December 28, 1997 Luke 2:41-52
41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
49 "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (NIV)
Over the Christmas season we have received many pictures from friends and relatives. I made an observation while looking at these pictures - all of the pictures of children are taken while they are young. Why don’t families take as many pictures after the children grow older? Maybe it’s because they’re no longer as “cute” as they used to be. Maybe it’s because their children are going through a rebellious stage and aren’t so “loveable” anymore. We aren’t sure.
This past Thursday, God sent us His wonderful annual Christmas card. It had a beautifully drawn portrait of the baby Jesus laying in a manger, drawn by Luke. This message was sent out world wide, as people all celebrated the birth of the cute little Christ child. But God didn’t stop sending pictures of Jesus after His birth. He wasn’t embarrassed of anything that His Son did. So today, we take time out to gaze upon one special picture that God draws of the Christ child, twelve years later. Jesus didn’t have wild hair. He didn’t become a smart mouth. No. Today we will see that even after Jesus grew up, He was a very respectful and obedient child. Actually, the Christ Child was a Perfect Child, all throughout his youth.
The Christ Child was a Perfect Child
I. He was about his Father’s business
II. He was obedient to His parents
We pick up today’s story in the middle of a religious festival. Once a year Jews from throughout Judea and the surrounding country sides would gather together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. This was the one festival that the Israelites were expected to attend. Every year they would celebrate the night that the Angel of the Lord swooped down over the Egyptians and killed their firstborn sons. This was the final straw that broke the Pharaoh’s back - allowing the Israelites to escape from their bonds of slavery in Egypt. Mary and Joseph had spent a full week in Jerusalem with their relatives celebrating the Passover. Now they had started on their way home. But to their surprise, after a day’s journey, Jesus wasn’t with them. Their perfect child was suddenly gone from their presence.
Now, if I lost my son in a big city, there are several places that I would check. I would first of all tell the police department. Then I would probably check the shopping malls, etc. If we were visiting Madison or Wausau, however, I would first of all check my brother’s house. It would seem like the logical place for him to go - his uncle’s house.
Mary and Joseph thought this way as well. They first of all checked around their friends and relatives who were traveling with them to see if Jesus was among them. They thought Jesus was with one of them. But they forgot that Jesus had more relatives than they did. They forgot that Jesus came from a different Father, and therefore He had different place to visit in Jerusalem. Remember, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So while in Jerusalem, Jesus had gone to His Father’s house. This was completely logical to Jesus, but it didn’t make sense to Joseph and Mary, since they forgot about His unique relationship with God the Father. When Joseph and Mary finally found him they asked, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” This once again shows us that as blessed as Mary may have been, she was far from perfect. She didn’t understand why Jesus did what he did.
First of all, we want to take a special look at Jesus response to Mary and Joseph’s question. Jesus said, “didn’t you know that I HAD to be in my Father’s HOUSE.” Why did Jesus say that he HAD to be there? For Jesus, this would have been a special occasion for Him to grow in the wisdom of the Lord. In His humility, Jesus had to relearn all of the things that He knew as God. He had to take time to learn God’s Word, since He chose not to use His wisdom that He had. This was one special opportunity that He had - time to spend with the wise teachers of Israel, to learn the truths of God’s Word all the more. But still, why did He HAVE to be there?
God had called Jesus to be the PERFECT Child that we could not be. As a perfect child of God, Jesus had to always keep the First Commandment, to love God with ALL of his heart, soul, and MIND. As the perfect child, Jesus had to gladly hear and learn God’s Word - if He was to love God with all of His mind. This meant that Jesus had no choice but to go back to that temple and learn more about what He had done throughout the history of the Israelites. If Jesus had failed to do this, then He would have failed to be the perfect child. If Jesus had failed to grow in wisdom - to gladly hear and learn the Word of God, then He also would have been breaking the Third Commandment as well. Whereas Mary and Joseph may have felt that spending a week in Jerusalem during the Passover would fill the Law’s requirements, that their duty was done, Jesus knew that His duty was not done. He had to obey all of God’s requirements. What an opportunity to grow and earn our salvation by going back to His Father’s House!
If you are a student of the Bible, then you can take special comfort in this story of Jesus. How many of us have read through our Bibles even once this year? Did you know your confirmation lessons the way you should have? Did you take every opportunity to grow that was offered? Once again, we have earned hell by our laziness. But when Jesus’ Father said, “it’s time for Bible study,” Jesus came running. He didn’t HAVE to go to basketball practice. He didn’t HAVE to go to work. He didn’t HAVE other things to do. Instead, Jesus HAD to learn the Word of God. Why did He HAVE to? Because that was why Jesus came, to be the perfect Child that we couldn’t be. We can take great comfort in this story. God was opening up His scrapbook to show us that Jesus has no pictures that should be burned. Jesus has nothing to hide. He was the perfect child and Bible student. Therefore, since Jesus was the perfect Bible student, we also have nothing to hide. God gives us credit for having lived the life of Jesus. Through faith in Christ, God looks at us as having been perfect Bible students. There is nothing for us to hide, when we believe that Christ was the perfect Child of His Father, in our place.
II. But some of you may object ~ how could Jesus be a perfect Child when He was disobeying His parents? He was old enough to know that it was time to leave, yet He purposely stayed behind in Jerusalem. He may have been obeying the First and the Third Commandment, but it appears that He was breaking the Fourth Commandment.
This is a difficult question. So first of all, let’s deal with what God tells us. Luke tells us, Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. Some might assume from this statement that Jesus was disobedient at this point, but now He started being obedient. But the verb tense used for “was obedient” is an imperfect in the Greek, which means that this was an action that continued to happen even before Jesus went down to Nazareth. So it is as if Luke were saying that Jesus “continued being obedient to them.” This was nothing new to Him. He didn’t just decide, “now I’m going to be a good boy” from this point on. Instead, Jesus just continued doing what He was doing - being obedient to His parents. According to the Greek alone, Jesus broke no commandments. This is also clear from Hebrews 4:15 which says that Jesus was “without sin.”
But that may just be Greek to you. So secondly, let’s look at it from a spiritually logical point of view. When you really take time out to think about this story, you can see that instead of disobeying His parents, Jesus was actually serving them with love and concern. You can only imagine the questions and heartache that must have gone through Mary’s mind as she searched for Jesus - “what did I do wrong Lord? Is it my fault that you have taken him away from me? Didn’t I take care of him sufficiently?” God knew that losing track of Jesus would give her heartache. Many people would ask, “why would God be so mean as to put Mary through such anxiety?” But Christians look at heartache as an actual gift of God. For God says in Hebrews 10 that, “he disciplines those He loves.” Those heartaches, those moments of fear, drive us closer to our God. Could it have been that Mary and Joseph were forgetting that Jesus was also their God? Could it have been that Mary was beginning to be a little bit proud of the fact that she was the mother of God? Maybe not. Maybe so. Maybe Jesus was just attempting to make Joseph and Mary’s reason completely submissive to their faith in Him, by doing something completely incomprehensible to them. Either way, we must be assured that Jesus did it for their good. At 12 years old, Jesus was obeying the Fourth Commandment by serving His parents in a different way ~ He was serving them by giving them an entree of anxiety - to build their faith.
Once again, we can take so much comfort in this story. It brings us to our knees at the love and mercy of God once again. Just think about how Jesus fulfilled the Law in ways that we can only dream about. Think about how difficult it would be for us - actually impossible it would be for us ~ to do what Jesus did. Even as children we become independent at a very early age. Children want to tie their own shoes. They want to put on their own coat. And the older we get, the worse we get. We like to leave when we want to. We like to come and go as we please. We don’t like people telling us what to do. Just go to a nursing home and you will see an illustration of this every day. Elderly people can be especially ornery when the time comes that they need help. This is all a result of being born in sin. Instead of living to help God, we want to live to help ourselves. Instead of admitting that we need any help, just like Adam and Eve, we want to do everything on our own.
Imagine if today you had to go back into a 12 year old body, be adopted by people that were actually younger than you, and live by their rules. Imagine if you had to eat what they wanted you to eat, go where they wanted you to go, and act the way they wanted you to act. If you thought it was difficult as a teenager, imagine how difficult it would be for you to do it now! Our sinful nature would have a very difficult time with this. That’s what Jesus had to do ~ all because we refused to be perfect children the first time around.
But the amazing thing is, He did it. We often marvel at how God became man, which indeed is a miracle. but think about how amazing this is as well. Jesus submitted Himself to Mary and Joseph, even though they were actually younger than He. He obeyed them, even though He actually was smarter than they! Not only did Jesus obey them physically, but He also went so far as to take care of His parents spiritually. What kind of a twelve year old would even think of doing something to build up his parents’ faith? This shows you what an incredible and obedient Son Jesus was.
If you have ever been a disobedient child, if you have ever sinfully aggravated your parents, then this text is for you. If Jesus had once procrastinated to do His chores ~ we would be destined for hell. If Jesus had ever smarted off to His parents, we would be imperfect in God’s sight. But Jesus never did it. Not only did He obey Mary and Joseph, but He did so willingly. He actually enjoyed serving His parents. Luke says that Jesus grew in favor with God and men. The “men” part isn’t as important to us. Many people have been loved by men. But Jesus also grew in favor with God. Jesus did something that nobody else was able to do. He actually earned God’s favor. He lived a life that was acceptable to His perfectionist Father. The great thing is that Jesus became a Child to obey this Law in your place. If you would just believe that Jesus did this for you, you can have the comfort of knowing that Jesus really is your Savior. Jesus really did come to obey all of God’s laws for you, and His mission was accomplished!
As I was growing up, my siblings and I would occasionally get in fights and arguments, like any sinful children do. I can remember a few. But what sticks in my mind even more are the things they did for me. One time I had a nightmare, and my sister let me come in her bed and sleep with her for the rest of the night. My brother Roger gave me a rookie card of Thurman Munson for my birthday once. I dropped my tooth brush in the toilet once, and he grabbed it out of there for me. He used to play catch with me at grandma’s house. Mark brought me a plastic cup home from Florida. He listened to a rock and roll tape with me while we slept on bunk beds at grandma’s house. These things may seem trivial to you. But they mean a lot to me, because they were done for me.
The life of Jesus at the temple may seem boring to some people. They may not see anything great about Jesus going to the temple and listening to the Word. It may seem detached from their situation. But doesn’t it mean something special to you now? As a Christian, you know something that other people don’t know. You know that Jesus relearned God’s Word for you. Jesus obeyed his parents for you. Jesus was a perfect child for you. This is a story that you can’t help but rejoice in every time you hear it. Jesus didn’t just go to the temple because He wanted to. Jesus did it for Mary. He did it for Joseph. He did it for His Father. And most importantly, He did it for you. It may seem trivial to some. But it means the world to us. Amen.
