“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…” (Luke 2:22-38)

Mary and Joseph had taken the baby Jesus to the Temple to offer sacrifice according to Jewish custom, and Simeon, a holy and righteous man, moved by the Holy Spirit, takes Jesus in his arms and offers the above prophesy.  He then goes on to say that Jesus will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Isreal.”

Like the angel’s message to the shepherds, we hear a similar promise that Jesus came for all people, not just those of Jewish heritage, but all people including Greeks, Romans, and all the people of the earth.  This would include the barbarians to the north of Rome, the Persians to the east, people of the orient, and the indigenous people of the Americas, though it was several centuries before word may have gotten to them. 

Jesus came for our spouses, family members, friends, the obnoxious co-worker at the office or factory, the beggar in the median strip at the stop light, citizens of our international adversaries such as Russia, China, North Korea, and radicals in the Middle East. 

Tragically, as the opening of John’s Gospel recognizes, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”  But then John goes on to capture the great promise of Simeon’s prophesy, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12, NIV)

We receive the same Holy Spirit in our baptism that inspired Simeon, that “overshadowed” Mary with her pregnancy with Jesus, and that came to rest on Jesus’ followers on the Feast of Pentecost.  May we reopen the door of our hearts to receive Jesus and his Holy Spirit for our sake and for the sake of the people and circumstances in our lives.