If you were here last week you’ll remember that we talked about two sets of words that filled out the basic historical record of Jesus birth: two sets of words that told us amazing news about this child who was born 2000 years ago.
Jesus was not just a beautiful baby boy. He was the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one promised by God through his prophets hundreds of years before. What’s more he’s the Lord, that is, he’s God! He’s the one who’ll bring salvation not just to Israel but to all the peoples of the world. But at the same time his coming will bring division: division that is, between those who accept his rule as God’s anointed one and those who reject him, who are offended by the means of his salvation, who stumble at the thought of a saviour who’s hung on the cross as one who’s cursed by God.
Well, today we come to the third set of words that Luke has so carefully recorded for us. These words aren’t spoken by a third person about the child who’s been born. No, these words are spoken by the child himself.
Joseph and Mary, as law abiding Jews, go every year to Jerusalem for the Passover. All male Jews were expected to attend the Temple at the three major festivals each year: at Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. And this year they take Jesus with them. Jesus is just one year away from his Bar Mitzvah, his coming of age as a member of the Jewish nation so it’s time for him to begin to understand what it means to be a Jew.
Now there’s nothing particularly remarkable about their visit. They would have been just one of many such families visiting Jerusalem at the time. Luke tells us nothing about what they did. That’s not important to his purpose in writing. But what does matter to Luke is the fact that Jesus stayed behind. Our English translations have smoothed out the language for us, but here’s something like what Luke actually wrote: When he was twelve, going up to the feast and the feast having ended and they were returning, Jesus stayed behind and his parents didn’t know. For those who understand these things, he uses a string of participial phrases finishing with one main verb, "He remained" in Jerusalem. Luke wants to emphasise the fact that Jesus has stayed in Jerusalem, for three days in the end, talking with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
As we’ll see, this isn’t just a schoolboy prank. Nor is it just the absent minded behaviour of a twelve year old who’s caught up in the moment. No, this is Jesus, the Son of God discovering who he is and learning some of the things he needs to know if he’s to be about his Father’s business.
Having said that though, there is a familiar ring to the story isn’t there? If you’ve had anything to do with children you’ll have had that experience of times when friends come over and the children disappear to play outside. Or you go on a picnic and the kids all go off to explore. I seem to remember at our church picnic out at Lysterfield lake last year there were a few kids disappearing for some time and their parents having to go looking for them when it was time to leave.
In this case you can imagine this group of families from Nazareth who’ve travelled together for safety reasons, strung out along the road, kids running everywhere, parents talking about the things they’ve seen and done in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, but looking forward to getting home to more familiar and quieter surrounds. So it’s not surprising that it isn’t until they stop for the night that they realise that Jesus is nowhere to be found.
Again, you can imagine the state they were in as they hurried back to Jerusalem to look for him. They’ve walked for a day before they realised he was missing and now they have to walk back again.
When they arrive they begin the search. The implication is that they search high and low before they think of looking in the temple. Finally they find him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And here’s the first thing Luke wants us to be clear about: "All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers." Here is Jesus at the age of twelve and already he’s showing a depth of understanding of things spiritual that the theologians are amazed at. Later on, people will remark on the way he teaches with authority. The gospels are full of these sorts of expressions: "They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority" (Luke 4:32). At the end of the sermon on the mount Matthew reports: "Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." (Mat 7:28-29 NRSV).
But here he isn’t teaching, he’s learning, asking questions, soaking up all the knowledge he can get hold of. So much so that he’s totally oblivious of the absence of his parents or the fact that three days have gone by and he hasn’t seen or heard from them.
When his parents finally find him, they’re understandably upset. You can probably add your own intonation to the words that Luke reports to us: "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." They may well have said more than that, but Luke’s account is sufficient to get across the feeling of the moment. Like any parents in such a situation their anxiety no doubt gave way to a certain degree of anger as soon as they realised their son was safe.
But Jesus isn’t at all fazed by their rebuke. He can’t understand what all the fuss is about. "49He said to them, ’Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’" His father’s house? Wasn’t that in Nazareth? Well, no. In fact his father isn’t Joseph at all is it? Here we’re reminded again, this time in the words of Jesus himself, that this is no ordinary child. This is the Son of God. And his words bring this home in a remarkable way.
The ordinary Jewish person would have been happy to call God their father, but it was only ever in the sense of God as the source of their existence as a nation. It was always a remote concept. God is so far above us that there was no way any Jew would have thought of God as personally their father.
But here’s Jesus, for the first time, though not the last, referring to God as his father in a way that implies a close personal relationship. Here’s a hint of what he’ll later teach his disciples. For example, when he teaches them to pray "Our Father in Heaven," or when he teaches them to refer to God as "Abba", that is, "Dad".
So Luke begins his gospel with the message that Jesus has come to bring about a new understanding of the relationship we have with God our father. John does a similar thing at the beginning of his gospel, where he says: "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God" (John 1:12 NRSV)
But not only do Jesus’ words reveal a new way of thinking about our relationship with God, they also tell us something about what Jesus sees his role as. You see when he says "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?", the translators have added the word house to explain what he meant. But he may equally have meant something like what’s in the footnote: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?" which is how some other versions translate it. You see, Jesus is sitting in the Temple asking and answering questions because this is the work that God has given him to do. Jesus m.o. is to be where his Father is, doing what his Father does. Again, this is similar to what John reports Jesus as saying: (John 5:19) "Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise."
And what does the Son see the Father doing? What is this business that the Father is in? Well, it’s the business of salvation isn’t it? So Jesus’ work is to bring about the salvation that God has promised to the world.
Can you see how these three sayings from Luke 2 come together at this point? The angels announce that a saviour is born who is Christ, the Lord. Simeon praises God that at last he has seen the salvation that God has prepared, the one who’ll be a light for the Gentiles and glory to his people Israel. And now Jesus himself declares that his focus is on being about the work of his father, that is, the work of salvation.
But that isn’t all we need to say about this passage. We also need to think about the implications for our own lives that flow out of what we’ve read here. You see, it isn’t enough to just think about Jesus as having God as his Father. We also need to think about what it means for us to have God as our Father. Those words that I just quoted from John 1 are very important. If you’ve believed in Jesus name, then God has adopted you as his son or daughter; you are his child; he’s your father. But if that’s the case then what are you going to do about it? Are you ready to say, like Jesus said, "I must be about my father’s business"?
If so, what’s the business we should be about? Well, it’s the same as Jesus’ isn’t it? It’s the business of bringing God’s salvation to the world. If we’re to live as God’s sons and daughters, then we need to be working hard at bringing God’s light to the nations. So we need to be telling people about Jesus. We need to be calling them to become his followers.
As we come to the beginning of a new year, perhaps we need to be thinking about how we can renew our focus on outreach. Yes, it’s good to be building up one another, but if we’re to be about our Father’s business we need to be pushing out from the boundaries of our safe haven here at St Theodore’s and working on bringing new people into God’s family, sharing with them the great news that God has become one of us, that he’s made it possible for us to be reconciled with God and to begin a fresh relationship with him, free of every barrier or obstacle. That way we can be both voices that reveal to the world that a Saviour has come, who is Christ, the Lord, and people who reflect the nature of Jesus Christ in our lives and words.
For more sermons from this source go to http://www.sttheos.org.au
