doesn't stop there. Simeon goes on and says to these awestruck parents that their Child will become a stumbling block to many in Israel. And then he speaks some frightening words to Mary: "a sword will pierce your own soul too" (v. 35).

How do these two different prophetic "voices" go together? Why would Simeon's words include praise and pain in the same ceremony? Is there a word here for we who proclaim "peace" in the midst of a world marked by conflict?

ENGAGING THE TEXT
The Need
Peace and pain seem to us to be contradictory messages. Yet our daily lives reveal the challenge of knowing the peace of God in the midst of the conflicts and chaos of living in this world. What does it mean to proclaim that the "king of peace" has come when our daily experience of life is often anything but peaceful? How meaningful is it for our churches to declare with the angels, "peace on earth" when the morning news makes it seem an empty declaration? The preacher can bring to bear innumerable examples of how the circumstances of our world seem to mitigate peace.

God's Answer
In order for the Christmas message of peace to make any sense in our world, we need an accurate definition of what God offers in Jesus. Folks tend to think of peace as the absence of pain and conflict. However, when God promises peace and when he delivers peace, it is not nearly as shallow as the absence of conflict. God's peace is shalom (well-being, wholeness). Because of Immanuel, this kind of peace can be our experience even in the midst of conflict, pressure, and pain. The reason for this is that shalom is not about pleasant surroundings or favorable conditions. The source of shalom is God himself who keeps us secure through anything. It's the peace of living in the truth instead of trying to hide from ourself and from others. It's the peace of forgiveness that finally throws off the weight of guilt from our shoulders. It's the peace of God's unconditional love and the eternal hope that there is more to life than meets the eye.

Our Response
What does it take to know this peace? We need to understand what Simeon seemed to know: this kind of peace often has a price associated with it. Not in the sense that we have to earn it, because we can't. It's a free gift of God's grace. But it has a price in the sense that it will bring some major changes into our lives. When God invades with His peace, it upsets things and changes things.

There are no shortcuts to peace. That's what our world is offering. There are no magic formulas, no quick and easy steps. The way to experience the genuine peace of Christ is the way of obedience. It's the way of surrender to God. It's the way of letting go of all that you would normally count on to get peace and trusting God fully with your life.

Simeon was able to receive Jesus as the Song of Peace because his heart was ready and open to receive it. His whole life was given to listening to God and acting only at the direction of the Spirit. Mary and Joseph were both people obedient to God. Because of that, God used them as channels of His peace to the world. No less than five times in this short account, Luke is careful to show Mary and Joseph doing all that is commanded in the Law (vv. 22, 23, 24, 27, and 39). They were obedient. They had staked their lives on God's direction. They sacrificed their reputations on God's promise. They forfeited comfortable circumstances in order to be fully obedient to God's will. And the result was that they received, in ways even they never would have imagined, God's song of peace.

PREACHING THE TEXT
One could begin this message by helping the congregation see this story first from the perspective of Mary and Joseph. This can be done by talking about the fact that parents love to hear people speak well of their children. It makes us feel proud and competent to hear an outsider make grandiose predictions about the future of our child. However, it's also true that we are deeply impacted when we hear negative things about our kids. Our abilities or lack of abilities in parenting bring out some of the deepest emotions in us.

To illustrate this, I told about our experiences in going to parent-teacher conferences at school. For a while all my best hopes about my child were confirmed by the reports of the teachers. But eventually one of them said, "There's just one problem." Of course I immediately shot a glare at my wife that said, "This is all your fault!" In one fell swoop my self-righteous bubble had been unceremoniously burst.

A transition can then be made to talk about how Mary and Joseph were probably not different in this regard. The things that Simeon (and others) said about their child must have impacted them greatly. We can then run the story, bringing in important and interesting historical detail about the holy family going to the Temple on the eighth day of Jesus' life. We can bring in some of the background on why Simeon was there (v. 25) and his faithfulness in waiting to see God's provision. Then we remember the wonderful things Simeon said as he held Jesus in his arms. Mary and Joseph must have stood there awestruck, proud, and also humbled at the obvious significance of their child.

But then the other shoe dropped. Simeon's words didn't end with the words of peace and salvation. After giving his blessing, he says some very disturbing things to Mary about what this child will be and do (vv. 34, 35).

Here is where the dilemma is introduced into the story. How can peace and conflict go together? How is it that for Mary her part in seeing the peace of God brought to the world would include one of the most painful experiences of any parent: the parent will bury the Child. Not only that, but also Simeon makes it clear that Jesus will become the focus of criticism and ridicule. His name will be slandered. Many in Israel will stumble and fall because of him. He will bring His people to a crisis of decision.

So is Simeon's message that peace would come through pain? Is he saying that God's peace would be delivered not just through joy and celebration, through acclamation and triumphal marches but also through confrontation, ridicule, and ultimately death?

Here is the place where the truth of God's shalom in contrast to the brand of peace our world offers can be brought out. The unmistakable message is that His peace can be experienced even in the midst of conflict, pressure, and pain.

Simeon, Mary, and Joseph are models to us of how one discovers that paradoxical truth. It's in a life of total surrender to the will of God. It's in obedience to His word. Their openness to the work of God and their obedience to His direction in their lives put them directly in the path of God's true peace. There is nothing more peace-full than doing God's will even if it means walking through difficult times.

This sermon can be drawn to application by talking about how folks (especially during Advent) speak of wanting to know peace. Yet peace seems elusive in the chaos of the world in which we live. Often our people are more stressed and pressured during the Advent season than usual. And often this stress comes because we live out of the values of this world rather than of the kingdom of God. Advent issues a call to us to surrender control of our lives to God, live in obedience to His word, and consequently be enveloped by the shalom of God.