Festival of the Holy Innocents
Posted on December 28, 2022 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 2:25-32 (NKJV)
2:25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
Devotion
“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
Each Sunday, after receiving the Lord’s Supper, we sing the Nunc Dimittis, the words of Simeon at the presentation of our Lord, recorded in Luke’s Gospel. Simeon was an old believer who had been waiting for the coming of God’s promised Messiah and Savior, and God had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen with his own eyes the Lord’s Christ. Directed by the Spirit to come into the temple at Jerusalem precisely when Mary and Joseph came to the temple with the baby Jesus, Simeon took Jesus up in his arms and said the familiar words of the Nunc Dimittis.
He was ready to die in peace. He had seen the promised Christ Child and held Him in his arms. He could stand in God’s presence because His Savior had come and would make full atonement for the sins of the world.
Have you, through the Scriptures, seen the Lord’s Christ and taken Him up in your arms by faith? Are you ready to die in peace, trusting that your sins are paid for and forgiven for Christ’s sake?
Prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, direct our actions according to Thy good pleasure, that in the name of Thy beloved Son we may be made to abound in good works; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Festival of the Holy Innocents
O God, whose praise the martyred Innocents confessed, not by speaking, but by dying: destroy in us all wickedness, that our life may proclaim the faith in word and deed, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the new Birth of Thine Only-Begotten Son in the flesh may set us free who are held in the old bondage under the yoke of sin; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
