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The Two Epilogues of the Christmas Story
Matthew 2:16-18, Luke 2:25-38
Mari Ikeda
It’s Christmas Day today, but according to the Church Calendar the official Christmas service was last week, and so it’s the end-of-year service today. So I decided to pick up the passages from the Bible which can be read as the epilogues of the Christmas story today. There are two different ones, each of which has a content completely opposite to the other. One is a tragedy, while the other seems to be a happy ending. By comparing these two stories, I realized they teach us how we should walk our lives. As we read these stories today, I hope you can reflect on the event of Christmas and how you walked your life through this year. Let’s start with a tragedy first. Let’s read Matthew 2:16-18.
A. The tragedy of King Herod (Matthew 2:16-18)
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Herod was the king who ruled over the region of Judea in those days. He was afraid of what he heard from the Magi, that a new king was born, namely Jesus. He intended to ask the Magi where Jesus was born so that he could kill Him, but because he failed to do so, he killed all the boys who were two years old or under in the whole region. That’s genocide. Herod was so afraid of losing his power and status that he could not help but remove anyone who would possibly become his enemy. His fear and envy was so great that he massacred even the infants.
We all have this nature that Herod had. It’s the nature by which we try to remove others out of fear of losing our power. We fear to lose the power, status, wealth and reputation that we think we earn by ourselves. We develop our animosity and hate toward those who take them away or try to take away from us. At the same time, such animosity may sometimes appear as envy to someone who seems to have things we want but we don’t have. In this way, we can never be free from our fear and envy as long as we evaluate our happiness by comparing our lives with others’. Even if we may not massacre children like Herod, we curse others in our hearts. As long as we keep living this way, we’ll never be content with our life just as Herod could not feel peace in his heart all his life. In the end we will just lead both ourselves and others to a tragedy.
B. The blessing of Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-38)
Now let’s move on to the other epilogue of the Christmas story. Luke 2:25-38.
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Here appear two persons, Simeon and Anna. These two never appear in the bible except for this passage. What they had in common was their belief in the prophecy in the OT that a Messiah would be born and save people from sin. They believed it and waited for its fulfillment. They are introduced here as the persons of strong faith, who were very old but had been worshipping God earnestly since they were young. Guided by God in a special way, they came to see Jesus. Seeing Jesus, there greatly rejoiced, praised God and gave thanks. By a wonderful power of God at work in them, they were able to believe that the great plan of God had just begun in the powerless baby who had not yet accomplished anything. We can say they were able to enjoy a great joy in the end of their lives.
Now I want to use a little imagination. These two, Simeon and Anna, should have known the king Herod, whom we just read about earlier. We don’t know whether it was before or after the mass killing of children in Bethlehem happened when Simeon and Anna met Jesus. But we know for sure that they had lived their lives in the society under the king Herod’s rule, the society that must have been full of injustice. Moreover, above the king Herod was the Roman empire. The political situation of Judea was therefore not stable, which naturally made people uneasy about the future. Given such a social situation, to place one’s hope in a single child who was only born to a young couple of low status is perhaps foolish by the common sense. However, this was the hope God gave them, and is the hope God has given to us.
Our hope lies in the love of God, who became a man, came to this world, and sacrificed His own life for us. We always live our lives in fear and unrest, causing others to suffer, while others also make us suffer. We don’t have a power even to guide our own life to a right path, neither a power to change injustice of our society instantly.
Nonetheless, we don’t give up but keep walking to reach a clear goal, because we believe that God lives and loves us indeed. God’s promise to send the Savior, which was given from the time of the OT, and which Simeon and Anna had believed, was already fulfilled by Jesus. We now also know that Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross, and that He returned to life three days later. That’s why we can believe that God is with us, even though he is invisible or we see no hope in our situation. This is our hope.
C. We can all relate to both
Now then, how can we free from our hearts dominated by fear and envy like Herod’s heart? How can we place our hope in God’s compassion and be filled with joy like Simeon and Anna did? I think the answer is, it is only by our daily decision and choice to do so, daily and perhaps even every moment. Because the nature of Herod never goes away from us, it is inevitable for us to tend to be more like Herod, even if we want to live like Simeon and Anna. However, only if we acknowledge such tendency of ours, accept our own weaknesses and mistakes, and seek God’s help, we will be able to become more like Simeon and Anna. While it is up to our own decision of each and every moment to choose our way of life, God helps our decision-making by sending His Holy Spirit to us. Again, just as the case of Simeon and Anna, God will surely guide and help whoever puts hope in His mercy. In the same way, just as Simeon and Anna were filled with joy by seeing Jesus, though He was just a powerless new-born baby, we will be able to rejoice by seeing the great plan of God proceeding, even in a small event of our daily life.
As we approach the end of the year and reflect on our walk through this year, I hope we can discover that God’s love and mercy were working in us indeed in many small occasions. I hope you can spend the last week of the year by following the example of Simeon and Anna.
（Prayer） Dear God, we ask you to free us from our fear and unrest by Your Spirit. We don’t hide our weaknesses and mistakes from You. For the things we have no control over, let us keep our hope in You and our faith in Your good plan for us. Help us see many blessings that You have given each of us through this year. Let us remember them and give thanks to You. Dear our Lord Jesus, we thank you for your great love and mercy. We pray this in Your name. Amen.
Summary
There are two epilogues to the Christmas story. The first is the tragedy of King Herod and the other is the happy ending that Simeon and Anna experienced. These two stories show us that we are given a choice in terms of how we live our lives. The first option is to be like Herod and exclude anyone who doesn’t follow us for fear of losing power and the other is to be like Simeon and Anna and to accept both our own shortcomings and the shortcomings of others and put our hope in God’s mercy. We tend to be more like Herod, but we can choose to live more like Simeon and Anna.
For Discussion
1. Looking back on this past year, can you think of times when you were like Herod and times when you were like Simeon and Anna?
2. How can we put our hope in God like Simeon and Anna?