New Beginnings

Kate Thoresen December 27

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Luke 2:41-52

Just a few days ago we were reading the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus and the peaceful scene of the Holy Family in Bethlehem with angels singing and shepherds worshipping the new born king. In our Gospel lesson today we experience a dramatic shift. Here we see a frantic family scene in Jerusalem where Mary and Joseph have looked everywhere for the missing twelve year old Jesus. Luke here records the only story we have in the Bible about the growing up years of Jesus. This is not quite the perfect family without stress we might have imagined. Let us listen to Luke 2:41-52.

⁴¹ Now every year his (Jesus') parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. ⁴² And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. ⁴³ When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. ⁴⁴ Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." ⁴⁹ He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" ⁵⁰ But they did not understand what he said to them. ⁵¹ Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵² And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Prayer: God of all wisdom, Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Let your Spirit illumine our minds and hearts so that we may better understand and follow your will. Through Christ. Amen.

"Where is he? I thought he went ahead with you and the other women and children!"

"No, since he is soon to be a man, I naturally assumed that he would follow with the rest of you men."

Mary and Joseph must have shared that same sinking feeling when anyone has discovered that someone or something precious is missing. With the wide-eyed anxious look of parents in search of their child, Mary and Joseph hurried back to Jerusalem to find their son. They looked everywhere for three days, hearts beating in their frantic search.

Imagine their tremendous relief when they finally discovered the twelve-year-old Jesus at the temple, busily engaged with the scholars and teachers of his day. Perhaps they were debating the scriptures concerning the long awaited Messiah who was to come to save God's people.

Jesus must have been so totally invested in these discussions about the nature of God. Was he wrestling with better understanding his own role that God was giving him to play in the salvation of the world?

He heard the scriptures read and discussed about the long awaited Messiah as the anointed one to bring freedom to God's people. By then he was familiar how the prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would be called "wonderful, counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6). He would also bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives. (Isaiah 61:1)

That could sound pretty noble and appealing to the ears of a twelve year old.

And yet there were also the more somber, darker prophecies about the long awaited Messiah: He would be despised, rejected, scorned, acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53: 3)The prophet Isaiah also described the Messiah as someone who would be wounded for the transgressions of many, and would give his life as an offering for sin. (Isaiah 53: 1-11). This Messiah would save the people, not through mighty conquest or military force, but by the willing sacrifice of his very life's blood.

Quite a job description for a young man to consider! Jesus was probably well aware that the Hebrew people lived under Roman rule. That meant that the Emperor was the only one to be called Lord. It would mean certain death for anyone to claim allegiance to another kingdom-even if it was the Kingdom of God.

Do you suppose that Jesus was getting an inkling of the demands that would be placed on him? No wonder he sought the finest minds of his day to search the scriptures and their meanings.

His own search involved matters of life and death-not just for himself-but for those very souls that God sent him into the world to save.

When Mary and Joseph finally reached their son in the temple courts, they could also see that these learned men, these famous rabbis, were astounded by the insights and questions this young man posed. Mary rushed over to her son with relief mixed with agitated annoyance. She said, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."

Jesus responded with two pivotal questions. Let's listen again to these very first words that Jesus utters in the Gospel of Luke: "Why are you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

This is the first mention of Jesus' awareness that he was the Son of God. Notice how he shifted the focus from Joseph as his father with a small "f"-to God, his heavenly Father. He also referred to the temple as his Father's house-with a capital F. Here we see Jesus in his formative youth passionately searching the meaning of his life in terms of the plan of his heavenly father.

Our lesson today records that Mary and Joseph did not understand what Jesus was saying to them. Already his wisdom and understanding about God and God's ways and who he was were beyond their grasp. And this illuminates something special about these humble folk whom God chose to raise God's son.

They did not try to take control over his life. They did not dominate or try to force him into their own ideas of what they thought he should be. They respected his own inner authority. His own struggles and searches. His own development into the man he was destined to be. Both Mary and Joseph showed remarkable restraint. It was enough for them to be there for Jesus, the young man they loved and would always stand by-no matter what.

Both Mary and Joseph may have seen these were new beginning for Jesus. And in these new beginnings they realized that they must let their boy go. Such new beginnings often bring pain. They are not easy. New beginnings are often messy. But with any kind of new growth, there is often a need for an unloosening of the apron strings, a giving of new space, a change of roles and relationships.

So on this Sunday after Christmas, we catch a glimpse of the Holy Family-not encased in the calm serenity of a sleeping town of Bethlehem nor as an idyllic family as painted perhaps by a Norman Rockwell. Instead we see a family in turmoil over a young son who is searching for the meaning of his own life and is struggling to hear his own soul speak. Relationships here are not easy. But they are real.

This story concludes with the family safely back in Nazareth. And Jesus still respects his relationships with his parents. He obeys them, he engages in the normal, everyday routines and rituals of daily life-while still searching and discovering God's ultimate plan for his life and for the world.

This particular story must have been pivotal for Jesus as well. Later on, Jesus would tell the wealthy man, Zacchaeus, that "the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."(Luke 19:10). That theme of diligently searching continued in the parables of Jesus.

He told stories that God's divine searching is just as strong as that of a home-maker who has lost a coin and turns the whole household upside down to find it. It is as purposeful as the shepherd who will go out on a cliff to find and rescue a lost sheep. God's seeking to restore a lost soul is as humble and loving as a father who will run out to meet and embrace to his own prodigal child and welcome him home with open arms.

Jesus later gave himself totally to God's quest to restore this kind of everlasting relationship. Jesus let everything go. He went to the Cross so that new life and new beginnings are possible for all who seek and welcome Christ in their lives.

This simple story of Luke reveals many layers of searching:

• The ways that parents may search for a lost child.
• The way that Jesus searched to understand the meaning of his life in light of God's plan for him.
• And it also leads us to the wonder and the mystery of a God who yearns to bring out the best in us, who longs to welcome us home, and who keep searching to use us to bring peace and good will to all.

I'd like to close with these words from an email a friend sent along. This reminds me of the way that God is continually seeking to draw out that Light within each of us:

You are a child of creation, a reflection of the image of God.

No one can steal your beauty or reduce your worth unless you let them. Don't let them.

You are a miracle of God's love. You are a miracle. Never look at yourself and see anything less.

Your life is not a random stroke of chance. You are part of a sovereign plan, loved into existence for eternity.

Let the fire of Christ dwell in our soul live and love, laugh and leap for joy.

And for the short time you walk this earth, always remember "You are the light of the world."

Thanks be to God who invites us into new beginnings of active faith, hope and love throughout this coming new year.

Amen.

©Kate Thoresen 2009