students of jesus

Honestly, who’s going to lock God out of their building?

God will sneak in anywhere. He’s eager to meet gentle and humble spirits, even if the gatekeepers try to keep him away. He’ll do anything to connect with the pure in heart: he’s been smuggled into the building wrapped in a baby-blanket, carried by a first-time mother. He wanted to meet two such hearts long ago. Do you remember their story?

Simeon and Anna were on the fringe of life in the temple. (You can find this account in Luke, chapter 2.) They were two harmless old people who held no religious office, had no power, and most likely had very little respect from the people in charge. This temple, the religious center of Judaism, was megachurch-big and just as busy. Who took time to notice a couple of slow-moving white-haired folks on the sidelines? God. God did.

Simeon had a secret, and his secret was so powerful it was keeping him alive. Simeon had been promised that he wouldn’t die until he had seen the “consolation of Israel.” Most people would have thought he was crazy: do you know how long Jewish people had been waiting for a Messiah? Decades. Centuries. Their country was overrun with Romans, and before that the Greeks had been in charge. Religious leaders had led failed uprisings and dashed the hopes of people for at least two hundred years. But Simeon was “righteous and devout,” a man dedicated to God and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. God told Simeon he would not die without seeing the promise.

Anna had eyes to see and ears to hear—even if she did work in the nursery. She was very old, and had been without her husband for decades. What religious system—run by men—would take any notice of a powerless widow, even if she held a title of “prophet”? Anna heard the voice of God amidst the busy-ness and din of the worship industry. The Spirit led her to that place where Simeon’s promise was fulfilled, and she saw him worshipping the Baby God. It was her turn; she took the child in her arms. That’s what a lifetime of prayer, fasting, and waiting will do: you see things other people miss. Anna, the prophet, was willing to tell anyone who would listen, but who listens to 84 year-old widows?

It turns out that Simeon and Anna are still speaking. They tell us that even in a corrupt religious system, people of purity can thrive and connect with God. Thirty years before Jesus began to preach in Galilee he was already connecting with people like Simeon and Anna, because God gives grace to the humble. It’s what he always does: he had already invited nameless shepherds and pagan astrologers to visit the divine delivery room of the child Christ. Now, eight days later, God whispered his secrets again, this time right in the Temple!

He has never stopped. Jesus made a big splash when he returned to the Temple years later. He invited people to drink deep of the Spirit. Later he made a whip and invited the greedy to leave. When the religious leaders finally took notice of Jesus, they plotted ways to keep him out. The chief priest even justified the thought of murder by saying it was better for one man to die for the sake of the nation. (If he only knew what he was saying.) The religious big shots tried their best: when they crucified his body, he returned in Spirit. When they got rid of the Rabbi, he came back through his disciples. God will never stop reaching out to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be filled.

There’s just one application from all this: let’s not waste our time blaming the system. Religious systems (like all systems) are flawed. But God finds a way to become present with his people. We can spend time criticizing the flaws and denouncing hypocrisy, or we become like Simeon and Anna, to whom God keeps his promise, as he always does.