On This Day: Everyone is Affected by Jesus

   “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 2:29-35)

   When I read or hear professional skeptics telling me why I shouldn’t believe in Jesus, I often have a Bible passage pop into my head that tells me what God says about their blindness and hardness of heart.

   This morning, which happens to be Christmas day, I read the above passage and considered what Joseph and Mary first heard from Simeon about who and what Jesus was to both Jews and Gentiles, and then what Simeon said about how Jesus would affect people. 

   When we read that, it is easy to see how Jesus brought salvation, that the Old Testament part of the Bible describes how God prepared this salvation “in the presence of all peoples”, how Jesus’ life and ministry have become “a light for revelation” to us “Gentiles”, and how Jesus as the Christ/Messiah is the most glorious thing to come out of Israel. 

   How does that help me regarding the professional skeptics? How does that comfort me in relation to trauma I have experienced by angry Jesus-haters? How does that bring peace to my heart when the world continues to hate Jesus and his followers just as Jesus prophesied?

   Simeon’s description of how Jesus would be treated blesses me with comfort and peace because it tells me that witnessing people “fall” in relation to Jesus is just as much a fulfillment of Scripture as watching people “rise” from the deadness of their sin. Witnessing the “thoughts from many hearts” being “revealed” through people’s responses to Jesus assures me that seeing hateful, angry and deceptive hearts is just as much a fulfillment of God’s word as when I see hearts open to God’s word in “the obedience of faith”. 

   No one can escape that Jesus was “appointed” to bring God’s salvation into the world so we could clearly see who believed and who did not, who received God’s gift of eternal life and those who remained condemned in their sin. 

   I know I will never be as popular or profiteering as the professional skeptics. But “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). 

   And because I can now see, I can also see how blind and hard-hearted the professional skeptics are in their deceiving of the nations. But this is also something God’s word prophecies would be a significant work of Satan to keep people from knowing God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

   So, while I hate that it is so (that “evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” ~ II Timothy 3:13), I raise my voice to tell people the “good news of great joy” that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). 

   If anyone hears God calling you to “rise” into the good news of salvation, please ask me or another follower of Jesus to help you come to Christ. What a Christmas Day that would be! 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)