“The Boy Jesus in the Temple”
A Sermon Preached by
the
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Sunday, January 13,
2013
First Congregational
Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ
Text: Luke 2:41-52
Have you
ever wondered what Jesus was like when he was a child?
Was he a perfect little boy – never
whining or pouting or crying? Did he
always share his toys with his brothers?
Was he nice to the neighbor kids?
Did he eat all his vegetables, do his homework without prompting from
his parents?
Well, we just don’t know. The baby that we have seen for the past
couple of weeks doesn’t stay that way, of course, and like it does for most
parents, in scripture he grows up seemingly in the blink of an eye. We get just one glimpse of Jesus as a boy,
and it is told only in the Gospel of Luke; Matthew, Mark and John don’t say
anything about Jesus’ boyhood. So I
invite you to listen to this passage from Luke’s second chapter, verses 41 to
52, which you will find on page 59 in the New Testament section of your pew
bible…
41Now every year his parents went
to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42And when he was twelve years old, they
went up as usual for the festival. 43When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus
stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44Assuming that he was in the group of
travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among
their relatives and friends. 45When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for
him. 46After three
days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to
them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents saw him they were
astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like
this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” 49He said to them, “Why were you searching
for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50But they did not understand what he said
to them. 51Then he went
down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother
treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human
favor.
And that’s it. From the time Jesus is toddler until he is
baptized at age 30, this is the only description the bible gives us of Jesus
growing up.
And when details are lacking, it is human
nature to want to fill in the blanks.
And so, some Bible movies have pictured Jesus assisting in Joseph’s
carpenter shop or sitting on Mary’s lap listening to stories. Some writings that aren’t conclusively
authentic and didn’t make it into the Bible[i]
tell stories of amazing events from Jesus’ boyhood like his bringing a dead
bird back to life or punishing bad neighbors with miraculous feats.[ii]
But this brief story from the Gospel of Luke
is all the Holy Scriptures have to offer.
It shows us Jesus at age 12. We
might hear the number 12 and think it is one of those special Biblical numbers
– you know, as in the12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12
disciples? Possibly.
But maybe this is more a story about a 12 year
old boy who is starting to exert his independence and think for himself. Twelve is an in-between age -- the time
in-between childhood and adulthood.
In the rhythms and rituals of Jesus’ Jewish
upbringing, age 12 is a time of final preparation for the rite of bar mitzvah,
when he will be recognized as a man. But
in everyday life of the 21st century, we call this in-between stage “adolescence.” The experts tell us it is the time when
youngsters begin to separate themselves from their family. This is when our kids may let us take them to the movies but they won’t let us
sit with
them. This is also the age that
youngsters start to think in more abstract terms and are better able to
articulate their thoughts and speak for themselves. It’s when they start to develop a social
consciousness and a sense of purpose.
This is exactly what we see happening to
Jesus in this story. He and his parents
are among a throng of other Jewish pilgrims who have traveled to Jerusalem to
celebrate Passover. The Holy Family has
made this trek every year. But this
time, as the festival concludes, Jesus’ desire to take his first steps toward
independence wins out over sticking close to family. While the rest of the caravan leaves for the
return trip to Nazareth, he manages to stay behind in Jerusalem unbeknownst to
his parents.
Now, we can understand if Jesus no longer
wants to spend every minute under Mary and Joseph’s watchful eye. And it is likely that Mary and Joseph simply
think that Jesus is hanging with some friends in another part of this traveling
extended family. But after a whole day
on the road back to Nazareth, his parents realize they haven’t seen him at all
on the trip. Nor has anyone else in the
group. And so they do what any parent
would do – they turn around and retrace their steps back to the Jerusalem. I can only imagine how panicked they must
have been. If you have ever lost track
of your child, even for a moment, you know the feeling.
And while the grown-ups are madly searching
for him, Jesus is sitting unfazed in the temple. With the annual Passover festival now over,
the temple is no longer crowded and there is plenty of time to talk with the
elders about things that matter. Jesus
listens attentively to the teachers; he learns; and -- in keeping with being an
adolescent – he starts to find his own voice.
And everyone hearing him is amazed and impressed with what must be his
insightful questions and articulate responses.
And when Mary and Joseph finally locate their
12-year-old boy, they don’t know whether to hug him or throttle him. Know the feeling? I love the way The Message translation
of the bible words Mary’s reaction: “Young man, why have you done this to
us? Your father and I have been half out
of our minds looking for you!” What
parent can’t relate to Mary’s jumbled emotions of both relief and admonishment?
And in his first recorded words, Jesus
responds, “Why were you searching for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Or, as The Message puts it, “Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?”
With the advantage of hindsight, we might
wonder about Mary and Joseph– don’t they know who their son is? Doesn’t Mary remember that Gabriel said she
would bear the Son of the Most High?
Doesn’t Joseph recall the angel who, in a dream, told him that this
child was from the Holy Spirit? Doesn’t
Mary remember what the shepherds told her on the night Jesus was born -- that
the angels had announced to them the birth of the Messiah? And what about the Wise Men who were
searching for the “child born king of the Jews” and knocked on their door?
But in this passage, there is no mention of
Jesus being the Messiah or the Son of God or the king of the Jews. He is just Jesus, a real, fully-human boy of
12.
And the text then tells us that Mary and
Joseph don’t understand what their 12-year-old boy is telling them. They have not yet grasped the full
significance of who Jesus is. Perhaps
the idea of raising the Son of God is just too much for them to
comprehend.
But Jesus, in keeping with being age 12, is
growing into being whom God has sent him to be.
He feels a stirring deep in his soul, and a curiosity to “deal with the
things” of God. And it is in the temple
that he finds his purpose.
At the end of today’s passage, Jesus
obediently returns to Nazareth with his parents, and Luke tells us that “Mary
treasured all these things in her heart.”
For the next 18 years, Jesus will disappear back into the fabric of his
hometown, remaining in that out-of-the way place, far removed from the centers
of religion and politics, and keeping the company of ordinary people, just like
us. And he will continue to grow “in wisdom
and in years, and in divine and human favor.”
And perhaps it is over these next two decades
that Mary and Joseph finally grasp the reality of who and whose their son is,
finally realize deep in their hearts that this precious child is only on loan
to them; they have been given the great gift and privilege of being parents — his parents — but he comes from God and it
is to God that he truly belongs.
And this description of Jesus is
true of every child. Every child is a
gift from God who is placed on loan into the arms of parents and other loving
adults, who then see to it that he or she grows “in wisdom and in years,” so
that God’s purpose for that child can be fulfilled.
Our job is to give our children
roots and wings – roots that ground them in the assurance that they are beloved
children of God, and wings to bear them on the winds of the Holy Spirit, that
they may find their way and discover God’s purpose for their lives.
Like all good parents, Mary and Joseph will
ultimately work themselves out of a job.
Jesus will eventually leave their home in Nazareth and go out on the
road, preaching the "kingdom of God" in which he will bring people
together around tables of acceptance no matter who they are, or what they have
done.
Jesus will eventually leave Joseph’s
carpenter shop, and go out to build something in and with people – something
built by gracious, compassionate touch; something to heal broken bodies and
lost spirits.
Jesus will leave his family of origin and go
out into the family of God, among the desperate and lost people who hunger to
hear the Good News of God’s forgiving, redeeming, accepting love.
After raising their beautiful boy, Mary and
Joseph will give him over to the God who put him in their lives in the first
place and to whom he truly belongs.
May we follow their example of faith,
trusting our children to the God who loves them even more than we do. Amen.
[i] Specifically, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
[ii] Adapted from Barbara K. Lundblad, “In the
Temple,” December 31, 2006, http://day1.org/1023-in_the_temple.
