1st Sunday after Christmas
Luke 2:41-52
"Growing Up"
41 ¶ Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom;
43 and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,
44 but supposing him to be in the company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances;
45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions;
47 and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48 And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously."
49 And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?"
50 And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them.
51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.RSV
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
Thirty children gathered around their Sunday School teacher to hear her tell about the birth of Jesus. She went all out that day and used straw, a real crib and little stuffed animals which almost looked alive. The children were enthralled with the story and her presentation. She closed by asking each of the children to offer a prayer or thought or whatever they wanted to share about the Baby Jesus.
They were invited to come to the crib to share their thoughts, etc.
One little boy deftly reached in his pocket and placed something beside the crib. When the teacher asked what his gift was, he asked her to come and see. There was a tiny statue of Jesus. In a hushed voice he said, "I put it there so Jesus could see what he will look like when he grows up."
When he grows up! That is a strange thing to be saying at this time of year. When he grows up. We have just come off of the Christmas high of Jesus being born in a manger, and now this Sunday we are looking at Jesus as he is growing up.
Luke is the only gospel that has this story about Jesus when he reaches his 12th birthday. For pete sake we might be saying to ourselves, we just got done seeing Jesus as a baby and learning about why God sent him to earth and now we have to deal with him at the age of 12.
When he grows up! Jesus does not remain a baby, but indeed he does grow up as all children do. We know the story of his birth, we know the story of his flight to Egypt to escape the terror of Herod, but from then to this day there is nothing about Jesus.
We must assume that he grew up like all other Jewish boys. And now was a time for him to become a man. This text is a right of passage for the boy Jesus as he grew into manhood.
Like all Jewish boys and men who lived within a 20 miles radius of Jerusalem they were required to worship at the temple during the feast of Passover. Mary and Joseph being responsible parents took Jesus with them to the temple. They traveled together with the others who were going for the same purpose.
After they arrived at the temple the men and the women would separate each going to their separate section of the temple. Joseph and Jesus would be together and Mary would be with the other women.
They probably had it arranged that afterwards they would depart separately as was the custom.
Joseph and Jesus as custom would have it stayed at the temple longer because men traveled faster than women. They would catch up with the party at the evening camp site.
I suspect that Joseph and Jesus somehow got separated so when it was time to leave, Joseph looked around for Jesus and could not find him, so he probably thought Jesus found Mary and had left with the women. And when Marry arrived at the evening camp site she was not worried about Jesus because she knew he would be with Joseph.
When Joseph arrived the next day and Jesus was not at the camp site, Joseph and Mary both were worried and headed back to the temple.
Can you imagine what was going through their minds and hearts? Was Jesus hurt? Did he get lost on the trail?
This is a parents worse nightmare!
I remember when I first started using a wheelchair for mobility, my son Anthony and I were at the mall with my wife. She was trying on clothes and we were to wait for her. Anthony decided to run under the clothes on the racks. As you know, the aisles are not real wide among the racks of clothes, so I could not go and find him. My wheelchair would not fit. I waited and waited for him to come out, but nothing. Finally my wife came out of the fitting room and began to search for him. She found him lying on the floor asleep. Boy did I feel better.
So I have some idea and maybe you do to about how anxious Mary and Joseph were at this point. so they headed back to the temple to find Jesus.
And there he was seated among the scholars and talking to them about scripture. And Jesus said, " to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?"
Now I wonder? Did Jesus understand how worried his parents were, or did they somehow miss the signs that Jesus would be in the temple?
Could Jesus have left hints as they journeyed to the temple that he would stay longer and be about His real Father’s work?
Were Joseph and Mary like the parents in the following:
"There’s a wonderful children’s book by David McKee, called "Not Now, Bernard." (Published by Random Century Children’s Books, 1980. ISBN 0 09 924050 5) In it, Bernard keeps trying, without success, to capture his parents’ attention. Every time he says anything to either of his parents they say: "Not now, Bernard." Eventually he says to his mother: "There’s a monster in the garden and it’s going to eat me." She says: "Not now, Bernard." So Bernard goes out into the garden, and the monster eats him up, every bit.
Then the monster goes indoors and roars behind Bernard’s Mum. She says: "Not now, Bernard." So the monster goes through to the lounge and bites Bernard’s father on the leg. Bernard’s father, who’s buried behind the newspaper, says: "Not now, Bernard." Mum puts Bernard’s dinner in front of the television. The monster eats up Bernard’s dinner. Then it watches television and reads one of Bernard’s comics and breaks one of Bernard’s toys. Mum calls out: "Go to bed. I’ve taken up your milk." And the monster goes upstairs and climbs into bed and says dolefully: "But I’m a monster!" And the final line in the book is Bernard’s Mum saying: "Not now, Bernard." 1
Bernard’s parents were good people who cared about him. They made sure he was well fed and well clothed, and had plenty of toys and books to entertain him. But somehow, they didn’t enable him to blossom. They were busy with their own preoccupations, and hadn’t got the time to spend on Bernard. They hadn’t the time to follow childish pursuits with him or to listen to his childish prattle." 1
Did Mary and Joseph miss the boat? Had they missed the signs of who Jesus really was?
In his book The Prophet Kahil Gibran says this about a child"
"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longings 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 thought....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."
Did Mary and Joseph have different expectation of Jesus than Jesus had of Himself? Maybe! Do we have different expectations for our children than they have for themselves? Maybe!
Maybe one of the lessons we can learn from this story in scripture is to allow our children to be who they will become.
A closing story by the late Erma Bombeck illustrates this lesson clearly:
She says:
"Once when I was autographing books in a department store, a woman practically in tears explained she was upset because her child was going to get married. The kid was 24 years old and I thought, ’My gosh, lady, you’ve done it all. You can’t do anymore. You’re finished raising the child and you don’t know it.
’She says further, ’I did a column about that subject entitled "Is you child an investment or an insurance policy?"
What expectations do you have of your children?
Amen
1 from http://www.sermons-stories.org/ Rev Janice Scott
