Rev. George
Miller
Jan 5, 2025 (preached on
Jan 12)
Luke 2:41-52
Here we are in the Gospel of
Luke, with the author’s understanding of the past and unstoppable belief in the
future.
We have Jesus: Son of Mary, Nephew
of Elizabeth, and The happiness of Anna’s eyes.
Luke is taking his sweet
time to tell us about the Jesus experience, including this tale about a young
Jesus told nowhere else.
Jesus is no longer a babe;
he’s not yet a man.
He’s a pre-teen boy doing
what pre-teens do best-
causing his parents grief; talking
back to his Mama.
Jesus may be the Lamb of God
but he’s also a source of his Mother’s anxiety.
He’s with his parents making
their yearly trip to the big city.
Instead of going to the Arch
or Busch Stadium, they’re at the Passover Festival.
Young Jesus is having such a
good-time he doesn’t want to leave. He
stays behind while his parents journey home.
3 days later they find him
in the Temple, astounding the local folk.
But Mama and Papa are not
impressed.
“Boy, if you don’t get back
here!”
“But Maaaaaa…..”
“Don’t ‘But Ma’ me!”
Well, Luke doesn’t tell the
story this way; he tells it alot classier, having Jesus speak like a
mini-college professor:
“Why are you searching for
me. Didn’t you know I must be in Abba’s House.”
But, I don’t go for that
sugar-coated holiness put upon pre-teen Jesus.
I like to imagine Jospeh saying
“Abbas’ House my foot!” and Mary with a wooden spoon in hand.
This is a delightful story,
offering a glimpse into Jesus, his childhood, and his family relations.
One in which he is just like
us, growing up, navigating his way from childhood to adulthood, inadvertently
hurting his parents along the way.
Who here as a parent, uncle,
aunt, an Oma or Opa, has experienced that moment in which-
the pre-teen you now know is no longer the child
you once knew?
Who here knows what it is
like to watch that child go from being lovingly dependent to becoming vocally
independent?
And who here knows that THIS
is the path all parents, uncles, aunts, Omas and Opas must take if that child
is to grow into who they are supposed to be?
Yes, we all want our beloved
children to stay young, stay innocent,
be that kid who once sat
under the Christmas tree excited to open each and every present.
But eventually that child
becomes the same one who rolls their eyes over how boring and silly family
gatherings are.
Sure, we want to be with our
child at all times, but at some point, if we truly love them-
we let them stay home alone
without a babysitter, we let them go to the corner store unescorted.
We let them drive off on
their own, standing on the driveway as we watch them pull away, praying to God
that they’ll be kept safe.
As holy and sacred as we
want the family of Jesus to be, most likely they were just like us.
As we heard today, Mary and
Joseph had their trying moments with young Jesus,
and young Jesus definitely
tested the limits with his Mom and Dad.
But here’s the Good News-
this story reminds us that
Jesus was just like us.
That Emmanuel, God With Us,
did not come to Earth to be a robotic vessel of heavenly information.
Jesus came to earth in the
same flesh as you and me to experience the same life as we do.
God entered into human form
to experience life the same way most of us do-
A complicated family
structure, with its rules and expectations, and cultural traditions.
Even the boredom of travel
that no family vacation is complete without.
Jesus lived like us, with
us, beside us.
In this way Jesus was
empowered to understand us, represent
us, speak to and speak for us.
The child we see in today’s
reading is tempestuous and wild, and we shouldn’t have it any other way.
Because the more human Jesus
is and the more human we allow him to be, the more amazing we realize that
Jesus is.
Because Jesus was born to a
family, part of a family tree, Jesus becomes a richer, more developed savior of
the family.
Through Jesus, God got to
know, experience, fully understand the human condition, and what it means to
live on earth.
Because of Jesus we have a
Counselor we can turn to when we are frustrated,
when we feel let down,
when we are annoyed with our
own family.
Because of Jesus, we truly
know God is with us, not apart, not far away, not aloof, or distant.
But right here, by our
side. With us, and for us, forever.
Amen.
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