Raising Jesus

Christmas I; December 31, 2006

Luke 2:41-52

Imagine this scene: Jesus the teenager comes storming into the house and fails to close the door behind him. Joseph chews him out – if they had had central heating, he could say, “Am I paying to heat the outdoors?” – and then finishes with, “Were you born in a barn?” And Jesus replies, “Well, actually…”

What would it be like to be the couple raising Jesus, the Messiah? I’m going to go two directions with the story from the Gospel this morning. First, it will provide the opportunity to comment on the religious life of this particular family. Second, by comparing it with some other texts, it will give us a chance to think about our life in Jesus.

Simply to make things easier, let’s call them the Holy Family, but I hope that doesn’t immediately put them in stained glass in your imagination. Stained glass is two-dimensional and hard; I certainly don’t want Joseph, Mary and Jesus to become two-dimensional and hard in your minds. They are a fairly typical Near Eastern working-class family from Galilee; they travel with other people from their town to Jerusalem for the Passover. It’s dangerous to travel these roads; perhaps you remember Jesus’ story of the man who was robbed and beaten on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:29-37). Consequently, people travel in groups.

The Law of God requires that every adult male attend the Passover in Jerusalem (from Deuteronomy 16:1-8) and so, of course, Joseph goes. Actually, there is no “of course” about it. It is not simply a modern phenomenon that people find excuses for not complying with their obligations to God. The population of Jerusalem would swell to perhaps twice its normal size during the Passover, so it’s clear that a lot of people attended it, but from that I also gather that not every Jew who was able to attend it did. You realize, of course, that since Joseph is self-employed, it means closing his work for several days every year. The trip takes four to five days each direction, and it is usual for a pilgrim to stay in Jerusalem for about five days of the Passover, so Joseph likely takes two weeks away from his work every year to comply with the Law of God.

I’m going to boast about a friend of mine. He is a husband and father of two children and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He and his family attend worship every Sunday and they all attend Sunday School every Sunday as well. He also volunteers to cook for a ministry for the homeless from time to time and frequently he teaches Sunday School. That is all in addition to working full-time, helping his kids with their homework, coaching soccer, and so forth. Speaking of his participation in the Church, he once said to me, “I don’t understand why people say they can’t do it. You just decide you can do it, and you do it.”

Joseph stands for us as a sign of faithful fulfillment of his duties to God. Mary, however, goes beyond that. John Calvin directed my attention to what Mary’s presence on the pilgrimage means (in his Harmony of the Gospels). The Law requires the men to attend; those women who attend do so because they choose to. As Calvin puts it, Mary is a sign of true religion: she goes beyond the mere requirements of God’s law and acts out of her devotion to God.

And then there is the boy Jesus. At the age of twelve, his participation in the pilgrimage may be part of his duty, but it is of course possible that he has gone with his parents every year. Luke calls our attention to this particular occasion because of the things that happen. First, when it’s time to leave, Jesus stays behind in the city in order to spend more time in the Temple as part of the group that is learning from the teachers of the Scriptures. That in itself seems remarkable; where do you expect to find a twelve year-old boy alone in the city (think Macauley Culkin)? Obviously that’s what his parents think too, since they look all over for him and end up at the Temple only eventually. Although remarkable, it is not unique that Jesus would stay at the Temple in order to learn from the teachers. You may have known other twelve year-olds who would rather sit with teachers and talk about issues, especially their questions about God and religion, than go hang out at the first-century equivalent of a shopping mall.

Still, we learn something about Jesus’ character in that he gets caught up in conversation about God and religion with the learned teachers. There is something else, though, and that is in his response to Mary when she scolds him. Now, Mary’s words to Jesus are the equal part relief and exasperation that one would expect of any parent, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Jesus chides her for looking all over town; where else would he be? They should have looked in the Temple first. His answer also gently makes a statement of identity; to her “your father and I” Jesus replies, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Now, don’t get hung up on the paternity question here; that’s not the point. The point is Jesus’ own sense of identity. At this point in his life I doubt he fully realizes who he is or what his purpose is; that develops later. Still, he clearly identifies himself in terms of his relationship with God. At twelve years old people are generally asking themselves questions such as, “Who am I? What is my purpose?” and Jesus has a beginning on his answer, “I am a child of God; I need to be in the House of God.”

So, pick the character you identify with or that you want to identify with: Joseph, the servant of God who faithfully complies with his religious obligations; Mary, the chosen of God whose devotion moves her to worship even when it is not required; and Jesus, the budding adolescent who feels himself compelled to be in his Father’s house and to identify himself as a child of God.

But a little more about Jesus, before we quit. No matter how you try to couch his words or soften them, the way Jesus speaks to Mary makes me think, “Smart-mouthed kid.” If I, as a twelve year-old, had spoken to my Mother that way, my Dad would have smacked me. “Don’t talk to your Mother like that!” And he would have been right.

When you and I have a stained-glass Jesus in our imaginations, it gives us a problem: we can’t identify with him. But if Jesus at twelve is a smart-mouthed kid who needs to go home and be obedient to his parents (v. 51); if he has an identity crisis and figures out who he is and where he needs to be; then he is someone we can relate to and, yes, even follow. One of the gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible tells this same story, but it comes off a little different. In it, he is not asking questions and replying to the teachers’ answers by asking more questions, but in that version he is explaining to the teachers “the chief points of the Law and the parables of the prophets.” (Infancy Gospel of Thomas 19:2) Further, when Mary shows up, the teachers congratulate her, “We have never seen or heard of such glory, such virtue and wisdom.” (Ibid. 19:4) In this version, the boy Jesus is no ordinary boy.

But the version that’s in the Bible – Luke’s version – tells the story of a remarkable boy but not one that towers twelve feet over the teachers of the Law. He is a boy who is smart and devout, who comes to terms with his identity, and who is obedient to his parents.

The years from twelve to thirty are not described in the Bible and I had a lot of fun reading a variety of sources claiming to know what Jesus did during those years. It turned out, you see, that the sermon went a different direction and I’m not using that material. The important point is that Jesus, like other twelve year-olds, “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor,” as Luke tells us (2:52). The Book of Hebrews reminds us that our high priest sympathizes with us and has been tested (4:15). That he managed to resist temptation is inspiration for us.

Luke gives us a picture of Jesus as a boy who is bright, interested in understanding more about God and religion, and whose sense of self is defined by his relationship with God. He is also something of a problem for his parents. In short, I want you to see Jesus of the Gospels as someone who cannot be flattened into stained glass; he is someone you can relate to, understand and follow.

God our Father, thank you for the Gospel’s witness to Jesus. We pray for grace to follow him, so that when you look our way, you will see us in him. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa