Luke 2:41-52
41Now every year his parents
went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42And when he was
twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43When the
festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in
Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44Assuming that he was in the
group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for
him among their relatives and friends. 45When they did not find him, they
returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46After three days they found him
in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions.47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his
answers. 48When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother
said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I
have been searching for you in great anxiety.”49He said to them, “Why were you
searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50But
they did not understand what he said to them.51Then he went down with them and
came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these
things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in
divine and human favor.
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Well, here we are. It’s five
days after Christmas. Less than one week after we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
My manger scene is still up at my house; how about yours?
And chances are, we’re all still
feeling the glow of the Christmas Eve service; after all the waiting of Advent,
finally, Christmas is here!
The church calendar calls
this the first Sunday of Christmas. And we’ve just heard the lectionary reading
for today. Jesus is no longer the babe,
away in a manger, Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. No, we have already come to preteen
Jesus, the precocious child, the unusual child, who has scared his parents half
to death by staying behind while everyone else went home from the biggest
worship service of the year. (Sound familiar?)
This is our first and only
view of Jesus’ boyhood years provided in the gospels. And, it is pretty
momentous, since it contains the first earthly words of Jesus to be recorded in
Scripture.
Many sermons have been
preached and much has been written about the Last Words of Jesus – his final
statements before his death on the cross. So, it seems reasonable that we
should consider what we can learn from these first words of Jesus as they are
given to us by Luke.
We don’t get to find out
what his very first words were as a baby. You have to wonder if he was like so
many other babies, who always seem to say “dada” before they ever get around to
saying “mama.” Maybe with Jesus it was “Abba”, not “dada”.
But this is not baby Jesus; this
is preteen Jesus, a twelve-year old boy. And the first words we have from him
are words being spoken in the middle of a parent-child conflict! How typical is
that? Clearly this reminds us that Jesus was fully human as well as fully God.
He’s almost 13, the age when Jewish boys have their Bar Mitzvah and move into
manhood. He has travelled to Jerusalem with his family and they have celebrated
the Festival of the Passover. We don’t know if he lost track of time, or if he
sneaked off, hid somewhere while everyone left, in order to spend more time in
the temple, with the teachers. But we
can tell from his words that he was not feeling at all lost or afraid when Mary
and Joseph finally found him.
Now, we have all been
children, and some of us have been parents, so we each may have had the
experience at one time or another of getting separated from our parents, or of
having lost track of our child. It’s typically pretty scary. And we see that
fear in Mary and Joseph, and it’s completely understandable. It’s only human
nature that they would be anxious, and once they find Jesus, even angry with
him. “Why on earth did you do this to us? Can’t you see we’ve been looking
everywhere for you? Didn’t you think we’d be worried about you? How could you
do such a thing?”
And this is the context for
the first words of Jesus:
He says, “Why were you
searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Let’s look at these words
closely, and see what they tell us about Jesus, about Mary and Joseph, and about
us.
When Jesus says, “Did you
not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”, he clearly knows who he is, and
whose he is. These words are a glimpse of what the adult life of Jesus will be all
about. He will be fully focused on his Father God’s work and purpose for his
life. At this point in time, Jesus is having one of those “already/not yet”
moments. It’s a preview for him of
what’s to come, but he is too young yet; it is not his time. He obediently goes
home with his parents at the end of this passage.
Now, his parents’ reaction
to his words is also a preview for him of the difficulty people will have
understanding who he is, and why he has come. Even the people closest to him,
his own mom and dad, cannot comprehend what he is talking about. This
experience will be repeated with his disciples and with many others during his
public ministry. This is his first documented encounter with those who do not
understand.
For Mary and Joseph, his
first words, “Why were you searching for me?” sound a lot like Jesus reassuring
them that it was OK for him to be where he was, that they didn’t have to worry.
It sounds a lot like what the adult Jesus said over and over again. “Do not be
afraid.” He responds to their expression of searching with great anxiety with a
12-year-old’s version of “peace be with you.” Perhaps even, “Chill Out…”
And for these parents, his
second statement, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” is a
reminder to them of what they have already heard from many others. From the
first visitation that both Mary and Joseph had from their respective angels, to
the words spoken by Elizabeth, by the shepherds, the magi, and also by Simeon
and Anna when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple for the very first
time, they have been told that Jesus is the Messiah, Christ the Lord, Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, that he will save
his people. To hear this from his own
mouth is a confirmation that these others were not imagining things; that this
child is truly God’s Son.
And so, these words must also
have come as a stark reminder to them that he is not really their son, that he
is on loan to them, that he belongs to God, that he IS God. They have been
entrusted with the gift of his life for a short time, for a finite time. They
cannot know now what he will endure, how their life and relationship with him
will change, but they can see that it already IS changing. As he moves from
baby to boy to man, this is more and more the case. These words give them a
glimpse of his future and theirs.
So what about us? What do
these words have to say to us? They are for us a glimpse, a preview, as well,
of what following Christ truly means. In Jesus’ teaching during his adult
ministry, we will learn much more from him, but for now, there is one clear
message we can take from Jesus’ first words.
From this story, from Jesus’
words, we can see that the invitation to follow God is not just about the
Festival of Passover, or the Christmas Eve service, or even every Sunday
morning in worship. It’s about our entire lives, and everything in them.
To truly follow Christ is to
turn our life upside down. We can’t go back to our normal daily lives as we
were. We move into God’s house, into God’s kingdom, and we live as heirs to
God, not visitors, not guests.
The things we do will look
strange and troubling to those around us, even those who know us best and love
us the most. If we are making the people around us happy with us all the time,
we might need to look at our journey of faith, because when we truly follow
God, we will not often align with the expectations of the world.
- · We may not choose to take over the family business.
- · We may find our children or ourselves serving in Ghana, or Mexico, or the Congo, or on the streets of Detroit, or Pittsburgh, or Ann Arbor, where the need for God’s love is great in those communities.
- · We may spend less time and attention showing our stuff in soccer, or academics, or business success, and more time in scripture, or prayer, or loving our neighbor.
- · We may be generous with our time, our money, our energy, beyond what makes sense to those around us, to those concerned about our financial and physical well-being.
- · We may make choices that are scary or confusing to those we love.
·
When we truly
know who we are, and whose we are, we will likely find ourselves reflecting our
true home, our true family, in a way that is hard for others to understand.
Following Christ will not be
easy for others to understand. It’s not easy for us to understand, either,
because it is so contrary to the ways of the world. This entrance of God into
our broken world in the person of Jesus Christ, this collision of humanity and
the divine, it is a mystery that is beyond our full comprehension. Jesus’
parents didn’t understand. Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand. And so our
struggles, our doubts, and our inability to fully comprehend, to fully explain
what we believe, our weak faith, our mustard seed faith – it’s OK. Just like
Mary and Joseph, just like the disciples, we are human. We are not divine like
Jesus. We cannot fully understand. We cannot fully obey. It’s OK. We are
forgiven.
Jesus the 12 year old boy
went back with his parents, and was obedient to them. He grew in strength, and
in wisdom, and in human and divine favor. He waited for the fullness of time to
come, for his ministry to begin.
So we too are called to study,
and to grow, in spiritual strength and in wisdom, and to be attentive to the
call of God and the timing of God upon our lives.
We have been given the Word
of God in and through the fully human and fully divine Jesus - Jesus the boy
and Jesus the man. In the Word we not
only more richly experience God’s identity, but we also find assurance in our
own identity. God’s call is upon the
fullness of Jesus’ life, just as God’s call is also upon the fullness of our lives. God speaks to us through Jesus the boy and
Jesus the man, and we are reminded that we don’t need to be afraid, as we, in
humble obedience, follow Jesus into God’s house, and into God’s world, to love
and to serve.
To God be the glory. Amen.
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