 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri January 11, 2022 Luke 2:41-52The boy Jesus in the Temple  Luke 2:41-52 Now ever year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search 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. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety. “He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.    A Jewish story told to Gentiles Twelve was a serious age. A Jewish boy would have learned the scriptures from a young age, and now is on the cusp of manhood. Jesus is ready to become Bat Mitzvah – a son of the Law, prepared to assume the religious responsibilities of a Jewish man. It is not surprising that Jesus had some sense of what that meant, and a desire to learn more. A wealthy family might have sent him to school in Jerusalem at this age, as it seems Paul’s parents had done. Jesus would naturally want to sit and study in the Temple, to learn from those men, to discuss the scriptures with them. He was where he wanted to be. And he amazed his listeners. But this story is also written for a Gentile audience. Luke’s interest is in telling a Jewish story in a way that explains Jesus to Gentiles who didn’t care about the temple. .It was also common for young Roman men to study in prestigious schools, though, and to demonstrate their abilities by this early adolescence, in order to show their fitness for later office. At twelve, for example, Augustus, who would later become emperor, delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother, Julia Caesarea, the sister of Julius Caesar. Luke presents Jesus as superior to Augustus, since his learning did not come from hard study in an excellent school, but from God alone. Jews and Gentiles would recognize twelve year old Jesus as a young man – not really a little child, anymore. Bot he’s not “grown” either! Note that Mary’s tone of voice was probably not exactly soft and sweet at this point; and that Jesus’ tone reflected the attitude of an embarrassed adolescent who knew perfectly well that he had messed up by not letting them know where he was . Note also that he went down to Nazareth after this and was obedient to them. There is no record of him hanging out in Jerusalem after the Passover festivities again! Jesus was a real human, who had to learn obedience, who had to learn how to read the scriptures and understand them, who had to learn how to make his way gracefully in the world – how to be wise in his words and his behavior. If he’s seen as a wonder kid somehow more clever than all his teachers, and not simply a bright young man who surprised them with his understanding (despite not having studied formally); and if he is seen as “rebuking” his parents from a position of privileged superiority, we miss the truth of this event. In the story, he went home. He obeyed. He learned. He grew up – he grew even in favor with God. He really didn’t “know it all” at twelve. He knew something about who he was – but the full revelation of that, and of what it would meant to him, was still to come. |
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