The Crimson Thread

"The Crimson Thread"
Luke 2:21-35


Probably the quickest way to raise the hair on the back of a parent’s neck is to speak ill of their child.  If you hear someone disparaging your child, the mother bear syndrome is aroused, the teeth and claws come out and the maiming begins.

Or, to have your child mistreated, to see another person attempt to break your child’s spirit and rob them of their smile.  That would make all the blood boil up to the neck and face of a parent.  The hot blood of revenge floods to the surface of the skin.  You can come at me.  But you better not come at my children.

Enter Mary and Joseph.  They came to Jerusalem, to the temple, to dedicate their child Jesus to God.  This was to be done with all first-born children.  Mary held their week old baby son, Jesus.  There were other people at the temple taking care of their religious duties and rites.  One of those people was Simeon, some old guy who had been loitering around the temple forever, waiting.  He was waiting for God’s salvation to show its face.  So, into the temple walked Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus and old Simeon’s face lit up like the Rose Parade.

Before Mary knew what was happening, this Simeon took Jesus out of her arms and began dancing around the temple courtyard.  He sang a song to God, a song of disbelief and praise.  Simeon couldn’t believe it, but yet was so happy to believe that what he had waited for, for so long, was right there in his arms.

Simeon called the baby, Jesus, which means “God’s Salvation.”  He called Jesus a light who would reveal God’s will to all people, not just the Jews.  What a thing for a parent to hear.  How amazed Mary and Joseph must have been to see their child being worshipped, again.  First it was by the shepherds.  Now it was by old Simeon.  Parents like to have their child cooed over.  This must have been overwhelming for Joseph and Mary.

But Simeon wasn’t finished yet.  He blessed Mary and Joseph.  Then he turned to Mary and said some things she probably wished she didn’t have to listen to.  Simeon told her that God would use her baby for the destruction and salvation of many.  Her child would become someone who would speak out against, and be at odds with.  Her child will be rejected.  Her child will be attacked.  The pain her child will one day endure would make Mary feel like she had been stabbed through by a dagger.

I know what I would have been thinking if I was Joseph or Mary.  I would have been thinking, “This is just a baby!  How can you say such things about our little darling?  Just pinch his cheek; tell us he’s such a cute baby; and get out of our faces.  How dare this old coot say that our child is going to be rejected, made fun of, or a source of pain to anyone?  He’s just a baby, for crying out loud!”  I would guess the hair was beginning to rise a bit on their necks.  Their backbones were beginning to bristle.  Their blood pressure was elevating, and making their neck’s turn red.

Would they write Simeon off as some weird old codger, not paying any attention to what he said?  I know I would have, if I were Joseph or Mary.  (Except for the first part, when he said Jesus was going to be the salvation, the presence, and the revelation of God.  I would have paid attention to that.)  But, I would have gotten very defensive and protective of my child having heard the second part.  I would have grabbed Jesus back from this man as quickly and firmly as I could.  Who knows if he was thinking of harming the child himself?

What is sad is that Simeon’s prediction came true.  Because we are sitting on this side of the events Simeon foretold to Mary and Joseph, we know that it all happened as he said.  It’s like watching a play and the audience is in on a secret that the main characters on stage don’t realize.  We wish we could warn Joseph and Mary.  But we realize they have to live through it.  As they live through it, we will have to sit by and watch, a frozen audience, feeling just as helpless as they to do anything about the chain of events that will begin to link together towards their inevitable end.

I thought about the fairy tale, “Sleeping Beauty.”  In the story, the King and Queen have a child--a daughter.  They had a big celebration on the day they first show off their infant daughter.  The whole kingdom is invited.  Everyone brings the King and Queen gifts for their daughter.  Three good fairies came to bless the baby girl.  Two gave their blessings of beauty and happiness for the child.

Just before the third fairy was to give her blessing an evil sorceress appeared.  She made fun of the King and Queen.  She chided them for not inviting her to their party.  She said, “I too have a blessing for the child.”  Everyone went quiet.  The sorceress waved her magic wand and said, “On the day of her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel and die!”  With a cackling laugh, the evil sorceress disappeared in a puff of foul smelling smoke.

Everyone at the celebration stood in stunned silence.  What was to be done?  A child with so much promise would be cut down in the early stages of life.  The situation seemed hopeless.  Each second ticked away on the clock was a second closer to the fulfillment of that dark spell.  The King and Queen asked the good fairies if there was anything they could do.  Could they undo the evil that the sorceress had spun?  Sadly, they shook their heads with a no.

But the third fairy still had her blessing to give.  She thought for a long, few minutes.  She then raised her wand.  “On her 16th birthday,” said the good fairy, “when she pricks her finger, the princess shall not die, but instead fall into a deep sleep, from which she can be awakened only the the kiss of true love.”  Everyone breathed a half-sigh of relief.  At least there was some hope.  But a dark thread would be woven in and out of her first 15 years of life.  She would never know why everyone, including her parents, the King and Queen, looked at with such sadness and fear.

I imagine that’s the way Mary and Joseph must have looked at their son, Jesus, after hearing Simeon’s predictions.  What a mixed blessing.  Jesus would become a great man.  More than a great man; he would become the Savior of the world.  But by becoming the Savior, he would suffer cruelties at the hands of a rejecting people.  Having to witness those cruelties, Mary’s heart would be broken with immense grief.  The Catholic symbol for Mary is a heart with seven swords coming out of it.

Through his prophecy and prediction, Simeon had woven a bloody thread into the life of Jesus.  Certainly there are other threads being woven through his life--threads of hope, salvation, and greatness, not only for himself but also the whole world.  Woven in with those golden fibers is also that one thread, that crimson thread of pain and rejection.

After each amazing visitation of angels and shepherds and magi, we are told that Mary “treasured” or “pondered” all these things in her heart.  But after Simeon’s visit, there was no mention of pondering.  I wonder if that omission is intentional.  When Mary and Joseph looked at infant Jesus, there was no mystery, no wondering about what his future held.



Parents are filled with trembling excitement about what their child will become.  None of us as parents know what the future holds for our children.  We can only deal with it when it happens.  But what if we knew, ahead of time, what your child would one day have to endure?  What if you were shown how the crimson thread of pain was started and how it would grow thicker and stronger and become the main thread of your child’s life.

Maybe some of you saw the story this past 10 days coming out of Indiana.   A babysitter and trusted neighbor confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old neighbor girl to death with a brick then dismembered her, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the rest of her remains nearby.  These kinds of stories just rip me apart.  I hate hearing about them.  I hate hearing about innocent children having their lives ended like this.  I don’t understand.  I wonder, even, if God understands why heinous stuff like that happens.  Why was that girl born, only to live 9 short years and then have her life insanely taken from her?

As a parent, I don’t think I’d want to know, ahead of time, that that was my child’s future.  But then, I might want to know, so that just maybe I could do something about it.  Because I would do every and any thing possible to minimize or eliminate that crimson thread from my child’s life.  Or I would find a way to take that pain into myself and save my child from it.

But the problem with a prophecy is that it becomes an inevitability.  Being a prophecy, it means God is behind it.  What became so hard for Mary and Joseph was knowing there were some things their child would endure that they could do nothing about.  There’s no good fairy there to soften the harsh realities of the future.  And yet, do Mary and Joseph fully realize, do you think, that the pain and rejection their child will one day endure will also bring about the salvation of all people?  At this point, I don’t think so.  And as a parent, I’m not sure even that would help.  Would it help those parents in Indiana who just found out their 9 year old daughter had been beaten to death and cut in pieces?  How could any parent see clearly after hearing such a thing?

It’s like hearing 10 great things about yourself, but then someone says one negative thing.  What do you concentrate on?  If you were Mary and Joseph, having just heard that Jesus would be the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation; that through Jesus the light of God would be revealed to all people; and, also hearing that that would happen through an experience of intense pain and rejection, including death, what part would you concentrate on?

The crimson thread of the cross is sewn into Jesus’ life within the first weeks of his life.  Simeon happens to be the needle by which that thread finds it’s first prick.  We must follow along, watching Jesus, expressions of fear and sadness on our faces.