Anna in the Temple: A Life Well Lived

Scripture Texts:  Luke 2:36-38; I Timothy 5:3-8

Anna in the Temple.

I want to return to this morning’s text and focus more intently on Anna.  Scripture tells us very little about her but what it does say is very important and instructive.  She is a model for us.

By first century standards she was very old and by first century standards hers has a very long and difficult life.  To be a widow that long in those times is hard to imagine.  There was no retirement or social security.  She must have been poor and known little else but hardship.

People who are destitute and desperate do something others too often forget to do, they turn to God, they have no other hope but to set their hope on the God of hope.  I am reminded of the example of Paul.

II Corinthians 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Anna exemplifies in the physical realm what we all are in the spiritual realm.  In this life, on this side of heaven we are poor and destitute, without help or hope apart from Christ.

There are four things about Anna that stand out in this text, four things the Holy Spirit wants us to know and to imitate about her character.

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