I believe that it was no mere accident that God used four elderly people living under the Law of Moses to proclaim Jesus as being the promised Savior of the people, and two younger people living under the Law of Moses to be His parents. In the Gospel of Luke, Luke prepares us in this way for important issues to come: with the arrival of Jesus comes a new age and a new message among the Jewish people: the aged era of the Law and Prophets was passing away, behold, the new has come. Nevertheless, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them, to fulfill them by purchasing the redemption they offered and living the life they commanded (Matthew 5:17). Jesus finished His work at the cross, saying just before His life ebbed away from Him, “It is finished” (John 19:30). As the Hebrews writer tells us in Hebrews 8:13, the Old Law was on its last legs as the Destruction of Jerusalem was fast approaching, forever abolishing the old Jewish sacrificial system, by stating, “And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Therefore, Luke is telling us that all the true saints of the Old Testament faith will welcome Jesus with open arms because He fits perfectly as the goal or climax of their faith. But the hypocrites will reject and persecute Him.
Luke wants us to see that an era is drawing to a close, the era of the Law and the Prophets. He shows us this by depicting the best representatives of that era as aged and at the point of death (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna). They are passing away just like the era of the Law and the Prophets was passing away. The second thing Luke wants to illustrate is that there is no conflict between the Law and the Prophets and the new age of the Messiah. He shows this by depicting the most devout people under the old era as being the most receptive to the new era. Elizabeth and Zechariah and Simeon and Anna do not become resentful and angry that the Messiah has come, even though He will be a "light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), a point which so troubled many of the Jews as the church began to grow. The true saints from the old era rejoice that the new has arrived! And we see this same attitude found within John the Immerser, too, who Jesus claimed to be the greatest of the Prophets, when John directed the people to follow Jesus, instead of him, when John said in John 3:29-30, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” No longer do we live merely in the era of promise with the Law and the Prophets awaiting the consolation of Israel. Now we live in the era of fulfillment when the Kingdom of God is preached as present and powerful, albeit not yet fully consummated this side of eternity.
May the Lord bless you and your family!
Luke wants us to see that an era is drawing to a close, the era of the Law and the Prophets. He shows us this by depicting the best representatives of that era as aged and at the point of death (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna). They are passing away just like the era of the Law and the Prophets was passing away. The second thing Luke wants to illustrate is that there is no conflict between the Law and the Prophets and the new age of the Messiah. He shows this by depicting the most devout people under the old era as being the most receptive to the new era. Elizabeth and Zechariah and Simeon and Anna do not become resentful and angry that the Messiah has come, even though He will be a "light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), a point which so troubled many of the Jews as the church began to grow. The true saints from the old era rejoice that the new has arrived! And we see this same attitude found within John the Immerser, too, who Jesus claimed to be the greatest of the Prophets, when John directed the people to follow Jesus, instead of him, when John said in John 3:29-30, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” No longer do we live merely in the era of promise with the Law and the Prophets awaiting the consolation of Israel. Now we live in the era of fulfillment when the Kingdom of God is preached as present and powerful, albeit not yet fully consummated this side of eternity.
May the Lord bless you and your family!
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