Epiphany 1 (2025)
Epiphanytide 2025 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Epiphany of Christ at the temple
This morning we see this somewhat baffling account of the life of Jesus Christ that should bring up for us a few different questions.
First questions might be something like, “Why is this the only Childhood narrative we have about Jesus. We see nothing about a first birthday, the death of Joseph, What kind of student of the Torah was he?
Second Question: What does it mean that Jesus increases in wisdom and stature, or really that he increase in anything at all. If he is the perfect man, does not perfection come with completeness.
We will give both questions a few minutes of our time today but I think the main point of todays text is to shine a light onto the God who is with us and becomes like us.
First the text.
Verse 41Jesus Parents are devout in their faith. Every year they went to Jerusalem for Passover. The distance is the same as Dayton to Cincinnati. but the roads are pretty primitive and there are often bandits about. And yet they see it as their duty as Jews to make the pilgrimage.
Verse 42 Today we are zooming in on the account from his age 12. Scholars find this account very interesting b/c it is the only time we see Jesus in Child hood. We get to see his birth, and we see him from age 30-33, This is his only childhood narrative.
Verse 43/44 Their party leaves to return to Nazareth and Jesus is not in the caravan. You might stop and wonder what kind of parent leaves their kids behind?
Our best scholarly hypothesis is that 12 year olds sit on a cusp…
Verse 45/46 SO they make their way back. Searching for him. and on the 3rd day… they find him. It is interesting how often We see the 3rd day as a the time line to be noted, we will also look at a 3rd day event next week.
Twice we have lost Sam and Once lost Isa…
46/47. They find him in the temple participating in the discussions of the Torah “asking questions.” And showing profound understanding
48/49. His parents are not happy, and they rebuke the behavior
We see the affirmation that God not Joseph was his father. And we see his coming adulthood, that when he gets to choose his own way he choses to be in the Temple, the place were heaven and earth meet.
Verse 50/51. They do not yet comprehend what it means to raise a union of Human and Godness, but Mary is taking note. This was written around 65-70 AD and Mary is probably still present and playing some roll in the church, as a woman. This gives us an origin story.
Verse 52: The one that makes my head spin…he grew…
the main point of todays text is to shine a light onto the God who is with us and becomes like us.
Lets take a moment and discuss Christian Doctrine. Today brings us face to face with a few doctrines, The Trinity the dual nature, and the Gnosis of Christ…
First the Trinity: You guys all have interacted with the Anglican Belief in the Trinity. We start Praising God Father Son and HS. We sing the Gloria Patri after our psalm reading. Many of our prayer end with a Triune appeal, We say triune Creeds and last week we did the Full Athenasian Creed witch has a significant Triune definition. We know that Jesus is one of the persons of the Trinity, and at the same time, there is only one substance of God. We are seeing that today. Lets not get stuck here as there will be time to explore this on other Sundays. Let look at the next two Doctrines a little closer.
We see here the 2 natures of Christ. Jesus the human, who is 12 and experiencing the Growth of of a human Body.
What you need to know about the 2 natures…Hypo-Static.
This is why the human side of him can Grow in wisdom and understanding.
This brings us to the door step of the Gnosis of Christ. What did the human know, what capabilities did he have and when.
We see Jesus get Tired, We see him not know the time and place of the consumation. We see him Grow in wisdom and understanting and we see him die.
Much of having faith is embracing a Mystery. If you are a full on secularist you have the mystery of what brought the first cause. among other unsolved secular mysteries.
For us there is the Mystery Jesus human side growing into knowledge of his divine capability. His divine capability is without limits, but his human body’s ability to express is is very limited.
In taking on a human side, Jesus then perfectly lives our the human experience, fulfilling the Law and making his the only true candidate to be sacrificed for us.
Anslem…God became man so man could become like god.
main point of todays text is to shine a light onto the God who is with us and becomes like us.
Today begins the 2nd week after Epiphany. And what we are focusing on is the revelation of Jesus nature, and therefore the nature of God.
This revelation should give us courage. Courage that God knows what it means to be a human. Especially a human on the bottom rung, Born into poverty, a refugee. Then a common laborer.
We should have courage that Jesus transforming us into his image means we will share in his heavenly reward.
Jesus being human means he can pay our debt to the father and rescue us from eternal seperation. We know have proof of eternal life for humans…Jesus experiences it there for so can well.
And just as Jesus we to the place of sacrifice, the Temple to experience God is a special way, today we are going to have the benefits of Jesus sacrifice , by having the food of eternal life