The Reformed Church of Locust Valley Christmas 1 December 31, 2000 Luke 2:41-52, Col. 3:12-17
“Visiting the Temple”
Can you remember what it feels like to walk into a vast, monumental building? Think of some of the places you’ve been. If you grew up in the country, can you remember going to New York City as a child? You crane your neck and arch your back and look up, up, up to the top of the skyscrapers. Wow!
Or can you remember going to a great Museum as a child? You walk in and the ceiling seems to be sky-high. The room is enormous. It is a new feeling as you survey the vastness of this creation.
Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Most of the buildings in Nazareth were tiny one story homes. A very rich family might have a home with an upper room on the roof, but that’s about it. The homes were tiny.
So here is Jesus, making that all-important first trip to Jerusalem as a youth, at age twelve. Now, I don’t know what you believe about this, but Jesus probably wasn’t fully aware yet of his being the Messiah, the Son of God. In fact, when we picture the baby Jesus in the manger as we do every Christmas, we need to think of him as just like any other human infant. That’s what the Incarnation (becoming flesh) means. Someone has even gone so far as to suggest that “if the baby Jesus was totally aware of who he was an fully developed mentally, he would be more like a monster than a human infant.” So it’s okay to think of Jesus as a normal twelve-year-old boy going to the Temple. It is quite obvious from this story that Jesus was a particularly spiritually keen young man – that’s true. But I think it’s safe to say that he gradually discovered his calling – growing and developing like any other boy and then young man. I think if you read the events of Jesus’ life chronologically, you’ll agree. So read about his Temptation, for example. If he knew himself to be the savior from the beginning, then the Temptation would have been something he dealt with long before his thirtieth year (the year he began his ministry).
Anyway for the purposes of understanding the visit to the Temple, we are better off to think of Jesus as not WHOLLY aware of his mission or his identity at this point.
And Jesus goes up to the Temple. He enters Jerusalem, and this boy from the country says, “Wow!” as he sees the great wall surrounding Jerusalem. He can hardly contain himself in excitement. This is David’s city. He himself is a descendant of David. This is where the kings sat. This is where the prophets warned. This is where the sacrifices are made to God. This is the holiest city on earth. And with his family he enters through the gate. And he sees the Temple, gleaming in the sun. “Wow!” He feels something. He isn’t sure what it is. It’s a combination of piety, astonishment but there’s something else. Somehow he senses he belongs here. It isn’t just that this is the city of David. There’s something more. He can’t put his finger on it, but he recognizes the feeling from times when he has prayed to God. As they go up on the Temple mount, he cranes his neck and sees the beautiful Temple soaring above him. He hears many, many voices. It’s like when you go into a museum and it’s crowded. The stone walls echo your voice and your voice gets mixed in with all the other voices. And there are adults seriously looking things over, but there are kids there too. And you hear their laughter and their teasing and their normal noises. That’s what Jesus heard.
And Jesus seeks out the teachers. In fact, he is so intent on talking to them, he completely forgets his family and he becomes lost to them. He’ll have to pay for it later when they rebuke, him, but for now, all he can focus on is listening to the teachers and entering into their discussion as much as possible.
The teachers are very impressed with this young man. Not only does he have a fine command of the scriptures and doctrine for a boy his age, but he is passionate about this faith.
This is what we hope will happen to our young people isn’t it? That they will be swept up in our faith, that they will love the scriptures, that from an early stage in life they grow in faith and knowledge. That they will be children of prayer and live close to God. That they will know the living Lord Jesus in their lives. That they will know they are forgiven and free and born again and alive to all that is good.
The first task of the church is to worship God. The second task is to reach out. And mixed right in there is the need as well as the command of God to pass our faith on to our children. There are churches that have no children in them. Churches where children are not welcome, and I feel very sorry for those churches. It is a hollow community of faith indeed where children do not come and sing and laugh and learn and ask and skip up the walkway into the church. I wouldn’t hesitate to guess that watching the kids come into his church is one of God’s greatest pleasures on Sunday mornings.
Anyway, what do we get out of watching the boy Jesus go to the Temple? Hopefully a renewal of our own enthusiasm for our faith. We stand at the beginning of a new year. I trust that by now we are all accustomed to thinking of putting a “2” in front of the year when we write the date. 2001! “Who’d a thought we’d make it there, huh?” But here it comes.
Resolutions?
To devote ourselves more to God.
NBA hero Shaquille O’Neal enjoys quoting Shakespeare (Time magazine). In fact, it seems he knows a little something about the classics. Time magazine quoted him as saying that he wanted to be known as “The Big Aristotle.” Shaq said this because, Aristotle once said that excellence is not a singular act, it’s a habit – you are what you repeatedly do.”
Shaquille O’Neil is on to something. “You are what you repeatedly do.”
Those of us who are fighting the weight battle know all about that. If what you repeatedly do is eat donuts, then pretty soon your middle starts taking on the shape of a donut. If you smoke, you don’t start to look like a chimney, but you do wheeze and gasp like a steam engine (I can say this because I was a heavy smoker until five years ago). If you let go your anger and loose your temper too often, people start viewing you as a hothead. If you repeatedly drink too much, you start looking like heck.
But let’s forget the negative. If you’ve developed a bad habit from doing something unwise repeatedly, you don’t need me telling you about it. And if you are married, then your husband or wife probably nags you about it often enough.
So let’s look at something else at the beginning of new year…let’s look at positive things you can do to improve your relationship with God, help our church by being a more spiritual person, and growing in faith.
In the past month I’ve done two things for my cars. I took them to a car wash and had the dirt washed off them. They look a lot better for it. I also took them in for oil changes – one to Auto Spa and one to my friend Heff at Shade Tree garage.
Of the two things, which was more important for the well-being of my cars?
If the salt and grunge wasn’t washed off, sooner or later they’d corrode. But it would be far more serious if I neglected the inside of the engine, the part you don’t see. Ignore your oil level and your motor will seize and burn up. Don’t change the oil when it starts getting dirty and your engine will wear out fast. A dirty car will last longer than a car dirty inside.
Likewise with you. It isn’t so important what you look like on the outside. Of course you should wash, comb your hair, wear clean and neat clothes – of course, but those things are secondary to being right inside.
And only God can make you right in here – heart, soul, mind and strength. That matters most. And Jesus came, not to alter your outward appearance – though he condemned those who made a “show” of their faith, Jesus came to scrub you clean inside.
And so, at the dawn of 2001, let’s again here this reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and maybe make it part of our resolution today for the coming year. To be devoted to God, maybe something like the boy Jesus – anxious to get to the Temple, anxious to learn more and hear about the faith.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you are indeed called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12-17).”
Fred D. Mueller
