Sunday Service 8-16-20 - Luke 2:39-52 - Jesus The God-boy

Luke 2 Sermon D (39-52) - Jesus the God-boy-man Intro: The Hidden Years of Jesus FCF: Our Desire to Be In Control/Normal/God; Our Need and Inability to See Jesus for All that He Is (homeboy, substitute, teacher, revealer, prophet, brother, savior, lord, son, god); Our Tendency to Forget. (Self-Blindness-Distraction, Forgetfulness) Big Idea: Coming to grips with Jesus: Are we really ready for this? Will we really accept Who He Is and all that it implies for our own lives? Jesus' self-understanding begins to reveal to us the wonder of all that He is as the Union of God and man. "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" 39 And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. 39: Joseph and Mary obeyed God's Word, Jesus fulfills all righteousness, old Covenant. Return to Nazareth - What about Magi, Herod's infanticide in Bethlehem, flight to Egypt? (necessarily selective, author's picture, for Luke, it's even more Jew-centric than Matthew and Mark until it's not in Acts. Doesn't say immediately returned - it's true they did return to Galilee after they performed everything according to the Law.) 40: Jesus grew in an ordinary way according to His human nature. Physical growth (body is good). Mental/Spiritual Growth gradual, not instant (contra apocryphal gospels). God's favor, without the hindrance and destruction of sin. He was not born with perfect knowledge but with perfect ability to learn. His closeness with God is unequaled. More than David (after God's own heart). This unparalleled closeness to God will be illustrated in the passage that follows. Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Heb 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 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 group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. It's so easy to leave a child behind when you've got several others to worry about, and it's most likely to be the most responsible one. The more responsible they are, the more likely they are to be neglected in this way. Both sets of grandparents, we also did on vacation (Ellie: "Where's the baby"?) How many siblings? Matt 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?. So, at least 6 others, and probably more ... expected value would be 8 others (one of 9 or so). We assume Joseph died before Jesus was 30, maybe when he's 20 ... So, with that working assumption, it would be about 1 child every 2 years, which is probably average, and so that would be around 5 other siblings by that time. Yeah, they definitely had their hands full. Obviously, he was thought to be with another group in the large caravan. Large caravan due to dangers of long highway journey (80 miles, 4 days, around Samaria). 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 his parents 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 searching for you in great distress." 49 And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. He's sitting in the temple, taking every opportunity to learn ... among the teachers, listening and asking - socratic method. He is theologically prodigious. "I had to be" or "I must be." The fact that his entire life was controlled by the divine "must," a "must" which was in complete harmony with his own desire (Ps. 40:7; John 10:17, 18), dawned on the boy Jesus very early in life. The Gospels are full of this idea of necessity, decree. In Luke's Gospel note the following: Jesus must preach (4:43), suffer (9:22), go on his way (13:33), stay at the home of Zacchaeus (19:5), be delivered up, crucified, rise again (24:7), suffer these things and enter into his glory (22:37; 24:26), and fulfil all the Old Testament prophecies with reference to himself (24:44). The same truth is also emphasized in the other Gospels, particularly in John (3:14; 4:4; 9:4; 10:16; 20:9). Whatever happens to Jesus is the realization of God's eternal decree (Luke 22:22; cf. Acts 2:23). Coming to grips with who Jesus is: First recorded words of Jesus: Jesus introduces Himself to the reader for the first time. (your father / My Father) First Adam was not where He should have been, Second Adam was exactly where He must be. Where - we should know (plural "you" looking, "you" know). Must - there is a "must" aspect to Jesus - he is executing a divine plan/mission, fulfilling prophecy, carrying out a divine decree - he always does the will of the Father and yet this is always according to His own desire as well. My Father - contrasted with "your father", intimacy, first priority, primary identity - Jesus' passion for God. Temple: this is where instruction occurs, where the insight/light shines - for himself and for others. There is an example here (for our young people and for us) Jesus was always "in the things of his Father." Later he would say, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38), and "I always do the things that are pleasing to him" (John 8:29). Jesus was always minding his Father's business, doing his Father's work, and submitting to his Father's will. It was this obedience that finally led him to the cross. When the time came for Jesus to die for our sins, he said to his Father what he had been saying with his whole life: "Thy will be done." They did not understand. Note the contrast - all were amazed, they did not understand. Part of Jesus' suffering is that men, even those closest to him, failed to understand him. They aren't the only ones slow to get it - look at the disciples. Look at us. But, eventually, it is a surrender to faith - a trust in Him - Who He is, What He has done and continues to do. Mary herself: John 2:14 (do whatever he tells you), there at the cross, Acts 1:14 devoting themselves to prayer. Mary of all people, Joseph too ... she was visited by an angel, she heard the songs and prophecies from Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, Anna, and even sang/prophesied about this herself in a beautiful composition. And, yet she forgets or fails to grasp Who He Is and all that this implies about Him, how it will not be normal in her life, her relationship to her Son will not be defined in normal terms (just as ours will not be), and how this rearranges all other priorities. Now, notice: Jesus's self-awareness has grown to a point of acuteness and yet his parents' minds are not caught up (remain dull) ... which makes the next statement even more meaningful: 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Jesus is submissive, obedient to his parents. There is a place for meditation of what God is doing in our lives, what He is teaching us. Jesus increased in wisdom (mental/spiritual), stature (physical), in favor with God (continued to experience more intimacy with God) and man (his wisdom and relationship with God spilled over into his fellow man - we are not to be anti-social!) This is a preview that we will wrestle like they did with Who Jesus is and must read on and continue to listen with faith to understand. And, in the end, by grace through faith we will sing with the angels: Questions: Did Jesus disobey? Contradiction of events with the family fleeing to Egypt from Bethlehem rather than going to Nazareth after the presentation of Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem? And in the end, his parents did not understand what Jesus was talking about (v 50). That this is so is indicated in the interaction between the mother and son in verses 48-49. In her rebuke, Mary tells Jesus that his father (meaning Joseph) and she had been searching for him. In response, Jesus seizes on the mention of his earthly and adoptive father in order to remind Mary that his true Father is in heaven. His words are well chosen; Jesus is not an insensitive or thoughtless son. He has actually been in his Father's home doing his Father's will for the entire duration of their search. We see in this interaction that Jesus and Mary are coming to grips with the fact that theirs will not be a normal mother-son relationship. We get a glimpse of Jesus' understanding of his favored relationship with the Father (v 40, 52), even as we see that Mary was still wrestling with what this would mean for their earthly family. Our experience of coming to understand Jesus is often a bit like Mary's. Jesus' identity as the Son of God means that he will always displace things from their seemingly "normal" place in our lives. Embracing Jesus as your Savior means that the other relationships in your life (not to mention things like your ambitions, loves, and attitudes toward others) will be rearranged and reconfigured (see Luke 14:26). Everything else in your life needs to accommodate Jesus; if he is the Son of God, it cannot be otherwise. Having accomplished everything required by the law they returned to Galilee. The evangelist does not say that after the events of the fortieth day the little family immediately made for the north. Room is left for Matthew's account of the coming of the wise men, the flight to Egypt, the slaughter of "the innocents," and the return of Joseph, Mary, and their child from Egypt; in other words, for the events reported in Matt. 2:1-21 'Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?' How significant that the first recorded words of Jesus are ones that go to the heart of his own destiny, to his vocation and calling as the Messiah. Here Jesus is consciously identifying himself as the Son of God, because it was his Father's house.