Episode 619 Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-38)

BibleWorm

This week, we read Luke 2:21-38. The baby Jesus has been born just a week prior, and our reading today is scaffolded by the Jewish rituals that surround his birth. We wonder about the role of ritual in our lives, and about the very different ways that Simeon and Anna, two individuals who seem very close to God indeed, navigate the passing days of their own lives – one in constant ritual devotion, one out in the world awaiting the Divine pull to the Temple. And as readers in a world where Jews and Christians are sometimes defined in opposition to each other, it seemed important to take in the centrality of Jewish practice in Luke’s rendition of things. The infighting later is real. But for now, this child is called both a revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for the people Israel.