31.12.06     Colin       Luke 2: 41-52 

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Today, as in the time of Jesus, we love children to bits, yet sometimes they drive us demented by doing and saying things which cause us a lot of grief. For some of us the way that children grow up is our responsibility as parents. For all of us it is the shared responsibility for the many children we have in St James, and in our society.

Childhood is such an important part of life to us today it seems surprising that there is so little in the Gospels about the childhood of Jesus. Apart from the birth of Jesus in chapter 1 and 2 of Luke’s Gospel, the reading today is the ONLY passage in the Bible that tells of Jesus’ boyhood and on the face of it, it’s a very slight story about the young Jesus getting separated from his parents. But, the story teaches us a lot about Jesus and about the role of parents.

At that time, a 12 year old was a young man just a whisker away from becoming a grown-up, since a Jewish child was considered to attain adult status when he became thirteen and was then obligated to perform religious duties like daily prayer, fasting on prescribed days and making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. In preparation for that day when adulthood was attained, parents would take their children on the annual pilgrimage trip which probably included the whole village with lots of people knowing each other.  It’s on this pilgrimage to Jerusalem, when Jesus gets separated from his parents, that he first articulates who he is, and who his Father is. It is here as a 12 year old boy in the temple that he first makes his claim to be God himself and first states his true identify.

All the Gospel writers, in their own way, wrestle with how to communicate the identity of Jesus. John's Gospel with its profound and poetic prologue shrouds the incarnation with the awe and mystery of the "Word made flesh, come to dwell among us."John’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus is the light which enlightens every person coming into the world. But, the way it all happened is left wonderfully vague.

Luke’s Gospel however is determined that the Jesus we encounter is one whose humanity, as well as his divinity, cannot be disputed. For Luke, as for Matthew, it is important to locate Jesus' birth in circumstances of place and time that anchor him in Israel's history. The genealogy of Jesus (in Matthew’s Gospel) and his close family (in Luke’s Gospel) are important markers of his humanity. Luke's picture of Jesus tells that his surroundings are poor, with two very human parents who at times got frustrated with their child. In the telling of this story of Jesus getting separated from his parents and landing up in the temple, Luke is helping us understand some of the mystery of who Jesus was – both human and God.

We don’t know at what age Jesus first sensed his divinity within his humanity, but like all human children and young people he would have wrestled to establish who he was and his own identity. We can imagine him in early childhood beginning to yearn for some confirmation of his sense of being divine, some touch of his eternal home. We can imagine his heart leaping when he saw the temple each year. We can imagine the young Jesus, like Samuel centuries before, being powerfully moved by this holy place in which God dwelt. Each year he would have heard the story of Israel's liberation retold, and seen the sacrifice made. We can imagine a sense growing inside him of identification with that sacrifice, and a need to explore more and more of its meaning for himself. Perhaps we can see how he would have been drawn to the temple's portals and its learned men. This, surely, was where the most important meanings of his life would be found.

Mary and Joseph found Jesus after 3 days in the temple and understandably perhaps, didn’t comprehend that the relationship of Jesus with God took precedence over being their child. They express how anxious they have been and ask why Jesus has treated them in this way. Young Jesus replies matter-of-factly in a way that doubtless made Joseph and Mary mad at him. There are few things in life quite as irritating as having a child put you through the wringer only for them then to act as though not only had he done nothing wrong, but that the fault really lies with the parents for being so upset to begin with. This may have been one of many times when Mary thought to herself, "I don't care what that angel Gabriel said to me all those years ago, this child is turning my hair gray prematurely!"

But despite his parents’ upset, it is here in the temple when everyone was surprised at his wise responses (verse 47), that there is a turning point in the life of Jesus where he is pivoting from childhood into adulthood. We don't necessarily need to regard Jesus’ interaction in the temple as a miracle since Jewish children were taught, and memorized matters about the book of the law, from birth. It was not unusual for a 12 year old to listen to speeches and stories from scholars and to ask questions as they prepared to complete their learning and become adults at age thirteen. What was amazing was his understanding of the law, and more importantly the claim that he makes.

It is here in the temple (verse 49), as he responds to his parents’ anguished question, that we are given the first recorded words of Jesus; for the first time he names his father as THE Father – until now Joseph has been called his father. It is here that Jesus makes his first claim to divinity naming God himself as his Father. Jesus is clear in his understanding saying to his human parents "Did you not know I MUST be in my Father's house? In other words, when Jesus was only twelve years old, he demonstrates that he understands he is already living in the [predetermined] plan of God, on his way to the cross from the moment he was born, in spite of his being the Son of God. In fact, the majority of the life of Jesus is lived in preparation for that purpose.

At the age of twelve, as the very Son of God in flesh arrived in this world, Jesus knew his destiny. A world in desperate need of saving was waiting for the Christ. But, God waits three decades before he allows Jesus to begin his ministry. Probably that would not have been our style or the way we would have suggested. But if ever there were a good example of the idea that God's ways are not our ways, this is it. The very Son of God grew up in quiet obscurity, well thought of by the locals, but not known outside of his immediate locale. Upon return to Nazareth, Jesus obeys his parents in everyday life and continues to grow physically and in understanding, preparing himself for the mission that lies ahead of him. The same Jesus who in the Temple that day showed divine understanding went back to a quiet life, living with his parents, doing his carpentry work with his human father, and just generally being an obedient young man. The greater part of the human life of Jesus was learning obedience and preparing for his short three-year period living as a public figure.

Mary and Joseph just didn't understand how their 12 year old son could treat them like this. Some of us as parents will have experienced a few moments like that! However, it would not be the last time Jesus faced misunderstanding from those closest to him. Jesus would be misunderstood by his family, by the religious authorities and by even his closest disciples. He would flummox, fluster, and confound people in his parables. He would perform amazing miracles but then often insist everyone keep quiet about them. Over and over he would teach the disciples that the kingdom of God is a quiet, humble, and hidden reality, and yet even as late as the day of his ascension, the disciples would still be asking political questions as to when Jesus was going to kick out the Romans and re-establish Israel. This story in Luke serves as a kind of preview for so much of what is yet to come in Jesus’ life.

Mary and Joseph were probably, like us all, such imperfect parents with respect to the sinless Son of God. Yet as imperfect parents they nurtured Jesus just as we imperfect parents and adults in this community of St James seek to nurture our children for God the Father. Yet, after we are given the trust by God to raise a child, the time soon comes, when every child separates from their parents and we have to release them again, back into God’s care, to take their own life decisions.

A story from the book ‘The PROPHET’ by Kahlil Gibran reminds me of this parent-child relationship:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Mary knew this Jesus child was only loaned to her. Mary and Joseph, though they did not understand why Jesus did these things, and must have had great pain in their lives at what happened to Jesus, supported him and treasured what he said (verse 51). Mary and Joseph knew they were the ‘bows’ from which the young Jesus was being sent forth to change the world.

Two things to reinforce in our learning from this short story

Two things ponder on from this short story


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