Purification of Mary (1882)

Luke 2:22-32 I yearn from my heart For a peaceful end, etc.1 The ardent desire of all Christians is that the misery and tribulation of this life, the great danger and temptation, in which the soul daily hangs, the severe struggle with the world, flesh, and devil they have come to know and still remains in, but also comforting themselves by faith in Jesus Christ that, when their last day comes, the Father in heaven grant them a blessed end and would take them with grace from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven, as He bids us to pray in the seventh petition [of the Lord's Prayer]. Only he can have a right and true desire for this last hour who has taken the promise of eternal life in faith and can say with Paul: Christ is my life, death is my gain. Where this is not the case, a person can only think of his last hour with fear and fright. For should we ache for those seeking their heaven on earth and are drowned in the world with all their desires and lusts? They flee every thought of the end and are able to see only an enemy in death who tears them away from everything that they enjoy in the world. Others indeed wish for death because they are tired of life. But it is not a desire in them that comes from faith, but from despairing. Unfortunate men hope that death should make an end of their torment, while they still have no confidence in the mercy of Christ, no comfort and no hope of eternal life. Who wants to die like that! Hold against such a bleak death the joyfulness with which Simeon looked forward to in his approaching departure from this world. Let us therefore consider with each other on the basis of our Gospel for strengthening our faith and for awakening a similar joyfulness of dying: How happy Simeon died, in that he was insured a blessed departure from this world; 1. on what he based his assurance; a. Simeon knew that the hour of his departure from this world was at hand, not merely because he was old and advanced in years, but because an answer from the Holy Spirit had come to him that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. He saw the fulfilling of this when he came by the Spirit into the temple and the parents brought Jesus into the temple to do for Him as is customary under the Law. But that Simeon knew this child as the Lord's Christ we see from his glorious testimony, where he took the Child into his arms, praised God and said: Lord, now you let...the glory of Your people Israel. Therefore he praises Him . as God's salvation, "Your salvation", i.e. eternal love and mercy whom You have given to we poor sinners, who is Your own divine essence,
1

KELG 406:1.

Your eternal, only-begotten Son, - whom You have prepared before all people - "prepared", who contains in Himself the eternal decree of salvation, the preparing of the same in prophecies and examples, the implementation of the same in the incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection of Christ - "before all people", not merely in the corner of Jewish lands, but that He would be revealed to all people through the preaching of the Gospel; . as the Light of the nations, who formerly were sitting in the deepest darkness and shadow of death; . "and for the glory of Your people Israel", for salvation is from the Jews2, b. he was also assured of his blessed farewell. Because delighted that he is still allowed to see the Lord's Christ, he took the child in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now You let Your servant depart in peace. He declares in it the full confidence of a blessed journey home. He certainly knows his going out from this world is his entrance into the proper, heavenly fatherland, to eternal blissful peace, for eternal rest and joy, an end to all misery, all struggle, all temptation, all misery. He sees before him an open door to the sweet paradise of God, no anxiety, fear, and danger of death, no more sets himself between judgment and hell; his eyes see clearly and brightly in the glory of that life. Now on what is this blessed certainly based? He bears witness with the words: "For my eyes have seen Your salvation." The reason for his certainty is not merely based on physical seeing, but the sight of faith. He sees his salvation in Christ, his Redeemer from sin and death. He lends himself to the Child, takes Him in his arms, as if he wanted to say: This child is also born for me, also given to me from the Father in heaven; He belongs to me with all the blessings and treasures of His salvation and grace. So there you have, my dear ones, the answer, what is the basis of the assurance of a blessed departure from this world and a joyful going home to the eternal heavenly fatherland, namely that we . view Christ with Simeon's eyes of faith, i.e. recognize Him from His Word and Gospel as the eternal, almighty Son of God, Whom the Father in heaven has thrown in and sent, that He enters in our place, pays for all our debt of sin, makes perfect satisfaction with His righteousness, as He has already done under the Law at His circumcision and at His presentation in the temple, so that He fulfills the Law in our place with His active and passive obedience, and finally accomplishes the great work of redemption on the cross. . that we hold Him with Simeon's arms of faith, i.e. devote Christ to ourselves with all His merit in confident trust. For that's the main thing with faith. If you lack the trust that He has gifted and given you from the Father, that He is your Savior, then you lack everything. But if God
2

John 4:22.

gives you the grace that you can believe that even your sin in paid, your guilt is taken away, your punishment is atoned for, that the heavenly Father no longer looks at you as cursed in Adam, but as righteous in Christ, and already received you for the sake of His dear Son by baptism into His covenant of grace as His dear child, then you can joyfully sing: "Thank God! My Jesus cleanses me/From all sins I committed" etc.3 So our assurance of a blessed farewell from this world is based on faith alone. But the greater the treasure is that the Christian has such assurance, the more he has to take care that he does not again lose it. 2. what hinders such assurance; a. the first hindrance is a godless, secure, and impenitent life. Where should the joyfulness to die come from, if you have spent a life without fear of God, in the service of sin, the world, and the devil? Indeed the merit of Christ is so great that it outweighs the sin of the world, and the merciful Savior's love has already glorified on the most corrupt, deepest sunken hearts of men and has made liberated children of God from long-term slaves of sin. But far more have already departed in their impenitence and eternally perished, especially if they have dragged the grace of God into lasciviousness. How differently we read about Simeon! He was pious and God-fearing and waited for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him. He has spent his life in the service of the Lord; whose witness his conscience gives to him: Lord, now You let Your servant depart in peace. Blessed is the man who has the witness of his conscience on his deathbed. b. Then there are unpure souls who indeed do not live in manifest security and impenitence, as the world; but nevertheless they are not sincere toward their God; they have their pet sins; they forget the purification of their own sins; their character is a hypocritical character, outwardly pious, inwardly proliferate weeds of self-love, of avarice, of pride, of impurity. Now comes the last hour. They would gladly like to be comforted with God's mercy and their Savior. But now the conscience raises its serious accusations. How hard shall it perhaps go that they will still be saved, that they do not go over with doubt and uncertainty into the night of eternal darkness! Behold, Simeon did not have this obstacle, he was aware that he faithfully served God his Lord and had walked in His fear. c. But the most difficult and dangerous obstacle of faith is self-righteousness; that is why it wants to be in the right against God, and for that very reason thwarts all intention of divine grace, to link the sinner to repentance. For the Son of Man says: I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners. Such self-righteous can still even then be seemingly quiet and look back with complacency on its life when they already have death in sight. but
3

KELG 63:1

that is still not joyfulness in death as Simeon had it, who takes no comfort in his pious life, but that his eyes saw the Savior and this Savior is his Savior from death. He is an example to us of a pious servant of God who knew to take comfort in no one else than his dear Savior. O let us pray that our end is as this righteous man. Let us, O Lord, be faithful Like Simeon to the end, So that his prayer exultant May from our hearts ascend: "O Lord, now let Thy servant Depart in peace, I pray, Since I have seen my Savior And here beheld His day."4 Georg A. Schick

TLH 138:4.