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Sermon for Epiphany 1
Romans 12:1-5 + Luke 2:41-52
On Wednesday, we mentioned a few unanswerable questions about the wise men—who they were, where they were from, what prophecy led them to recognize the meaning of that special star and to seek the newborn King of the Jews. And we concluded that the only thing that really mattered was the thing that was revealed to us, namely, that they were Gentiles who had been drawn to Israel by God to worship the King of the Jews, whom they recognized as their King, too.
There are plenty of unanswerable questions surrounding Jesus’ childhood, and foolish men have wasted countless hours inventing stories about it. But again, the only thing that really matters about His childhood are the things that have been revealed to us by God the Holy Spirit, through His inspired Evangelists. There aren’t many things that we know, but the things we do know are worth pondering. So turn your attention with me toward Jerusalem this morning, and toward the things St. Luke tells us about the time Jesus spent there as a Child, when He was thoroughly engaged in the Word of God.
After the holy family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus, at a still very young age, Jesus was called out of Egypt back to the land of Israel, to the northern city of Nazareth, where we’re told nothing of His childhood. All we’re told is that His parents went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover. God required that annual Passover visit to Jerusalem of all the Israelites, wherever they lived, even if it meant journeying for three or four days to get there. That’s what it took, if you lived in Nazareth. Mary and Joseph’s regular attendance at that required feast shows that they took God’s Word seriously. We also know that, because, years later, when Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, everyone there in the synagogue knew Him and His whole family well. In other words, He was raised in a home where the family went to church regularly. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
When He was twelve years old, Jesus went with His parents to Jerusalem and spent the Passover week with them there, engaged in the rituals and sacrifices that God had prescribed through Moses. The week went as planned, but the return didn’t. Luke tells us that When they had completed the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother were unaware of it. But thinking that he was in their company, they went a day’s journey and began searching for him among their relatives and acquaintances. You may wonder how any parents could leave the big city without noticing that their son wasn’t with them. But this speaks to us about just how dependable and reliable the boy Jesus was. If He had had a reputation of being unreliable, or flighty, or disobedient, they wouldn’t have just assumed He was with their traveling caravan. They would have stayed on top of His whereabouts at all times. The fact that they had relaxed their supervision of Him shows that He didn’t normally need to be supervised.
When Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus wasn’t with them, they naturally panicked. And being already a day’s journey away from the city, they had to spend the next day traveling back. Then, finally, on the third day, they found Him, in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. In other words, they found Him in church, participating in “Bible class,” discussing the Word of God. And not just participating and discussing. Luke says that all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. There was Jesus, at twelve years old, revealing a little bit of His divinity in His genuine love for and profound understanding of God’s Word. Knowing who He is, that’s not a surprise to us. But no one knew at that time who He was. Even Mary and Joseph, who were supposed to know, didn’t fully comprehend it.
When they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? See, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” After living with Jesus for twelve years, they grew accustomed to His humanness, His normalcy. He was their Son. That’s how they had come to see Him. And that He should love God’s Word was no surprise, but that He would love it so much that He would stay behind in Jerusalem to discuss it with some of the most learned teachers of the church? They could hardly believe it. And they were a little offended that He would put them through the horror of finding Him missing from their company.
Most parents don’t need to be corrected by their children, nor should they be. Most children have no higher calling than to honor their father and mother. But Jesus was no ordinary Child. He was not only their Son, but the Son of God the Father in heaven, and they needed to be reminded that His will came before theirs. Jesus said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in my Father’s affairs?” Jesus didn’t “become” the Son of God later in life, nor was He ignorant of who He was. He always knew who His real Father was, and what His mission on earth was. And so He had to be engaged in His Father’s affairs, particularly in His Father’s Word, hearing it, discussing it, exploring it, explaining it, not just at home with His parents, but with the very teachers of the Church in the holy city of God, in the holy temple, in the only version of “Bible class” the Jews had available to them.
Mary and Joseph still didn’t understand at the time, but they didn’t have to. They told Jesus to come along now, and He did. And it says that He was subject to them, and that He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. He carried out His callings, His vocations, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. And He did it perfectly.
We see Jesus’ hidden identity as the Son of God in His zealous engagement with God’s Word, and in His supernatural understanding of it. But that’s not all we learn from Jesus this Gospel. We learn part of what it means to be a Christian.
There’s a key misconception people have about Christianity. Many, many people have the strange idea that you can be what I’ll call a “casual Christian,” in a casual relationship with God’s Church, and with His Word and worship, in a casual relationship with God’s commandments. I often hear people talk about their non-churchgoing-but-Christian family or friends, who don’t really care about obeying God’s commandments, including, obviously, the commandment to gather with other Christians around the ministry of His Word, to gladly hear and learn it, and to receive the Sacraments, and yet they still think of themselves as Christians. Now, as you know, there are good reasons why some people don’t go to church. They’re sick or incapacitated. Or they can’t find a right-teaching church, or they don’t live close enough to a right-teaching church to attend. But if they did, they would! As I know all of our long-distance members would gladly attend every Bible class and service, if they only lived close enough. And while they can’t attend, they look for ways to keep gathering with Christians near them to hear and learn the Word of God preached and taught by His ministers, even if it has to be through digital means. These are not “casual Christians,” but faithful ones who bear the cross of not having ready access to the pure preaching of God’s Word, and not settling for a compromised version of it.
But much more common is the “casual Christian” who isn’t really interested in gathering to hear God’s Word preached and taught. As if God never commanded anyone to gladly hear and learn His Word. But He did. It’s the moral meaning behind the Third Commandment, Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Those who aren’t interested in keeping God’s commandments, including His commandment to gather around the ministry of His Word, cannot rightly be called Christians at all.
Now if even you, who are Christians, were to compare your level of obedience and devotion to God’s Word with Jesus’ obedience and devotion, you know that you would fall short. Everyone falls short, showing the just condemnation of all men apart from Christ. Some people think, “That level of devotion and obedience is fine for Jesus. He’s the Son of God! But surely God doesn’t expect that of me! I’ll be fine with some devotion, some obedience, when I want!” Oh, but they’re wrong. The life of Jesus reveals the moral standard that God established from the beginning, how He created men to be, how Adam and Eve were, for a brief time. It isn’t “fine” to fall short of that standard. It’s deadly.
But the Christian Gospel teaches that, because no one is righteous or good enough on his own, because we’ve all earned God’s condemnation for ourselves, God sent Jesus into the world as a Man, to redeem us men from our sins. His devotion to God’s Word and to His Father’s affairs makes up for our lack of devotion, if we seek forgiveness in Him, if we recognize that we’re not at all fine apart from Him.
Those who believe in Christ can claim His record of perfect obedience and devotion before God as their own. And now, we believers also recognize that God hasn’t called us to remain in the filth of our sins and in our natural apathy (much less animosity!) toward His Word. You Christians, as born-again people, are called to love the Word of God, to hear it gladly, to learn it, to study it, to be engaged in it. To whatever extent God has opened the door for you to be engaged in the hearing and study and discussion of His Word, make the most of every one of those opportunities.
But the Christian life includes other things, too. Lots of other things. You heard the apostle Paul’s encouragement to Christians in today’s Epistle: I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. As those who believe in Jesus and who follow Jesus, you have also been called to imitate Him in whole-life obedience to God’s commandments, summarized with love for God and love for your neighbor, but spelled out in much greater detail throughout the Holy Scriptures. Today’s Gospel gives you just a little window into the childhood life of the One whom you call your Lord and your Savior, whose love for God’s Word was unparalleled. Watch Him through that window, and learn from Him, even at the age of twelve, to be engaged in God’s Word, and in all our Father’s affairs, to walk in faith and in love, and in obedience to God’s commands. Amen.
