When Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the temple, they encountered a prophet named Simeon. We normally think of Simeon closer to Christmas. After all, that’s the season when we pay special attention to the birth of Jesus. But Simeon’s message makes sense to us only in the light of Easter.

By the Holy Spirit, Simeon knew that he held the long-awaited Messiah in his arms. He knew that this child would grow up to accomplish his mission in the face of fierce opposition. And he knew that Jesus’ ministry would inflict great sorrow on his mother. But Jesus would accomplish what God intended. After all, God accomplishes everything he intends. (See Luke 2:25-35.)

A light to the Gentiles

Simeon looked at Jesus and immediately saw God’s salvation.  And not only for the Jews. Jesus would be a light for the Gentiles to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham. When God first called Abraham, he said he would have many descendants. Through them, he would bless all nations (Genesis 12:3).

Abraham’s descendants never quite fulfilled their mission in the time of the Old Testament. After God rescued them from Egypt, he commanded them not to live like the surrounding nations. Their moral lifestyle was supposed to set them apart from the immorality around them. It would attract people from other nations to live the same way.

Instead, they quickly started to live the same way as the other nations. It took captivity to purge idolatry, immorality, and child sacrifice from them.

After that, they did set themselves apart, but not to attract other nations. No, they considered themselves morally superior and despised other nations. And then never caught on to the law’s requirements for love and mercy.

If most of the nation forgot that Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, the prophets never did. Isaiah 56:3-8 promises that God would gather in foreigners who joined themselves to him along with the dispersed of Israel. Zechariah 14:16 specifies that even people from nations that opposed Jerusalem would gather there to worship Israel’s God instead of their own idols.

The nation of Israel as a whole never did fulfill this mission. Jesus did. In the light of the resurrection, Paul declared in Romans 10:11-13 that whoever called on the name of the Lord would be saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

The fall and rise of many in Israel

The Jews of Simeon’s day well remembered that God had chosen them above all the nations of the earth. They looked for a Messiah as a conqueror to restore David’s kingdom in its original glory. Surely such a Messiah would exalt all the Jews and put down any who opposed them.

Simeon knew better.

The Messiah would be the downfall of many in Israel. And the rising. The Greek word for “rise” here is translated resurrection everywhere else. Hints of resurrection occur rarely in the Old Testament. Warnings against falling occur regularly. Smug people secure in being chosen easily ignore them.

Jesus issued his own warnings, and they extend past earthly life:

• He denounced the cities where he did most of his miracles because they didn’t repent. Sodom would find the judgment more tolerable than they (Matthew 11:20-24).
• He described the final judgment with himself as the judge of all nations. He would separate the nations as a shepherd separates sheep and goats. But the separation isn’t based on nationality but how individuals treat him in life (Matthew 25:31-46)
• He said that, as Lord of the house, he would get up and shut the door. Some people who had heard his teaching would find themselves on the outside, refused admittance (Luke 13:22-28).
• He spoke a parable about a man going to a far country to be made king, but some people hated him and didn’t want him as king. At the end of the parable, the king—clearly intended as Jesus himself—called for these enemies to be executed in his presence (Luke 19:27).

But Jesus also told Martha that he was the resurrection and the life for all who believe in him (John 11:25). Then he demonstrated the truth of his claim by resurrecting her dead brother.

A sign to be opposed

Passing centuries have so blunted the impact of Jesus’ teaching that we forget how easily he offended whomever he was talking to. And he never apologized. Simeon realized that if the Messiah would cause many to fall, they would oppose him.

Jesus met hostility as soon as his ministry became popular. The strongest opposition came from the people who should have recognized and embraced him.

No one in Jewish society understood Scripture or tried to live a pious life more than the Pharisees. In fact, Jesus had more in common with them than any other Jewish ideology. Yet many of them despised Jesus so much that they attributed his ability to cast out demons to demonic power (Matthew 12:24).

We could explain the opposition of the official rulers of Jewish society as jealousy and turf guarding. But what about ordinary people?

When he taught in the synagogue in Nazareth, he was speaking to former neighbors. They were amazed at his gracious teaching but wondered how a mere carpenter’s son got all those ideas. He didn’t fulfill their expectations, so they tried to kill him (Luke 4:28-29).

Some people started out believing him and later turned away (John 6:66). And some of them later accosted him and became even more offended. They wanted to stone him.

Jesus left Judea after that encounter but returned to raise Lazarus from the dead. His disciples, knew the danger (John 11:7-16). That miracle failed to persuade the Pharisees and chief priests that Jesus had come from God. Instead, it persuaded them that he had to die (John 11:47-53). The opposition Simeon foresaw led directly to the cross, and from there to the empty tomb.

A sword to pierce Mary’s soul

Of all the words Simeon spoke, his warning to Mary points most clearly to Easter. After all, she stood at the foot of the cross and watched her son die.

In a sense, however, witnessing the crucifixion capped off a life of piercing. She probably would have preferred to raise Jesus in Bethlehem. Instead, she had to return to Nazareth and endure the taunts of people who thought she had borne a bastard out of wedlock.

Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem when he was probably about 12. (Luke 2:41-52). On the way home, each parent simply assumed that he was with the other. Until they stopped for the night.

Imagine the anguish! They had to return to Jerusalem. They looked all over and probably didn’t start at the temple. When they found him there, he was surprised they didn’t know he’d be about his Father’s (not Joseph’s) business.

When did Jesus start his habit of disappearing into the wilderness in the middle of the night for prayer? Any mother would worry, at least for a while.

Mary urged Jesus to work a miracle at a wedding party. Before he did so, he scolded her­­–– gently, but it still must have stung.

Once, Mary and her younger sons went looking for Jesus. They found him preaching in a house that was so crowded they couldn’t get in. So they sent word that they were outside and wanted to speak to him (Matthew 12:46-50). Jesus didn’t go out to greet them. Instead, he asked, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And pointed to the crowd in the room.

Jesus always did what the Father sent him to do. No one’s opposition could dissuade him. Not the religious leaders’, not his mother’s. His faithfulness to his calling cost him his life–temporarily. Simeon held a baby and foresaw it all.