Second Sunday After Christmas, 01/03/2016

Sermon on Luke 2:40-52, by Carl A. Voges

“And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 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 a search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 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.’ And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ “And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

“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. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” [English Standard Version]

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

[Ephesians 1.13-14]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

The Incarnation of the Father’s Son is an overwhelming reality. The impact of its Twelve Days has been spreading back and forth until it concludes on 06 January with the observance of the Lord’s Epiphany. After four weeks of pushing through the Advent season (the weeks in which the Lord was coming toward us!) while wrestling with the world’s understandings and practices of Christmas, we have now hurtled through most of these Twelve Days where the reality of Son’s the Incarnation is splashing all over our lives.

Moving from the world’s Christmas to the Church’s Christ Mass is a highly significant turn. It reveals that the Lord’s people take Christ Mass seriously because it moves the natural attention from ourselves to the Lord God who is plunging into our lives and rescuing us from the world’s life.

These Twelve Days emerged in the Church’s history hundreds of years ago by fits and starts. They began to achieve definition in the early thousands as the traditions from Italy / France came together, traditions that have continued to run on into the two thousands.

The Days started on 25 December because that date was nine months before 25 March, the date believed to be the day when our Lord was crucified. The Days conclude in the middle of this coming week, 06 January, when the Church celebrates Lord’s Epiphany. In this span of Twelve Days we are literally churning through the first thirty years of Jesus’ Life! During these Twelve Days, we have been keenly aware of our Lord’s saving activity, even as we have been reminded of the self-absorption and meanness of this world’s life, the one from which we are being rescued.

Such awareness hit us fully as we moved from the Son’s Birth (25 December) to the following day (26 December) when we remembered Stephen, the first person to be put to death for pointing to the world’s redemption in the Son’s dying / rising; to this past Sunday (27 December) when we remembered John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, the only apostle to die of natural causes.

This awareness continued this past Monday (28 December) when we remembered the Holy Innocents, the boys in Bethlehem two years or younger who were put to death because a king believed they were threat to him as well as this past Friday (01 January) when we observed the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.

The awareness remains on high level today when we see our Lord taking part in a Passover observance at the age of twelve and discussing significant matters with the teachers in the Temple. This high level will reach to this coming Wednesday (06 January) when we remember the visit of the wise men to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem.

Today’s Gospel deepens the impact of the Son’s Incarnation as he travels with his parents to the annual observance of the Passover in Jerusalem, but is separated from them because he gets caught up in the discussions with the teachers in the Temple.

The passage opens with Luke’s comments that as Jesus grew, he became strong, filled with the wisdom and favor of the Lord God. In verses 41-42, Luke describes the trip to Jerusalem, noting that it was the custom of Jesus’ parents to do this every year and that Jesus was twelve years old. In verses 43-45, Luke points out that Jesus and his parents were separated as the Passover observance concluded (he stayed behind in Jerusalem as they began the trip home). They did not realize the separation, however, until they had traveled that first day, immediately they began looking for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem and continued their search.

In verses 45-50, we get to the center of the story. After searching three days, Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the Temple; he’s sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Luke reports that all who hear Jesus are amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents are astonished when they see him! Mary wants to know why Jesus did not tell them what he was going to do after the Passover; she points out that she and Joseph had been in great turmoil looking for him. Jesus responds by wondering why they were looking for him, did they not know that he had to be in his Father’s house? Luke comments that they did not understand what he said to them.

But he returns to Nazareth with them and is obedient to them; during this time Mary is pondering all these matters in her heart. The passage closes with Luke stating that Jesus increased in wisdom, in height and in favor with God and man.

It is striking that this passage is the only biblical story between Jesus’ birth and Baptism. At his birth, it was the angels and Simeon who proclaimed who Jesus is. Here, in Luke 2, Jesus speaks for the first time, describing his vital relationship with the Father.

It is important to notice that the center of this passage is not Jesus’ intelligence at a young age, but his reference to the Lord God as his Father.

Following his Baptism, Jesus, in the course of his ministry, will come to Jerusalem and its Temple, carrying threats and prophetic witness about the city and the holy place. In this passage, however, Jesus and his parents come obediently and piously to fulfill the duties of the Law. The astonishment that greets Jesus’ understanding and his answers in the Temple anticipates the amazement that will greet Jesus’ teaching when he begins his ministry and amazes the scribes with his answers. Such amazement is shared by Mary and Joseph, but then we are moved to their lack of understanding of what Jesus has said to them about his Father.

His parents are carrying us, in a way, from his birth to his Baptism, but they do not yet fully grasp whose Son he really is. Jesus’ presence in the Temple and his listening to the teachers indicates where his calling lies. While he is tied naturally to his family in this world, he is truly tied to his relationship with the Father, a relationship that has brought him from eternity to this world. Notice, too, that the Jesus who goes to Jerusalem with his parents to keep the observance of Passover is also the same Jesus who keeps the command of honoring his mother and father. Mary keeps with concern these events in her heart; this mulling over is preparing her for the future understanding that will emerge as the Son who is born from her is crucified and resurrected.

This passage from Luke 2 is not that complicated, but attempting to see that the relationship between Jesus and his Father is more vital than his relationship with Mary and Joseph is complicated. When daughters and sons are born into this world, they are automatically given the instinct and drive of focusing on one’s self. Such instinct and drive did not apply to Jesus, however, because he is from the Father. His birth, though, makes it possible for him to enter the self-centered life of this world and rescues the people who are trapped and sinking because of those instincts and drives.

As we grow up in the world’s life, however, this focus on self creates difficulties and problems with others because then you have two selves (or more!) colliding with one another. This creates tensions and misunderstandings, a reality that is reflected in Jesus’ back and forth with his parents, a reality that is reflected in our lives on a daily basis.

This back and forth, however, is powerfully instructive for the Lord’s people today.

With Jesus’ Incarnation making its impact on us during these Twelve Days, we

recognize how his rescue of us from the world’s life is always at work. We know that Jesus’ relationship with his Father was perfect, what is astounding is that we are rescued and drawn into that same relationship! These Days remind that this drawing occurs when we are baptized. In those brief sacramental moments, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit actually draw us into their Life!

The great news is that as we make our way through the world’s life, this relationship with the Lord God becomes the dominant one. This relationship pours in on us from the Lord’s holy places of the Scriptures and the Sacraments, grounding us in his saving and sustaining activity. That activity is has been very evident in these Twelve Days, it is sharpening our understanding as the Lord God moves us from focusing on our selves to focusing on him.

During these same days, the world is reviewing its life, ranging from the spread of the Islamic State to the Federal Reserve making a rate move to the changes in political campaigning to the emission problems at Volkswagen to the nuclear pact with Iran to the deaths of notable people in the past year. Looking deeply into these reviews, we will see how trapped the world is in its own life, how it asserts its ability to deal with its realities and then finds itself choking and stumbling as those realities break apart.

During these Twelve Days, however, the Lord’s people are mindful of the deep thanks we offer him because he has rescued our lives from themselves, that his saving and creating activity is stupendous and that his ways run on into eternity!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts

and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr. Carl A. Voges
Columbia, SC
E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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