Luke 2:41-52
The Boy Jesus in the Temple
Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming 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. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
When 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.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
You can read my sermon below, or listen to it at this link.
Let us pray. God of grace and wisdom, help us to search for you in all of the unexpected places of our hearts and your creation. Amen.
I remember seeing for the first time what looked like a leash on a child. I think I was in high school, walking in a crowded shopping mall during the holiday season. I kind of scoffed and was amazed that a parent couldn’t keep a good enough eye on their child that they would need a leash.
And then I had a child. And my child started walking. And running. And realized that it only takes about a half a second of not paying close attention before a child can just disappear. And then I totally understood those child leashes.
We moved across town right before Christmas and our new neighborhood is full of wonderful children who are all what you might call “free range children.” They go out to play in the morning and wander home when they get hungry or the sun goes down. As our kids get older, I hope I will have enough confidence to let them wander and play as they wish. But until then, I go to bed every night thinking “maybe I should buy one of those tracking watches… just in case…”
We hear in the story this morning every parent’s nightmare. A lost child. Not only that, but a lost child in the midst of a road trip. Among strangers in a big city. It takes them three days to find Jesus. Three days of searching the caravans and the city, frantic with worry. And finally they find him. He’s not looking for them or trying to catch up with their group of travelers. He’s not remorseful about dawdling behind. He’s causally sitting in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking questions. He doesn’t seem to have a care in the world.
I cannot even imagine what Mary was feeling. I think I probably would have exploded with rage. At twelve years old, he should know better than to wander off like that. Perhaps I would have even tied a rope around his waist so he didn’t wander off as we left Jerusalem again.
But it does beg the question why it took so long to find him. In the era of communal living, when folks sort of all lived and traveled together all the time, why did it take three days for them to finally find Jesus? Did they not know him well enough to know that he would be in the temple listening and teaching? Had they ignored that he was theologically inclined and was constantly talking about God? I’d like to think that if my child went missing, I would know where to find him— probably in a pile of snacks in the kitchen or perhaps along San Jose Boulevard on his way to grandma’s house.
But when Mary finds him, she says “why have you treated us like this?”
Jesus replies with a sort snide comment to his mother— didn’t you know that I would be here? Why are you surprised that I would be in my father’s house?
Why was she searching in the wrong places? Didn’t she remember what she had pondered in her heart all those years ago after his miraculous birth?
Twelve years is a long time. I doubt she would have forgotten what the angels had told her about Jesus long ago, but perhaps things had been so normal for so long that it was pushed to the back of her mind. Maybe she was in denial of Jesus growing up and beginning to live into who he was supposed to be? Or maybe, like we often do when we are too close to a subject, she had failed to see the growth in her own son.
We, too, must come to grips with the reality that Jesus is growing up and growing beyond our own expectations of what he might be. As we move from the big celebrations of Advent and Christmas, perhaps we are in the same place as Mary and Joseph— unable or unwilling to see how much Jesus has grown, unable to see his true identity.
It’s difficult when Christmas has been so commercialized and watered down for so long. Much of the world sees Christmas as simply the birth of a special baby. And perhaps our sight has been clouded by that same commercialization— we have been too close to it for too long to really understand what Christmas, the birth of this king, means for the world.
If we stop with the birth story and go no further, we miss the significance of Jesus’ presence in the world. Similarly, if we skip straight from Christmas to Easter, as we are so often tempted to do, we will miss what God can teach us through the incarnation as not only a man teaching and prophesying throughout the countryside, but as a boy in the temple, curious and asking questions of his elders.
Perhaps it would be easier for Mary and Joseph if Jesus were a simple child. If he were not the son of God and just a regular 12 year old boy getting into regular 12 year old mischief. Maybe they would feel less like they have their hands full. But the reality is that Jesus is destined for something much more, something much larger and more significant than simply being the son of Mary and Joseph. Indeed, the tension is palpable when Jesus denies his fatherhood in Joseph and claims for the first time to be the son of God. He knows that there is more to his identity than his mother is giving him credit for.
We see in this story that somewhere around this time, Jesus’ priorities have changed. He is no longer a child and not yet ready for his public ministry. But he has set his face toward the will of God and Jerusalem, preparing for the teaching that will eventually lead him to death on the cross outside of that very town.
As Jesus grows “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor,” we must, like Mary, level our own expectations. Despite the pictures and nativities, despite the serene movie depictions and the quiet hymns, Jesus is more than just a babe in a manger. Indeed, he is even more than a young boy asking questions in the temple. Jesus is God himself who came into the world to be with us in all of our searching. Jesus is the one who begins and continues the salvation of this world.
And the good news is that as Jesus grows in wisdom and in years, we are gifted with the wisdom of his public teaching. And as we move through our own growth and discipleship in our Father’s house, we also grow in divine and human favor. And, like Jesus, our purpose as children of God is so much more than we could have ever expected or imagined. Amen.
