Introduction

One of the hymns we hear a dozen or more times every December is, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” It’s one of the most widely known of all the Christmas hymns.

The hymn has a long history.[1] The lyrics are believed to come from a Latin poem written between 700s and 1100s AD.

It was an Anglican in the 1800s that translated it. John Mason Neale (1818–1866). He was trained at Oxford and would have graduated with honors except that he wasn’t good in math. And he would have had a career as an Anglican minister, but he turned it down. He had a lung condition and didn’t feel he could manage the work. He accomplished plenty, though.

One of the things he did in life was to leave behind a collection of hymns for the people of God in England. He translated Latin poems and added melodies to them.

And then in 1861 an English hymnal was produced by the Church of England. It was called Hymns Ancient and Modern, and about 1/8 of this hymnal was the work of this John Mason Neale. The hymnal has been revised but continues to be published and has sold 170 million copies.

One of the reasons for its popularity is that it took the revolutionary step of combing specific lyrics to specific melodies. The lyrics of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” we sing today are almost verbatim from that 1861 hymnal.

The melody has a different background. It was a melody used for funerals by 15^th century French Franciscan nuns. But when this somber funeral melody was added to this ancient Latin poem, the match was perfect. It’s been sung every Christmas for 160 years.

The hymn opens with this verse:

O Come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

As a Christian this perspective is a little unnatural. The perspective of the song is looking ahead for “Emmanuel” to come. It seems to be the cry of “captive Israel…in lonely exile.”

The singer should “Rejoice! Rejoice!

But we’re Christians. We celebrate what’s already happened. Christ has come. Emmanuel has a name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every year we get a chance to rejoice at his birth. That’s why we seeing “Joy to the World” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come, Let Us Adore Him.”

But what about, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”?

This morning we’ll read about two people who could have grown up singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Simeon and Anna. Godly Jews who are both described as “waiting.”

“Waiting” is a descriptive word. It’s different than “sitting.” If I tell you, “There’s a guy sitting on a bench in Apex,” I haven’t told you much about him. But if I say, “There’s a guy waiting on a bench in Apex,” you know something about him. You know his gaze is on the future. He’s looking ahead to something. It might be something terrible or it might be wonderful. All you know is that it’s in the future and he is aware of it.

The two people on that city bench in this passage are Simeon and Anna. They are “waiting.” Luke will tell us just what they’ve been waiting for.

And on one hand, we can tell Simeon and Anna, “The waiting is over! Immanuel has come!” But on the other hand, we look around at our world. All the darkness of it. And we sit down beside them on that city bench and say, “Yeah, I’m waiting, too. I hope he comes soon.”

Let’s read Luke 2:22–39 and pray. Then we’ll work through the passage and think about this idea of “Waiting for Redemption.”

Read Luke 2:22–39 and pray.

I. Jesus is Presented

The passage opens with Joseph and Mary going to the temple in Jerusalem “for their purification” (Luke 2:22).

The people involved here are godly. Luke is skillful at giving clues about who we are to imitate and who we aren’t. These three are clearly good people we’re supposed to imitate.

• Joseph and Mary:
  • Their chief commendation is how carefully they are following the Law of Moses.
  • There is a remarkable quadruple repetition of the fact Joseph and Mary are doing precisely what is written in the Law of the Lord. Each facet of this moment is highlight by Luke telling us it was “according to the Law.”
  • He is presented to the Lord “according to the Law of Moses” (2:22).
  • He’s consecrated “just as it is written in the Law of the Lord” (2:23).
  • A sacrifice is given “according to what is said in the Law of the Lord” (2:24).
  • He’s presented in the temple “according to what was made a custom of the Law” (2:27).

• Simeon:
  • “righteous,” “devout” (“devout, God-fearing,” BDAG)—a man of integrity
  • “waiting for the consolation of Israel”—a man of faith
  • “Consolation” (paraklēsis, “comfort, consolation”) can also mean “comfort.

It’s OT prophet Isaiah in the background, especially chapters 40–66. Two examples, Isaiah 40:1 and Isaiah 66:13:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. (Isa 40:1)
As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (Isa 66:13)

• These prophecies from Isaiah seemed to be about the return from Babylon. Now we realize more was meant.
• Christ is the consolation!

And then…

• “The Holy Spirit was upon him,” “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit”—remember, this is before Pentecost. Men like Simeon existed prior to Pentecost. What changed at Pentecost was that God’s Spirit would be poured out on “all flesh.” It was the universality of the Spirit’s work that changed, not how the Spirit worked.

God’s Spirit is now adding to the Witnesses to Christ’s birth. Elizabeth (1:41) and Zechariah (1:67) had already prophesied after being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now it’s Simeon’s turn. The Holy Spirit is one of Luke’s chief witnesses that the Christ has come.

The passage is filled with expectation:

• “The Lord’s Christ” is in the Lord’s Temple
• The Holy Spirit is here as a confirming Witness.

The man Simeon will now make it clear what we are to think…

II. Simeon Prophesies

Now let’s look more closely at Simeon’s prophecy. One of the most important passages in these early chapters of Luke. It’s meant to be a set of lenses that helps us see all that’s going to follow in the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.

Remember, Luke wrote both his Gospel and the book of Acts, which is about ¼ of the entire NT. So these words of Simeon are significant.

Luke 2:29–32.

“Your salvation”

• In this baby is the Lord’s salvation.
• Simeon couldn’t have anticipated how this baby would accomplish the Lord’s salvation.
• He couldn’t have seen a moment decades in the future when this baby as the grown Jesus of Nazareth would be dying on a cross:

And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23:35–37)

“A light…” – One of the great Christmas prophecies that gets read:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. (Isa 9:2)

“A light for revelation…glory…” – This light would shine not just on the Jews but “the Gentiles” AND “your people Israel” (Luke 2:32).

This idea that the gospel would be for all people—Jews and Gentiles—was a radical idea. But Simeon saw it. He saw that “the hope of Israel is the hope of the world” (Darrell Bock, A Theology of Luke and Acts, 122).

Ben Witherington:

This theme of the universal scope of this gospel is announced in Luke 2:30–32….The spread of this good news even to the least, last, and lost is made clear in the…speech in Luke 4:18–21 where Jesus quotes Isaiah 61. One can say then that the Gospel focuses on the vertical (up and down the social scale) universalization of the gospel, while Acts focuses on its horizontal universalization (to all peoples throughout the Empire.
Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles[2]

Good to remember that the Savior of the world was a fully Jewish Messiah. A non-white, non-European, non-Western Messiah.

But… “this good news” is for “the least, last, and lost.”

Luke and Acts will be filled with examples of that.

One of the great ones:

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, 
“Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39–43)

III. Anna Prophesies

Once again Luke goes to great lengths to tell us what kind of woman she was.

First thing, “a prophetess”—like Miriam (Exod 15:20) or Deborah (Jdg 4:4) or Philip’s daughters: “Philip the evangelist…had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied” (Acts 21:8–9).

Apparently Anna prophesied often enough to be called a “prophetess.”

Once again there is a providential encounter: “Coming up at that very hour.” Of course this is Herod’s Temple. In this part of the temple, it’s a square 200 ft per side. The footprint of that just about twice as big as our whole church building. But this is a big open courtyard, so thousands of people could get in there.

Of course, this is pre-COVID, so likely not a lot of social-distancing going on.

The point is, Anna the prophetess happening upon this young couple and their newborn son was no small thing.

At the exact time she saw them “she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him [i.e., Jesus!] to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Luke doesn’t record her words, but the content is given in summary form.

• She’s connecting Christ (“speak of him”) and “the redemption of Jerusalem.”
• “Waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” = “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”
• Speak to different aspects.
• “Consolation” = comfort in a time of oppression.
• “Redemption” = freedom from some kind of slavery. Freedom by means of a payment, the “ransom” price.

Isaiah 52:

The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 
10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. (Isa 52:8–10)

The payment for this “redemption” is clear in Mark 10:45:

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Conclusion

The passage is clear: “The Lord’s Christ” has come—Jesus! Our comfort and consolation has come! Our salvation has come! Our redemption has come!

We sing every Christmas, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king!” Because he has!

Simeon and Anna get to rejoice because the waiting is over!

But we also join them in waiting. Waiting for everything promised to be accomplished.

John Piper writes,

With every verse, the refrain reaches down musically into our weak hearts and pulls us up, in faith, to see the certainty of the end.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Artistically, the rhythm of plaintive longing in the verses, punctuated with powerful bursts of joy in the refrain, are, to my mind, just about perfect. The mystery and the wonder of Christian living are captured. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Already. But not yet.
Fulfillment of glorious promises — yes! But consummation in the new earth with new bodies and no sin — not yet. We are left confident, but still crying out: “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”
John Piper, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”[3]

Amen.

That’s why it’s so fitting that our Bibles end by echoing the same cry as this Christmas hymn:

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (Rev 22:20–21)

“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” “Come, Immanuel.”

Prayer and Closing Song (“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”).

[1] Jennifer Woodruff Tait, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” Christian History (2012). Obtained at https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/o-come-o-come-emmanuel. But also from correspondence with Dr. Deborah Ruhl, who got her 2013 OSU PhD in musicology studying hymnody of the 1800s.

[2] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 69.

[3] See Desiring God at https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/o-come-o-come-emmanuel.