THE HEAVENLY HIGH PRIEST ANOINTED
BY AN UNEXPECTED HUMAN PRIEST.
GOSPEL READING : Luke 2:22-40 :
What a wonderful Day! I wished I could be there and hear Simeon praising God as he took the Holy Child in his arms and also listen to Prophetess Anna giving thanks to God, this same special elder Anna who had never left the Temple for decades, but was worshiping night and day, fasting and praying. This was A Really Holy Trinity Meeting arranged by the Holy Spirit who moved Simeon to go to the Temple at the very hour when Joseph and Mary came to present the Son of God to the Heavenly Father.
Strange ! Instead of being welcomed in the Temple by a well-known Hebrew high priest and acclaimed with honors by crowds from Jerusalem, Jesus, “The unknown salvation God’s plan” meets accidently an unexpected strange priest who leads the service and pronounces the blessing and the prophecy upon his ministry along with an additional particular blessing pronounced by Anna, a descendant of Asher whom Jacob had blessed earlier saying: “Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies for a King”(Genesis 49:20, NIV). Wondeful fulfillment !
No processions nor ceremonies, no choirs singing but only four people, Joseph, Mary and Simeon and Anna standing together to witness “The Fulfillment of what God had said through Jacob, Isaac’s son”. I believe that on this very day Anna really understood what was the ministry she had been waiting for since so many years. Miraculously, Anna is brought to deliver a message that completes the one that Simeon pronounces:
– Simeon talks about “Seeing God’s Salvation”
– Anna talks about “The Redemption of Jerusalem”
I remember one day in 1984 I was invited to preach at a rural Evangelical Church in the little village of Kagongo in the South of Burundi near Lake Tanganyika, where I delivered a sermon about “Salvation and Redemption”. Generally, people in many Third-World countries don’t understand easily what “Salvation means”. The poor church I visited was a Fishermen’s community since they all lived from fishing. I gave them an illustration and said that “Salvation” is like a fish you get from the lake in order to feed yourself and your family. But it can’t be efficient in your life until you have cooked or roasted it and then eat it; and this second phase is what I can call “Redemption”.
I told them that Jesus, God’s salvation (Jesus Christ) who was sent to this world has also in Him the Redemption Ministry and power. But as long as men refuse to receive Him as their personal Saviour and allow their souls to eat from Him and drink from his precious blood, they’ll never experience Redemption from the bondage of sin. They’ll remain hungry like a fisher who has already got a fish but does not to eat it. I remember how many people in the church at Kagongo understood for the first time that they needed to make a step to go to Jesus and confess their sins and welcome Him in their life.
God is still doing great things with unexpected and strange people. Simeon was not priest but in God’s plans, he had been set apart to serve one day as a special priest to anoint his Holy Son Jesus for the Ministry of the Cross that would pierce His Mother’s soul. On the other hand, Anna was probably known from the religious public as a poor widow spending her life in the Temple cellars. But what is amazing is that on this great day when Jesus was to be presented to God, these unknown people were moved by the Spirit of God and met perhaps for the first time for the glory of God IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.
We don’t need to be famous nor great nor be known in the news editorials in order to be used by God to do great things. Let us simply be righteous and devout like Simeon and also humble and faithful day and night in PRAYER like Anna. And God Will Always Move With Us !…AMEN !
In Christ’s Love,
Bishop, Dr. Justin Baransananikiye
President
CHRISTIANS STRENGTHENING CHRISTIANS,
http://iprayforyou.worthyofpraise.org
http://christiansstrengtheningchristian.doodlekit.com/blog