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Christmas 1.24 Luke 2:22-40

“Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation…”

The Latin-speaking West has often criticized the Greek-speaking Eastern church—which was far and away the largest in Christendom’s first few centuries, proportions now reversed—for thinking that the Incarnation has done the job of salvation, just by Jesus appearing in the flesh. We criticize the East for thoughts like this, for seemingly taking original sin lightly and burying the darkness of the cross in the glory of the Incarnation and Resurrection.

But, maybe the shoe is on the other foot? Maybe the East isn’t minimizing sin and the cross as much as the West is underestimating the power of the Incarnation? If you’re familiar with this channel, you know this is a difficult thought even to contemplate, confident as we are that East is least and West is best!

But… Simeon says this! When his words are correctly translated (as I have done for you above, you’re welcome! 😉 he clearly asserts, in the Spirit no less, divinely inspired—as all the prophets and apostles are!, that: just seeing and holding baby Jesus in his arms, his sins have been forgiven, peace with God restored, salvation delivered.

It’s like… Florida man writes book! Blind squirrel finds nut!

How can these things be?

Well; let’s start with this whole bible translation thing. One advantage the Eastern Church has over the West is that Greek (the original language of the New Testament!) has always been their native language, continuously spoken in their church to the present day, while the West mostly knows the scriptures only in (often shaky!) Latin translations.

At this point, it seems appropriate to quote my teacher John Stroup (an accomplished linguist) who says “Greek is an elegant language, a sexy language, the language of kings, poets, and philosophers. Latin is a dead language, a dull language, the language of accountants, sanitation engineers, and mid-level government bureaucrats.” I just want to say I personally appreciate accountants and sanitation engineers, for their fine work, more than John 😉

Anyway, even Martin Luther’s Greek was very… rudimentary! Having discovered Luther’s personal bible late in the last century, it’s clear: his translations were done mostly from the Latin translations of Jerome in the OT and Erasmus in the NT. Luther learned just enough Greek from Melanchthon to be as dangerous as a bright 1st year sem student. Hey, no one has all the gifts!

Even the King James translators relied more on the Latin bible and early English translations, having only a couple scholars like Launcelot Andrewes who knew any Greek at all. No less an expert and master linguist than C.S. Lewis (16th century English literature being his speciality) says: while the West recovered some scant knowledge of Greek in the 16th century, even the best Western scholar’s knowledge of Greek, then, would hardly approach a 20th century 1st term Oxford student’s. (The West doesn’t really learn Greek until the mid 19th century, according to Lewis 😉

So, the King James can be forgiven, somewhat, for having Simeon say “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.” Which makes it sound like Simeon—who’s old and has been told he won’t see death until he sees the Lord’s Christ—is saying, “Thanks, for letting me die in peace, having seen the Christ…” Because that’s how their Latin bibles have construed the Greek since that bone-head Jerome’s 4th century translation the Vulgate—still, shockingly the official bible of the Roman Catholic Church!, which explains a lot of their errors, too!

But, that’s not what Simeon is saying in the Greek. He says, “νυν απολυεις τον δουλον σου, δεσποτα… The word απολυεις is a compound word and it’s not “letting depart”. No! It’s literally “loose-from” or release from some implicit burden or obligation. It is the word Jesus almost always uses when he says “your sins are forgiven” and the King James gets the forgiveness passages right because their Latin translates the Greek correctly in those contexts (very numerous) in which απολυεις is used.

Now, there is zero evidence that Simeon sees his earthly life as a burden from which he needs to be… released (as the King James and ESV translations lead you to think!), because God doesn’t ever teach us to see our lives that way! God does, however, plainly teach us, throughout the Old Testament (Simeon’s bible which he knows well!) that SIN is the burden, ‘from the west down to the east, from which, any day now I shall be… released!’ A day Simeon hails with joy, today 😉

A big translation problem here is the English and Latin flipping two phrases so that Simeon can depart depart in peace—instead of being forgiven his sins according to God’s Word. A big difference, there! Scholars used to think Greek word order doesn’t matter. I was taught it does.

In Greek, Simeon says “Now you release your servant, my Master, according to your word, in peace. Simply put: God isn’t granting Simeon a peaceful death. No! He’s releasing his servant from sin, forgiving him according to his Word—that is by Jesus, as promised! It’s not Simeon’s life, but his SIN that gets gone…!

This changes things a bit, right? Changes our assessment of the Old Testament. While much of Israel took the OT only as a promise of an earthly kingdom, Simeon sees it as something more—the promise of a Heavenly Kingdom by forgiveness of sin.

This Kingdom, Simeon gets hold of just by getting to hold baby Jesus, just for a minute or two. The glory of it all’s not lost on him! Simeon proclaims heaven itself has come to him in one divine little package. In the body of Jesus, it’s all there, shining: forgiveness, new life, is delivered—salvation’s bestowed on Simeon!!!

But the cross is plainly in view, here! Simeon says 😉 “this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, a sign spoken against.” Even Mary’s ψυχην—her life-soul’s gonna get sword-pierced…

Simeon sees a child who’s born to die—the tender lamb on whom the sin of the world must be laid. He sees Xnity is designed to kill us, first! in order to raise us up, new, sin-free, and spotless, like the Lamb of God himself. The cross is not buried in the angel’s Gloria, nor in Easter’s brilliant light. Nah; it’s really the other way around for Simeon: the light over Bethlehem and on Easter Sunday only ‘shines from the west down to the east’ because of the darkness of the cross!

Phew! East is still least and West is still best, but that was… close!

The light Simeon saw, held in his arms, shines still. Not content to let you just hold him a minute or two—Jesus puts his body and blood in your mouth to eat and drink, to be One Body with him, forever. And so you are… released from sin, death, and the power of the devil; so you have Peace, surpassing all understanding, guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Merry Christmas! Amen.