Dec. 30, 2012 First Sunday of Christmas

Luke 2:41-52

41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
    49 "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
    51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

“Jesus Increased”
 
“Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.”
Lk 2:52
He had to grow up like any other person.  He grew physically, mentally, spiritually.  He was not a super-boy; he was a human boy.
Development is a part of God’s creation.  We have to become who we were created to be. This does not happen quickly, nor perfectly; it does include faith, and the confession of sin.  Perfection begins with the confession of our inability to be perfect.  And our trust that Jesus was perfect for us.

No one is too bad to be a child of God and no one is too good to not be in need of Christ’s grace and forgiveness.  Luther:  “ I am at the same time sinner and saint.”

As Jesus grew in his consciousness of who he was as the Son of God, we too have to grow in our consciousness of who we are as sons and daughters of God.

“The Child Jesus”

Jesus wasn’t the perfect child if we think of being perfect as always obedient, always predictable, always meeting his parents expectations.

He gave them some anxious moments, fearful moments, bewildering moments.  Something burned within Jesus (God’s plan) which he may not have understood as a child of 12 but which led him in ways which left his family anxious.

He had to find out who he was and what he was here for.  (Don’t we all?)

No one can do this for us - we have to each do it for ourselves and it will create anxious moments for those who love us.  As one writer said of these words,

“There are times when we get caught up in things which scare our parents, not because they are wrong, but because there is danger as well as beauty in what we are doing.”

To parent is to love when we are anxious and let our children grow - in wisdom and stature with God and us.  Even Jesus had to do this!

 “Becoming Who I Am”

Some see this story as evidence that the family is made for conflict.  “Attempting fidelity to the will of God will always bring painful separation; there is no way around it.”  ( Proclamation 3, C,1991, p. 50)

Others hold that this story is an incomplete interlude between the birth account and the baptism by John.  Luke is the only one to include the story.  It hints at what is to come, as do all good stories.

And again, this story is seen as a pronouncement, telling us that this boy is God’s son, called to a unique mission for God -”to become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people”.  As such the boy Jesus “must choose...obedience to the...will of his father over against the claims of his earthly family.”
(Proclamation 2, C, p.40

Jesus was not playing a game with the teachers in the temple, nor was he being indifferent to his parents.  He was discovering who he was.  He was waking up to his calling as the Son of God.  This makes him truly human as well as truly divine.  For all humans have to” become”; struggle to discover and become who I am to be.

Jesus lost himself in the moment and forgot about his parents.
There are times when we are called to loose ourselves in others - “waste time with people” and discover what might happen in their lives and ours when we do.  This too is a part of being merciful and faithful servants in the service of God as we become all we can be.