Temple Rat

Scripture

Luke 2:41–52 RSV

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 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.” 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?” And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. 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. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.

Luke 2:41-4

Introduction/Background

Thank you for the invitation to preach this morning. I have heard it said that i will preach at the drop of a hat and I bring my own hat. This, I must say, is a bit better than the last time I preached here. Today, in the liturgical traditions, is known as the Holy Family Feast Day where the Holy Family is held up as a model for all families. Frankly, I don’t know if they should be. The Biblical family models are not always the best. As far as I know there is no family here today that counts the son of God as one of their family members. if you do please have him come up here and preach!

I can imagine the conversation between Joseph and Mary can’t you?

Joseph have you misplaced Jesus? What did you do withe the Son of God. I guess you could say that Mary was the first person to have found Jesus!

Really, though, if you understand how they traveled it wouldn’t be hard to understand how this could happen.

Nazareth was a 3 or 4 day walk to Jerusalem. Men were required to go to Passover each year if they lived within 15 miles. Children and women were not required to go. So Luke makes the point here that Mary and Joseph were exceptional Jews. Jesus is about to be or has been Bar Mitzvaed, which means he has become a man. This happened around 12 to 13 years old. So this was probably his first trip to celebrate passover.

They would have traveled in a caravan with other people from Nazareth. yes they would have walked. You had to be wealthy to afford a donkey or horse. Those images you see of Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem are bogus, they are Biblically and culturally incorrect. Mary would have walked, according to Luke, for 4 or 5 days to get to Bethlehem from Nazareth. Of course in Matthew they lived in Bethlehem and didn’t settle in Nazareth till coming back from Egypt. We have totally screwed up the infancy stories of Jesus, but that’s another sermon at some other time.

So, it would have been a large number of people walking and the men traveled separate from the women. Jesus was soon to be or was already considered a man so they weren’t exactly looking out for him. it wasn’t till the end of the first day of travel when the families cam back together that they discovered Jesus was not in the caravan.

Exegesis

So that’s one day out, then one day back and one day looking for Jesus and they find him in the temple talking with the teachers.

This is the only story we have of Jesus as child. Neither John nor Mark have the birth stories. Matthew has nothing like this, this is only found in Luke. The absence of any history of Jesus from birth to 30 bothered many of the early Christians and we have all kinds of apocryphal writings about Jesus. The most detailed is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Whoever wrote this had a wild imagination. Jesus is working weird miracles, making a board longer for something his dad was working on when he cut it too short. At 5 years old He makes clay birds out of mud and makes them fly, he gets mad at a teacher kills him and then raises him from the dead. really weird stuff.

A legit question would be why didn’t the gospel writers include this information? Because I think Jesus grew up just like any Palestinian Jewish boy. There really wasn’t anything remarkable. it is not easy to understand the humanity of Jesus. We want to turn him into the Jesus of John’s gospel. But we must remember, Jesus had to learn to walk, be potty trained, he had to learn a trade and like all Jewish boys he had to learn to read Torah.

There is a great scene in the Passion of the Christ where Mary is following Jesus as he is carrying the cross and he falls. She suddenly has a flashback to when Jesus is a toddler, just learning how to walk and she catches him before he falls down a flight of stone steps!

The idea of incarnation is hard to wrap your head around. How can somone be totally human and totally God at the same time? Not goin to try to explain that, because it can’t be. It’s a mystery. St Augustine once wrote, “if you can understand it, then its not of God.” Frankly this is why Joseph and Mary did not understand what Jesus said. They didn’t get it either.

So another legit question is, “Why did Luke include this story?” Well, let’s unpack it a little more and see what we can find out.

First, culturally, it is not unusual for Jesus to be sitting at the foot of teachers or Rabbis. He would have been educated at home by his Father and at the synagogue. it says he is listening and asking questions. He’s the one doing the learning, 18 years later he would be the Rabbi. However, it does sound as if he is a little precocious doesn it? They were amazed at his understanding and answers.

So we see a very human Jesus here, in fact so human he has upset his mother and father. But I think it is verse 49 that is why Luke tells this story.

1 The New Revised Standard Version The Boy Jesus in the Temple

49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Jesus understands his identity know. All adolescents struggle with finding an identity. in fact some of us as adults are still struggling with that. I didn’t figure it out until I was 44. So what we have here is the story of the day when Jesus discovered who he was. But notice, it did not make him proud, because he went home and he was obedient to them.

It says Mary treasured these things in her heart. I think the use of that word is a poor choice. The greek literally means to “mentally store up.” I think ponder would be better. Her’s why, she didn’t understand. She had to mullit over so to speak. And Maybe she remembered the words of Simeon, also in the temple and jesus dedication and circumcision at 8 days.

Luke 2:22-

Luke 2:22–35 RSV

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

In the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in Jerusalem (explain). Maybe the crucifixion wasn’t the only sword. Maybe this day was a sword as well, when Jesus found his identity in his relationship with God the Ftaher. She probably did realize that things would not be the same.

Application

Ok so what relevance does this story have for us in the 21st century?

We live in a culture that is success oriented. Our identities are wrapped up in our roles, not who we are, but in what we do. I am sure you know people when they retire are totally lost, because there identity was wrapped up in what they did. You know 37 days after Bear Bryant retired he died. maybe coincidence, maybe not. he was Bear Bryant the coach at Alabama.

Here’s part of his obit from the NYT:

Mr. Bryant created national headlines only a month ago when he ended his 38-year career as the most successful football coach on any American campus, and one of the most colorful. He quit with a record of 323 victories, 85 losses and 17 ties at four schools: Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and, for the last 25 years, at his alma mater, Alabama. Six of his teams at Alabama were rated No.1 nationally by the wire-service polls. And, when Alabama defeated Auburn, 28-17, on Nov. 28, 1981, for his 315th victory, he surpassed the record that had been set early in the century by Amos Alonzo Stagg.

We live in a performance based culture and it can eat you alive if you let it. But this is what we learn here

Jesus’ attitudes about his walk with God, his call to serve him, and his pursuit of intimacy with him are not a product of his unique sonship with God. They picture how all of us should prioritize our lives before God. Sometimes we have to make choices that others do not understand, for God has called us to set priorities that differ from people who go through life without any reference to him.

You are a child of God before anything else. Your self worth is not based on success or failure, it is based in your relationship with God. That is your identity. This is what Jesus teaches us here. The young man asked Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life, jesus replied Love God, Love your neighbor.

Martin Luther King’s last sermon at his church in Atlanta Ebenezer Baptist, was preached in February4 of 1968, he would be murdered April 4, 1968. This is how he concluded that sermon:

"Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator-that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense.

If any of you are around that day I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver a eulogy tell them not to talk to long. Every now and then, I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel peace prize, that isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school.

I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to love somebody." 

Children, your identity is in God, not in what you do, or don’t do, or what you have succeed at, the degrees you have, the money you’ve made . . .

What do you want or your headstone?