READ Luke 2:25
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.
MEDITATE
A couple of years ago, my mother sent me hundreds of letters my father wrote to his mother when he was in the Army Air Forces during World War II. I’m getting to know him as a nineteen year old, just about my son’s age, when he was stationed in Greensboro, Laredo, Lincoln (for aerial gunnery school), Idaho, and Cerignola, Italy, where he took off with sandwiches tucked in his armpits to keep them from freezing, as he perched in a bubble of glass in the front of a B-24 bomber on missions over the Alps. I knew my father only as an older man. When I was 3, he was 34. When I was 21, he was 52. When I turned 45, he was gone. We find it hard, I think, to imagine older people when they were young and vibrant, when they were our children’s age. There are glimpses, of course—the occasional unguarded laugh, the hand-holding with his wife, once his girlfriend, the punch in the shoulder, the joke told with tears in his eyes. At those times, the gap between youth and old age—or what seemed like old age—evaporates.
Simeon is an old man. A very old man. An extremely old man with a child’s love of life. Think the night before Christmas—expectation, ears alert, eyes glued wide open, jaw dropped, legs bouncing, heart pounding. Think expectation, imagine anticipation, and you’ve reached the heart of Simeon, the boy-man who hoped against hope.
When Simeon, whom Luke associates three times with the word Spirit, sees the child of peasant parents from Galilee, he takes the baby in his arms and praises God.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word:
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people
Israel. (Luke 2:29–32, KJV)
These are familiar words, known as the Nunc Dimittis to Christians around the globe. At Cambridge, during my second year of graduate school, I would dash out of a late Friday afternoon Hebrew class and rush across the street to St. John’s College for choral evensong, replete with a boys’ choir and candles, where I heard these words: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.”
Simeon’s words may seem extemporaneous, but they’re not. This song is suffused with the dream of the Old Testament—Isaiah 40–55 to be exact. If the song were a jigsaw puzzle, and every phrase of it a separate piece, you’d likely discover that each piece of the puzzle is a snippet of Isaiah 40–55.
Simeon’s belief that this salvation will be a light for revelation to the nations takes us to Isaiah 42:6, “I have given you as … a light to the nations,” and Isaiah 49:6, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Even Simeon’s belief that this salvation is also “for glory to your people Israel” echoes Isaiah 46:13: “I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”
Simply put, Simeon’s devotion to the study of Scripture—Isaiah 40–55 in particular—has paved the way for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The whole of his being is saturated by those prophetic visions. Simeon is inspired, in other words, because he is vigilant, because he is regular in devotion, and because he has studied the poignant prophecies of Isaiah, which he now sees taking shape in a very young Galilean boy who will be a light to the nations.
A clear model for receiving the Spirit’s guidance rises from regular devotion to learning. Sometimes a single significant moment comes along when all we have studied comes together and we recognize the salvation of God. It can be as surprising as a Nazarene baby carried to the temple, two turtle doves in tow, by his peasant parents. I would give a thousand onslaughts of the Spirit for one moment of such inspired clarity.
REFLECT
PRAY
Holy Spirit
Once
Just once
Knowing
Understanding
Clarity
Not a descent from on high
Not even a dove floating down from the clouds
Just knowing
Understanding
Clarity
An ascent from Scripture
A conviction rising up from the soil of devotion
Knowing
Understanding
Clarity
Once
Just once
Holy Spirit
Amen
