Nunc Dimittis

Dr. John Clayton's sermon on Luke 2:25-35 from our service on July 14, 2024, the tenth in his sermon series The Gospel of Luke.

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:25–35).[1]

According to the 13^th chapter of Exodus, God said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine” (Ex. 13:2). The purpose of this consecration was to serve as a reminder that every firstborn of Israel was saved from the wrath of God by the blood of the sacrificial lamb while every firstborn of Egypt died. What began in Egypt set in motion the ceremonial tradition for Israel, and as Jesus was Mary’s firstborn, he was presented at the temple for consecration. Jesus’ presentation is a beautiful picture of faithfulness on the part of the parents, and the passive obedience of Christ. But Luke draws our attention from the purpose of the presentation to who is present, specifically Simeon.

Simeon, we are told, was a “righteous and devout” man, filled with the Holy Spirit, and waiting “for the consolation of Israel,” an expression referring to Simeon’s expectant hope in the coming of Israel’s Messiah. He received special revelation from God “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). And so, Luke tells us, on the day of Jesus’ presentation, the Holy Spirit led Simeon to the temple and there he beheld the child Jesus, God incarnate, and Simeon took Jesus in his arms and blessed God. Thankfully, Luke records Simeon’s blessing in full, which we read in verses 29-32.

Following the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Gloria, Simeon’s blessing is the fourth “song” in the Gospel of Luke. Often referred to by the Latin name Nunc Dimittis, meaning “now you dismiss,” Simeon’s blessing is not only a personal confession but a declaration. Simeon sings, or says, of what he beholds: the fulfillment of what God promised, the Christ. And it is enough, just to behold our Lord in his earthly infancy. “Lord,” he says, “now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word.” What God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, had come in the person of Jesus. What God promised Simeon had come as a firstborn son.

But I want to draw your attention to what Simeon says he has seen:

            for my eyes have seen your salvation

                        that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

            a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

                        and for glory to your people Israel (30-32).

What Simeon has seen is the Lord’s salvation, shining upon the Gentiles and for the glory of Israel. What Simeon beholds is God’s salvation for the world.

 The Plan of Salvation

In the fourth chapter of Galatians, the apostle Paul uses an expression to describe the completion of God’s redemptive preparation: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). What Paul describes is the fulfillment of what God promised all the way back in the third chapter of Genesis, in his curse upon Satan in the form of a serpent, when God said,

And I will put enmity

                        between you and the woman,

            and between your offspring and hers;

                        he will crush your head,

            and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3:15 NIV).

What we hear in this proto-evangelic poetry is that God in his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, for his own glory, foreordained our salvation through a suffering yet victorious Savior. And the story of Scripture onward describes God’s preparation, through the means of his appointment, of his salvation.

For example, consider God’s calling of and promise to Abraham, that through him “all the families of the earth” would be blessed. And onward through the patriarchs to Israel, where we get glimpses of God’s grace bestowed upon the likes of Rahab, the Gentile prostitute, on to the prophets, such as Isaiah, who prophesied that out of Israel would come “a light for the nations” that God’s salvation would “reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6b). And so, God the Father sent forth his Son, in the fullness of time, as he sovereignly prepared, not only in the presence of Israel, but “in the presence of all peoples,” not only a light for revelation to the Jews but “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”

This is quite remarkable given the fact that Jesus was born a Jew, under the law, and made clear during his earthly ministry that he was delivering the gospel first to the children of Israel (Matt. 15:24). There were of course exceptions, but Jesus’ itinerant ministry was quite narrow and almost exclusively to Israel. But following his resurrection, he commissioned his apostles to fulfill what the prophets had proclaimed, to go beyond the boundaries of their nation, “making disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18-20). In reading the book of Acts we learn that the message of God’s salvation of all peoples through Israel’s Messiah advanced beyond Jerusalem and was proclaimed to Jew and Gentile alike.

For example, when the apostle Paul preached the gospel at the synagogue of Antioch, they listened intently. But the following week, when “almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord” (Acts 13:44), the Jews became jealous and turned immediately against Paul, contradicting and reviling him. And so, Paul, and Barnabas with him, said to them, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

            ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,

            that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’”

            (Acts 13:46-47).

Paul and Barnabas were simply quoting Israel’s prophets to them, but their hearts were hardened against the gospel. But the hearts of the Gentiles were not. Luke records, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Such is our Lord’s mysterious yet glorious plan of salvation, of which we are recipients.

Consider with me how blessed we are that the gospel was advanced to us, that we have believed a gospel that was once held within the walls of Jerusalem but has today spread to us and beyond. We are recipients of Christ’s Great Commission and so commissioned to carry the very gospel we believed onward to our neighbor and the nations. Missions is mobilized in part by a gratitude for the gospel in the hearts of those who have believed it and cherish it. Let us pause for a moment and pray, thanking God that in his plan of salvation, he included you and me and that he continues to advance his gospel to the ends of the earth:

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[2]

The Person of Salvation

When Simeon sings of salvation, he refers to it as the Lord’s: “Lord, … my eyes have seen your salvation” (30). But to say that you have seen salvation seems an odd way to describe it. Why “salvation”? Why not “savior”? But Simeon is not only describing the what of salvation but also who, drawing from one of Isaiah’s Messianic “servant songs,”[3] in which the Lord says,

            It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

                        to raise up the tribes of Jacob

                        and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

            I will make you as a light for the nations,

            that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth                                                                           (Isa. 49:6).

The Lord’s servant then is also the Lord’s salvation. Salvation is a person.

Simeon beheld and held in his arms him whom God sent forth, a light shining in the darkness, and indeed “the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Though the world is darkened by sin, Jesus came to shine the light of his gospel even into the darkest corners of unbelief. Jesus came proclaiming the gospel of God’s salvation and in his life, death, and resurrection became its fulfillment. He not only saves but is salvation, and so there is no salvation apart from him. He is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and apart from him there is no communion with God, no salvation from God’s wrath and curse, and apart from him the condemned continue “liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.”[4] But through faith in Christ, there is salvation unto eternal life, good news for all peoples, for Jew and Gentile alike.

Simeon’s blessing to God concludes with a helpful distinction of glory, “salvation … for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Israel is not a place but a people, to whom were entrusted the oracles of God and through whom God “gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But just as the Jews in Antioch refused to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul explains in the eleventh chapter of Romans that God is at work in this too. Paul writes,

So I ask, did [Israel] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! (Rom. 11:11-12).

Paul goes on to explain how God has grafted in Gentiles into Israel through faith in Christ, and then cautions against arrogance, saying, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

 “and this will be my covenant with them

when I take away their sins” (Rom. 11:25-27).

What Paul describes is the fulfillment of Simeon’s blessing, God’s salvation to the Gentiles for Israel’s glory.

In his Expository Thoughts on Luke, J.C. Ryle writes, “Christ was indeed ‘the glory of Israel.’ The descent from Abraham, –the covenants, –the promises, –the law of Moses, –the divinely ordered Temple service, –all these were mighty privileges. But all were as nothing compared to the mighty fact, that out of Israel was born the Saviour of the world.”[5] We seek then to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ near and far, “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” and pray for the salvation of the people Israel, many of whom live in our own country, that they will believe in the true Israel, the person of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessing of Simeon will be complete.

The Persecution of Salvation

The prophetic Word of God does not conclude with Simeon’s blessing but continues in blessing both parents and then saying to Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (34-35). This child, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, this child who is the Son of God, will not unite but divide many. He who is love incarnate will be dearly loved by some and vehemently hated by others. But as he is Truth, through him “thoughts from many hearts may be revealed,” for good or evil. And the mother of this child will suffer too, like a sword through the soul, through the suffering of her son.

Yet, this is no surprise, as Isaiah describes him prophetically as a suffering servant:

            He was despised and rejected by men,

                        a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

            and as one from whom men hide their faces

                        he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

            Surely he has borne our griefs

                        and carried our sorrows;

            yet we esteemed him stricken,

                        smitten by God, and afflicted (Isa. 53:3-4).

The prophet’s graphic language of our Savior’s suffering goes beyond human suffering to the cosmic consequence of our sin, the wrath of God borne upon the cross. Christ’s suffering was no mistake: “it was the will of the LORD to crush him” (Isa. 53:10a). But in it was purpose: God’s plan of salvation was always in the person of salvation:

            But he was pierced for our transgressions;

                        he was crushed for our iniquities;

            upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

                        and with his wounds we are healed.

            All we like sheep have gone astray;

                        we have turned—every one—to his own way;

            and the LORD has laid on him

                        the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:5-6).

The child Jesus was consecrated in the temple that day, and he would grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. He would mature to manhood that as fully God and fully man, he might live life righteously, die sacrificially, and resurrect victoriously that we too, like Simeon, may say one day, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,” for we have peace with God forever through faith in Jesus Christ. And for this gift of God’s grace let us give thanks and rejoice.

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[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] The Anglican Church in North America, The Book of Common Prayer (Huntington Beach: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019), 650

[3] Dale Ralph Davis, Luke 1-13: The Year of the Lord’s Favor (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2024), 53.

[4] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 19, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 366.

[5] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 53.