Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Luke

[Mel B]

If you could help me understand these verses, I would appreciate it.

[jimwalton]

Let’s see, Lk. 2.33-38, the prophecy of Simeon. Looking at the whole section (and the point!), Simeon’s words refer back to the Exodus (a common theme about Jesus—that he was like a new Moses leading his people to a real freedom) and describing Jesus like a new David—the true ruler of His people. They show what Jesus is all about: redeeming His people and ruling over them.

The prophecy Simeon speaks in vv. 34-38 takes on an ominous tone. Jesus’s coming will bring as much judgment as it does blessing. Many (even those we do not expect) will become God-followers and Jesus lovers and be honored (rising), but many (that we thought were in good with God) will be out and be put to shame (falling).

Jesus himself(end of v. 34) will know honor and shame, adoration and humiliation. He will be scorned, vilified, and rejected. Mary herself will also be stabbed with scorn, rejection (those in her village probably considered her an adulteress), and grief (when Jesus is killed as blasphemous and treasonous). She will also know honor and shame, adoration and humiliation.

In like kind, an elderly woman named Anna was given a prophecy about Jesus. She told Mary and Joseph, along with others around them, that this child would be (somehow) instrumental in the redemption of Israel. It matches the prophecy given to Zechariah in Lk. 1.68.

All of this shows us that Jesus was considered to be the Messiah from birth (or even before that). It was not something he or his disciples manufactured later or that Jesus was called to only later in life. He was always the incarnated Son of God, the Messiah, who came to Earth to redeem and to judge.