A Thought For The Week Of February 6, 2017

"For my eyes have seen your salvation." (Luke 2:30) I wonder what the emotion was behind the words of this verse? "For my eyes have seen you salvation." Was it joy, relief, satisfaction? Something else? A combination? In the context of the passage actually it was probably assurance and peace. The words come from Simeon, who has just encountered the baby Jesus. Simeon was an old man who was close to death and basically his encounter with Jesus prepared him for death and made him able to look death in the face and be unafraid and at peace. And that's a valuable thing, because I doubt that there are very many things in life that are more uncomfortable than contemplating the inevitability of our own death. But somehow this encounter with Jesus made Simeon aware of God's plan for salvation. And it's significant that this took place while Jesus was a baby. This was before he taught anything to anyone. This was before his death and resurrection. There's no "Gospel" at this point. There's nothing but a helpless baby. But somehow there was something about this helpless baby that touched Simeon and changed him. There's something about Jesus. For us all. We don't have to understand everything about him, know the details of his life and teaching, ponder the mystery of Good Friday and Easter, or engage in spirited and in depth theological debate. None of that is necessary. As Simeon did - we can start just by encountering Jesus; by coming to the conviction (through divine revelation of some sort) that Jesus is with us. And that's enough to make a difference in how we look at life. It's just a start of course. But everything - even life giving and life changing faith - has to start somewhere. We start - as Simeon - by encountering in Jesus. The other things we can learn, and hopefully we will learn. But the most important thing is just in some way to see Jesus - to encounter him and to be confronted by him. That will make a difference. Seeing our salvation always makes a difference.