Welcome to those who are joining us on the radio today. It's great to have you with us!
Next week we begin our series on "Life's Healing Choices". But today we complete our series on the early life of Jesus. It didn't take us long to look at Jesus' early life did it? Just 4 Sundays and we've covered The wise men worshipping Jesus, the baby Jesus with Anna and Simeon in the temple, Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod, and today, Jesus as a boy of 12 at the temple in Jerusalem. That's it--other than the accounts of his birth in Matthew and Luke, that's all we know of Jesus' life before age 30. In these weeks you've heard it all!
There's a natural curiosity about Jesus' early life. For centuries people have wondered what it was like for Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God? What kind of a child was he? What kind of a teenager?
And human nature being what it is, when we don't have information, we tend to make it up. There were a number of stories about Jesus that circulated. Stories about him using his powers to make clay birds come alive or to punish playmates who angered him. But Christians in the early centuries rejected these stories because they had no basis in fact.
So today's gospel reading from Luke 2 is the only information we have about Jesus between his infancy and the beginning of his public ministry around age 30.
Yes, we want more details--but Martin Luther wrote, "The Gospel (of Luke) tells us enough about Jesus childhood. What more should the evangelist write. It was not yet time for him to perform miracles. He developed and was brought up like any other child......There was nothing more to write about him than what was written by Luke. If he had recorded what he ate and drank and wore each day, how he walked, stood, slept and acted while he was awake--what kind of narrative would that have been?" (Luther's Works Vol 52 p146)
But Luke did include this event of Jesus in the temple, so it must be meaningful. So let's see what there is to learn here.
If you have your Bibles, please open to Luke 2:41-45
41 Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him."
What do we notice first? Jesus grew up in a very religious family. Every year they traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. That's a long trip! Like walking from here to Polson! It also meant shutting down Joseph's carpentry business. It was a sacrifice of time, energy and money. But they did it every year. Luke stresses how devout Mary and Joseph were in following the law of Moses. And Jesus learned that faith.
But the question about these verses that always grabs me is a much more practical one. How they could have left Jerusalem without Jesus being with them? I mean, my children have never been lost! Oh wait, that's not true. I guess most of us have lost children stories! Right?
But the traveling practices of that day make it more understandable. People didn't often travel in small groups; they traveled in large family clans. It was safer with bandits and other dangers. So picture a large clan leaving Jerusalem, children playing with their cousins and siblings as they walked with different members of the extended family. And when the group would stop for the night, the parents would gather up the kids. That's probably when Mary and Joseph looked at each other and said, "I thought he was with you!"
And so they turn around and head back to Jerusalem---a whole day's walk to get back!
We continue at verse 46.
Luke 2:46-50
46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers."
There was Jesus in the temple with the teachers of the law, amazing them with his wisdom and understanding. But that raises another question--what did Jesus know and when? Was he fully aware of his being the Son of God right from birth or was there a process he went through?
Let's hear from Martin Luther again. He pointed to Luke 2:40--"And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."
Luther wrote, "Thus, although it is true that the spirit was in Jesus from the moment of his conception, as his body grew and his reasoning powers increased in a natural manner as in other human beings, in the same way the spirit descended ever more into him and moved him more and more as he became older. So it is not mere delusion when Luke says: “He grew strong in the spirit”; rather, as the words clearly say, in the most simple manner he truly became bigger as he grew older, and more intelligent as he grew bigger, and stronger in spirit and filled with wisdom, as he grew more intelligent before God and within himself and before the people. " (Luther's Works Vol 52, p147)
And Luther points to St Paul as saying the same in Philippians 2.
Philippians 2:5-8
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Christ emptied himself and took on human form which includes the need for growth and development. But he still amazed the teachers in the temple with all he understood for a boy of 12.
However when his parents finally found him, amazement was not likely the emotion they were feeling!
Verse 48 reads---
48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
We're hearing Mary's motherly instincts kicking in!
"But Jesus responds, 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them."
This may be the main point of this whole passage. Notice the contrast. Mary says your father and I have been searching for you. And Jesus says, "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Jesus tells his parents in this direct way that he knows who his real father is and what that will mean for his life! His use of the very personal "my" father's house was unique. People might say "our father", but Jesus was saying something much more. He was making a statement about the mystery of how he was fully human and yet fully God.
But look how this account concludes--
Luke 2:51-52
"51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
This is an important verse for you children and young people out there. Jesus went back to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them! Jesus probably knew far more than his parents at this time and yet he was still obedient. So young people, even if you know more than your parents or think you do, if you follow Jesus' way, you'll still be obedient!
"And Mary treasured all these things in her heart." Does that sound familiar? Luke tells us the same thing about Mary after the shepherds visited the baby Jesus in the stable. And that's why some Bible scholars think that Mary herself shared these things with Luke directly. Things that were kept in her heart until the time was right for the world to know.
There's a lot that's packed into these 12 verses, the only verses that we have about Jesus' life between infancy and age 30. And I'd like us think a bit about the lessons we can take along with us.
First, growth takes time. Jesus went through the same period of childhood and adolescence that we all do. Sometimes we're in such a hurry to get on with life that we're tempted to skip the "growing up" part. That can be true of parents who push their children to grow up faster than is needed and children who want to grow up far too fast.
God knows we need time to grow and develop. He is interested in the process of our physical, emotional and spiritual growth. He is our parent, our coach, our teacher, helping us to grow as his daughter or son.
Think about what happened there in the temple. Jesus was sitting with those teachers reading the Bible and asking questions. If Jesus himself had to read and study and discuss, perhaps that's a clue for us.
The time comes when our physical growth stops--or at least changes direction. But our intellectual and spiritual growth should be lifelong.
A wise farmer once said, "There are 2 kinds of people--they're either like trees or like fence posts. You put a tree in the ground and it grows. You put a fence post in the ground and it starts to decay.
Whether you are a tree or a fence post depends on learning. Intellectually and spiritually we need to keep learning and growing. Once you stop learning you stop growing and you start decaying. That's why we emphasize the various small group and other educational like Logos and FISH opportunities we have here at Christ Lutheran. They keep us growing and alive!
Second, look at the tension Jesus felt between his responsibility to God and to his family and the people around him. Sometimes those responsibilities conflict. Jesus was in the temple learning while his parents were frantically searching for him. It can be hard to handle that tension.
Pastors certainly feel that on a regular basis. The call of God and the call of family. How do you balance that? I'm sure I made the wrong choice many times when our children were still at home. A few years ago we had a chance to discuss that with 2 of our sons. How did they feel when they were little when Dad would get called out to help in an emergency? One said he felt proud that Dad could help someone else. The other said he felt upset and unhappy that I had to leave. How do you balance the call of God and family?
How are we to do it? Look at Jesus example. It's a challenge. He worried his parents as they searched for him in Jerusalem, and yet most often he was the obedient son who lived and worked with his parents in Nazareth.
He had some pretty strong things to say about his followers putting discipleship above all other claims on their lives. And yet even when he was hanging on the cross to take on the sins of all humanity, he was concerned that John his disciple would take care of his mother Mary.
There are no simple answers to those situations. One person is called to leave parents and siblings behind and to go to serve as a missionary in a far off place. Another is called to stay close to home to care for an ailing child or parent. Is it better to volunteer at church or to stay home with your family? Maybe the solution is to volunteer with your family at church. It's seldom an either/or situation--but a matter of finding the right balance. We can face agonizing decisions but if we have grown in our faith, we will be prepared to make the right choice.
The key is that God should be our first and prime allegiance. And if so---everything else will eventually fall in place. You see, if God is our creator and provider, the one who gives us skills and abilities to be used, the one who calls us to use them in particular ways--then being in close relationship to the Lord will always be the best way to sort out the choices we face in how to balance service to God and family.
Luke 2:41-52---it's all we know about Jesus between infancy and adulthood. It must be all we really need to know.
Jesus learned and grew just like us.
By age 12 he knew he was the Son of God
He knew the tension of serving both God and family.
He amazed the greatest teachers of his day with his wisdom and understanding.
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Philippians 2:9-11
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
AMEN
