Luke 2:41-52
A. INTRODUCTION
For a child there can be nothing worse than hearing those words ‘hasn’t she grown’, ‘isn’t he tall’ or ‘hasn’t she changed’. (That’s apart from being told that they are just like their mother or father). Adults can be so embarrassing, particularly as a child’s bodily appearance is pulled apart and analysed in front of the child themselves. And what makes it worse, is that the child is invariably excluded from the conversation. Oh yes, the subject of the conversation is about the child—and about how they have changed and developed—but the conversation is between the adults, and the adults only, as if the child wasn’t really there.
Of course, we may all remember times, when that scenario happened to us, when we were children. But what I find bizarre, is that despite the fact that people complain about how embarrassing it was for them, many do the same things to their own children, even now.
Embarrassment aside, however, growing and changing is perfectly natural, and should be expected. And, indeed, it is a feature of our childhood years. But growing and changing is not just a feature of our physical appearance as we are growing up, but relates to other aspects of our lives as well, as the story from Luke’s Gospel illustrates only too well today.
B. JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
1. Background (41-42)
Because the Bible passage for today begins with Mary and Joseph on their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover/Unleavened Bread festival. And with them was Jesus, their twelve-year-old son. Still a child, but only a year away from being accepted as an adult.
2. Jesus is Missing! (43-46a)
Now their attendance at the festival would have required Mary and Joseph to stay at least two of the seven days that the festivities continued. And evidently they had decided not to stay for the full seven days. So here we see Mary and Joseph returning home to Nazareth, believing that Jesus was in tow—somewhere mixed in a crowd of returning pilgrims—when all of a sudden they discovered that Jesus was missing.
Now that probably isn’t as bad as it sounds. They would have been travelling in a large convoy with other pilgrims. And it was quite normal for a boy of Jesus’s age to travel with relatives or friends. And only after the caravan stopped for the night—after a day’s journey—would the children be rounded up by their parents for the night. And it’s probably at this point that they discovered that Jesus was missing.
They then realised that Jesus had been left behind in Jerusalem. So, because it would have been too dangerous to travel back at night, they returned to Jerusalem the next day, spending the whole day trekking back to the city, only to find Jesus in the Temple the following day.
3. The Priority of Learning (46b-47)
And what was Jesus doing in the Temple? Well, he was sitting on the ground with the teachers. And he was engaged in very deep and meaningful discussions on matters of faith. Indeed matters that were well beyond what would have been considered normal for someone of his young years.
Jesus asked questions . . . which was quite normal with the rabbinic style of teaching. (After all, pupils were supposed to ask questions as a means to start off a serious debate). And despite the fact that Jesus would have been in the Temple several times before, and had been with his parents on the Passover pilgrimage annually for a number of years, the responses of those in the Temple to Jesus was one of amazement.
Here, in the Temple, they weren’t concerned about how much Jesus had physically grown since they saw him last. Rather, they were amazed by the depth of his insight and knowledge in regard to spiritual matters.
4. The Priority of the Temple (48-50)
And, indeed, they weren’t the only ones. Because when Mary and Joseph finally arrived—and found Jesus sitting there—despite the fact that they were his parents, and despite the fact that they had seen him grow up over twelve years, they too were astounded at his spiritual insights. Indeed, he reflected a spiritual growth that went far beyond even their comprehension.
Of course, Mary, naturally, asked him why he had not joined the caravan and gone with them, why he had stayed in Jerusalem, and didn’t he know they would be worried. But Jesus responded with a gentle reminder that they should have known better, they should have known that it was in his father’s house that he was supposed to be.
5. The Priority of Keeping God’s Laws (51)
However, having completed his discussions in the Temple, Jesus got up and returned home. He practiced obedience to his parents, as was required by God’s law.
6. Continued Growth (52)
And we’re told that Jesus’s development didn’t stop there. But that he continued to grow and develop. And, particularly, as he prepared himself to return on the scene as an adult some eighteen years later, consecrated for the task his godly father had given him to do.
7. Comment
Now to me this is a very impressive story. It’s a story of a twelve-year old boy, who only a few verses before is described by Luke as a baby. However, interestingly, the emphasis in the story is not on any change of appearance or on how he had physically grown. No, the story is concerned with Jesus’s growth, in terms of the most important growth there can ever be: spiritual growth.
Furthermore, even though in the Temple, people had probably pointed at him and commented on his spirituality—and you can bet many would have been talking about him and not to him—do we get any indication that Jesus was embarrassed about the whole affair? Not in the least! Indeed, you get the impression of a very intelligent, and very confident twelve-year old child, whose relationship with God was on very solid foundations. And, indeed, whose concern was a determination to grow and develop his relationship with God even further.
In short, this is a story about laying foundations for future growth. Foundations that go well beyond the childhood years.
C. IMPLICATIONS
As a consequence, we can learn a few lessons from this story for ourselves. Because if we want to grow, if we want to become more like Jesus—as we’re told that every Christian should—we would do well to study this story very carefully, because it has some very useful tips to help us achieve that very aim. And there are three tips in particular I want to mention briefly today.
1. The Priority of Learning
And the first tip is the priority of learning.
Now, Jesus may have been God’s son, and he may have used the opportunity, through his questions, in some way to teach others about God and about themselves. But in his human form, emptied of much of his god-like nature, Jesus too needed to learn more about his Father God and about himself. And the people in the Temple were amazed at his learning and his eagerness to find out more.
As a consequence, a major part of any Christian’s life, then, should be the need to learn more about their creator, redeemer, and sanctifier—and about themselves. And that’s why study, and putting oneself in a place where one can ask questions, and involve oneself in religious debate, should be an essential part of every Christians life.
In contrast today, though, many people baulk at the idea of the need of spiritual learning. Some people have a hard time coming to grips with the need to learn. As a consequence, the level of understanding and commitment to God and the Christian faith is not always as it should be. But then even the Apostle Paul found it difficult to teach people who were unwilling to learn. As he wrote to the church at Corinth: ‘Brothers, I was unable to speak to you as spiritual men. Instead, I spoke to you as men of flesh, as infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not ready. Indeed, even now, you are not ready for you are still men of flesh’ (1 Cor 3:1-2).
And, sadly, what happens when people are unwilling to learn is that it stunts their Christian growth and at the same time holds back the church. As a consequence, if it was important enough for Jesus to learn more about the Father (and himself), how much more important should it be for us to put ourselves in positions where we can actively learn about God and about ourselves.
2. The Priority of the Church
The second tip is the priority of the Temple (or these days you would say the priority of meeting together as God’s church).
Now Jesus may have had a unique relationship with God the Father—and in that sense he did not need to meet with others for worship. However, he too found it necessary not just to relate to God in the times he had alone, but he put great importance on the need to spend quality time with others of like-minded faith.
Talking to scholars would not have been the only thing that Jesus did in the Temple. He also would have participated with his family in the Passover/Unleavened Bread festival, part of which would have been to join in worship with other pilgrims and participants, to build up and encourage the others there. (And it was his regular practice as an adult to be in the Temple, synagogue, or meeting with other believers on the Sabbath).
In contrast today, though, many people say they are believers but they also say they prefer to practice their faith in the privacy of their own home. Furthermore, some attend church, albeit occasionally, but have no real commitment to regular worship or meeting together.
Unfortunately these kind of attitudes show that some people are missing a vital point of what it means to be a Christian. Because church isn’t something based on simply ‘What I can get out of it for myself’, but rather it’s about the corporate worship of God, and how we can contribute to the building up and encouragement of each other.
Now the writer of the letter to the Hebrews knew this problem well. As a consequence he wrote to the people advising them: ‘Let us not abandon meeting together, as is the custom of some. Instead, let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day of the Lord approaching’ (Hebrews 10:25).
And, sadly, what happens if the church isn’t seen as a priority is that it denies the need to worship God as community, and it denies the need to support and encourage the people within it. As a consequence, if it was important for Jesus, the Son of God, to meet, and encourage, and build up others, then how much more important should it be for us?
3. The Priority of Keeping God’s Laws
And the third tip is the priority of keeping God’s commandments.
Now, Jesus took God’s commandments very seriously. And obedience to the fifth commandment, ‘Honour your father and your mother’ (Exodus 20:12a), we see clearly demonstrated with him returning home to Nazareth, with his earthly parents, where we are told that he continued to be obedient to them.
Having said that however, Jesus was not prepared to follow that commandment blindly where there was a higher issue at stake. Because if obeying or honouring his parents meant that he had to disregard any of the first four commandments—which all relate to his (and our) relationship with God—then, as far as Jesus was concerned, his heavenly Father took priority. Hence his need to stay in the Temple and consequently being left behind when Mary and Joseph began their return journey to Nazareth.
Now we live in a culture that, in the past, has been claimed to be based on Christian principles, and where the Ten Commandments have been stated to be the ultimate statement of healthy living. However, in reality, our culture is one that usually only pays lip service to Christian principles and the commandments, because their interpretation has become so twisted that they have become totally unrecognisable. Despite that, even the Apostle Paul freely admitted that God’s laws (as they were intended) were still important to try to keep. Indeed he described them, to the church at Rome, as ‘the form of knowledge and truth’ (Romans 2:20b).
And, sadly, what happens when people twist and reinterpret Christian principles and God’s commandments to suit themselves is that we end up with a parody of the Christian faith. As a consequence, if it was important enough for Jesus—who already had a relationship with the Father—to uphold God’s laws, as they were given, then think how important it should be for us, today, to try to keep them too.
4. Comment
So, if Jesus aged twelve—with his special relationship with God—could clearly hang on to these three priorities—priorities about learning about God (and himself); priorities about meeting for worship and building up fellow believers; and priorities about keeping God’s laws—then isn’t this a model for all Christians to follow, as we try to grow in our understanding of who God is, who we are, and what the Christian faith is all about.
D. CONCLUSION
Now, for any child to be stopped on the street, or in a shop, and to hear those words about how much they’ve grown, has to be one of the most embarrassing experiences. And more so, if the adults talk about such matters in the presence of the child, while not including the child in the conversation.
Regardless of that, though, the fact is that children do change and do grow. But then, as adults we should grow too.
Now in terms of our Christian growth, that doesn’t happen automatically, we have to do something to make that happen. And it’s for that reason that we need to look at these three very important priorities in Jesus’s life. Priorities he expressed as a twelve-year old boy, and priorities he continued to practice for the rest of his life.
Jesus had the priority of learning about God (and about himself); he had the priority of corporate worship and meeting and encouraging one’s fellow believers; and he had the priority of keeping God’s rules. Three priorities which guaranteed his spiritual growth and a strong relationship with God. And three priorities we would all do well to imitate today.
Posted: 10th January 2024
© 2024, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
