Jesus The “yes”

Jesus the “Yes”

The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the LORD’S Messiah. Luke 2:25-26

SIMEON HAD RECEIVED A PROMISE FROM GOD that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. So when the Holy Spirit led him one day to the Temple in Jerusalem, he knew to keep his eyes open. There he saw a young couple presenting their first child to God and was drawn to them. He held the child in his arms and blessed him. He knew he was holding the salvation of Israel and a light to the Gentiles. He thanked God for fulfilling the promise and said he was ready to die in peace.

A prophetess named Anna was also there. She was always there, worshiping in the Temple through the many years since her husband’s death. When she saw Simeon with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, she recognized what was happening and praised God too. She then went around telling everybody that this was the promised child. She and Simeon were both “prisoners of hope” (Zechariah 9:12, NIV), heirs to a promise, people of faith who saw into the spiritual realm and recognized God’s purposes. And their faith was rewarded in his due time.

Simeon and Anna are wonderful representatives of the dynamics of faith, one holding to a personal promise he had been given, the other focusing on a promise given to the people of God as a whole. Their faith in God’s words found fulfillment in the child of Bethlehem who had been brought to the Temple. Because all of God’s promises are “yes” in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20)—he has won the full inheritance of the Kingdom for all of us to share—our faith in God’s words finds fulfillment in him too. He is the centerpiece of God’s faithfulness, the evidence that God keeps his word, the embodiment of the character and nature of the God we have placed our trust in. If we ever wondered whether God fulfills his purposes even after extraordinarily long and trying waits, Jesus confirms it. Just as God spoke through the faith of an old man and a prophetess, so will he speak through ours and carry out what he has said.

Jesus is the yes to every promise of God.