+ Christmas 2 – January 5th,
2014 +
Redeemer Lutheran, HB
Series A: 1 Kings 3:4-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Luke 2:40-52
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Where’s Jesus? That’s the question of the day.
Today, Luke’s Gospel reading teaches us where and how to find Jesus.
So…where’s Jesus?
At first it seems like Jesus is lost. Mary and Joseph were going up to
Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival, the great sacrifice of the paschal,
suffering Lamb who gives its life blood for the people. And notice how Mary and
Joseph “go up” to Jerusalem. OT, NT – you always go up to Jerusalem. It’s a
geographically and theologically loaded phrase. Of course you must physically
ascend the stairs. But the temple, Mt. Zion is also where you go up for the
sacrifices, up to the altar, up to where the Lord was present, up to where he
delivered his forgiveness and holiness to his people, up to where the Lord’s
promises were bestowed, up as God’s redemption comes down.
Jesus was there too, the boy-king, the 12 year old God in human flesh.
Jesus is brought up to the temple as well, a foreshadowing of his future saving
work. A reminder that Jesus’ life begins and ends in the temple. Jesus may come
to the temple a boy, but he leaves a man. He knows who he is and what he was
born to do. But Mary and Joseph don’t understand everything quite to yet.
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 group they went a
day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and
acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they
returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
Where’s Jesus?
It was only 12 years ago when Mary and Joseph brought
40-day-old Jesus to the same temple for the rite of purification and
presentation. A sacrifice was made then, just as it was at the Passover, just
as it was later in Jesus’ ministry. But Mary didn’t yet understand Simeon’s
words about her Son…
Behold this child is set for the
fall and resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a
sword shall pierce through your own soul also), so that the thoughts of many
hearts will be revealed.
Where’s Jesus? Is he lost? Did he wander off? Was he taken? Is he okay?
Where did he sleep? What did he eat? All those questions and more were
certainly running like a sword through Mary’s soul, piercing her with anxiety
and doubt. So they searched the
caravans of Passover pilgrims. They asked friends and relatives along the way.
They checked under every camel and cart but still…Where’s Jesus?
After three days they found him
in the temple…
After 3 days (hold on to that
thought for later). There was Jesus, in the temple. In the Father’s house,
among the Father’s things. Where else would he be? What seems so obvious to the
reader is still unclear to the people around Jesus. The Rabbis, to whom Jesus
was listening and asking questions of, were amazed, astonished, flabbergasted
at his understanding and his answers. And so were Mary and Joseph.
Son, why have you treated us so?
Behold, your father and I were searching for you in great distress.
And there’s the twist in the story. As it turns out, Jesus wasn’t
really the one who was lost. Mary and Joseph were.
But in their defense, it’s not like Jesus went running around making
clay pigeons and breathing them to life or zapping lightning bolts at kids
while playing tag at the synagogue. And even though he amazed the Rabbis at the
temple with his biblical knowledge and insight, Mary and Joseph didn’t have a “My
Son is a Hebrew School Honor Student” bumper sticker on the back of their
camel!
Where’s Jesus? In the humble, ordinary flesh and blood of a 12 year old
boy.
It’s easy to blame Mary and Joseph. But we would’ve have missed that
point too. We probably would have lost Him in the crowd. And we certainly would
not have understood what He was saying when He said, “It is necessary to be in among
my Father’s things.” The incarnation of
God is like that. It just doesn’t fit our categories or our way of thinking or
our pious religious notions about God. God is Man and Man is God. God is a
twelve year old boy.
But this is the comfort of Christmas. Jesus knows what it’s like to be
one of us. He really is Immanuel – God with Us, and “with us” so hiddenly and
humbly that we would not have even noticed Him. But that’s precisely the way
God works with us and among us. Not in the seen but the unseen. Not in the
powerful and mighty, but in the lowly and humble. A manger, a cross. A child. A
teenager. A man. He is us. He is you. He embraces your life in all its
humanity. He even knows what it’s like to be chewed out by your parents and not
have done anything wrong!
God’s hiddenness is not understood today, nor can it be. Who Jesus is
and what He has done must be revealed to us and seen through the gift of faith.
There’s no other way. Mary treasured these things up in her heart. And that
treasured up Word had its way with her, creating and enlivening a living faith
in her Son, God’s Son. Left on our own to find Jesus we’d be just like Mary and
Joseph – lost. Lost in sin. Lost in doubt. Lost in our worry and anxiety. Lost
in our lostness. Like Mary, Jesus must
speak his word to us. He must reveal to us our lostness of sin and then find us
again in His Word of forgiveness.
That is why Jesus was in the temple that day. He was in the Father’s
house among the Father’s things for you. For us who have the attention span of
12 year old boys, Jesus was perfectly attentive to God’s teaching. For us who
have disobeyed every letter of that Law before we were age 12, Jesus knew every
word – and kept every word of that Law for you. For us who fail so often to
remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, by hearing God’s Word regularly
and rejoicing in it, 12 year old Jesus rejoiced in hearing and learning God’s
word every day. For us who fail so often to honor our father and mother, no
matter what age we are, Jesus honored both his Heavenly Father and went down to
Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and was submissive to his earthly parents.
Already at age of 12, Jesus obeyed the Father’s will, just as he obeys
the Father’s will later on the cross. Already at the age of 12 Jesus knows who
he is and why he came among us: to keep the Law, to lay down his life, to
redeem us, to be our Passover Lamb.
All of this he did, not for his own sake, but for us and all sinners
who, like Mary, worry, doubt, sin, and don’t understand Jesus until he reveals
himself to us and for us.
Where’s Jesus?
Jesus is exactly where he is supposed to be – in his Father’s house. Or
rather, as the text actually says: It is
necessary for me to be in my Father’s things. What things?
The lampstand, the altar of incense, the altar for whole burnt
offerings, and so forth. Jesus is in the temple, in the midst of the Father’s
things that render God’s people clean through blood, reconciling them to the
Father that they might bring their prayers and petitions to Him.
Everything that was true about the temple is now found in Jesus. Jesus
is where you go to find God. Jesus is your holiness, your cleansing, your
redemption, your forgiveness. He hears your prayers and prays for you. Jesus is
your temple.
And so the story ends where it begins. The next time Jesus went up to
Jerusalem, he went there to die. The next time Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to
celebrate the Passover, He became the Passover Lamb, sacrificed for your sins,
my sins, the world’s sins. The next time Jesus goes up to Jerusalem he would be
lost again. Or so it would appear. But after three days Jesus is found alive
again. Why were you looking for me? Did
you not know that the Son of Man must suffer, die, and on the third day rise
again?
Where’s Jesus?
Right where he promises to
be for you, in his temple, his body and blood for you. In his Church for you.
In the holy place where His Word comes to you.
Where's Jesus? In the same hidden and humble ways. In
Baptism, Word, and Supper. So easily ignored, despised, rejected. As easily
rejected as a twelve year old kid in the temple. But God’s Word says there is
something more than meets our eyes, our senses, our reason. This is the power
of God to save. God in the Flesh come to save us. A perfect obedience to the
Law that is yours not by what you do but by trust in what Jesus has done for
you. That’s where Jesus is.
And today, because Jesus was found in the Father’s house, you are found
in his, now and forever.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment