Every person knows that someday he will die. Death is a unique phenomenon: it is completely obvious and completely closed to those who have not yet experienced it. God speaks with a person, and that person remains alive. On the basis of this Gospel passage, one can say that a person who speaks with God, not somehow but face to face, receives both life and death: life full of His presence, the light of revelation for all, and death as the fulfillment of the promise, as the possibility of a full and final encounter.

In addition to the other biblical parallels, today the evangelist tells how Jesus, like the ancient prophet Samuel, was brought to the Temple in order to dedicate the Firstborn to God. But unlike the other firstborn sons, who were only symbolically "offered as a sacrifice" to God and redeemed from Him with sacrificial animals (for example, a pair of doves; compare Leviticus 12), Jesus Himself is called "redemption," a term connected with sacrifice.

In the Temple, Jesus becomes sacrifice, sign, salvation, and the fulfillment of the prophecies, bringing together in Himself all biblical symbols and realities. For the evangelist Luke, this very moment becomes a sacrifice in which Christ accomplishes the redemption of the people and of the "Gentiles."

By taking part in this service, Simeon fulfilled his purpose in this world and can now depart, showing the readers of the Gospel that their goal in this life is also to become participants in the redemption and salvation of the world.

Righteous Simeon was waiting for the Messiah. Of course, he was not the only one. In those days in Judea, if not everyone, then very many were waiting for the Messiah. But they waited in different ways. Simeon waited with his whole heart. Waiting for the Messiah became the sole meaning of his life. Of course, death, departure into Sheol, did not change anything radically for a righteous person. In the end, when the Messiah comes and the day of universal resurrection and Judgment arrives, all will come out of Sheol. They will return to the fullness of life - at least until the Judgment.

Because before God a person must appear precisely in fullness - in that greatest fullness which was opened to the person and which he managed to contain. So that it becomes clear what the person can do. This is not a competition, but precisely an evaluation: can the Kingdom be entrusted to this person? And if it can, then in what measure? But it is one thing to pass through death and Sheol, and quite another to meet the Messiah while still alive.

Many dreamed of such a meeting, dreamed of it in every age. And Simeon lived by this hope. And God promised him that he would see the Messiah. With his own eyes. During his life. Without descending into Sheol. And now what God had promised came to pass. Before Simeon was the Messiah. Waiting ended in meeting. For Simeon this was the Meeting with a capital M: after all, he understood Whom he was seeing. And now he could depart in peace. Leave this world. And not only because God's promise had been fulfilled, but also because with the Messiah the Kingdom had entered the world.

It had not yet been revealed, but it was already here, in our fallen world. And that means death now ceased to be simply a departure into Sheol, as it had been before. It is not by chance that the corresponding Greek word means not only "release" but also "set free." The point is not only that Simeon was bound by waiting for the coming of the Messiah. The point is that before the Messiah's coming, the only alternative to earthly life for him was Sheol. Now another alternative appeared: the Kingdom. Simeon was free. As were hundreds of righteous people who had completed their earthly path before him and had also waited for the Messiah or at least had foreseen the Kingdom. "With my own eyes I have seen Your salvation." And now I am free. Ahead are the Messiah and the Kingdom.