The Old Man Says a Heartfelt Thanks to God and Leaves the Sanctuary Satisfied and Grateful
It was perhaps the last painting the renowned artist ever painted. Found unfinished in his workshop the day after he died, it was a subject he had famously and majestically painted as a young man of 25.
And now, as an old man of 63 (for that was old age in his day) it was the last subject he turned to as he died.
When Rembrandt first painted Simeon and Anna in the Temple with the infant Jesus he was, as I said, just 25 years old. And that painting had helped establish his career. Huge and intricate, it showed people—especially wealthy patrons—just what this young artist could do.
To this day, people say that you could spend hours taking in all the details of this colossal painting. Set in the dimly lit, cavernous Temple in Jerusalem, the figures in the center of the painting are bathed in ethereal light.
There is Mary, still showing signs of having given birth just eight days earlier. Next to her, nearly in shadows, is Joseph. In front of them, arms raised in blessing, is a priest whose headgear is elaborately and meticulously detailed, almost down to the stitch.
The center of attention, however, are the two figures bathed in ethereal light: the infant Jesus, crowned with glowing rays and the old man who holds him, Simeon, described in today’s reading.
Simeon and the infant gaze open-mouthed at the light that encircles them. But there’s more to the painting than that. Lots more!
There are the details of the Temple! The arches and columns that the young Rembrandt imagined must have been there. There are the crowds of people, both near and far, who, like us, are drawn toward the figures in light.
It’s dramatic. It’s monumental. It’s a 25 year old’s tour de force.
But it’s a subject that Rembrandt, like me, needed to return to as an old (or older) man.
I’ve always loved this story! Found only in the Gospel of Luke, it follows immediately after the familiar nativity story read every year on Christmas. Meticulously and piously following Jewish law, Mary and Joseph leave Bethlehem to circumcise and present Jesus to God eight days after he was born.
Unbeknownst to them, however, there is an old and pious Jewish man and woman already in the Temple. She is Anna and he is Simeon.
Simeon first. A promise made is a promise kept! God had revealed to Simeon some years or decades earlier that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Quite a promise! Within his lifetime, Simeon was promised to see the one in whom the hopes and fears of all the years would be met! But now Simeon was old. Very old! Yet still he believed. And still he waited.
I’m sure this is why artists like Rembrandt have so loved trying to depict this scene! Day after day the old man waits in the Temple. Then, one day, in walks the holy family …
And the minute Simeon’s eyes rest on the infant, he knows! A promise made is a promise kept! Taking the child in his arms he sings the song that, in the church’s liturgy, is still sung to mark the end of each and every day: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation!
A promise made is a promise kept! In seeing eight-day-old Jesus, Simeon has seen the Lord’s Messiah!
And, with that, the old says a heartfelt thanks to God and leaves the sanctuary, satisfied and grateful as old and pious Anna echoes his praise in her own song.
Up until a week or so ago, I wasn’t planning on preaching today! I was going to let Christmas Eve be my final sermon and mark this day the way we have for the last couple of years, with a simple service of lessons and carols.
It soon became clear to me, however, that several of you assumed that this, my final Sunday with you, would also be my final sermon with you. And I couldn’t let you down! So I prepared to change course and look up what the appointed readings for today would be.
In today’s reading it says, “It had been revealed to [Simeon] by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.”
We’re told that it had been revealed to Simeon but we’re not told how it was revealed to him. And that’s worth thinking about! How does God reveal or show himself to the likes of Simeon and Anna? Or to you and me?
For me, God’s revelations often come either as Aha moments or as what would otherwise be called coincidences. I suddenly gain new insight into a text, or suddenly see a solution to a problem or a situation that had been troubling me, and I know this is how God is showing himself to me. What others might call a flash of insight or a lucky coincidence, I see as God speaking to me.
And the moment I saw that today’s readings were of old Simeon and Anna in the Temple, I knew that God was using this story to speak to me and to you!
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” sang the old man, “according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”
And then, even though scripture is silent on the subject, I know with every fiber of my being, the old man then says heartfelt thanks to God and leave the Temple, satisfied and grateful.
Back to Rembrandt. The day after he died people saw the final painting he was working on but which was left unfinished when he died.
Once again, it was a painting of Simeon and the infant Jesus, the same subject he painted at the start of his career. Only this time, instead of a grand showpiece with dozens of characters, Rembrandt focused on just two: the old man and the baby. (The third character there in shadows—either Mary or Anna—was foolishly added later by someone to supposedly “complete” the work.)
I guess it takes one to know one! This is the face of a man whose career goals, hopes, and promises have been complete.
This is the face of someone who looks on Jesus and says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace… For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.”
And with that, both that old man—and this one—say a heartfelt thanks to God and leave the sanctuary, satisfied and grateful.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
