With Simeon and Anna we receive consolation (Luke 2:25) and good news: Jesus frees us to go in peace. God’s Word is incarnate, and we have seen the light of our salvation (2:29-32). “Go in peace” is our call to action—a reminder that we are freed from sin and death and sent out to share that good news with the world. “Go in peace” is also our prayer as life ends—a reminder of a love more powerful than death.
And yet . . . right along with these words of peace come troubling words from Simeon. The infant Jesus will be a source of turmoil for his people and his family. The words “and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35) must have been the opposite of peaceful and comforting to young mother Mary. Luke even includes the detail that Mary and Joseph offered the least expensive purification sacrifice, a reminder that Jesus was born into poverty (Lev. 12:8). Even in the presence of God’s incarnate peace, all is not well with the world.
This is where we enter the story, full of questions. How do we experience God’s peace in our broken world? Faced with the reality of war, poverty, hunger, destruction, and loss, how do we speak of peace? How do we live God’s peace in our lives? Like Simeon and Anna, we have faith in God’s promise of peace because we have faith in the promiser. As Simeon and Anna witnessed, God’s word has been, is, and will be fulfilled.