36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38)

Who was Anna?

Today we come to our third (and final) woman of Christmas. We have briefly thought about Elizabeth (the mother of John the Baptist) and Mary (the mother of Jesus). Now we will consider Anna, a prophetess in Jerusalem.

Her story unfolds forty days after Jesus' birth. Since Mary and Joseph were godly people, they wanted to observe the Old Testament law. It said a new mother should bring an offering to God after giving birth and that the new parents should present their firstborn son to God (Luke 2:22-24, Lev. 12:6-8, Ex. 13:2).

When this small family entered the temple precincts, they were approached by a man named Simeon. We don't know his age, but he certainly seems old because God had told him he would not die until he'd seen the Messiah (the Christ, Luke 2:26). And after he picked baby Jesus up in his arms, he said that he could now depart in peace because his eyes had seen God's salvation (Luke 2:29-30). These are hardly the words of a man in his twenties.

Then Simeon predicted that even though Jesus would be a light to the Gentiles, his life would somehow lead to the rise and fall of many in Israel and that a sword would pierce Mary's soul (Luke 2:32-35). It was a prophetic word about the sorrow she would feel when Jesus died on the cross.

At that moment, with perfect timing, an old prophetess named Anna appeared. Her name means "favor" or "grace," but most would not have believed she was favored because seven years into her marriage, her husband died (36-37). She never remarried, and for many decades she spent all her time in God's house. She was always in the temple area, worshipping and serving God. She would have known Simeon (and the promise God had given him). So when she saw Simeon carrying on about the baby in his arms, she approached with joy, thanking God that the Redeemer had come!

Her words aren't recorded. There are no other Bible passages in which she's mentioned. All she occupies are three short verses. So what can we learn from this woman? What facets of her life is Luke quick to highlight? I would like to consider three elements that made Anna a woman worth remembering—how she spent her life, how she responded to pain, and where she placed her hope.

1. How She Spent Her Life

Decades in the Temple

First, I want to consider how she spent her life. Luke tells us that she was eighty-four years old (37). I should admit that there is some debate about that, as the sentence structure in Greek might imply that she was a widow for eighty-four years, meaning she might have been somewhere around 105.[^1] Either way, since women in that culture married young, and since her husband had died seven years into marriage, Anna had spent many long years, since sometime in her early twenties, serving God every day in the temple.

Her behavior seems codified later in 1 Timothy 5, where the Apostle Paul lays down proper behavior for a widow in the church. He said:

"She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day." (1 Timothy 5:5, ESV)

That was Anna. Every day, she made the journey to the temple. If the house of God was open, she was there. Privately and publicly, she prayed, fasted, and prophesied, pointing everyone to the coming Christ who would redeem Jerusalem from their oppressors.

The Lord Did Not Consider Her Life a Waste

When we study bible characters, we sometimes need to take a step back to recognize these were real people working through real life. They aren't like digital characters on a screen that animators have brought to life. They aren't fictional beings. They aren't a novelist's creations. They are real, true, flesh-and-blood people, living out the human condition.

Anna was not always as we see her in this episode—aged and, like Simeon, hoping the redeemer would come before she died. She did not wait until her 80th birthday before devoting herself to God in the way Luke describes. No, immediately after her husband's death, you would have found Anna in the courts of the Lord, praising his name. It was at God's house that Anna spent the rest of her twenties, thirties, forties, and beyond. When other women were out building families or livelihoods, Anna was constructing her praises. For the vast majority of Anna's life, God's temple was her existence.

And it is clear how God felt about her. The Bible is God's book, and when it portrays someone in a positive light, you are getting a glimpse into God's heart. Just as an upbeat and enthusiastic movie review tells you how the reviewer felt about the movie, God's enthusiasm—through Dr. Luke's written words—tells us how God felt about Anna. He loved the life she lived, the decisions she made, and the way she prioritized him.

What I'm saying is that God did not consider Anna's life a waste in any way. And many of us might be tempted—if we really pause to consider how she spent her years—to think her life was wasted. All that time in the temple! All those prayers! What about human interaction? What about a career? What about a family? What about experiences outside of the 37 acres that comprised the temple precincts? Anna counted it all as rubbish for the chance to know God better (Phi. 3:8). And God loved it.

In looking at Anna, we should be encouraged not to waste our lives. We live in an age that tells us to be true to ourselves and spend ourselves on our passions, doing what we love. So we write up our bucket lists and start ticking them off one by one, only to find they could never satisfy the longing within. Inside each of us is a God-shaped hole—only he can fulfill us. And Anna knew this, so she spent her life pursuing him.

Of course, not everyone could mimic Anna in those days. Someone had to feed the goats and plant the crops and take out the garbage. Anna, though, used her special situation as a widowed woman with low overhead to do something most people could not do. But she serves as an example to every last one of us—the time we spend pursuing God is not a waste.

Her life is an exhortation to spend our lives well, to make sure God is at the center of who we are. And not just in word or confession but in actuality. As Pastor Britt Merrick once wrote:

"Two things are the most telltale in our lives: finances and time. You can tell everything you ever wanted to know about our hearts, passions, and priorities from the way we spend our money and the way we spend our time."[^2]

We have become all too comfortable with squandering both, especially our time. We often wonder how we could ever sit through a forty-five minute Bible study, pray for fifteen uninterrupted minutes, read our Bibles, make it to church every Sunday, or join a Christian small group, all while clocking our average daily dose of three or four hours of TV.[^3] Or our hours of TikTok. Or video games. Or YouTube. Or online news and its comments section. Or whatever new, decent, and even helpful invention Satan will twist and repurpose to numb us, deter us, desensitize us, compromise us, or merely distract us—to aid us in wasting our lives. The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca once said that people who are otherwise frugal and stingy with their money often squander their time, which is of much greater value.[^4]

To be a Jesus-follower, you have to consider how you are spending your life. Through each passing minute of Anna's life, she formed a legacy. Until Luke recorded this moment, hers was a quiet life of devotion to God. She spent her time and treasure on him. And if you want to have and leave a godly legacy behind you, today is the day to begin—now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).

2. How She Responded To Pain

Her Widowhood

Second—now that we've thought about how she spent her life— let's consider how Anna responded to pain. Seven years into marriage, her husband died, and she responded by heading to the temple. And she never stopped. You might wonder if her husband was secretly a nightmare and his death, though painful, was actually a welcomed reprieve for Anna. I suppose it's possible, but a culture like theirs didn't produce as many violent or twisted men as ours does. Her society's weakness was that it made life very hard for unmarried women, making Anna's husband's death a very severe trial.

And instead of blaming God, rebuking God, or doubting God, Anna praised God. Every day. Just as Mary had donated her body for the birth of God's Son, Anna gave her body for the pronouncement of God's praises.

Recently, I saw a short video that reminded me of what life is like. It captured a couple of teenage girls on a roller coaster, the camera having been mounted in front of them. As the ride twisted and turned, both girls screamed for joy until a seagull slammed into one girl's face, the G-forces pinning it under her chin for a little while. Her look was priceless—pure shock. She then wrestled an arm free, dislodged the bird, and proceeded to enjoy the ride.

That's life. Cruising along. Even enjoying ourselves. Then something slams into us we could never have prepared for—and how will we respond?

Her Conception of God

Anna responded well, and I think much of her response was rooted in what she believed about God. She was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem (38). She knew the period of human history she was in—waiting time. One day, the deliverer would come, but her day was one embroiled in the deleterious effects of the fall. Sin had broken everything, and she did not expect to be preserved from its impact. Nor did she think God owed her. His promises were for redemption and peace—and she believed those days were coming.

And Anna didn't try to just grind through her grief either. It is one thing to not blame God, but quite another to actively pursue God. That was Anna—she pressed into God. Her husband was gone, so she decided to allow God to satisfy the gap he had left behind.

I recently spoke with our Christmas Eve Kid's Choir Director about one experience she had leading our kids last year. After they sang, the kids were ushered to a small kids' section where gift bags awaited them. Inside those bags were candy canes because what better aid to help little children endure a grown-up sermon from Pastor Nate than sugar? Well, many kids discovered they didn't really like candy canes—too spicey!—so they handed them to Whitney. There she was, in the middle of service, with no napkins, no trash bags, and not even an empty coffee cup, so she just held onto their wet little candy canes, enduring until the service was over.

Many of us approach our trials this way. I hate it. I don't like it. I will just grit it out, quietly and alone. We might not express anger at God, but we don't turn to God and his church either. We distance ourselves. We take "a break" from God and his people, believing we will reappear before both once our lives are cleaned up a bit.

But Anna let her widow years become worship years, and we should let our pains turn into praise. God can satisfy us—if only we would turn to him. Like Anna, we need to allow all our disappointments and difficulties to become entry points for God's work in our lives. Like David, who wrote prayers to God while hiding from relatives who'd gone mad, we should pray when hurt by those closest to us. Like the midwives in Egypt, who feared God when the Pharaoh commanded them to do the immoral, we should follow him even when it might hurt. Like the elderly Apostle John, who kept worshipping God on Sundays even when he was banished to a prison island because of his service to Christ, we should fight to keep the Lord's day even when in pain. And like Paul and Silas, who worshipped God when locked up in the dungeons of Philippi, we should push through to praise God even when everything else is stripped away. Like Anna, we should respond well to pain because Jesus endured the pain for us.

3. Where She Placed Her Hope

Redemption Prophecies

Finally, let's consider where Anna placed her hope. J.I. Packer once wrote:

"'Where there’s life, there’s hope,' is a deep truth. Deeper, however, is the converse: 'Where there’s hope, there’s life.' We humans are hoping creatures; we live very largely on and in our anticipations, things we know are coming, and we look forward to. If the light of hope goes out, life shrinks to mere existence, something far less than life was meant to be."[^5]

This quote perfectly depicts Anna. She was the very definition of alive—a human in total and constant connection with her maker. She was living out her design because she had a well-placed hope.

What do I mean? Well, remember, Anna was a prophetess (36). There aren't many of them mentioned in the era before Jesus. She is female prophet #5 in the Bible after Moses's sister Miriam (Ex. 15:20), Deborah the judge (Judg. 4:4), Huldah who prophesied to King Josiah (2 Ki. 22:14), and Isaiah's wife (Isa. 8:3).[^6] As a prophet, Anna would have been centered upon the Old Testament Scriptures, and they would have fueled her hopes in the future redemption for Jerusalem (38).

Anna would have been conscious of the same prophecies Elizabeth and Zechariah knew about the coming of Elijah before the great day of the Lord. In those predictions from Malachi, God said the day was coming when God would burn like an oven and consume all evil and arrogance from the earth, bringing healing to all who feared his name (Malachi 4:1-3). And Anna knew her life was found in the God-fearing camp, so she looked forward to that great day.

Anna would have also been conscious of Isaiah's prophecies about a descendant of David, referred to as the stump of Jesse, who was also the child of a virgin mother, who would come with the Spirit of God upon him (Is. 7:14, 11:1-5). One day, Isaiah said, "the government would be upon his shoulder, and his name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and peace there would be no end" (Is. 9:6-7). And she had prayed the psalm that said one day a King above all Kings would arise, and that all kings and nations would bow to him, just as the wise men did after Jesus' birth (Ps. 72:10-11).

Baby Jesus Was the Answer

And Anna was only the most recent in a long line of biblical women who hoped for the coming of Christ. There are, of course, many more women in the Christmas story than the three we've considered this Christmastime. Matthew, who also told the story of Jesus' birth, was careful to mention four of them. He mentioned Bathsheba, the woman whom King David stole from one of his special forces operators (Matt. 1:6)—I think she longed for a righteous king to arise. Before Bathsheba came Ruth, the Moabite foreigner who came to know and trust God before marrying Boaz and becoming the great-grandmother to King David (Matt. 1:5). I think she longed for a light to dawn upon the non-Jewish world. And before Ruth was Rahab—in her past life, she'd been a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho (Matt. 1:5). I think she longed for the One who could wash away all our sins. And the first woman Matthew mentioned was Tamar, whom Judah scandalously impregnated and then attempted to ostracize (Matt. 1:3). I think she longed for justice for all who are oppressed and abused.

And before these four women of Christmas were many others, dating all the way back to the first woman, Eve. After sin entered the world, God immediately promised that a descendent of hers would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Anna was conscious of this promise.

And with birth after birth, Eve waited with bated breath for that snake crusher to arise, removing the great curse that had come upon the perfect world God had made. And when God promised Abraham that from him would come a great nation to bless all nations and that from his body would come descendants as innumerable as the stars in the sky, he said it would happen through his wife Sarah's body (Gen. 12:1-3, 15:1-6, 17:16). Someday, through Abraham, the seed to crush the serpent would arrive. And though Sarah initially laughed in unbelief, she eventually laughed with joy, believing that through her body, God was fulfilling his promise.

Then, Rebekah had Jacob, and Leah had Judah—and God kept narrowing the line down and holding out the promise. The serpent crusher would come. The seed of Abraham would bless all nations. And all these women—Anna included—hoped and believed that God's promise would be fulfilled, that someday the darkness would lift and the age of great blessing would come.

Conclusion

And we should carry a similar hope today. Anna wanted the redemption of Jerusalem, but we crave the redemption of the whole world. Isaiah (and Habakkuk after him) promised a day to come when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Is. 11:9, Hab. 2:14). Living, as we do, on the Monterey Bay, we know a bit about the sea. In our bay, there is seemingly endless life, a whole world that researchers are increasingly learning about. It is a world under water, under the deluge, existing within the substance. One day, Christ will come, and he will establish his reign and kingdom forever. And it will be like life under the ocean surface—we will exist within his realm, with a knowledge of him, his ways, and his goodness. Nothing will be untouched by the cross.

Right now, though we hope for that kingdom, we have a hard time imagining it. But, one day, when Jesus returns, not as a baby but as a conquering king, "what no eye has seen or heard or imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him," will be known (1 Cor. 2:9). It will be our experience. We will be swimming in it. No, living within it. So, with Anna, let's live in anticipation and hope!

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. — Charles Wesley, 1744[^7]

[^1]:Blight, Richard C. 2008. An Exegetical Summary of Luke 1-11, 2nd Edition. 2nd ed. Sil International, Global Publishing. [^2]:Merrick, Britt. 2012. Big God with Study Guide: What Happens When We Trust Him. Baker Books. [^3]:Krantz-Kent, Rachel. 2018. “Television, Capturing America’s Attention at Prime Time and Beyond.” Bls.gov. September 28, 2018. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-capturing-americas-attention.htm. [^4]:Eyal, Nir. 2020. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. [^5]: Packer, J. I. 2013. Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press. [^6]: Though the text calls her a prophetess, I've intentionally excluded Noadiah (Neh. 6:14). She was a prophetess who tried to make Nehemiah afraid with her false-predictions, so I classify her as a false prophetess, of which there are many in Scripture. [^7]: “The United Methodist Hymnal 196. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” n.d. Hymnary.org. Accessed December 14, 2022. https://hymnary.org/hymn/UMH/196.