GAIL DRAKE: A promise to keep

“I resolve to start that diet. Gotta lose that chicken fat.”

“I resolve to stop drinking [insert favored beverage here].”

“Let’s join the gym and start working on that beach bod.”

So many New Year’s resolutions — needful, well-intended, and they last … well … maybe a month? So many promises that tend to peter out by mid-February.

Following the Nativity passage in Luke 2, we read an interesting account — of a promise that was kept. Of a gentle elderly man who persevered and saw his greatest wish fulfilled.

First, a word about the actual birth date of Christ. Don’t want to shake anyone out of their frame, but there are some Bible scholars who believe that the Christ Child was not actually born on Dec. 25. This belief is based on several factors, contextual and historical. In the Christmas story the shepherds were watching their flocks in the fields at night. In the winter, sheep were more often kept in sheepfolds. The practice of watching sheep in the open fields at night often occurred when ewes were giving birth, usually in the spring.

Early Christians didn’t celebrate Christ’s birth until Egyptian believers celebrated the event on Jan. 6. According to various historians, around the 4th century Christians began to celebrate the birth of Christ on Dec. 25 on the same day as a pagan holiday to the sun god. St. Augustine made a reference admonishing devotees to celebrate not the sun but the Maker of the sun.

But assuming that Christ was born on our traditional Christmas Eve, there is an interesting event in the Christmas story that occurred just days later in Jerusalem. Jewish law required every family who gave birth to their firstborn son to do two things: to have the son circumcised eight days after birth, and after a requisite period, to present the baby and a celebratory offering to the priests. As Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem when the child was born, they traveled the two miles to Jerusalem and followed through with all that Jewish laws required of them.

Jerusalem was teeming with people dealing with the aftermath of Ceasar’s imposing census and taxation. At the temple, animal sacrifices were a constant event, with hundreds of sheep, goats, and cows slaughtered daily. The poor who could afford only pigeons or doves were allotted time as well. So Mary and Joseph brought their baby and their two pigeons as an offering to celebrate their new son, surrounded by hundreds of other worshippers.

There was a respected elderly man named Simeon who lived in Jerusalem. Somehow he was not embroiled in all the turmoil and anger at the rule of Rome. He lived above the fray of the corruption of the Jewish religious order. He is described as “just and devout,” meaning he followed the letter and the spirit of the Jewish law. But his focus was elsewhere. He is described as “waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.”

The reference of the “consolation of Israel” is the promise of the Messiah, referenced by all the Bible prophets, someone who would redeem Israel and be “a light to the Gentiles.” There were numerous, specific details of a child to be born, a future king who would overcome their enemies. Simeon was focused on those promises, and in such daily communion with his God that he experienced the presence of the Holy Ghost.

“And it was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” God’s Spirit directed Simeon to the temple at that very day and time. He looked around for a humble couple with a newborn baby. A short time later Mary and Joseph entered the temple. He saw them and he knew. Simeon walked up to them, and with tears in his eyes, he reached out to hold the infant.

Cradling this newborn in his arms, Simeon raises his eyes upward and thanked God. “Lord, now let me die in peace, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in front of all people. This child is even a light to free the Gentiles, and he is the glory of your people Israel.” Simeon finally got to see and hold the One who would fulfill all the promises.

Then Simeon turned his gaze to Mary and warned, “This child will cause the rise and fall of many in Israel, and for a sign that people will talk against. Because of things to come, a sword will pierce through your own soul, too.” He understood the coming suffering this child would encounter as the promised Redeemer.

A promise was kept by God. To an older gentleman who did not lose focus by current events but rather spent his senior years communing with his God.