By: Jim Taylor

Among the familiar readings of Nativity Stories over the Christmas seasons, there's one that's often overlooked.
          Only Luke's gospel tells the story of Simeon and Anna. That's not surprising. The story of the Magi and the star appears only in Matthew. The stories of the census, the journey to Bethlehem, the manger and shepherds appear only in Luke. The gospels of Mark and John, and the letters of Paul, totally ignore the circumstances of Jesus' birth.
          As Luke tells it, Mary and Joseph brought their child to the Temple in Jerusalem "to do for him what the Law required." That is, to be circumcised.
          They would have come alone. Other relatives must also have travelled to Bethlehem to register for the census. But Mary and Joseph had a child before wedlock. So there was "no room for them at the inn."
          In Luke's words, "There was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. . The Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah. . When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks."
          An 84-year-old widow named Anna who stayed in the Temple day and night also came and "and spoke about the child to all who were waiting for God to set Jerusalem free."
          I've seen enough of eastern temples to know that they are a hive of activity. They're not like Canadian churches. One of the late Laurie Purdy's Clericature cartoons showed a tourist shaking a church door, saying, "It must be one of ours. It's locked!"
          If Anna stayed at the Temple night and day, I suspect this would not be the only baby she approached. If aging Simeon hoped to see the Messiah before he died, this was probably not the only time he had gone to the Temple in hope.
          So I think it unlikely that this was a one-time occurrence, even though we usually read that implication into the text.
          I suspect it's possible, even likely, that both of them made a practice of greeting parents bringing their infants for circumcision -- and, at the same time, perhaps, purifying the woman rendered ritually unclean by giving birth.
          Like a grandparent, they probably got genuine joy from taking a new baby in their arms, from cuddling and cooing over him, from assuring the parents that this infant had a great future.
          If one of those babies turned out to be the promised Messiah, they would be proven right. If not, they did no more harm than we do when we peer into a baby carriage and declare, "What a beautiful baby!"
          My interpretation doesn't make Jesus any less significant. He would still be the linchpin of history -- prophet, rebel, healer, victim, God's special revelation.
          But my heart feels strangely warmed that two elderly -- and by the standards of their time, socially useless -- people could perform a role that warmed the parents' hearts.
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Copyright © 2006 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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