Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season,
we're exploring the life of Jesus, step -by -step,
and uncovering what His story teaches us about
loving God and others. Here on Love & Context,
we're all about having real conversations about
how to live out that love in practical, everyday
ways, and understanding the Bible in its full
context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive
into Season 3 of Love & Context. Welcome back
to the Love and Context podcast. We are talking
about Jesus. Finally. All season. All season
we're talking about Jesus. Yes, finally. Two
seasons of no Jesus and finally. We haven't talked
about Jesus at all. That's not true. That's not
true at all. That's not true at all. I was just
being facetious. Yeah, no, it's fine. Because
I can. I'm going to pique some people's interest
here because we're going to be working on this,
but we may or may not, you and I may or may not
be working on season one, converting it into
a book. I think we are working on it. We are
working on it. I said may or may not, like facetiously,
but obviously I know that we are. Whether we
release it, that's another question. We'll probably
release it. Yeah, at least as one that people
can order, you know, one of those self -published
ones. But I was reading it and I was like, and
I was reading season one and I was like. so I'm
going through the transcript and and you know
you you kind of like shape the conversation a
little bit and In other words, he cut me out.
Yeah completely out like Spencer doesn't exist
anymore in the book But sometimes you'll have
like a spot and you take out all the things in
the transcripts and so it's just a bunch of lines
of like dialogue and There's early on when we're
talking. It's like right sure uh -huh like um
yeah and so like literally for like 15 like segments
no idea what you're talking about yeah so if
you haven't listened to our first episode in
a while you should go back and check that one
out um i think we've gotten better i think so
sort of yeah yeah but we'll see but anyways that
that's the thing that's coming so if that is
somewhere where somebody's like oh that sounds
fun i love reading books first of all i love
you because i love also love reading books Uh,
other people tolerate reading books. I love reading
books. I like reading books too. I just don't
read at your pace. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Not
many do. Yeah. Ben's like, I'm going to read
hundreds of books in a year. And I'm like, I'm
going to read hundreds of books before I die.
Did I, did I tell you? Okay. So many of you who
are listening, no pastor Nick and he listens
to this. So I'm just going to. throw them under
the bus a little bit here. So I have a challenge
for myself, which by the way, you can hold me
accountable to and ask me at the end of the season,
whether or not I made it, um, is that this year
I'm trying to read all the books that I own and
haven't read before the year is done. And if
I don't make it, then I have to get rid of them.
Right. So, cause I give myself like a consequence.
Right. And so I was telling, uh, pastor Nick
about that. And he says, well, how many books
do you own that you haven't read? And I was like,
I don't know, like 140, 150. he goes you have
150 books you haven't read that you own i said
nick nick look at me it could be drugs it could
be drugs and it's not so um so anyways if you're
if some of you are listening you're like man
150 books is a lot listen it could be drugs and
uh so i have i have an addiction of a different
sort yep yep um all right so we have talked about
like what are the gospels and then last week
we talked about this uh um this proclamation,
these genealogies of Jesus and this call for
both Mary and Joseph. Today, we're going to look
at a group of people, the shepherds, and then
we're going to talk about Anna and Simeon at
the temple as Jesus is being presented. And we're
going to have a conversation about that. So that's
where we're going to be today, mostly in Luke
2. So that's going to be the places you're going
to want to go. All right. So with that being
said, the shepherds are referenced in Luke 2,
8 through 20. And so I'm going to read that right
now. It says, And there were shepherds living
out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over
their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared
to them, and the glory of the Lord shone down
around them, and they were terrified. That was
a good timing for that ding. But the angel said
to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news
that will cause you great joy for all the people.
By the way, can I just, the descriptions that
they've had of angels throughout like the Bible
and Revelation and apocalyptic books, there's
a reason that they have to say, don't be afraid.
Because clearly they're terrifying. Yeah. Right?
They look and they're like, ah! That's scary.
Well, you've seen those reels where it's like,
well, I think an angel looks like, and then it
pops up a picture of like what the Bible actually
says they look like. Well, I think the shows
like Touched by an Angel, for example, kind of
ruin that for us. Like we start to think like,
oh, angels just look like humans. Sometimes.
but also not sometimes. So anyways, coming back
to this. Today in the town of David, a savior
has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the
Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find
a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.
Suddenly, a great host of the heavenly. a great
company of the heavenly host appeared with the
angel praising God and saying glory to God in
the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those
on whom his favor rests. When the angel had left
them and gone into the heaven, the shepherd said
to one another, let's go to Bethlehem. Cause
they know where the city of David is and see
this thing that has happened, which the Lord
has told us about. So they hurried off and found
Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in
the manger. When they had seen him, they spread
the word concerning. Sorry, word concerning what
had been told them about this child. And all
who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds
said to them. But Mary treasured up these things
and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all
the things they had heard and seen, which were
just as they had been told. All right. We're
going to pause there because the next part talks
about being presented at the temple. All right.
Broad context. Shepherds. Uh, very necessary.
Not highly thought of. No. Right. Uh, it's, it's
kind of a marginalized and humble profession,
which is kind of ironic because there's tons
of connections to like David who becomes King
as a shepherd. And yet it's still kind of like
a marginalized profession. Yeah. It'd be the
equivalent of us thinking, say plumbers. Yeah.
Plumbers or even like septic tank cleaners. Yeah.
Right. It's always a job. It's always a profession
that's talked about in school. Yeah. Always.
You know, first of all, I want to say those guys
make good money and it is a stinky job, but there
is going to be a lot of use for it. Yeah. Yeah.
So shepherds kind of fall in that same vein where
it's like they're not well thought of, but lambs
are used for sacrifice. They're used for food.
They're used for clothing. They're used for a
lot of the backbone of their economy at the time.
And so it's a very needed job. But it's also
one of those things where it's like, OK, we want
people to do this, but we don't want to do it.
This is also really in tune with the way that
Luke tells his gospel and from the perspective
of like all the witnesses. But he's kind of talking.
and comparing to humanity as a whole right most
of humanity doesn't have glorious roles no right
especially in the ancient world right um you
know even the jobs of like let's just say carpenter
and stone stone worker like those are grueling
jobs um i think when back in the last season
when we talked about herod we talked about these
guys who actually constructed herods like fortresses
yeah and like just the massive amount of work
that goes in and then he's like also I want you
to fill my pool with water but the water is like
four miles away down that treacherous path and
the things that you have to carry the water in
are like a little bitty tiny things right and
so like there are no fancy jobs for the for the
population writ large right like there's a lot
of meager jobs yeah and And you also look at
how society structured back then. There wasn't
a lot of upward or downward mobility as far as
profession goes. Correct. I mean, there was some
to a degree, but it was very much like you either
went to school and studied under a rabbi and
worked in that profession or you worked in your
family business. Yeah. I mean, you got to think
that likely most people expected Jesus to be
a stonemason. Tecton, similar to Joseph, which
means he would have worked with both wood and
stone, but largely stone because I don't know
if you've ever been to Israel. Not a lot of trees.
No. So wood is something you do work with, but
the majority you do is stone. Yeah. Or just working
like just those type of things. I do think it
is important to note in the Old Testament, there's
a couple of references actually talking about
Messiah, looking forward to Messiah in prophetic
books. about the Messiah being a shepherd, a
shepherd king, right? So Ezekiel, if you think
back to Ezekiel 34, 23 through 24, you can look
up these references. We're not going to read
all of them today because then it's a 50 -minute
episode, right? Micah 5 .4, the Messiah will
stand and shepherd his flock is the quote that
goes up there. There's also a conversation, though
this is a little bit debated, about whether or
not the Bethlehem shepherds would have been raising
temple sacrifices. People like to make this connection
because of Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice.
That's debated. There's some conversation about
that, about whether or not that is an intentional
connection point at this point in history. But
it's a fun thing, too. think about. I just, I
would not necessarily stand on that as one, a
solid point. That's it. Cause it is kind of back
and forth. But if Bethlehem is this location
where sacrificial lambs are raised, like that's
just another layer. You have this house of bread,
uh, sacrificial lambs, house of David, like the
God's putting on the imagery thick. Right. And
And the other thing that it's implied that these
shepherds are right outside of Bethlehem, but
it doesn't specifically state that. Correct.
It just says nearby. Yeah. So nearby and like
nearby in the shepherding world in the Middle
East could be like, hey, I'm at the patch of
grass right outside the city gates or I'm at
the patch of grass 15 miles away. Yeah. Well,
yeah, because everything was within walking distance.
And so these cities, if you're three miles away,
you're a new city. Now, we don't do that here.
um in fact actually uh in our town we have um
there's both a native reservation and then there's
the city but then there's like the borough uh
and so like there is there's actually like this
directional um piece and and they're technically
separated but that's actually strange in america
in general but that's just because the unique
makeup of alaska because alaska's weird yes but
when i was living in washington i lived in vancouver
and so we would talk about like um these different
districts so i lived in uh salmon creek right
and so people like knew this area that i was
but we were all part of vancouver right and so
it's a little bit different because we get in
cars and you know you drive and you're like oh
it's only like 12 minutes away well that might
be 16 miles it's a big difference for the shepherds
of that day Right? Yeah. So let's talk about
this proclamation. So they come out and they
say, glory to God in the highest peace on earth.
And it's in this one of these lovely little indentations
that one shows that it's a little bit of a song.
Yeah. But also typically will echo previous passages.
Some that I thought were particularly connectful.
That's not a word. Well done. Yeah. We're going
to go with connectful because I want to use that
word now. Um, going back to Isaiah nine, eight,
where they, there's this, this proclamation of
a Prince of peace, Zachariah nine, 10, where
there is peace to the nations, uh, glory to God
parallel, this, this idea of the Shekinah glory
of the tabernacle, right? This, this, that falls.
Um, actually I was just writing in Exodus 40
where they, they finally finished building the
Mishka, the temple, the tabernacle in the desert.
And it says that, uh, the Shekinah falls and
it, and it completely envelops and fills, right?
And so when we're talking about glory of God,
like there's a lot of imagery in the Old Testament
to actually connect this idea. One of the things
I think that Luke, one of the things we'll see
in the gospel, especially throughout is he makes
it really clear that he has a lot of witness
testimony. So the person who may have told him
the story might have been one of the shepherds.
Yeah. Right. There is a, there's a. phrase that
is often quoted, but not necessarily people know
where it is, is that the like facts aren't established
by the word of one person that you have to have
the testimony of two or three people. Yeah. I
think that's really interesting that all throughout
Luke's gospel, when he's talking about witness
testimony, he always mentioned that there's multiple
people that are there. Right. And I think it's
really consistent with this old Testament idea.
Um, and, and just the way that they would have
established, like, did this actually happen or
not? Right. I think sometimes when we think about
like shepherds, marginalized, regular people,
we forget, we forget, and I'm being very personal,
we forget as people growing up in a first world
country like America, that God's call is actually
to the marginalized, the outcast, the foreigner,
the widow, the orphan, like the people on the
outside are actually being, are being called
like universally. And that, Um, we talked about
this in the, in, when we talked about the book
of James is that sometimes people are looking
for high status, high prestige people to be a
part of their church. God's looking for people
who are willing to obey and follow him, right.
To put his kingdom on display. And, uh, and his
heart is always for the people who are being
marginalized. Yeah. That's a big deal. And it's,
it's even, it's true here in his birth. It's
true here in the, in the declaration, like who's
the first people who get to hear about it. The
marginalized. Because for them, it really is
good news. Yeah. Right? If you've been on the
outside the entire time, it is good news that
you're being welcomed in. Yep. Right? Yep. Then
we get to where Jesus is presented at the temple.
Woo! All right. It's like 22 through 38 of chapter
2. 21, right? Yes, 21. I can read numbers. I'm
really good at it. So you have the story of Jesus
being presented at the temple. Lots of things
are happening here, but we're really going to
focus in on two characters here. I'm going to
read the story real quick, and then we'll dive
into the two characters we're going to focus
on. Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised,
he was named Jesus and the name given to him
by the angel before he was conceived. Then it
was time for their purification offering as required
by the law of Moses after the birth of a child.
So his parents took him to Jerusalem to present
him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says if
a woman's first child is a boy, he must be dedicated
to the Lord. So they offered a sacrifice required
in the law of the Lord, either a pair of two
turtle doves or two young pigeons. Okay. Can
we pause there really quick? Because I want to
talk about those two different things that came
up because those are both from Leviticus. Actually,
I think one of them might be from Exodus, but
the consecration of the firstborn is actually
from Exodus. So I want to just place these in
context really quick and just remind you this
is a very Jewish book. Yes. Right? Like Luke,
not a Jew. He's a proselyte, which means that
he's chosen to follow Judaism. Right. And and
then his revelation is through Christ Messiah.
But here in this in this paragraph, we will rewrite
past that. But hopefully if you've been with
us in season one, you immediately like, oh, these
are stories that I should know. Because the purification,
which, by the way, women, when they have babies,
they're supposed to seclude themselves for a
certain amount of time. Why? Desert culture,
hygiene, tons of different things that are going
on there. And so they're observing this, but
also they're coming and they're consecrating
their firstborn just like they did during the
Exodus. Yep. Right? So there's this 10th plague
where Pharaoh is challenged. His power is challenged
as God. And there's a plague of the firstborn
that goes all throughout the entire country.
And then Pharaoh says, all right, I'm done with
this. Get out of here. And then God gives him
an instruction about the Sabbath and then says,
make sure to consecrate your firstborn. Yeah.
So that's the context of this conversation about
the firstborn. Why? Because Israel is the firstborn
of God. And so it is through the firstborn that
God is going to work his, I was going to say
magic. That's not really what I want to say.
His kingdom. We'll say kingdom. That doesn't
quite apply the way I wanted it to. That could
be misinterpreted. Yeah. So we're going to say
work his kingdom and work his authority and his
presence. And so Jesus is now being consecrated,
set apart, particularly for the firstborn. And
also, if you look at the gifts that are being
presented, we're also reminded. in this situation
that they are not wealthy. Yeah. This is another
piece that you can pick up from Old Testament
reading. So picking up in verse 25, the prophecy
of Simeon. Simeon! Right? At this time, there
was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous
and devout, and he was eagerly waiting for the
Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit
was upon him. This is actually, that's a really
interesting piece. Yeah. The Ruach of the Lord
is upon him. Yep. For anybody who is like, well,
the Holy Spirit didn't really fall upon people
until Acts chapter 2. Yeah. Let's jump back.
First of all, we totally debunked that in Torah.
Yeah. And then it's also right here. Yeah. The
Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to
him that he would not die until he had seen the
Lord's Messiah. Can I pause there and say something
kind of funny? I know don't put the Lord your
God to the test. Somebody's going to send that
to me right away. But if God's like, yeah, you're
not going to die until, you know, you see the
Messiah. Then you see like, you see like somebody
like. I don't know, mugging somebody in the street
and you're like, I'm going to step in because
you know you're not going to die until you see
Messiah, right? Does that change anything? I
mean, there's like, there's the justice piece
of, yes, you're trying to do the right thing
to save a life. Yeah. So there's that, like,
thank you for that. There's also the like, well,
God said, so I'm just going to, it's like, well.
Yeah, definitely that whole don't put the Lord
your God to the test thing. Yeah. And I think
God's. pretty willing to let us suffer the consequences
of our actions oh man um okay sorry that's that's
ben's aside because he thought of something i
think that's i think that's established in genesis
chapter three no i don't think so okay yeah uh
the that day the spirit led him to the temple
So when Mary and Joseph came to present baby
Jesus to the Lord, as the law required, Simeon
was there and he looked at the child and he took
the child in his arms and praised God saying,
sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace
as you have promised. I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared for all people. He is
the light. He is a light to reveal God to the
nations. And he is the glory of your people,
Israel. That's so good. All right, let's pause
there. Cause we will pause before we get to Anna.
Yeah. So he is waiting for this Messiah. God
said, The Ruach of the Lord is upon him. The
spirit of the Lord is upon him. Now, of course,
the thing that changes in Acts 2 is that the
Holy Spirit goes from dwelling on people to in
people. right? It's, it's not something that
you are, um, like it, it, it now resides because
you are the temple. And so it actually resides
inside of you. And so there is, there is actually
a difference, but the Holy spirit was, was always
sent and was on people. Now we see that with
Moses in numbers 11, I believe it is when he
is, uh, a piece of his spirit is taken and put
onto the 72 elders. Right. And he says, um, of
course that's when They run up and they're like,
hey, two of the guys didn't come to the meeting
and they're prophesying. And Moses is like, yeah,
I kind of wish everybody would. But it's a really
interesting thing because I'm going to push against
a little bit of our, I'm going to call them silent
years. There's 300 years of silence, right? Where
there's no canonical books being written. There's
things happening, but there's no canonical books
being written. And so when I sometimes when I
think we say years of silence, we think, well,
God's not doing anything. But that's clearly
not the case because Simeon's having a conversation
with the spirit. The spirit of the Lord is upon
him. And I think there's a tendency that we're
like, if it didn't happen directly in the book
where I can see it. Like God wasn't doing anything.
And I think that's the wrong assumption. Well,
I mean, people make the same assumption of the
400 years of captivity. Correct. Right. Where,
where you have an excess one, you have these
midwives who fear the Lord and it's like, whoa,
like how, like when you make that assumption,
you're like, how do they fear the Lord? How do
they even know who the Lord is? The Lord's not
doing anything. He's being quiet. It's like,
well, it never says he was being quiet. Right.
Right. Like just because you don't have like
conversations about the narrative. I mean that
it's to even go further back in your point. Abraham
was hundreds of years old, right? A hundred and
something. I forget exactly when he died. 120
I think is when he died. Something like 170.
Yeah. Somebody can fact check me on that. That's
totally fine. I don't care. But we heard, you
know, we, when we hear about his life, we're
talking about 12 chapters. I guarantee you, we're
not hearing everything that he and God talked
about over during those times. Like, so then
the question isn't, um, the question is then
with what they gave us, what are they trying
to tell us? Yeah. I mean, you take the life of
Jesus, for example, four books, uh, plus a chapter,
if you include Acts chapter one. Yeah. Um, and
if you take that normal speed and listen to it
on an audio Bible, it takes a couple hours. Yeah.
It's not that long. Right. Like, and it's like,
oh, but that encapsulates 33 years of someone's
life. Correct. And John actually points this
out at the end of his book. He says, listen,
there is not enough books in the world. Granted,
ancient world, but there's not enough books in
the world to contain everything that Jesus did.
Yeah. Right. And so when we're reading, when
we're reading scripture, this is. I was actually
having a conversation about Canon, right? I was
like, what does Canon actually mean? It's the
measuring stick by which we measure like who
God is and how he moves, right? Yeah. That we
know that these are the words of God. And so
when we hear the words of God, as he speaks to
us and leads us and the Ruach of the Lord is
upon us, right? How do we know that it's God
speaking? Well, it's going to be consistent with
his word. Right. Yeah. If, if whatever is talking
to you is leading you to be unloving, I got,
I got news for you. It's not the Ruach of the
Lord. Yeah. Right. There, there is a, there is
a very clear precedent set throughout scripture,
which hopefully we've been pulling out at this
point. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a super interesting
thing. Well, and I think, so Simeon, I think
in this case is most likely referencing Isaiah
because Isaiah was very much on the lips of the
people during that time because they were not
all. Avenues of Judaism, because I think this
sometimes gets over -emphasized. There were portions
of Judaism that were looking for the suffering
servant to be Messiah. It wasn't the mainstream
thought, but there were sects that thought that.
That's a hard word to say. There were divisions
of Judaism that looked at these passages as Messianic
and not as... knowing that Israel was this, but
that Messiah was going to step in and be this
person to basically take the affliction on and
relieve. And so, uh, you, you kind of hear like
from Isaiah 40 where it says, comfort, comfort
my people. You know, he's, who is Jesus? Like
Simeon speaking this, right? Um, that he is,
uh, to quote from 49, six and Isaiah light for
the Gentiles, glory for the Lord, right? Simeon
is now seeing in Jesus this, um, tangible representation
of what God is bringing his people. Yeah. And
like, it's, it's important to always backwards
connect these things. So picking up in Luke two
33, Jesus's parents were amazed at what was being
said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and
said to Mary, the baby's mother, your child is
destined to cause many in Israel to fall and
many others to rise. He has been sent. That is
quite the blessing. Yeah. If I heard that blessing,
I'm not sure what to do with that. Yeah. Right.
Like you have, you have Simeon, like usually
blessings invoke a little bit more of a positive
tone. Yeah. Right. Well, and if I come to you
and I said, Spencer, your daughter is going to
cause the fall of many. You're like, yeah, that
tracks. And then I said, and the rising of many
more, you're like, we're talking about mine,
right? Yes. The other, the other night, Lindsay
and I were laying on the bed and we were just
like, We were just, it was like, uh, our kid
was being a little, you know, hellion and we're
just laying there and we're like, why'd God give
us a world changer? Like, why can't we just have
the good submissive kid? Yeah. I, sometimes I
run back to this comment that I read from my,
uh, children, children with, um, like a strong
willed child. It says, um, you want strong willed
children because they won't let the world change
them. They're going to change the world. Yeah.
Yeah. But man, like raising them, shaping them.
Oh man. It is like, it is like, yeah. But this
blessing right here. Luckily our parents dealt
with like the easiest kids ever, right? Oh dude,
that was a piece of cake. I don't know what you're
talking about. I didn't get in trouble at all.
Yeah. But this blessing right here is just a
really interesting one in the sense that you
have Simeon saying the world's forever going
to be changed by this kid. Right? Yeah. Right.
And then he's also saying, by the way, your lives
are going to suck because of it. Yeah. Right.
You already have this couple. They're living
under their own shame. Right. Kid outside of
wedlock. They're living in this place of shame.
And then their kid, they're saying, oh, by the
way, even though you're living in this place
of shame, this kid is going to change the world.
And there's going to be way more people opposing
him than who are opposing you. Right. It's like,
oh, great. Here we go. Um, and, uh, but at the
end of it, he says, and a sword will pierce your
very soul, meaning that you are forever going
to be changed because of who Jesus is. And so
it's, it's this blessing where it's like, Ooh,
this sounds really rough. But at the same time,
it's really encouraging to be like, okay. So
the word here, revealed, is a word that we need
to get really familiar with because it is wildly
misused in biblical literature. The word is apocalypto.
It means revealed, unveiling. It's by the revelation.
Right. Things are going to be revealed. One of
my favorite ways that Tim Mackey was talking
about this in his Ephesian study. He's like,
it's like you walk into a dark room and you turn
on the light and you go apocalypse. Right. And
so we're doing that. Yeah. We've been having
fun with that in our small group. Right. But
like this idea of like it is illuminating the
things around it. So what is Jesus? What is the
what is he saying that Jesus is going to do?
He's going to. turn on the lights of many hearts
around him. And it's actually going to even pierce
your heart. And there's indication of like, you
think you know what he's going to do, but the
light's about to come on. And then you're going
to be like, Oh snap. That's not what I thought
it was, but it's going to be great. Well, and
let's be real for a lot of people. If you walked
up to him and said, Hey, the light in your heart
is going to get turned on and everything's going
to be revealed. It's terrifying. That's terrifying.
Yeah. Right. That's like, you have like, everyone
has secrets and there's like, Oh no. Well, that
kind of plays into John's conversation or Jesus
conversation in John with Nicodemus. And, uh,
cause we, we love to quote God's all of the world,
right? God didn't send his son into the world,
condemned the world. Yeah. Right. What comes
after that? The world didn't want to recognize
him because they, they liked the things they
do in the dark. but the verdict is here. Light
has come into the world. Now, of course, some
of you realize I just went back to chapter one,
but that's still, yeah. Yeah. Um, this, this
is, this is the problem when you actually, when
you actually present the risen God is that people
won't always like it because things are being
unveiled, but make sure that it's Jesus unveiling
them and not you being a jerk. Yeah. Yeah. Cause
that's problematic. And like, but at the same
time, So at the same time, you want the lights
on, right? So the other night, a couple weeks
ago, for example, I heard a crash downstairs
in our house. Now, all it was was my wife couldn't
sleep, so she was up and she dropped something
in the kitchen. Okay, but it's 2 a .m. and all
the lights are off in the house. So what do I
do? I jump out of bed. I grab a tool of mine
that I don't know if I can say on a podcast and
run and like go turn the lights on to see what's
going on. Right. And then I find my wife like.
sitting down to have a cup of tea at like 2 a
.m because she can't sleep and i was like okay
this is so you didn't even know that she was
not still in bed next to you no you just got
up and ran i was out i was sleeping so that that's
actually better than what i did um i heard a
sound downstairs once and i woke up like in a
stupor and i ran downstairs to go take to go
take care of it i got downstairs and i realized
um i had a book with me uh -huh because that's
what was on my nightstand and i got downstairs
and uh this is probably more information than
you need but i sleep in in boxers right and so
i run downstairs and i'm running out into our
living room looking around flipping on lights
and then like no nothing's there so i'm like
okay doors are all locked great i'm gonna go
back up to bed i have this thought as i'm heading
back up what was my plan like what was my plan
was it to share scare them with the sheer whiteness
of my skin like what was my plan here i had a
book like if somebody broke in with a uh firearm
of sorts like i'm not it's not going to be good
for me right um now the crazy thing is i had
a baseball bat in my closet on the way through
there i also had a um a place to have home protection
devices right and i ran down with a book yep
and not even jeans on or nothing. So I had no
good plans there. Yeah. Well, I mean, no, I definitely
ran down with my handgun because growing up in
the area in Colorado we grew up in, if you left
your doors unlocked or window unlocked, there
would be a homeless person. in your house and
so like there was times where like we remember
my family were like forgot to lock the door at
night yeah and we'd we'd get out in the living
room there'd be like two homeless people sleeping
on the couch oh geez that's rough like and you're
like i want to have compassion with you but also
you can't sleep in my living room yeah and i
mean like i was a kid at the time but like but
you know there's definitely times where like
i was getting up and like you'd hear my dad be
like nope stay in your room and you're like oh
okay as he's like ushering people outside out
of the house type thing and so like So yeah,
different context, right? Like that's why light's
important. Yeah. Light is very important. Light
reveals a lot, like a lot of stuff can go on
in darkness and you're like, I have no idea what's
going on. Yeah. Um, it is, it is. And so what
does Jesus do? He literally is, is unveiling.
He's apocalypsing you. Yeah. Which we have to
get over that, the use of that word. We want
to use apocalypse as the end of the world. That's
not what it is. It's unveiling in Greek, unveiling
light, turning on the light. Right. And so Simeon
says, your son is going to cause the rise of
many, the fall of many, and he's going to apocalypse
your heart. Yeah. Right. He's going to apocalypse
your lives. The things that you think are hidden,
he's going to apocalypse. And in a very real
way, that's, that's, that's what Jesus does when
he comes in our life. Right. When we're confronted
with the reality of what the creator in, in the
Torah made flesh, the creator incarnate says
to us, the words that he gives us, they prompt
us to this, this moment of decision where the
light is flipped on. We're like, am I going to
leave it all? Yeah. Or I'm going to stay where
I'm at. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So that brings us
to the next character. And this is the prophecy
of Anna. Now this, before we jump into this,
this character, there's been a lot of debate
around who she actually is. So I just want to
settle like what the scriptures say. Okay. What
Luke says is her name is Anna. She's a she and
a prophet. And her husband died when they'd only
been married seven years. And the other thing
it says is she's old. She's 84. So does that
mean that they got married when she was young
and he died and then she remained unmarried?
We don't know. We don't know. We don't know.
The presumption from a lot of people is that
she probably got married at the normal age, you
know, 14 to 16, right in there. And then if husband
died seven years later, it would have been 20,
21 to 24 years old. So the presumption is that
she had been a had been a widow for 60 plus years.
Right. But we don't fully know those details.
Right. Right. So. But a really good thing. She's
a woman and she is a prophet and she is trusted
by God to bless him in human form. Yeah. Yeah.
So for those who are like, well, women can't
proclaim the word of the Lord publicly. It's
like, hmm, it's a woman prophet and there's nothing
in here that condemns it. So Anna, a prophet,
was there in the temple. She was the daughter
of Phenel from the tribe of Asher, and she was
very old. Her husband died when they had been
married only seven years. Then she lived as a
widow till the age of 84. She never left the
temple, but stayed there day and night, worshiping
the Lord with fasting and prayer. So there's
also something to be said. Just pausing right
there real quick. There's something to be said
about dwelling in the presence of the Lord, because
the average actually lifespan of somebody back
in this day was, I think it was around 40. It
was like in the forties. Right. And she's 84
dwelling in the presence of the Lord, worshiping
him through prayer and fasting. Yeah, it is.
It's a little bit. It's also a little bit difficult
because ages are skewed because of disease and
war and stuff like that. Because sometimes I
think when we talk about the average life expectancy
being 40, we're just like, oh, people just died
of old age. No, it's because of disease. It was
because of if you cut your arm and there's no
way to treat it, then all those different types
of things. Yeah, there's lots of variables. Lots
of variables in there. But she is singularly
devoted. into what God is doing. And I also find
in scripture too, that the people who tend to
live in peace tend to live a lot longer. Yeah.
So these things can get conflated. They can get
blown out of proportion. And so, yeah, let's,
she says, picking up in verse 38, she came along
just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph
and she began praising God. She talked about
the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly
for God to rescue Jerusalem. When Jesus' parents
had fulfilled the requirements of the law of
the Lord, they returned to Nazareth of Galilee
and their child grew healthy and strong and was
filled with wisdom and God's favor was upon him.
Hey, by the way, have you ever heard that phrase
in the Bible before? That he grew in favor with
both God and men? The child, this child grew
in favor with both God and men. Do you know where
that happens? It's in Samuel. There's a, there's
a boy by the name of Samuel who is charged with
being a priest who is a daughter of Hannah, which
by the way, there is actually a ton of connections
in Luke to Samuel because Hannah's prayer and
her song is very similar to like the Magnificat
of Mary. And so there's a lot of like things
that kind of like connect through that. But in,
in first Samuel, it says that this boy, Samuel
grew in both favor with both God and men. And
then now here in Luke, Luke uses that phrase
again. That's not an accident. Yeah. They do
that on purpose because you should be in, in
Luke's mind, you should be able to see here that
Jesus is like the priest and like Samuel, that
he's going to be ushering in something different.
Right. I mean, you can even, you could even look
at that with Samuel selecting the king or like
moving forward into kingship, like this whole
idea, right? Is that Jesus is king? Yeah. Well,
in Anna's story here, like just focusing in on
what she does when she sees Jesus. Okay. Now
there's two things that happen. One, she begins
praising God. Right. And I, and I think, I think
the, at least in my translation where it's like,
she began praising God. I was like, nah, this
is a woman who's in the temple day in and day
out praising God. So like, I think that's, but
like became more, more praiseful in that moment.
Right. That's definitely how we say it. Praiseful.
Praiseful. Praiseful. You can make up words.
So can I. I don't remember the word I made up
earlier, but it was good. And then the second
thing she does is she starts proclaiming to everyone
that the rescue of Jerusalem is here. Right.
Right. When, when you're like, Hey, here's salvation,
here's redemption. It is here. She starts proclaiming
that. So people aren't missing out. Yeah. I think
it's interesting. So, uh, so Anna is the prophet.
Uh, Simeon is not. It says Simeon is a righteous
and devout man. Um, and he had the, the Ruach
of the Lord upon him, but it doesn't say that
he's a prophet. And so he is given a word from
the Lord. that he's not going to die until he
sees Messiah. When he sees Messiah, now he's
speaking a blessing. And Anna, who is a prophet
for the Lord, sees that and says, everybody listen
to what's going on. Right? Pay attention because
this is important. Yeah. Right? And gives praise
to God, of course. But like, she's actually like
lending her gravitas as a prophet. or her position
as prophet into what she sees going on with Simeon
and Jesus here too. And nowhere in this story
does God come in and say, hey, you're a woman,
shut up. Yeah. Just pointing that out there.
We'll leave that as is, because that's not really
what this is about. But you made it about it.
No, I just brought it up. No, I think it's really
important. Yeah. I had a conversation with somebody
that said, why do you emphasize so much that
God is using women throughout the Bible? I was
like, because people keep ripping them down.
And I will overemphasize until we start recognizing
the other half of the image of God. Period. And
I will tell you that if you don't like us saying
that, you should probably stop listening. Because
we're not going to stop trying to build up women
who are called by God to lead. Period. Yeah.
So, but you have Anna who sees redemption and
salvation for Israel, for Jerusalem. And she's
like, listen up. You don't want to miss this.
Yeah. Right. And like, fast forward to today,
we have that same thing. We see salvation and
redemption for our neighbor, for our community,
for our towns. And we have the privilege and
the call to be like, Hey, listen up. You don't
want to miss this. You don't want to miss out
on this. Have we done that well? Not all the
time. I'll just, I mean, that's just my two cents.
I think there's times where we've done it, where
some people have done it better than other people,
right? But we have the call, the privilege, and
the blessing to say, hey, look, salvation and
redemption is here. You don't have to be who
you think you are. God sees you as someone completely
different. And we have that privilege. to share
that message. Yeah. And I think it's, it's one
of the things that's really difficult here is
we use words like salvation, redemption. I think
a lot of people understand redemption, but salvation
is one of these ones that people have difficulty
understanding is all the garbage doesn't have
to be there anymore. No. Period. Like you can
come be a part of a different family. And you
can leave it at the door. It doesn't mean your
consequences of like actions that you made are
going to go away. But the eternal consequences
absolutely do. Yeah. Right. Now you're actually
put into right relationship with God and you're
actually being invited into this thing. I actually
think it's really interesting. I was referencing
looking back at some verses in Malachi 3 .1.
It actually says the Lord you were seeking will
come to his temple. Yeah. Right. I think about
when Leviticus where God says if you follow,
you know, my Torah. You put my Torah on display.
I will tabernacle among you. And then John in
his book, he says, God came and he made his dwelling
among us. Yeah. which is the same word for tabernacled.
Yep. Like pulling back to this, like this is,
this is not a, uh, people, people misunderstand
like what Jesus is doing. They say, well, Jesus
came to, uh, fulfill the law and prophets. I
say, yes, but you think fulfill isn't being one
and done. He came to show us what it was always
supposed to look like and to open up the blessing
for the, for the Jews to all nations. A light
has been flipped on and all your preconceptions
are gone. You are going to be invited into this
because of his faithfulness. Both Jew and Gentile
are being invited into this kingdom of God because
of his faithfulness. And we cast our faithfulness
onto him and all that garbage, all that baggage
that you've been carrying. It's done. It's done.
It's time to come be a part of a different family.
And that's what redemption is. Yeah. Right. I
just love, I love that God in this story, he
takes these humble people, these outcast people.
He loves to take ragtag people. You know, in
a movie where they're like, they go to recruit
a person from here and recruit a person from
here. And it's always like, this guy's really
good with a sword. And this guy is like the mountain
climber. You know, they're all. What movie has
a sword in a mountain climber? I don't know.
You're like, I want to watch this movie now.
Is this your remake of the Lord of the Rings?
Yeah, it's perfect. It's perfect. But it's almost
like God goes and then like there's this person
who's really prominent. And then he looks over
in the corner at the person sitting on the bench
and he says, hey, guess what? Guess what I'm
going to do through you? And he reveals himself
to the humble. Yeah. You know, the proud completely
missed the fact that he's even there. Yeah. I
was thinking about as we were talking about this,
because we were really focusing on this idea
of unveiling, is that Jesus is at the temple
when there's this conversation about he's going
to turn on the light. He's going to unveil. There's
something about the temple of God, the glory
of God, the presence of God that turns on the
light and reveals things that are hidden. Why
is that really important? Because Jesus is going
to, yes, be the temple, be the priest, be the
sacrifice. We're going to get to all those different
images, right? He's going to be the high priest
in the order of Melchizedek, all those different
things. But Peter's also going to make the statement
about us being built into a temple with living
stones built into a temple. this place where
God's glory dwells. And, um, we've talked about
it before, but as it bears repeating is that
when we, as the church actually live out our
mission and live out our calling to be a blessing,
to bless all nations, that we actually. Also,
we turn on the lights, not because of anything
special about us, but because of what the work
that's been done to transform us and the spirit
that no longer resides on us, but in us and through
us. Like now we actually are called to go and
bring the Ruach of the Lord to the nations. Yeah.
Right. To actually go and sometimes unveil things
that people don't want to see, but also cause
the rising of many. Yep. Right. Cause God's good.
Amen. It's good stuff. Well, we're going to keep
walking through this story of Jesus and you'll,
you'll see us bounce from one gospel to another.
Stay with us. We're going to talk about women
a lot because Jesus has a lot to say about women
and he has a lot of interactions with them. So,
uh, stay with us and until next time. Okay. Bye.
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love
and Context. We hope this conversation encouraged
you and gave you fresh insights into how we can
better love God and others through the powerful
truths of the Bible. We'd love to hear from you.
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