Some Aspects of the Presentation in the Temple.
I. Two points strike us in Simeon pre-eminently, whether they are marks of a school of Jewish interpretation, or rather traits of a single soul, simpler and more receptive than most. One is that starting merely with prophecy, and not concerned to image to himself the details of its fulfilment, he hears in it a note which hardly sounded as clearly even to Apostles: "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles." The other is that the sadder and more mysterious tones of prophecy come back to him as well as the more triumphant ones the stone of stumbling the gainsaying people the sword that is to awake against the Shepherd. There is set in the forefront of the new revelation, side by side with triumphant hopes and promises, the record of a prevision of limitation, drawbacks, it would seem, even of partial failure. These are accepted from the first as necessary conditions; accepted and proclaimed by the same prophetic voice, which speaks most strongly of its satisfying, universal, eternal blessedness.
II. The words of Simeon touch three points, which correspond roughly with the three mysteries of human life. (1) He sees that the Gospel is to bring pain as well as happiness: "A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." The nearer to Christ the surer and deeper the pain. He sees that it is to be the occasion of evil as well as of good to lower as well as to lift to be the stone of stumbling as well as a ladder on which men may rise to heavenly places. He sees that though it brings light, it is light which cannot be visible to all eyes. (2) The second note is one still harsher to our ears. Pain is a condition of which, if we cannot see the full explanation of its necessity, we can see a certain purpose we understand its disciplinary power, and we see its limit. But evil touches the soul; reaches into the infinite world to where the sense of limit is lost. What a strange forecast to the everlasting Gospel, that it should be for the fall, the moral fall, as well as the rising of men! And so it has been in the chequered after-history. If goodness has taken subtler and deeper forms, so has badness. Men's hearts have been widened to embrace all humankind, and they have been narrowed and hardened into persecutors. (3) In the sphere of reasonthere is also a note of incompleteness: "A sign spoken against." These words may stand as a figure of the clamour of voices outside the Church, questioning and denying; and of the whispers of timorous and distracted souls within, misdoubting their own hopes. It is no answer to say that they are due to the perversity and weakness of men. We do not even mean by that that they are unforeseen accidents which have befallen the revelation. They were made account for in its ordering. These limitations, whatever they are, were foreseen;they are a part of the Divine plan foreseen before the angels sang "Peace on earth," or prophets' voices welcomed the coming light and glory.
E. C. Wickham, Oxford and Cambridge Journal,Feb. 7th, 1884.
What is it that is here described by the words, "the consolation of Israel?".
I. Israel was God's own people, constituted in their first father Abraham, blessed with various renewals of the promise, and the covenant. From that time onwards, they had long formed the one bright spot in the midst of the darkness of the nations. God was with them. He was their God, so that, as compared with the nations round, Israel's consolation was already abundant. Still, Israel had, and looked for, a consolation to come. God's people differed in this also from every people on earth. The brightness and the glory of every Gentile race was past; but Israel's glory was ever in the future. They looked for a deliverer; for one of whom their first covenant promises spoke; of whom their psalms and prophets were full, to whom every sacrifice and ordinance pointed. When, then, we use the words, "the consolation of Israel," we mean Christ, in the fulness of His constituted Person and Office as the Comforter of His people. And when we say "waiting for the consolation of Israel," we imply that aptitude of expectation, anxious looking for, hearty desire of, this consolation, which comes from, and is in fact, Christ Himself.
II. Christ is the consolation of His people (1) inasmuch as He delivers them from the bondage of sin. In the history of that nation which was a parable for the Church of God, this mighty deliverance was prefigured by their bringing up out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. And correspondent, but far more glorious, is the deliverance which Christ accomplishes for those who wait for and receive His consolation, even till we depart in peace, having seen His salvation, and the consolation which we have waited for is poured in all its fulness around us. (2) Christ consoles His people not only from guilt but in sorrow. It is His especial office to bind up the broken heart, to give the oil of joy for sorrow, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. This He does directly and indirectly. Directly, inasmuch as His Spirit is ever testifying within the sorrowing soul of the believer in Him, cheering him with better hopes and more enduring joys. Indirectly, inasmuch as His holy example is ever before us; His compassionate tone; His promises of help and comfort; His invitations to all that are weary and heavy-laden.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. vi., p. 271.
References: Luke 2:25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xi., No. 659; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 127; Homilist,vol. ii., p. 572.Luke 2:25-35. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 77.