Post-feast of the Encounter; the Holy and Just Simeon Who Received God and the Prophetess Anna.
Hebrews 9:11-14; Luke 2:25-38.
Read Hebrews 9:11-14
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Encounter, and so today we commemorate in particular Simeon and Anna. They were the ones who recognized the Christ-child as the Messiah when He was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. When He was older, Jesus prophesized about His Resurrection. His body, “the Temple,” would be destroyed and then raised up again in three days (see Jn. 2:19-21). With Christ, worship according to the old covenant with the old Temple was made obsolete, and worship “in spirit and truth” was inaugurated.
In the Gospel of Luke, we read that Simeon says to Mary: “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk. 2:34-35). This “sword” that will pierce through Mary’s soul is understood to be the grief and anguish she will feel at witnessing her Son’s death on the cross.
The events surrounding Christ’s death were a bloody affair—His agony in the garden, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the beatings, the nails, and the spear. Today’s reading from the letter to the Hebrews concentrates on the Blood of Christ. The endless sacrifice of goats and calves at the Temple cannot compare to the eternal sacrifice of Christ. The letter to the Hebrews asserts: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
We typically do not look at our works as being “dead” or “alive,” but our works are indeed “dead” if they serve our old, sinful self that has died in baptism. One commentary on this scripture adds that, liturgically-speaking, “dead works” are actions of old covenant worship. Our “worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:23-24) as Christians is very much alive and enables us “to serve the living God” by the Blood of Christ.
When we celebrate the Eucharist, we do not offer new, continuous sacrifices to God the Father. We offer a memorial of the once-and-for-all-time sacrifice of Christ in obedience to Christ’s command. At the Mystical Supper, we read that, “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:26-28). Christ asked that we celebrate the Eucharist in remembrance of Him (Lk. 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-25). It is this worship, this sacrifice of love which Christ freely made on the cross, which is a perfect sacrifice. The imperfect sacrifices of old covenant worship at the Temple have been made completely unnecessary. Christ our God, the new Temple, is risen! Simeon and Anna who we commemorate today were witnesses of “the beginning of the end” of old covenant worship as they beheld the infant Christ.