A New Year

New Year 2021 Luke 2: 41-52 So here we are beginning a new year. And, as we do so, we're of course bringing with us those thoughts and feelings that we've been left with after the old year has finished. Because, after all, even though when the clock strikes 12 at the end of Hogmanay we welcome in the New Year, it's not simply a question of wiping the slate clean and starting again. No, the events, the experiences, of this last year have, of course, affected us in ways that are going to remain with us. Perhaps especially the thoughts and feelings of this year. Having said that a new year is in a way a new start, a new cycle of time when, yes, we can look back and think perhaps about what happened the same day the year before or a number of years before, and think as well where we've come in that time; but it's a time, too, to consider where we're going and, as Christians, to think of where we're going with our Lord. But then what does this actually mean? The passage from Luke's gospel, which we're looking at this morning, tells us about what, clearly, was a very significant incident in Jesus' early life. It being the only time that his boyhood is mentioned in the four gospels. And we're told in verse 41 of chapter 2 that, in line with the law, Jesus' parents Mary and Joseph, were in the habit each year of going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover setting their son, who they probably would have taken with them, a good example. Then when Jesus was twelve years old they went up with him for what would have been a particularly special Feast. Because probably this would have been the first time that he'd have gone officially with his parents to Jerusalem being, as it was, the last Passover before he reached his thirteenth birthday when he would enter manhood. So that, for Jesus, this going up to Jerusalem for the Passover that year would have very much been part of a 'rite of passage', the beginning of a new stage of his life. And no doubt there would have been great excitement and no little pride on the part of his mum and dad, along with the usual parental concerns about what the future might hold for him. Now as they travelled those seventy miles or so from Nazareth to Jerusalem they wouldn't have been on their own. No, they'd have been part of a large crowd, consisting of friends and neighbours, all going up to there for the same reason ... to worship the Lord their God in obedience to his command. And as they journeyed so the crowd would have grown as they passed through the many towns and villages on the way. So that the travelling itself would have been a time of great celebration when they may well have sung the psalms of Ascent together including Psalm 122 which we read earlier. Then they'd have arrived in Jerusalem becoming part of an even larger mass of people. After which, according to verse 43 of our passage, they stayed for the whole of the Feast, eight days in all, before beginning their journey back home. Now it seems, from historical records, that the men and the women would have travelled separately at first with the slower travelling women going on ahead and the men following on behind so that they would catch them up at night. And this might well have been why Jesus' absence wasn't noticed by Mary and Joseph until they'd been travelling for a day, Mary thinking that he'd be with his dad and Joseph, because of his age, thinking that he'd be with the slower group. But then, when they realised that he was missing, they began asking amongst their relatives and friends to see if he was with any of them, and the answer was "no". By which time, you can imagine, they'd have been frantic. Some of us, I'm sure, will know what it feels like to lose a child in a crowded shop or street for a short time, or even to have been that child. But for Mary and Joseph, well they'd lost their son in the great city of Jerusalem amongst thousands of people. And it wasn't that he'd been missing a few seconds or minutes, at the most, either. No, they hadn't seen Jesus for a whole day, and it would be another day before they could even begin looking for him back in the city! What thoughts must have been racing through their heads! So they set off back no doubt praying for his safety every long step of the way. And perhaps when they arrived again in Jerusalem they went to the house where they'd stayed over the festive period, hoping that he'd found his way back there. And then, when they discovered that he hadn't, they maybe wandered the streets enquiring of people who they met if they'd seen a lost looking boy wandering about over the last few days, all the while surely getting more and more anxious. And then finally, they went to the Temple and to the temple courts near to the entrance; and there they found him sitting with the religious teachers, the rabbis, listening to what they had to say, asking them many questions, and entering into deep discussion with them. It appears, in fact, that he'd become quite the centre of attention because of the depth of his questions and answers for one who was so young. "Everyone who heard him was amazed", we're told. Still, we can imagine what Mary and Joseph, especially Mary his mother, must have thought when they finally came upon him. "What do you think you're doing Jesus? We've been frantic with worry for nearly two days, you've been missing for nearly three, and yet it looks like you haven't given us a second's thought". "Son, why have you treated us like this?" they ask (Verse 48 of our passage). And then Jesus dropped the bombshell as he said, verse 49: "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" You see he was teaching them a lesson here because they'd been thinking that the Passover, with all that it entailed regarding their obligations to God, was over with. Ok it was very much a milestone for Jesus, but now it was time to get on with the rest of his and their lives, out with the Old and in with the New as is often said at this time of year. But this wasn't the young Jesus' thinking. Mary his mother said to him in her distress: "Your Father and I have been anxiously searching for you". But whilst their son was the perfect son, being fully obedient to his earthly parents, he knew that he also had a Father in Heaven and that his obedience to him should and would always take priority, as it always had. After all wasn't the Law, including the fifth commandment, "honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you" given by God? No his first thought, at this time of new beginnings, was to take advantage of being in Jerusalem to be close to his Father, in His house, discussing the things of Heaven. And perhaps as he talked about the Hebrew Scriptures, and about the details of God's self-revelation found there, Jesus became more aware of some of the Messianic prophesy's concerning himself, more aware of the difficulties, the pain and the suffering that awaited him in the future. Whatever, he was where he needed and wanted to be, because it was no accident that he was here rather than travelling home with his parents. He'd not been left and had to make the best of things rather, as verse 43 tells us: "Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem". He was there, in other words, on purpose. The New King James version of the Bible translates verse 49 slightly differently from the NIV saying that Jesus replied to his mother: "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" Which seems to clarify just what Jesus had been doing here in the temple for those three days. Because when a boy reached the age of twelve in those days he'd begin to be trained up in his Father's business, beginning the career that he was going to follow for the rest of his life. And so here we have the Son of God beginning to be trained up in his heavenly Father's business. Discussing with the teachers of the law what that would involve and at the same time doing so in a way, and with such authority, that everyone who heard him were challenged to wonder just who this child was. Just as 20 or so years later the temple guards in Jerusalem, after hearing Jesus the man speak, were led to declare (John 7 verse 46): "No one ever spoke the way this man does". Jesus, in other words, had no intention of just drifting into the next stage of his Father's plan for him here on earth, he was determined that his Father's word would be his constant guide, his Father's power his constant strength, and his Father's love his constant comforter and motivation. And it's sad, isn't it, that with this in mind, verse 50 of our passage tells us that Mary and Joseph "did not understand what he was saying to them"? Even though they knew that Jesus was special, the events surrounding his birth and their flight into Egypt would have etched that fact on their minds; even so they couldn't grasp the fact that this son of theirs was God's Son, of whom the angels had said, he is the saviour, he is Christ the Lord. They couldn't understand that his whole life was given over to obedience even though they must have become aware of his moral perfection during those twelve years that they'd known and loved him as their own dear child. And yet the truth is that Jesus surely wanted them to know and understand what he was talking about because, when saying that he must be about his Father's business, he was speaking about the work of salvation, the great and wonderful work that had been given to him by the Father of saving men women and children here on earth. The work of bringing them to the point where they will have that relationship with God that they were created to have, where they too can learn to pray to God as Father and experience the truth of Johns words concerning Jesus in John chapter 1 verse 12: "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God". So then, Jesus the only begotten Son of God had no intention of going anywhere without taking his heavenly Father's hand in his own. So how much less should we, who claim to be followers of Jesus, as we come to the beginning of a new year, another stage as it were jn our lives, ever think of doing so by simply drifting, or else launching ourselves blindly, into it? For many Hogmanay, even this year, will have involved stocking up on festive spirits so that when the bells tolled at midnight they'd have been well and truly in the mood for 2021, whilst others will have soberly met the turn of the year asleep in bed or in philosophical mood. But how many will have entered the New Year, whether asleep or awake, having first sought God's guidance and his assurance that he would be with them every step of the way, in humble obedience committing what lies ahead to him and to his service? This surely should be our attitude. Because we also should be about our Father's business as we begin another year, whatever our feelings about 2020. For our Lord Jesus it was imperative that he was always close to his Father in Heaven because otherwise his life would be a failure. The first Adam had tried to go it on his own, thinking that he didn't need God, and what a disaster that was! But Jesus the Son of God knew better - "I and the Father are one" he was later to say (John 10 verse 30), and "The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does" (John 5 verse 19), and "I always do what pleases him" (John 8 verse 29). And we too, as God's children for whom Christ Jesus came to earth lived the perfect life and died in agony on the cross, must strive to have that same attitude if we're to live the life and die the death that our Father in heaven intends for us ... being one with him, through Jesus his son, now and for all eternity. Not that that'll mean that the year to come and the years that may follow it will be all plain sailing mind you, irrespective of Covid 19. We are to seek our heavenly Father's will, as did the Lord Jesus. But for him that, as we read in verse 51 of our passage, meant for the time being going where his earthly parents wanted him to be, being obedient to them. And we too live in a world and are surrounded by people who have demands upon us, upon our time, upon our energy, our emotions. We too have a life that at times will take us where we do not want to go. But then sometimes being obedient to our Father means giving our time, our energy, to help others, means going down that difficult path. And yet when we do so we can surely know that we are doing his will, and we'll know his blessings along with the difficulties such that we'll grow in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with men. May we each have a good new year. Moving into the future with the Lord Jesus as our guide, trusting in him and his promises to us, and with the certain knowledge that our heavenly Father is showering, and will ever continue to shower, his gracious blessings upon us! Amen