No ordinary Child

Sermon for Epiphany 1

Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

To us who know more of the story, it’s obvious that Jesus was no ordinary Child. To Mary and Joseph it was less obvious. Now, obviously, His conception was extraordinary. But His birth itself, while memorable, was ordinary. Then a quick succession of very extraordinary things happened: The shepherds’ visit to the stable was extraordinary, as was the visit of the wise men, as were the words of Simeon and Anna in the Temple, as was King Herod’s murderous hatred as he slaughtered all the baby boys of Bethlehem in his rage against Mary’s Son. Those things were little Epiphanies, little revelations of Jesus’ extraordinary, divine nature. But once Herod was dead and the holy family was safely back in Nazareth, things became mostly ordinary again for a while.

In this season of Epiphany, of revelation, what is it that the extraordinary thing that the Holy Spirit reveals to us today about the Boy Jesus? He reveals to us Jesus’ extraordinary devotion to His Father’s business.

First, we learn in our Gospel that Mary and Joseph were faithful attendees at the annual celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem. Whether Jesus had previously gone with them or not, we’re not told; He wouldn’t have been expected to go before the age of 12, but He may have gone. In any case, we do well to pay attention as the Holy Spirit highlights the piety and devotion of this entire family. Today it’s all too common to see people who are born to Christian parents, but who themselves don’t actually attend Sunday services or the special festivals of the Church, even though they may still call themselves Christians. The same thing happened with any number of Jews. Culturally and nationally, they remained Jews. But in practice? Not everyone followed the Law of Moses. But Mary and Joseph did. They raised Jesus in a family, not only of weekly church-goers, but in a family that was devoted to keeping the Law of Moses in all respects, which included the annual trek to Jerusalem for Passover. That alone didn’t exactly make the holy family extraordinary, but it’s certainly a pattern for all Christians to follow.

After the feast was done, Jesus lingered in Jerusalem while His parents left for Nazareth. They journeyed an entire day before they realized He wasn’t with them, that He wasn’t “in their company,” it says. Literally, in their “synod.” How do you leave the Son of God behind? How do you just assume He’s in your synod, in your journey together, without making sure? It speaks to just how ordinary Jesus normally appeared to His parents. Extraordinary in His perfectly sincere and obedient behavior, but ordinary in every other sense. Otherwise, if they really grasped what it meant to be the divinely charged caregivers, guardians and protectors of God in the flesh, man’s only hope of salvation, they would have been under enormous stress all the time, and they certainly wouldn’t have been able to let Jesus out of their sight in the big city of Jerusalem.

Now, there’s a little lesson for us here, too. It’s never a good idea to just assume Jesus is on the road with you, in your company, in your synod; never wise to just leave Him to the care of the relatives and acquaintances—the theologians, the councils, your family members. In man’s laziness and apathy toward God and His Word, many have relied on their family’s faith to save them. Many have put their faith, not in Jesus directly, but in the Church, to the point that you may even hear someone say, “I’m not really sure what my church teaches, but I’m sure I believe it!” This assuming that Jesus is with you just because you’re a member of a certain church or of a certain culture or of a certain family—that’s deadly. Just as each person is baptized individually, each person has to know Jesus individually, in His Word and in His Sacraments. Each one individually has to repent of his or her sins and rely on Jesus alone as the Throne of Grace, where God freely forgives sins to all who believe in Jesus. Each one individually is given God’s Word to learn and to study and to grow in, not to leave to other people to study.

Back to our Gospel. Mary and Joseph finally realized that Jesus wasn’t in their company, so they did exactly what they should: they returned to Jerusalem, where they had last seen Him. It took them a day to get back, and another day of searching, before they found Him on the third day. (A little foreshadowing of a future Passover, when Jesus would be hidden in the tomb until the third day? Possibly!) It appears that the Temple wasn’t their first stop on returning. Why? Because they expected Jesus to be more like an ordinary child, either off having fun somewhere or in some kind of danger.

Have you ever searched and searched for something in vain, and then, as a last resort, looked in the place where that something actually belongs and found it there? That’s what Mary and Joseph did. Finally they retraced their steps to the Temple and found Jesus there, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.

What 12-year-old boy does such a thing? Stays behind in the big city just so that He can spend more time in the Temple, more time sitting at the feet of the teachers, more time dealing with God’s Word? To Jesus, it isn’t a chore to learn His catechism, to learn His Old Testament, to learn the doctrine of Holy Scripture. It’s the thing He can’t get enough of.

Every one of us here should learn to humble ourselves before this shining example of devotion and piety. Every one of us should recognize that this is the sincere love for God’s Word that God requires of all of us, and not as with a forced obedience, but as the fervent desire of our hearts, to love His Word and to hear it with joy, to be devoted to learning His ways and to being in His house, so that we can truly say with the Psalmist, I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

But what does the Lord see when He examines our actions and our thoughts and our motives? He finds a slowness to hear, a sense of boredom with divine things, an indifference to His Word. In some the indifference is greater, in others lesser. But search your heart, and you’ll find it there, too, an indifference toward God that is worthy of hell.

For those who repent, there is a remedy here in today’s Gospel, in the Boy Jesus Himself. All who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. That’s because Jesus was the perfect student. As the Son of God, He knew exactly what His own Word meant. But even here, as the Son of Man, He had been paying perfect attention to every word. And that perfect attention on His part, combined with the fact that He was born to fulfill God’s holy Law where all other men have failed, is the thing that makes up for all the inattention on your part.

Mary and Joseph were amazed when they saw Jesus there, where they didn’t think He was supposed to be. Mary said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

The Boy Jesus implies that Mary and Joseph should have known better—should have remembered that He had only one true Father, the Father in heaven, who had business that needed attending to in the Temple. Jesus hadn’t come to earth just to grow up in Mary and Joseph’s house and later inherit the family business of carpentry. Jesus had come to work in His Father’s business. And the Father’s business is the salvation of sinful mankind. For that salvation to be accomplished, several things needed to happen. First, Jesus had to be born into the world. Then He had to be the perfect Child, which included growing in wisdom and stature, which also included learning the Holy Scriptures and dealing with people in the holy Temple of His Father. Later, it would include preaching and teaching, dying and rising, ascending and sending forth preachers to proclaim His Gospel in all the world, that in Him alone is found the forgiveness of sins and the promise of life everlasting. An extraordinary path was laid out for this extraordinary Child, and it was time for Mary and Joseph to understand that their Son was no ordinary Child.

We need to understand that, too. Jesus is not your invisible buddy or your imaginary friend. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He isn’t here to keep you company or to keep you entertained. He is here with you in the preaching of His Word and in the administration of His Sacraments to forgive you your sins and to make you acceptable to His Father and to your Father. He didn’t come to give you a prosperous life on earth, or even an ordinary life on earth. He came to earn heaven for you and to give you an extraordinary life full of suffering for His name’s sake, but also full of grace and hope and comfort and peace.

And just as Jesus had His Father’s business to attend to, so now He has given you, His holy, precious people, a business to attend to: to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It’s no ordinary service to which you have been called, but the extraordinary service of devoting your whole self, body and soul, to the service of God and to the building up of your fellow members in the body of Christ.

May He find you doing His Father’s business when He comes, devoted to hearing and learning His Word, committed to His Church, and trusting in Him for the forgiveness of sins! Amen.