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Second Sunday after Christmas “C”
3 January 2010
St. Luke 2:40-52
St. Luke is the only evangelist that records this story. Most likely Mary told Luke about it when he carefully interviewed the eyewitnesses as he began to write this gospel. After all, “Mary treasured all these things in her heart.” She wouldn’t forget. How could she?
When Simeon held Baby Jesus in his arms at the Jerusalem temple he praised God for Mary’s Baby because this Baby would bring salvation to all – both Jews and Gentiles. Mary and Joseph marveled at Simeon’s words. Then Simeon blessed them, looked Mary straight in the eye and said some troubling words to her: “Mary, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel. He will be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And, Mary, a sword will pierce your own soul too,” (Luke 2:30-35).
Now Jesus is twelve. And it’s Passover. The celebration of the Exodus when God delivered His people Israel from Egyptian slavery and death through the blood of the Passover lamb. So it’s back to Jerusalem. Back to the temple. The whole family. Mary, Joseph, Jesus and all the other relatives.
When the feast is over everyone heads back home. Except for the child Jesus. Maybe He’s with Mary’s extended family: Elizabeth, Zechariah and John. Nope. Perhaps with Joseph’s carpenter friends. Nope. Can’t find the boy! Where could He be? Mary and Joseph b-line it back to Jerusalem. And after “three days” of frantic searching they find Jesus.
Where? At the gym? No. At the theater? Nope. At the mall? No. He’s in the temple! In God’s house! Whereas everyone else went home He stays!
But what’s He doing there? He’s having it out theologically with the temple professors. Luke says that He was “listening to them and asking them questions.” And that “everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”
What do you think they talked about? The text doesn’t say. But I’ll take a stab at it. I’ll bet you twelve-year-old Jesus wowed them with His interpretation of the Old Testament. In particular, what the Old Testament said about the promised Messiah, that is, the promised Savior. Namely, that the Messiah, the Christ, would be the fulfillment of the Exodus Passover lamb. That is to say, the Messiah would be the Passover Lamb in this way: He would be rejected by His own people, suffer immensely, and be handed over to die. But then He would rise again from the grave “after three days.” That through the shed blood of the slaughtered Messiah Passover Lamb, God would redeem Jerusalem and all Israel. And not just Jerusalem and Israel but all sinners. Not just Jewish ones. But Gentile ones too! The entire cosmos!
I’ll bet those professor’s and Bible expert’s hearts were just burning as this little Boy opened up the Scriptures to them – just like He would do with the Emmaus disciples on the way to Jerusalem “after His three day” rest in the tomb. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
Luke says that “Mary and Joseph were astonished” too. Astonished in the sense that they just don’t quite know what to make of all this. “So look here son,” Mary says. “You really shouldn’t treat me and your father Joseph like this. We thought we had lost you! That maybe you had been abducted by some lunatic and brutally killed. You know how these maniacs walk the streets here in Jerusalem. You scared us to death! Don’t ever do that again to us!”
And then Luke, as a result of his interview with Mary about this event, provides the first ever recorded words of Jesus in the New Testament. This has got to be really important or Mary wouldn’t have told Luke what Jesus said. And Luke wouldn’t have put them in this gospel.
So are you ready to hear the first ever recorded words that came from Jesus’ mouth in the New Testament? Here they are: “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” And immediately Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph didn’t understand this word at all. Baffled. Mystified. Clueless.
Isn’t that strange? Surely you’d think Mary and Joseph would understand. Do you?
“Why were you frantically looking for me like I was lost? I know where I’m at. And I know what I’m doing. I must be in my Father’s house.” Joseph’s not His Father. God is. And Jesus is Immanuel – God with us. That’s the first thing.
Secondly, now Jesus, God with us, is at the very place where He, the Passover Lamb, will accomplish the new and greater Exodus. A Passover to end all Passovers! Giving His Body as the sacrifice to atone for all sin. Shedding His Blood to cleanse sinners from all sin. AT JERUSALEM! AT THE VERY PLACE WHERE THE PASSOVER SACRIFICE WILL BE FULFILLED – THE TEMPLE – GOD’S HOUSE. In the flesh of twelve-year-old Jesus God is graciously present with His people. He is in His temple dwelling among His people to be their Savior! Jesus’ answer to Mary is a salvation answer for those who have ears to hear.
Mary didn’t understand all of this yet. But she “treasured all these things in her heart.” Twenty-one years later, back at Jerusalem again, she would see with her very eyes what her Boy meant that day in the temple when He said: “I had to be in my Father’s house.” At twelve Jesus began His career of obedience unto death, even death on a cross. And Mary’s very soul was pierced by what happened.
Thirty-three-year-old Jesus offered Himself on the altar of the cross. Allowed Himself to be brutally sacrificed. Violently slaughtered. His Body dead. His Blood shed. Flowing like a river from His wounds. The Epistle said it this way: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Jesus knew that was His Father’s plan. That Calvary was God’s wisdom. God’s understanding. For you. To redeem you. To win your salvation.
And now that He has risen from the dead “after three days,” He reigns. Dispensing the wisdom of God. And that wisdom is the promise that all your sin is forgiven. That you are blessed in the “heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” That God “chose you in Christ before the creation of the world – predestined you to be adopted as his sons through Christ.” That you now know God’s will. His will is to save you through Jesus His beloved Son.
And so He bids you to the Sacrament today. His Body. His Blood. That He sacrificed once for all as the Passover Lamb on the cross. He’s brought you into His house. God’s house. He tabernacles here for you. Bestowing on you His forgiveness. And with forgiveness-- salvation.
In the name of Jesus.
Edited on: January 03rd, 2010 6:26 am
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