No Need To Worry

The Messiah Makes The Most Of Every Moment

12.30.21 [Luke 2:41-52] River of Life (1st Sunday after Christmas)

When you search the Gospels about the childhood of Jesus, you don’t find a whole lot. Most of the Gospels cover Jesus’ public ministry—his preaching and teaching in Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. But that’s just his final three years. The Scriptures are silent concerning 90% of Jesus’ life. Unless you read ancient gnostic literature. There are other books, which were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, that fill in that gap with fabricated fables.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is probably the most famous of these fabricated fables. In this book, the boy Jesus is portrayed as growing into his divine attributes. Jesus parts the waters of a brook and makes sparrows out of the soft clay. When another boy messes up his fun, Jesus curses him and the boy withers like a tree. Later, when he’s walking through the village and another boy runs into him, Jesus curses that kid and he dies. When the boy’s parents confront Joseph, Jesus strikes them blind. Joseph wrings Jesus’ ear. Jesus gets mad at him and threatens him.

This book has many fanciful fabrications like that—though as Jesus grows up his miracles are more helpful and healing than mischievous or destructive. A young boy is playing with Jesus on the roof of a home and falls and Jesus jumps down from the roof and resurrects him. Jesus heals a young man who is about to die from an axe wound in his foot. When he was eight he takes a single kernel of wheat and feeds all the poor people in his village. When he was out on a job-site with his dad, and their beam wasn’t long enough for the bed they were working on, Jesus miraculously stretches out the beam so they don’t have to make a trip to Home Depot. After nearly every single miracle, those near Jesus bless and praise him as the Son of God.

Now why do I mention these tall-tales? There’s not a lick of truth in a one of them. Some of them clearly contradict what Scripture teaches that he was tempted in every way just as we are and Heb. 4:15 yet was without sin. But even those that don’t depict Jesus behaving selfishly or cruelly could not have happened. When Jesus performed his very first miracle—changing water into wine—he tells his mother that Jn. 2:4 his time has not yet come. Jesus’ miracles were always a part of his public ministry. Much to the disappointment of those creative folks who concocted all those stories about Jesus childhood, Jesus was a very ordinary child in many ways. So what we have here is really special. This is the only inspired record of Jesus’ childhood.

As far as the Gospels are concerned—this is the Word made flesh’s first words. So we ought to mull over what our Messiah says and does here, because of all the things that Jesus said and did in his first 30 some years, this is only thing God determined we need to know.

As a 12 year old, Jesus journeyed with his parents for the Passover. Faithful Jewish men were required to go to the Temple three times a year. But after their return from exile in Babylon those requirements were relaxed a bit. People who lived a long distance from Jerusalem (Nazareth was 80 miles from Jerusalem) were only expected to come to Jerusalem once a year. Many made it their habit to come for the highest festival of the Passover. After a week of celebrating the Passover, the group from Nazareth was ready to head home.

Traveling in a group was not just a matter of convenience either. Josephus, a historian from this time period, mentions that once, when some Galileans were traveling to Jerusalem for a festival, they were traveling through Samaritan territory and were attacked. Many were killed. Traveling in a group was a matter of safety. But traveling in a group also meant that Mary and Joseph assumed Jesus was with him. By the end of the first day’s travels, they realized that Jesus was not with them. They likely stayed with the group overnight and left early in the morning to make the full day’s trek back to Jerusalem.

Sometime the next day they found Jesus Lk. 2:46 sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Lk. 2:48 They were astonished to see their son engaging the sharpest minds of his day in spiritual matters. It was a common practice for the teachers of Israel to linger after the festival and engage in these kinds of discussions. Many times students would ask their rabbis questions and sometimes the rabbis would respond with questions of their own. But as Jesus sat among them, he more than held his own. All who heard him were amazed at his wisdom and understanding.

Now maybe under a different circumstances, Mary and Joseph would have been beaming with pride. But they thought they had lost Jesus. They’d searched among their friends & relatives and couldn’t find him. In the midst of a kind of panic only a parent can really appreciate, they hurried back to Jerusalem to scour the city for their son. Only after some time did they finally find him. And when they finally found him, Mary responded out of frustration & fear. Lk. 2:48 Child, why have you done us like this? Many parents get Mary’s emotions. But we ought to contemplate whether or not this question is a good one to ask.

Mary was upset that Jesus had remained behind in Jerusalem without telling them. We might wonder if Jesus should have honored his parents better and requested their permission to stay in the Temple. But we must remember who Jesus is. He wasn’t being rebellious. He is Mt. 1:23 the Immanuel, the sinless Son of God. He was named Jesus because he came to Mt. 1:21 save his people from their sins, including his own parents. Mary and Joseph had been given the wonderful responsibility of raising the Son of God, but apparently they had forgotten what Jesus came to be and do. That’s why Jesus told them Lk. 2:49 Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?

And if Mary could forget what Jesus came to be and do, surely we run the same risk. How many times don’t we, like Mary did, subconsciously wondered Lord, why have you treated me like this? Anytime we are frustrated or anxious or worried or frightened we are inclined to think like this. Anytime God isn’t doing things our way or according to our timeline, we are prone to arrogantly question his wisdom. Anytime God doesn’t give us the answers or the direction we are seeking, anytime we feel lost or adrift, in so many moments when we feel like a failure or a disappointment or a lost cause, we are apt to ask God this question. If anything, this particular account shows us that this happens to those who are very close to the Lord, too. But just because this response is reasonable and recurrent doesn’t mean it is righteous.

Yet, despite the flimsiness of our faith, despite our suspicious inclinations, Jesus responds graciously in words and actions. Jesus made his Messianic purpose known clearly to his parents and to everyone else who was listening in the Temple that day. Lk. 2:49 Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house? Here we have the gentle reminder that we all need. Jesus will not be what we want him to be, he is what he said he would be and do. This was the Son of God humbly prompting his parents to a deeper understanding of his life’s mission. The Messiah had to make the most of every moment he had in the Temple. He came to learn and grow. He came to live in obedience and humility. He came to seek and save lost sinners.

That’s why he retuned with his parents back to Nazareth and stayed with them another 18 years. He didn’t need their instruction like most other twelve year olds. He needed to be obedient to them, to fulfill God’s law for them and us. Jesus demonstrates perfect obedience. The Son of God was willingly Heb. 2:9 made lower than the angels for a little while. He became Heb. 2:17 fully human in every way.

What is more human than having parents who make mistakes in parenting? What is more human than having teachers who don’t know everything? What is more human than having brothers and sisters who treat you with disdain, disrespect, & conceited doubt?

Yet Jesus willingly became human so Heb. 2:17 that he might make atonement of the sins of people just like this, people just like us. He humbly took our sinful arrogance upon his shoulders. He did what was best—what was necessary—for all the times we thought we knew better than God. He suffered death, Heb. 2:9 so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every single one of us.

Through his obedient suffering and death Jesus became Heb. 2:10 the pioneer of our salvation. Heb. 2:11 He made us holy. He made us his family. Heb. 2:18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

We do well to think about that a little bit. Since we easily fall into Mary’s mistake, we ought to consider how she responded to her Son’s gentle rebuke. She mulled over all he said and did in her mind. She and Joseph did not understand what he was saying to them in the moment. But her incomprehension did not inhibit her contemplation. She recognized that this was important. So she kept it in front of her until God helped her understand it better.

Shouldn’t we do the same with our frustration and worries? It is not necessarily sinful to ask God questions about the events of our lives, but it is sinful to demand that God answer our questions the way we want and the moment we demand he do so. Sometimes God allows a question, a frustration, or a moment of failure to linger. Sometimes when we are searching anxiously for a solution, for some direction, for some clarity or resolution, God is calling us to search his Word. Do you know what we find there? Not an answer to every question. Not a Google Maps style set of directions for the lost-ness we are experiencing. Not a trophy for our moments of failure. Rather we receive something better. A faithful God. One who is so devoted to you that no question can drive him away. A Lord who loves you, no matter how lost you are or feel. A Father who is kind and merciful to failures. This is what we should treasure in our hearts. That’s something worth treasuring. Tall-tales can only entertain for a moment. But the truth, Jesus, sets you free for now and eternity. Amen.