Anna and Simeon, stewards of vision “Stewards are both a ruler and servant; they exist to please their master.”
Endings are better than beginnings. Sticking to it is better than standing out. Ecclesiastes 7:8 The Message Most of the time, the hardest questions to answer are the ones that start ‘why’. Why do we exist? Why does suffering exist? Why do people enjoy reality TV so much? The ‘what’ questions are supposed to be the easy ones. But they aren’t always so. Try this one: what do prophets see? Prophets see with the sight of God. They see both the beginnings and the endings at the same time. Prophets see what and how God sees. They are stewards of vision, the ones who share that vision without adding to or diluting it. In Luke 2, two prophets, Anna and Simeon see both a beginning and an ending. Both had been promised by the Spirit that they would see the Messiah. Both are at the end of their long lives. Both have stayed true to the vision and both see the vision fulfilled: the redemption of mankind by a new-born baby. Luke takes up the story...
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout… and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah7 Moved by the Spirit; he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”