Today is the tenth day of Christmas. Remember, we do not count the twelve days of Christmas counting down to Christmas as many in the marketing world would do. We count the twelve days of Christmas beginning with Christmas day being the first day of Christmas. Since today is the tenth day of Christmas Wednesday will be the day of Epiphany, which, unfortunately does not get much of a celebration unless it falls on a Sunday. Epiphany you might remember is our celebration of the visit of the Magi or wise men, the first non-jews to visit the baby Jesus and what is considered by many to be the true Gentile Christmas. Also, you may not have noticed, but today is the second Sunday after Christmas. It is not every year that we get a second Sunday after Christmas. It all depends on what day of the week that Christmas occurs and this year is one of those special years. All this really means is that it is only once in a while that we get to hear these readings appointed for this the Second Sunday after Christmas.
Our text for this morning has been framed, if you will. The framing of the text begins with verse forty, “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him” (v. 40), and ends with verse fifty-two, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (v. 52). Our text begins with Jesus growing and becoming strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God and the word that is translated as favor is the same word from which we get the word Eucharist. This verse follows the presentation of Jesus in the temple as a baby.
Our appointed text then ends with Jesus increasing in wisdom, age and favor with God and man. This increasing in wisdom and favor, and so forth seems to be a bit of a theme for Luke with Jesus at a young age. Perhaps Luke is helping us to see the fact that Jesus is truly God and that Jesus is aware of His own divinity. And both of these verses tie into the Old Testament reading and Solomon’s prayer for understanding. With Jesus we get perfect wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Moving on, in our text we get to the heart of our text, verse forty-one, “41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44but 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, 45and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48And 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.’ 49And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ 50And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51And 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” (v.41-51)
The first verse of our text moves us along in history twelve years from Jesus as a baby and His presentation in the temple, our Gospel reading from last Sunday, to Jesus at the age of twelve, the age of being a Jewish man. It might be that this was the time for Jesus to be bar mitzvahed, something like our confirmation, declared to be an adult in the temple.
The reason for the trip to Jerusalem was that this was an annual trek to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. It was this Feast of the Passover which celebrated the passing over of the angel of death in Egypt and the delivery of the Children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery. I think it is interesting that the first Feast that we are told that Jesus attends is the Passover because this is a foreshadowing of what Jesus will do, take this feast and out of it give us the Lord’s Supper and our deliverance out of our own bondage of slavery to sin.
Following the Passover celebration we are told that the group began their trip home. The fact that the family traveled as a group helps us to see the importance of the family group. Also, it was safer to travel as a group and certainly it made the travel easier being able to visit while walking the miles that needed to be walked.
After the group had traveled for one day Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus was not with the group. Here we see a downside to group travel, that if you are not careful you may miss someone. Jesus was twelve years old and so He was old enough to somewhat take care of Himself, yet His parents were concerned and so after they found Him missing they returned to Jerusalem to look for Him. We are told that it took three days to find Him. This three days is perhaps a foreshadowing of the three days in which Jesus would be in the grave before His resurrection.
After three days Jesus is found in the temple, not that He was lost. We are told that He was in the temple listening and questioning the teachers. Certainly if nothing else this fact infers His knowledge of His divinity, in other words, Jesus knew He was God and so, as God He is bearing witness to the teachers of a proper understanding of what His word says. I believe it is interesting that it may be these same teachers who will, within eighteen years when Jesus returns as a prophet, have forgotten their conversations with Him.
When Mary and Joseph find Jesus He acknowledges that He must be in His Father’s house and be about His Father’s business, certainly not simply inferring, but outright acknowledging His divinity, that God is His true father.
When Mary and Joseph find Jesus, they express their concern for Him. Notice Jesus’ response to His parents. His answer is an answer of respect, certainly in keeping with the fourth commandment. Jesus is truly God. Jesus is the sinless Son of God and truly human. Jesus knows the commandments, after all, as God He gave them and so here He shows us a perfect example of how we are to keep the commandments.
It was not Jesus who was having trouble, but His parents. He knew who He was, why He was born and what was happening. It was His parents that were having a misunderstanding concerning these events as Luke so well points out (v. 50).
Our text says that Jesus left with His parents and was submissive to them. Here again we get a godly example of Christian obedience. Jesus was not inferior in being submissive, nor was He less of a person, rather He understood the importance of the order of creation, the importance of good order in a family and home, and He shows us how that good order works best, and that was by His perfect submission and subordination.
And finally our text tells us again about Mary that she treasured up these things. Mary has had an interesting life so far, having had an angel announce to her, her divine conception, having given birth to God in flesh, having had shepherds visit her child, having had Magi from the East, Gentiles visit her child, having had to make a trip to Egypt and back, having had a priest say some interesting things concerning her child, and now this strange encounter in Jerusalem. What else could she do except treasure all these things in her heart?
So, what does all this mean? One of the first things I believe we are to take from this text is the fact that Jesus is truly a human being. He grew from being a baby to being twelve years old. He walked everywhere he went. He talked, listening and asking questions. Yes, Jesus was truly human and we know that He had to be human in order to be our substitute. In order for Jesus to trade His life for ours, in order to trade His perfect life for ours, He had to be one of us, a human being.
Yet, not only was Jesus truly human, He was also truly divine, He was truly God. We see His divinity and His awareness of His divinity in His being in the temple, in His Father’s house as He described the temple, being about His Father’s business. He see His divinity in His listening to and asking questions of the teachers in the temple. We see His divinity in His perfect obedience to His parents. And we know that Jesus is and had to be truly divine in order to be perfect, again in order to be able to trade His perfect life for our imperfect life.
What other conclusion can we get from our text for this morning other than this that Jesus is our Savior. It was because of us and for our sin that Jesus was born. It was because of us and our sin that Jesus was perfect, that He lived a perfect life. Jesus was not perfect simply to be an example for us, please do not misunderstand Jesus’ life. To believe Jesus lived perfectly for us simply as an example misses the mark in many ways and is a confusion of the Gospel. If Jesus was simply an example, that statement implies that we can be perfect like Jesus, which also means that we were not conceived and born in sin, which also implies that our will has not been tainted by sin so that we can choose to be like Jesus. And all that misses the first part of Genesis which reminds us that the sin of Adam and Eve is conceived and born in us so that our will has been tainted by sin so that all we can do, in and of ourselves is refuse and reject Jesus.
The fact that Jesus lived perfectly shows the fullness of the Gospel, that is that as God commands that we live perfect as He is perfect and because we cannot live perfect, Jesus was born as a human and lived perfectly for us so that when the time came, He traded His perfection for our imperfection, He took our sins and paid the price for our sins so that He received our judgement, eternal death and hell and we received His reward, eternal life in heaven. And this Jesus accomplished as true God and true man.
In our world today we are confronted with something of a dilemma. The world would reject Jesus as He is, truly God and truly man. The world would rather we accept that Jesus is simply one of many ways to some eternal nirvana. The reason for this thinking is because of our sinful nature. If Jesus is who He says He is and as we read our text for this morning the fact that He was aware of who He was, then this understanding would mean that we will be held accountable for our own lives and we will be accountable to God, which means that many souls will be condemned or many people will need to change their lives. Instead, what we see in our world is the accusation that Jesus is a lunatic, why else would He live a perfect life, take our sins and suffer and die for them and then rise from the dead?
Let me encourage you this morning. Jesus is who He says He is. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the one and only way to eternal life. As we approach the end times, it may become more and more difficult to be a Christian in this world, but let me assure you, we have Jesus promise that He will be with us and as He has worked out and given to us our salvation, we can know for certain that when our last hour arrives, we will be with Him in paradise. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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