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INJ
St Luke 2:41-52
'The Family Business'
Divine Service
1st Sunday after the Epiphany | January 7th, 2007
Dear Saints,
We've made the move, Advent to Christmas and now, Epiphany. Epiphany means manifestation, revealing, and this season of the church year is marked with texts that reveal to us who Jesus is: the God-man who has come for our salvation and the salvation of the entire world.
Last night we heard of the visit of the wise men to the home of the Child, where the mysterious prophecies are fulfilled, and the Gentile kings come to worship the Messiah, just as you and I have been gathered here this morning to worship the same Jesus.
But have we come to the right place? Where are we to find Jesus? That is the question that the Gospel text put before us this morning, and the question that it answers. So we consider together the account of the Boy Jesus in the temple.
Jesus is twelve years old, and the holy family has gone from Nazareth south to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, that great high feast of Israel. The Passover commemorates the Lamb's blood on the door post and the slaughter of the first born in all the bloodless homes in Egypt and the escape on the dry path through the Red Sea which led to the base of Mt Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. If you're Jewish then Passover is really something. It was one of the feasts at which able body men were required to be in Jerusalem. Women were encouraged (by Hillel and other rabbis) to attend. Jesus was still a boy, twelve, He had not yet reached the age of legal manhood, thirteen, but still He and His mother were found in the company of those going up for the feast.
And the company must have been great. I don't know about you, but when I hear the accounts of the Scripture, my imagination often fails to supply the people and crowds, and simply sees the people named in the text, as if the villages and cities and even country-sides were sparsely populated. But more often than not Jesus is in the midst of a crowd, a big crowd, and this is certainly true of the holy family's pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The band started out from Nazareth and more and more would join as they got closer to the city. Jesus was often with the other children do all the things that children do. Perhaps He and His cousin John had a favorite games that they would play together.
They went to Jerusalem, offered up a lamb, ate the Passover meal, and after the two days of liturgy were finished, Mary and Joseph and the rest of their companions packed up and headed north back to Nazareth. They were not at all worried about Jesus, being accustomed to His perfect keeping of the forth commandment, and for twelve years honoring His father and mother. But look, Jesus was already home, siting in the temple.
As the sun is setting on their first day of travel Mary and Joseph go looking for Jesus. “Elizabeth, Zacharias, have you seen Jesus?” “Simeon, Mary, have you seen your nephew Jesus anywhere?” “Joanna, have you seen Jesus at all today?” “Heli, has your Grandson been with you?” All of you parents know that feeling of panic that comes all of a sudden, you think the child is here, no, they must be there, well if there not there then... oh no, I've lost them.
And then the worry, the dread, running through the crowd, “Jesus! Jesus!” How long did it take for them to go through all the crowd, to be sure He wasn't there? And then the running back up the mountain to Jerusalem, to the inn where they stayed, through the market, a night and day and night of looking. You don't think Mary and Joseph slept, do you?
And how, on top of all the other troubles, this must have caused Joseph and Mary, especially Mary, great grief, the thought, “Will God still let me raise this Boy?”
Finally He is found, perhaps in the last place they were to look: in the temple, sitting with the doctors, learning and teaching the Scriptures. This is an astonishing scene, really: full of astonishment.
46Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 48So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”
Mary's hair is frazzled, clothes dirty, both Mary and Joseph must have been exhausted (two days without sleep exhausted) and upset, anxious and worried, and then... amazed, like everyone listening to Him dispute with the doctors, amazed. Amazed that this Boy has such wisdom and understanding and insight in to the Holy Scriptures. They were amazed and astonished at His answers.
The sacred text has not recorded any of these amazing answers of Jesus, but the most amazing one we are to hear. Mary asks her Son, “Why have you done this to us?” And Jesus answers (and mark this carefully, dear saints, for these are the very first recorded words of our Lord Jesus that are preserved for us by the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Text), Jesus said to them: “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Jesus must be about His Father's business. “Of course I'm here, in the temple, my Father's house, in the midst of Holy Things.” Perhaps Mary had said to Jesus, “It's time to go home,” and at that word Jesus headed for the temple.
Jesus is not the Son of Joseph, He is the Son of the Heavenly Father, the Son of the Kingdom of Heaven, the one and only Only-Begotten. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is sent to do the Father's will, to work in the family business. And what is that business? To save His people from their sins.
Jesus expects Mary and Joseph to know this. “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” They should have known that He would be in His temple, that He would be in the midst of the sacrifices and holy things. And, dear saints, (and this is the point of this text for us this morning), Jesus expects us to know it too; He expects us to know were to find Him.
There is great confusion about this, isn't there? Most people don't really care a bit about Jesus to begin with, like the rest of the crowd with Mary and Joseph, they are just trudging their way back to Nazareth with no thought of Him. But then there are those, outside the church as well as inside, who are looking for Jesus in all the wrong places. “Jesus, Jesus, have you seen Jesus anywhere?”
Some are searching for Him in the historical revisionism of popular news magazines and theological adventure novels. Some are searching their own fancy, thinking that Jesus must approve whatever they like or want. Some expect Jesus to be found in their good works, “surely He must like me for this...”
But look, Jesus is to be found in the temple, that is, doing His Father's business.
+He is found in the Jordan River, doing His Father's business.
+He is found on the cross, doing His Father's business.
+And then He is found, and then not found in the tomb, but in the garden and on the road and in the upper room and the mountain top, doing His Father's business.
+He is found enwrapped in the clouds, ascending into heaven, doing His Father's business.
And now He is in His Word, in the Scriptures, carried there by the Holy Spirit, still doing His Father's business. He is found where His Name is, “Where two or three are gathered in My Name,” doing His Father's business. He is found with His Word and body and blood, in this bread and wine, doing His Father's business, that is, saving His people from their sins.
“Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Dear saints, rejoice, for we know where Jesus is to be found, and we know what He is doing: forgiving us all our sin. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ + +
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
Reflection Questions:
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Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple. What happened the last time Jesus was in the temple (as a Baby, see Luke 2:22-40)?
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What are some of the wrong places to look for Jesus?
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Where is Jesus to be found today?
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The Holy Family traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Read Exodus 12 for the institution of the Passover. In what ways does the Passover point to Jesus?
