Intro: You’re In Trouble Young Man!
I Sam. 2:18-20 / Luke 2:41-52
Intro: When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my mother took me Christmas shopping. Before we left the car she told me to pay attention to where the car was located and if we got separated to come back to the car and wait for her. The holiday crowds were particularly heavy and I wandered around the corner of a counter and somehow got separated from my mother and her sister. I searched for them; but, couldn’t find them. So, I zipped up my coat, pulled on my mittens and went back to where the car was parked. I sat on the trunk of the car in the cold for what seemed like hours. Finally, I saw my mother approaching. She looked like fire was spewing from her nostrils. She bellowed at me, “You’re in trouble young man! I’ve been frantically looking for you for over 30 minutes! What were you thinking?” --- I was bewildered because I had just done what she told me to do.
I. Mary & Joseph have a similar problem with Jesus. They can’t find him / not bad parents / Perhaps Jesus was just a bewildered as I was. Surely his parents were as upset with Jesus as my mother was with me.
A. Verse 41 – went every year. This was not a new experience for Jesus. He had been here before. Every Jew was required to make this pilgrimage at least once in their life.
B. Verse 42 – Jewish boy became a man at 12. Jesus was considered an adult.
C. How Jesus could have easily been left behind. (Verse 44)
II. This story is only in Luke. Why?
A. Luke uses as:
1) transition from birth to ministry.
2) illustration of Jesus growth in wisdom and in the favor of God.
B. Developmental task of childhood, teenage and young adulthood is discovering and affirming one’s identity. This was something they did every year and this year Jesus was an adult. Why were his parents so upset? Vs. 48
C. “Let them decide when older.” If children have no church training or attendance why are parents surprised when as adults they have little to do with the church?
III. Verse 49 – This is the center/heart of the passage.
A. God’s claims may stand in tension or open conflict with human desires for social acceptance, loyalty to family, economic prosperity and other worthy ideas.
B. The hard decisions of life are not between right and wrong but those that call for us to choose between options when both represent worthy claims.
C. Vs. 50 – the parents did not understand. They had raised him to be a faithful Jew and when he demonstrated that faith, the parents just didn’t understand. --- Years ago, when I moved to Texas to pastor a church, my parents could not understand why I just didn’t take a church in PA.
Conclusion: Verses 51-52 – we should be seeking obedience to the will of God and wisdom about the things of God. In obedience we will find favor with God.
