READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 11:1-5
Galatians 4:1-7
St. Luke 2:33-40
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Merry 7th day of Christmass in which we ponder our Lord’s words from His Gospel, saying:
“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.”
Although Simeon is a hero of Christmas, giving us our Nunc Dimittis, today we will focus on Anna. She is also a hero, on top of being a prophetess. That does not mean she is a pastor at all. She was not offering Service and prayers for the people at the Temple. As a prophetess, she was encouraging reliance on the Messiah, adherence to the Covenant, speaking only what God has already spoken, and telling of future events coming to pass.
This is nothing else, but the Christian’s duty. Every Christian. “Some are given to be prophets”, says 1 Corinthians 12. Thus, Anna, here, has a purpose. She has been mentioned by God in His Word and given her ancestry. From the Tribe of Asher, we hear.
Well, what’s so great about Asher? Not much. Not that he did evil things, you know except toss his brother Joseph in a dry well and sell him to slavers, but he just is not mentioned much. When he is mentioned, he doesn’t make out half-bad.
In Genesis 49:20, Jacob gives his dying blessings to his sons, “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.” Dainties!
And from Deuteronomy 33:24, “And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.”
His descendants were also average, suffering the same curse in the Promised Land as everyone else, of not driving out all the Lord commanded and other common sins. So he wasn’t an irredeemable tribe. Yet, he wasn’t an exemplary tribe. So what is the point of hearing about mediocre Asher and his descendant, Anna?
The Lesson comes in the name. Asher means upright or straight. The name was given in the hopes of Asher growing into such a man and by extension, his tribe. But hope alone does not get anything done, much less does it make a man out of a boy or a hero out of a nobody.
In this case, as with many names in the Bible, it is given to encourage reliance on the Messiah. I’m sure Jacob had high hopes for his son, but children often disappoint. Jacob wanted to ensure his son’s faith first of all, remembering Psalm 33, “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness” (v.4).
That “upright”, there, is our Asher word. “The Word of the Lord is asher” it literally says. Jacob, in true Old Testament fashion, names his son after his Messiah, after one of the titles He will hold: “The Upright One”. Christians name children in a similar way, giving Biblical names in hopes that it will cause remembrance of the faith once given to them.
Asher is also named to cause remembrance of the Covenant God has made with His people, through His spoken Word. Both through repentance and forgiveness; confession and absolution. It was God’s upright covenant that caused Him to give His blessings to men, but, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). God made men “asher”, but they desired “chishshabon”, devices of war against Him.
Repent. In our mediocre desire for future events to come to pass as we desire them to, we take on a devilish persona to accomplish them and believe we are doing God’s work. Cain was such, that because he was first born, thought he was God’s chosen and could do no wrong. The Pharisees, likewise. King Herod also displayed this sin in thinking he could conquer God when He was just an infant.
So much for those plans.
But who can blame them? They were just following God, weren’t they? Righteousness. Justice. Success for God’s chosen. They wanted God’s Promise to come to pass in front of them and so they did what they thought was good and upright; what they thought God wanted, that is to enforce His Law with reckless abandon and curse all who get in the way.
Yes, our sin will not let us blame them, because we fall for the same tricks. We believe God is waiting on us, our allegiance, our devotion to be at just the right level in order that He can then make His move. In our hubris, we would force God to become king of this world and take us as His right hand man, or woman.
Dear Beloved, Asher will come to your rescue. For the Lord had already set in motion the things to come before you, even before Asher was born. Such that, He promises that we will come to the Lord weeping and begging for mercy, from Jeremiah 31. And He says, “I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel” (v.9). An “asher” path.
What kind of path? Well, those words should sound familiar, having just come out of the Advent season. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh make straight (ευθειας) in the desert a highway for our God” (Isa 40:3).
Yes, the path, the Way of Uprightness and Life has already been set and paved by the Blood of the Lamb of God. Of course uprightness is going to come from the most high and not from some whelp of a son that can’t even take care of his younger brother. Of course hope is going to spring eternal from the Christ of God Who suffers, dies, and rises again from the dead.
It is the faith purchased, won, and bestowed upon Asher that gives him uprightness before God and his namesake in the Bible. So that when God finally arrives on the scene and encounters Anna, of the Trible of Asher, God’s Word is fulfilled in what He said in Psalm 11, “For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face” (v.7).
The “Asher” shall see His face! Isn’t that amazing? Such a tiny mention, such a tiny man, such a tiny life, and yet the Lord keeps His promises and the Word of God is fulfilled in Him also, by faith. That Asher’s line is not only preserved in the Messiah, but is not left out.
This is similar to the promise that was made to the Tribe of Benjamin, if you recall: “behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him,“In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
Truly the first are last and the last are first to behold their King of Kings (Mt 20:16). Truly the Lord has chosen what is foolish and despised of this world to shame the wise (1 Cor 1:27). Truly, Jesus has hidden these things from the wise and has revealed them to infants (Mt 11:25).
Not that we make ourselves this way, but that Jesus made Himself last in order to make you first, in His crucifixion. He made Himself foolish and despised, in order that you be made wise in His Word. He made Himself an infant in order to hide His work of salvation in His sacraments, for you.
Anna was waiting for the Redemption of Israel with all her heart, all her strength, and all her soul. She knew that salvation would begin with Israel (John 4:22) and she knew it would only be from the presence of God Who was in the Temple, day and night. She knew that uprightness would follow her all the days of her life, as she dwelt in the house of the Lord.
And He did. Just as He promised. And Asher’s namesake is fulfilled, for Anna, but also for us. For while Anna now chants with us the Nunc Dimittis each Lord’s Day, we are also included as her descendants, by faith. In God’s Divine Service to us, we are given to sing of this Gospel, saying, “create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps 51:10), an “asher” spirit.
The revelation of God in the flesh, is what makes Christmass, Christmass. The revelation that more than blood relatives of Asher are included in that revelation is what makes Easter, Easter. The final revelation that the Lord communes with and sanctifies all you who hear and believe His Word, is what makes Church, Church.
In Jesus, we are made upright, we are little Ashers, come up from our agonizing sinfulness, and expecting the salvation of all. And we are not disappointed. For the Christ Child Who is tomorrow circumcised, shedding His first Blood of Redemption, does so to free us, as our Epistle says:
“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
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