Last time I spoke of Advent as being a
season of “expectation” and how we get out of this season what we expect to
get. The same is true for all of life, and the same is true of each day. We
also looked at the expectations of Zacharias and Mary - Zacharias didn’t expect
God to do anything; He didn’t expect God could do anything; It says that
Elizabeth even remained in seclusion for six months…probably because they
thought if they told anyone what was going on, they would come with the
straight jackets, and take them away! The consequence for Zacharias was that he
was unable to speak for the whole nine months.
Scripture tells us that they didn’t tell
their friends and family and neighbors anything about their experience with God
until the baby was born - which is an admonishment to us as Christians even
today. How many of our family and friends don’t know a thing about our
experience with God? When the baby comes, when the king comes, when Jesus
comes, it will be too late.
Mary on the other hand, expected that God
is who He says He is, and that He can do what He says He can do and she
responds with “let it be as you have said.”
How many know that this was a most embarrassing situation for Mary and
Joseph? But, you see, Their expectations
of God were such that it overshadowed any embarrassment or criticism from
family or friends. God said it, I believe it, and that’s all there is to it!
That’s what our faith is all about!
Today I want to look at some more
expectations; the expectations of a man name Simeon. From this scripture we can
find out a lot of things about Simeon; First, we know he was in Jerusalem. He
is not given any class or distinction socially; he was just a “man in
Jerusalem” it says; an average Joe. We don’t know how rich or poor he was; how educated
he was; what size house he lived in; we don’t even know if he was skinny
or fat, handsome or homely, white, black, red, or purple… I
personally find it awesome that God doesn’t think any of this is important
information! God just gives us the important facts… And, what is important is
that Simeon was waiting and expecting to see Jesus!…and had been for many
years!
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