Well, again, I say to all of you who are here, Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
This is the last day that we can officially say Merry Christmas, the 12th day of Christmas.
It's the eve of the epiphany, which technically happens tomorrow.
And I don't know about you, but this time of year is always hard for me, emotionally speaking.
There's a sense of letdown, a sense of a kind of mild to moderate depression that always sets in.
Even if you have a great Christmas, I mean, even if the celebration is wonderful and you see lots of friends and family,
even if it is ideal in many ways, there's always afterwards a kind of feeling of emptiness, at least in my experience.
A sense of something lacking, an incompleteness.
And as with anything in the spiritual life, that kind of thing is worth paying attention to.
And so what I want to do this morning is to pay attention to that feeling, to inquire where it may be coming from.
Because as we look at Luke chapter 2, we're going to realize that that sense of longing can actually lead us somewhere.
That there's tremendous value if we follow it.
And so we're going to look at Luke chapter 2, the part of the Christmas story that sometimes gets overlooked.
And we're going to see a few things about this longing.
We're going to see three sort of questions answered.
Number one, what are we longing for really?
Where's the emptiness coming from?
Number two, why can't we get it?
Why can't we get that thing that we're longing for?
And then number three, how does Christmas make it possible?
So what are we longing for?
Why can't we get it?
And how does Christmas make it possible?
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you for the Christmas season.
And we thank you for all of the hope and the joy.
But we also thank you for the sadness and the loneliness and the longing.
Because these are things that motivate us.
They drive us to look beyond what's right in front of us.
They call us out of ourselves.
They turn our faces to the stars.
They make us wonder if there's more out there than what we can see or touch or taste.
We pray that you would call us out of ourselves and into yourself as we open your word, Lord.
That you came to dwell in our midst.
That we might live for eternity in your midst.
And so we pray this in your son's holy name.
Amen.
So this first question, what are we longing for?
Luke chapter 2, verse 22 to verse 40.
This is a passage that's all about longing.
We meet two very important people in the Christmas story, Simeon and Anna.
And they're both advanced in years.
They're both fairly old.
Which is important because we realize right away that they've both spent their entire lives waiting.
They've spent decades waiting.
Simeon, at some point in his life, we don't know when, but God came to Simeon in the Holy Spirit.
And told Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen God's Savior with his own eyes.
So he's been made this promise, but we get the sense from the way he talks about it that it's been a trial for him in some ways.
It's been a long season of endurance.
He's been told, you're not going to see death until you see the Messiah.
And so he rarely leaves the temple.
He's there every day waiting, hoping today might be the day that he sees the Savior.
And then we have Anna.
And Anna is given the very distinguished title of prophetess.
And she's 84 years old, which is older by today's standards, certainly old by the standards of the first century.
And Luke tells us that Anna was only married for seven years before her husband died, from the time that she was a virgin.
So assuming that she perhaps got married around age 13, which wouldn't have been uncommon,
she was married up until age 20, and then she lost her husband.
And since age 20, or thereabouts, she's been single.
She didn't remarry.
She would have probably been encouraged to remarry, but she remained single for decades, for the next 64 years.
And she has devoted herself to what we might consider to be an intercessory prayer ministry.
It says she never leaves the temple.
It's possible that she had even been given an apartment there, which sometimes happens.
So she was living there, and she fasted and prayed every day and every night.
So both Simeon and Anna have lived lives that are filled with spiritual longing.
They say they're waiting for the consolation of Israel.
They're waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
And God had actually told Simeon, you will not have peace until you see my salvation.
So it's not been a peaceful time.
It's been full of unrest, full of unanswered prayer, full of questions, full of longing.
And in a way, this is a story about Simeon and Anna, but in a way, it's a picture of the human condition as a whole.
It's a picture of something that I think on some level we all experience.
We all have a kind of spiritual longing that can't ever fully be satisfied.
This is what C.S. Lewis famously described as that inconsolable longing.
He describes it as a longing for the scent of a flower we have not found,
or the echo of a tune that we have not heard,
or news from a country that we've never yet visited.
Inconsolable longing.
And yet, I think if you were to go out and you were to ask people,
or maybe some of you here are thinking,
you know, I'm not really aware of that in me.
I've never really felt that longing that sometimes I hear Christians talking about.
And there's a number of reasons why you can live much of your life
and never really tune into that longing,
never really be aware that there's something like that inside you.
You know, I think some people tend to bury that longing,
along with many other parts of themselves,
under a kind of avalanche of distractions.
Right?
I mean, you can work enough or look at your phone enough
or eat enough or drink enough or shop enough
that you're continually distracted,
and you never have to pay attention to anything that's going on in here.
Least of all, some kind of deep spiritual longing.
So some people bury it.
I think some people channel that spiritual longing in other directions.
They channel the longing into good things
that they allow to become ultimate things or God things.
So just to take one example,
centuries ago,
people cared about things like social justice
because they cared about and loved God.
The idea is I love God.
God cares about justice.
Therefore, I care about justice.
But what's happened over the last few centuries
is that more and more people
have desired a vision of life
that excludes God or anything transcendent,
a purely materialistic worldview.
And so philosophers like Charles Taylor
say that we take that spiritual longing
that used to be channeled toward God
and we redirect it.
In a materialist worldview,
where we don't allow for the transcendent,
we have to do something
with that longing for the transcendent.
And so he says we channel it
into things like
the pursuit of justice.
And so we have gone from being a society
where people pursue justice
for God's sake
to being a society
where justice has become God.
The pursuit of justice
has become divine itself.
And what I mean by that is
it has become the source of meaning
and the source of fulfillment
and the source of identity
for many, many people.
And so now in our society,
everybody cares about justice.
And many people pursue justice
with a kind of religious fanaticism
because it's become a source of meaning
and purpose and identity.
And yet at the same time,
there's tremendous confusion over justice
because it's no longer embedded
in a larger narrative.
It's no longer rooted
in any truth outside itself.
And so no one seems to be able to agree
on what justice even is.
But we all want it
to satisfy the longing.
And then I think
that there are some people
who don't feel
that sense of spiritual longing
because they mistake that longing
for other kinds of longing,
lesser longings.
Right?
There's a kind of nostalgia obsession
in our culture
where people love the nostalgic.
There are shows like Stranger Things
that are, it's a great show,
but it is custom tailored
to evoke that sense of longing
for people who grew up
in the 80s and 90s.
And it's there for a reason
because if you can evoke
that sense of nostalgic longing,
you can make money
because we love feeling that.
Right?
And there's a sense
in which we idealize the past
and we say,
if only I could just get back
to the good old days.
If only I could just sort of
relive that.
Right?
You feel that if you travel
and you go home for Christmas
and you say,
man, I hope that this Christmas
is like all those Christmases
that we used to have
when everything was great
and fun and peaceful.
And then you get there
and you're sort of
tragically disappointed.
It doesn't even come close.
Right?
And the kind of hard news is
if you were to get a time machine
and to go back to those
idealized earlier Christmases,
I can almost guarantee you
they would fall short also.
Because what nostalgia is,
is it's a longing for the past
that in some ways
we imbue with the inconsolable longing.
We say,
this is what I'm really longing for.
If I could just get back there
or recreate it somehow.
So some people live in the past
for that reason.
Some people say,
if only I could find
my true soulmate.
Some people say,
if only I could get to some place
of financial security and stability.
Right?
So we mistake the inconsolable longing
for other forms of longing.
And this drives many people
to just move from place to place.
Or to go from job to job.
Or to bounce from church to church.
You know, over the years
I've met so many people
who they came to our church
from another fantastic
gospel-centered church.
And they come to our church
and they mistake that sense
of novelty for spiritual growth.
And then once the novelty wears off
and once they're showing up
to volunteer for the 400th time
and they kind of, you know,
they've been through some drama
and some decisions have been made
they don't like,
the novelty's gone,
they kind of hit a wall.
And instead of pushing through the wall,
which is really a wonderful part
of spiritual growth,
is learning how to deal
with those walls that we encounter,
they bounce to another church.
And then again,
they seek out that sense of novelty
that they mistake for spiritual growth.
Right?
So there are all of these ways
that we try to deal with the longing.
And then we have Simeon and Anna here
who know the truth about the longing.
They know who we are all
really waiting for.
And that's the value of this passage.
Right?
So now this seems like a good time
for me to pivot
and to say,
okay, well now let me tell you
all about Jesus
and how he satisfies
all of your longings.
And that's true.
Jesus is the object of our longing.
He can satisfy all of our longings.
But there's a problem
that we have to deal with first.
Leads us to the next question.
Why can't we get
the satisfaction that we crave?
When we come to Christ.
Look what Simeon says in verse 30.
He says,
My eyes have seen your salvation
as he holds the baby.
Right?
That you have prepared
in the presence of all peoples
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.
First, the good news.
By definition,
the gospel is meant
not just for Israel
or for Westerners
or for religious people.
The gospel is by design
meant for the world.
And this is a theme
that we hear in this service
because it's what we focus on
during Epiphany,
which is tomorrow.
We talk about the fact
that the gospel is meant
for all of the nations.
This is God's free gift of salvation
and it's meant for every single man,
woman, and child.
Right?
It's meant to go out to the world.
And yet,
Simeon goes on to say,
Behold,
this child is appointed
for the fall
and the rising
of many in Israel
and for a sign
that is opposed.
Now, here's the question.
If God is offering salvation
freely to the whole world,
why in the world
would anybody oppose it?
That does not sound controversial.
Well, the conflict comes
when you realize
that Jesus alone
is God's salvation
and that there is no other way.
When Simeon sees Jesus,
he doesn't say,
Finally,
here's somebody
who's going to be able
to teach us
how to get saved.
He says,
Here is salvation.
In other words,
Jesus himself
is God's salvation
for the world.
And once he gets older,
Jesus himself says,
Not,
I will teach you the way,
the truth, and the life,
but he says,
I am the way
and the truth
and the life.
And then Jesus says,
Whoever believes in me
is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe in me
stands condemned already.
And this reveals something
very fascinating
and very crucial
to understanding the gospel.
We will rise and fall
depending not on who we are
or what we have done for God
or what we have not done.
We will rise and fall
depending entirely
on our relationship
with Jesus.
Those people who
give themselves
fully to Jesus
and follow him
will rise to glory.
Those people who
reject Jesus
will fall under condemnation.
Jesus himself
says this.
So, in a way,
Jesus came to unify
and bring peace,
but he's also polarizing.
And,
if you read
the Christmas story,
you realize
that Jesus
is polarizing
before he's even born.
Before he's even born,
he's polarizing people.
You look at Mary.
Mary responds
to the news
of Jesus
by completely
surrendering
herself
to the Lord.
She says,
Behold,
I am the servant
of the Lord.
Let it be to me
according to your word.
Let me tell you this.
There is no greater
example of discipleship
in all of Scripture
than Mary's response
to the angel
upon learning
of the birth of Jesus.
Let it be to me
according to your word.
That's discipleship.
Herod responds
in the opposite way.
When Herod hears
the news of Jesus,
he sees Jesus
as a rival,
as a threat
to his power,
as a contender
for the throne.
And the truth is,
if you look at Mary
and you look at Herod,
and then you look
at your own heart,
you realize that I think
if you're anything like me,
inside you see
parts of yourself
that look like Mary
and parts of yourself
that sound an awful lot
like Herod.
I think that we fall
somewhere between
these two extremes.
You know,
I may say
I want to follow Jesus
and I really mean it
up to a point.
I really want to
follow Jesus
because I want the peace
that Jesus offers.
I want the answer
to my longing.
I want to be whole
as a human being.
But,
if I'm really honest,
and I'll be honest
with you,
just keep it here,
there are parts
of my life
I'm willing to do that with,
but there are parts
of my life
that I hold back.
And I keep
a pretty tight grip
on them.
You know,
I want the peace
that Jesus offers,
but I'm also
kind of a control freak
when it comes
to my life.
And I love being
in control of my life.
So,
I will trust
and follow Jesus
when it comes
to liberating
the oppressed.
I love that idea,
but not when it comes
to my love life.
I will trust
and follow Jesus
when it comes
to my job.
I want to seek
his will
for my vocation,
but not when it comes
to how I spend
my money.
I want the peace,
but I want control.
I want to have my cake
and eat it too.
And I think
our experience
of the Christian life
is part surrender
and part power struggle.
And I think both
are happening
at the same time
in us.
And I think
that this is one
of the main reasons
why many of us
who seek
to follow Jesus,
who have given
our lives to Jesus,
nevertheless do not
experience the kind
of peace
that we read about.
We struggle
with that sense
of longing
and unrest.
because I think
that there are parts
of us that want
Jesus to be our salvation
and part of us
that oppose him
as a rival king.
And so if you
take a moment
to kind of look inward
and to figure out
where those places
are in your life
of fear
or anxiety,
of resentment,
of bitterness,
of unresolved anger,
if you find
those places
in your life,
I can almost
guarantee you
that those are
connected to,
that they're emanating
from something
in your life
that you are holding
on to with a
white knuckle grip.
Wherever those
feelings are,
as we said
at the beginning
of the sermon,
don't run from them,
listen to them,
follow the thread,
figure out where
they're coming from,
you're probably
going to find
a power struggle
in your heart.
And this is why
we need Christmas.
This is why
Christmas
is such good news.
How does Christmas
make it possible
to overcome
the power struggle?
Well, Simeon
goes on to tell Mary,
because of Christmas
and the birth of Jesus,
he says in verse 35,
a sword will pierce
through your own soul
so that the thoughts
of many hearts
may be revealed.
And just imagine
this scene,
Simeon holding
this baby,
looking from
the sweet child
to the faces
of Mary
and Joseph,
two new parents
who have been
through what
must have been
an enormous trial,
spiritually,
emotionally,
physically,
to get to the temple
after this
conflict-filled
birth narrative.
And their faces
are exhausted,
you know,
they've not gotten
much sleep,
they may even look
a little haggard,
and yet they're beaming,
right?
They're radiating
happiness and joy
at this new child
in their life,
right?
This is the fulfillment,
this is God's answer,
this is what they've
been waiting for.
And yet Simeon,
as he looks
from the parents
to the child,
God allows this prophet
to see the beautiful,
awful truth
of Christmas.
How does Jesus,
how does Jesus
save people
who are spiritually
longing for him
and yet perceive him
as a rival king?
Who want what he offers
and yet would
just as easily
kill him
to stay in power?
How do you save
somebody like that?
How does Jesus
overcome the power struggle
and bring peace
to people who don't
necessarily want it
on his terms?
And you can imagine
Simeon putting
the pieces together
and recognizing this,
that Mary's great burden
was not giving birth
to a baby
in a cattle stall.
Her great burden
was watching
that baby die
on a cross.
And for a mother,
I don't have to tell you,
that would be like
having your soul
run through.
But in a way,
this is something
that I think
that we're all
meant to experience.
You know,
becoming a Christian
isn't really about
taking a blind leap
of faith.
faith.
It's not really
about an intellectual
assent where you
sort of look at
the evidence and say,
I believe these
things happened.
A lot of people
believe these things
happened who are
not Christians.
Becoming a Christian
is about having
your soul pierced
by the cross.
It's about having
your soul pierced
by the cross.
The Bible scholar
and historian
N.T. Wright
tells the story
of a Roman
Catholic archbishop.
He says,
the archbishop
was once
preaching a sermon
and in the sermon
he tells this story
of three boys.
They were younger boys
and they were walking
along down the street
and they thought
it would be
a really funny
kind of prank
to go into
a Catholic church
that they saw
and to go one by one
into the confessional booth
and then to confess
all kinds of wild,
bizarre,
outlandish,
crazy things
just to see
what the priest would do.
And this sounds
exactly like something
boys would do.
Young boys would do,
right?
At least me
and my boys.
And so they go in
and they make
these confessions
and they think,
they imagine
that they're kind of
blowing this priest's mind,
right?
But the priest
is experienced
and he knows
exactly what's happening.
And so the first
two boys get away
but he kind of
catches hold
of the third.
And he says,
okay,
you've confessed
all of these sins,
now I'm going to
give you a penance.
He says,
I want you to go down
to the front of the church
and I want you
to look at the picture
of Jesus hanging
on the cross.
And I want you
to look at the face
of Jesus on the cross
and I want you
to say to Jesus,
you did all of this
for me
and I don't care.
And he says,
I want you to say
that three times.
So the boy
goes down to the front
of the church,
looks at the picture,
says,
you did all this
for me
and I don't care.
And then he says again,
you did all this
for me
and I don't care.
And he can't say
it a third time
because right about then
he breaks down
and he starts to cry.
And Wright says
that the archbishop
then says,
the reason that I know
this story
and I know those boys
is because I was that boy.
I was that boy
and that was the day
that I came to know
the Lord.
Becoming a Christian
isn't about becoming
intellectually convinced
of something.
It's about having
your heart pierced.
There's a moment
when the cross
ceases to be theoretical.
It ceases to be
a bit of doctrine
in a confession.
And there's a moment
at which the cross
leaps off the page
so to speak
and it becomes deeply
and uncomfortably personal
because the more
you look at the cross,
the more you look
at Jesus on the cross,
the more you begin
to become aware
that you're not
the basically good,
compassionate,
enlightened person
that you think
that you are.
You start to see
your own selfishness.
You start to see
your own pettiness.
You start to kind of
see your overblown
sense of self-importance.
You start to realize
that all the insecurity
you feel about
what are people
going to think
is immaterial
because guess what?
Nobody's thinking
about you.
They're thinking
about themselves.
Nobody really cares
about you.
Enough to notice
your shoes.
Right?
Nobody cares.
And you begin
to realize
the truth about things.
And yet this
isn't a bad thing.
This is something
that many people
would say,
oh, now you're
struggling with
low self-esteem
and we need
to fix that.
This isn't a bad thing.
This is a wonderful thing.
It's a beautiful thing
because the more
you begin to see
the truth about yourself,
the more you begin
to see the truth
about Jesus
and you begin
to see the truth
of the love
that Jesus has
for you.
So becoming a Christian
isn't about
the plausibility
of the cross.
it's about believing
the necessity
of the cross.
It's about looking
at the cross
and saying,
nothing less than this
was necessary
to save a person
like me.
Nothing less
than the death
of the eternal
Son of God
was necessary
to save a person
like me.
When you begin
to realize that,
it pierces your heart.
It pierces your heart.
It opens up a wound.
that is then filled
with the Spirit of God.
So just a couple
of implications
to bring all
of this together.
First, I would say
that knowing
the true object
of all human longing
puts all other longings
into perspective.
So think about Anna.
You know,
most likely lost
her husband
at age 20.
barely getting going
in life.
We don't know
if she had any kids.
Spends 64 years
unmarried
at the temple.
Right?
Justifiably,
she could have turned out
to be a very different person.
She very justifiably
could have become
an incredibly bitter
and angry
and resentful person.
Like,
why is this my lot
in life?
Why can't I have that?
Why can't I be like that family?
Why is this my lot
in life?
That could have been her.
And yet,
we don't know much about her,
but the one thing
that we do know
is that she became
a person of immense joy
and gratitude
and devotion.
You know,
whatever unfulfilled longings
we're facing,
the best way
to avoid falling
into bitterness
and self-pity
and despair
is to recognize
that the one true object
of our heart's desire,
the one who can actually
make us whole,
is Jesus Christ,
and he has come
and he is available.
And if you have him,
you don't believe me now,
but one day we will
in the New Jerusalem.
You won't believe this,
but if you have him,
you have everything.
And one day,
you're going to believe it.
One day,
I'm going to believe it.
I think I'm maybe
about 30% there.
Right?
Most of the time,
I don't believe that,
but I think maybe
at my best,
30% of me believes that.
But one day,
we're all going to believe it
because we're going
to experience it.
If you have him,
you have everything.
And the other thing
I'll say is this.
If you're a Christian,
and yet there are parts
of your life
that you know
you're holding back,
white knuckle grip,
power struggle,
more like Herod than Mary,
not willing to give
them over to Jesus,
or if you're not a Christian,
and all of your life
is a power struggle
with God,
I encourage you
to simply spend some time
looking at the cross.
You don't have to say
the phrase three times.
You can if you want.
But really look at the cross.
Really think about the cross.
And it may be
that God uses the cross
to pierce your heart.
A God who is willing
to take on flesh
and give his life for you
is the kind of God
that you can give
your whole life to.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you
for the cross.
We thank you
for the beautiful,
ugly, horrible,
offensive, wonderful truth
of Christmas
and its connection
to the cross.
And we thank you
that our relationship
with you
doesn't hinge on us
getting it right,
having our ducks in a row,
pulling ourselves together,
proving our devotion to you.
It's not about us
making a difference
in the world
or showing you
how much we care.
it's simply about us
recognizing that we need
the cross.
That you knew
what we needed
and you gave it to us
before we even asked.
As your word says,
while we were still
sinners,
you died for us.
While we were still
in rebellion,
you gave yourself for us.
I pray that as we come
to your table
in a little while,
our hearts would be
pierced anew.
that those would become
holy wounds of glory
into which the light
of your gospel
is poured
into our hearts.
We pray this
in your son's holy name.
Amen.
員
lindle
to
a