Luke 2:22-38
So, what’s on your “bucket list?” You know, those things you want to do in life before you kick the bucket?
Mine? Well, mine’s pretty simple: First, finish my dissertation! Then write a real book that more than ten people will read, spend some time living and studying in Scotland, teach a college class, have season tickets to the Rockies, you know, stuff like that.
We all have those personal goals of things we want to do, but as I’ve gotten older there are some things that emerge as being even more important than the things on the list—things that, in the end, will last beyond me. One of the things that I really want to see—and I think all parents would agree with me on this—is to see my children and, perhaps someday, grandchildren growing into happy, healthy people who are making a difference in the world. That would be a blessing beyond measure.
And the second has to do with what I can only describe as “finishing well” – to come to the end of life knowing that you did the absolute best you could to live as the person God created you to be. To come to the end of life having been faithful to all of your relationships and commitments—to your spouse, to your family, to your calling, and most importantly to God. I can’t imagine anything better than that.
The description of Simeon we just read is a description of that kind of person—one who was finishing well. We don’t know exactly how old Simeon was, but the text implies that he was probably nearing the end of his life. Luke describes him in three ways. First, Simeon is “righteous and devout” – a biblical way of describing a man dedicated to living rightly and justly according to the law of God.
Secondly, Simeon was “looking forward to the consolation of Israel.” He knew the Scriptures and the promise of a coming Messiah. He would have known those texts that talked about the coming days of Israel’s comfort, like Isaiah 40 – “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Because Simeon was steeped in the story of Israel, he lived his life expectantly, confident that God would redeem Israel’s past and secure their future.
And, third, Luke tells us that “the Holy Spirit rested on [Simeon].” His righteousness and hope were not merely products of study and knowledge, but of a deep relationship with the Spirit. It was the Spirit who revealed to the old man that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. If there was one thing on Simeon’s bucket list, and indeed the bucket list of every devout and faithful person in Judea, it was to see the Messiah finally come. The irony is that most of them missed his coming because this Messiah didn’t meet their expectations. Simeon saw him and held him, because he opened his life to the leading of the Spirit.
Simeon was in the temple that day because the Spirit had led him there. Luke doesn’t give us the sense that Simeon was a priest or part of the temple staff—just an old man seeking what everyone else was passing by without notice—a couple with a baby who had come to have him circumcised and dedicated just like so many other couples and babies who were there in the temple every day. Through the crowd, Simeon saw this poor little family, and he knew that his bucket list was complete.
I imagine that scene—the old man approaches the couple, who are overwhelmed by the impressive size of the temple in the big city, standing in the crowd, and a kindly stranger approaches. “May I hold the baby?” And the old man looks into those precious eyes with deep love—like a grandparent looking at his grandson for the first time—and all he can do is sing:
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Simeon sees his past, Israel’s hope, and the all in the face of the child. He sees the end of his life as another begins, he sees the future, he sees the reconciliation of all people, Jews and Gentiles, he sees the salvation of the whole world in this precious bundle. Simeon comes to the end of his life rejoicing for a hope that will live beyond him. It is his mark of finishing well.
Luke also tells that someone else joined Simeon and the little family at that moment—another faithful senior, a prophet named Anna, who had been a widow for most of her 84 years. Like Simeon she had been waiting, and the arrival of the baby in the temple was, for her, a bucket list moment as well. Luke says she was so devout that she never left the temple, but worshiped there with fasting and prayer every day and night. And now, as she too looked at the baby, she could only praise God and started telling everyone she knew who had been waiting, too.
It’s a beautiful scene—the rejoicing at the birth of a baby, the realization of hopes and dreams. But in many ways it is also a tragic one. Both Simeon and Anna know from their deep lifetime of experience that real hope will not come without suffering. “Simeon and Anna have both been living in a world of patient hope, where suffering has become a way of life. And here God reveals how he will deal with that suffering—not by ignoring it or sanctioning it or alleviating it, but by sharing it himself. Those who are guided by the Scriptures and the Spirit know that there hope does not become a reality without sacrifice.
Like all parents, Mary and Joseph had their own hopes and dreams for the future of this child, but Simeon knows where the story will lead. Because this baby, this Messiah, will not be what is expected, he will bring conflict, and in the midst of that conflict he will suffer. He says to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed. And,” he says to Mary, “a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” This child will suffer in order to make hope a reality, and Mary will suffer, too.
This is, after all, what happens when kingdom of God confronts the kingdoms of this world. Simeon’s bucket list proclamation foreshadows what is to come. Mary will be frantic when she can’t find her 12 year-old son because he stays behind in the temple. She will look on as her son is rejected by the very people he came to save. She will think he’s gone mad as he confronts the religious establishment. And then—in a scene that is unimaginable for any parent—she will watch him die as a crucified criminal. Simeon tells her, in effect, that while we make bucket lists of things to do before we die, dying will be at the top of Jesus’ own list. The one who will “cause the falling and rising of many in Israel” will fall victim of evil and death.
But he will rise as well. Suffering will turn to joy. This is the witness of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. Simeon understood all of this because his bucket list emerged out of a life-long engagement with Scripture and prayer. Grounded in the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, he finished well. He saw what few others had seen—the real Messiah in the form of a helpless baby carried by an unmarried couple who had delivered him in a barn—a couple who lived the kind of life that was on no one’s bucket list. “This was not the sort of revelation the world was expecting, nor the sort of glory that Israel wanted, but it is both, but true revelation and true glory nonetheless” (Wright 26).
And it’s a glory in which we are called to share. Advent invites us to orient our lives around a very different bucket list—one that emerges out of Scripture and prayer, one that involves a vocation rather than a vacation. Advent reminds us at the beginning that whole story will finish well, but not without some effort. Each of the people we’ve looked at in these 2 chapters of Luke had their lives altered by an encounter with God to which their response was a song of praise and a new vocation.
- MARY – Mary is a young girl whose life is altered by an angel visit. In an instant, her life and vocation changed. She would risk her reputation and her life to bring God’s Son into the world, raise him, care for him, and watch him leave on the road to the cross. And yet, she says yes to it all and sings of what God has done for her and for the whole world. Her life is changed forever.
- ZECHARIAH - Zechariah is and old priest who is largely going through the motions of prayer and ritual, when an angel visits and challenges his doubts and fears, telling him his prayers have been answered After a time of silence, the old priest bursts out in a song of praise. He and his wife shift their vocation to raising their son to be a prophet dedicated to the Lord. His life is changed forever.
- SHEPHERDS – The shepherds are outcasts and outlaws with nothing going for them whatsoever, and yet an angel visits and tells them that a Savior has been born for them—for those whom everyone else has forgotten. Their vocation turns from grazing sheep to glorifying God! Their life is changed forever.
- SIMEON – The old man Simeon and the elderly prophetess Anna had been keeping up their faithful vocation their whole lives, praying that one day they would see God’s salvation come. They did, and they died in peace.
The question for us is, what does the news of Christmas and the Messiah’s coming do to our vocation, our bucket list? The truth of these stories is that every one of us has a role in what God is doing in the world. This story is our story, and our vocation.
But it’s a story we’ll only truly understand and integrate if we, like Simeon, are fully immersed in the Scriptures, and we’re fully connected in a relationship with God in the power of the Holy Spirit. A bucket list for finishing well involves a daily practice of connecting to God and listening for his future for us.
And what will happen if you listen? Well, maybe your bucket list will include sharing the good news of Jesus in the public eye—preaching or meeting the glaring needs of people who are suffering. Maybe it will include becoming a prayer warrior, or a teacher of the Scriptures. Maybe your bucket list will include helping people who are broken by illness or addiction, or holding someone’s hand who is suffering or grieving. The point is that all of us are called to a life of faithfulness and service to God and his kingdom, and when we are faithful—according to the word of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit—then our lives impact the world for eternity. Live that vocation and we will leave behind a legacy that will not only bless our children, but bless the whole world.
So many people spend their lives in the pursuit of titles, of things, and of personal pleasure. In the end, they want to have it all.
The Gospel invites us to pursue a very different kind of life—a life like Simeon’s. A life of faithful living, a live immersed in God’s word, and a life that is led by the Spirit. A life that waits expectantly, suffers hopefully, loves extravagantly, works diligently, serves sacrificially. A life that doesn’t see death as its end, but a life that is invested beyond our years into the lives of others. Simeon departed in peace because he had lived such a full, expectant, and sanctified life. He finished well.
In the end, that’s the kind of life I want to live. I know it won’t happen without some struggle, nor will it happen without others to help along the way. How about you?
Now, what’s on your bucket list?
