ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR

“Lead us this day, Lord Christ, that we might walk its paths in the light of the hope of our coming redemption. Amen.”[i]

As we move through the season of Advent, which literally means “coming forward,” we remember that God’s chosen people once waited for our Redeemer to come and now await His final return. Advent is a season of waiting. What indeed does it look like to walk the paths of each day “in the light of the hope of our coming redemption”? Anna, the prophetess and widow of Luke 2:36-38, shows us the way.

When we meet her in Luke 2, Anna is an older woman, either 84 or 104.[ii] Widowed as a young woman, probably around the age of 20, and apparently childless, Anna had no means to support herself. She likely became a recipient of Ancient Near Eastern welfare, moving near the temple, where she could access food and shelter.

Despite her many losses, Anna avoided the secondary suffering that can add to affliction—she refused to indulge in self-pity. Instead, she devoted her life to waiting for redemption. Over time, she became known as a prophetess, someone who delivers messages from God. As we study how Anna spent her days, we discover a compelling portrait for walking each day in the hope of redemption. Anna shows us how to wait for our returning Redeemer who will one day come to restore all broken things.

How do we wait for redemption?

Staying in the Temple
Anna “did not depart from the temple” (Luke 2:37). Does this mean we should be at church every time the doors open? Probably not. Instead, it reminds us that Jesus our Savior is “Immanuel,” which means “God-with-us” (See Isaiah 7:14). God has come near to His people in Christ our Savior. Because He now lives in us through the Holy Spirit, we who trust in Christ as Savior have become His temple (See 1 John 4:13; 1 Cor. 3:16). We wait for restoration with the confidence that Christ our temple never departs from us.

Worshiping
Anna spent her time at the temple “worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37). For Anna and for us, worship is not confined to Sunday mornings. It infuses every numbered day of our lives, as we wake to God’s new morning mercies and ask the Lord, “How do you want me to serve you today?” Whether it is from a boardroom or a hospital room, at a kitchen sink or a classroom desk, we must always surrender our agendas to the Lord, seeking to serve Him in the places He sends us.

Fasting
While fasting is not required of us, this practice can focus our hearts and minds more sharply on redemption and restoration. We may fast by giving up food or phones, or by taking on acts like daily prayer walks or serving soup at the homeless shelter. As we fast, we recognize that acts of intentional sacrifice do not earn our favor with God, but they do enhance our perception of His redemptive work in our lives.

Prayer
Prophetesses pray. To pronounce messages from God, we must first hear the voice of God. We hear that voice when we pray, both in quiet times of reading Scripture and listening to God speak to us from its pages, and in times of pleading for redemption to come. Scripture exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17), and we imitate Anna when we pray throughout the day: “Lord, redeem this terrible turmoil in my friend’s marriage. Redeem this war-torn nation. Redeem this broken body.”

Seeking the Face of God
In worship and fasting and prayer, Anna has a single-minded purpose: to see the face of God. As theologian Philip Ryken notes, “It seems appropriate that she was the daughter of Phanuel, because Phanuel means ‘face of God,’ and this is what Anna was seeking: the face of God.”[iii] Do we keep our eyes open to see the face of God, not only in the pages of Scripture, but also in the faces of the people we meet? Do we recognize that at any moment we could be glimpsing God’s presence or entertaining angels? (Heb. 13:2).

Giving Thanks
Our redeemer has come; we have already tasted His grace. We thank God for His grace in drawing us to the Savior and in providing for our daily needs. We thank God for His grace in giving us good work to do and in comforting us as we grieve. As we wait for redemption, we must thank God night and day, day and night, every day.

Speaking of Him
Anna gave thanks for her Redeemer, and she spoke of Him “to all who were waiting for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Having seen her Redeemer, she could not keep silent. Like Anna, we must go and share the good news with those are still waiting for redemption. In hotels and hospitals, in homes and hovels, we join with Anna and Simeon and Mary and Zechariah in proclaiming the great good news of the gospel: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:68-69).

In this season of Advent, let us walk with our sister in Christ, Anna. As we remember the redemption that has already come through Jesus, we worship, fast, pray, seek His face, and thank Him. As we share the good news of the Redeemer who has come, we eagerly await the day when He will return to bring full restoration and redemption.

[i] Douglas McKelvey, Every Moment Holy: Volume 1 (Nashville: Rabbit Room, 2019), p.7.

[ii] The footnote in the ESV Study Bible indicates that she could have been a widow for 84 years. Calculating that she may have married at around age 13, as was common in that culture, she would have been widowed around age 20, and adding 84 years to that, she is around 104. See ESV Study Bible, footnote on Luke 2:37 (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), p. 1949.

[iii] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009), 98.

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