I know what you are all thinking today. “Mary and Joseph had one job, to take care of the incarnate Word of God until he was old enough to take care of himself, and they lose him when he is only 12 years old.” In the words of Chris Carter from ESPN, “C’mon man.” Now before we all get to feeling too much righteous indignation about Mary and Joseph leaving Jerusalem without Jesus, let’s not forget the most used form of attentiveness to childcare for modern people. (TAKE OUT CELL PHONE AND SCROLL THROUGH FACEBOOK) I have an enormous amount of sympathy for Mary and Joseph today; being a parent, I know all too well what it is like to look up, and not be able to locate my child. Luckily all the times that has happened to me it was a false alarm.
I also have a lot of sympathy for Jesus in this story, because a long time ago in a state far far away, I too was a lost yet strikingly independent child. When I was 6 years old my family went to a theme park called Sesame Place. It’s a park whose theme is based on Sesame Street. My mother was decisively strict in what rides were safe enough for me to go on, which made me a bit frustrated. While I was with my older sister, who was 13 at the time; and mom was not around, I insisted on going on a ride called “The Amazing Mumford’s Water Maze.” I was pulling on her arm to let me go, and my sister finally was fed up enough to call my bluff and said, “fine, go, but I am not waiting for you.” Ladies and gentlemen, she said that to the wrong 6-year-old, I went right on to that ride and enjoyed every minute of it. Then I came out the other side and realized there was no one at all there I knew — not a single person. At first, I was scared, but then, I realized there was no one there to hold me back! I traced my steps back to every ride I was told I could not go on and I went on them myself, that was until my Aunt found me, and dragged my tush back to my family. Sometimes things like this happen to families. I hope we can now move past judging the Holy Family, so we can move on to how incredible this story is.
This is the only story of an adolescent Jesus in the four Gospel accounts. Read on the surface, it can be interpreted as a story of parents who lose their child, and a child who is not attentive to the needs his parents, or perhaps a child who is even cruel to his parents. But this is Jesus we are talking about; we know he lived without sin, so he couldn’t be breaking the commandment to honor mother and father, could he? To further dispel the idea that Mary and Joseph somehow have failed Jesus it’s important to note, Galileans traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem would often travel as an entire village on pilgrimage. Jesus would have been surrounded on his way to and from Jerusalem, by a huge extended family. Mary and Joseph would have had multiple family members and friends with them as they traveled. So, it would have been reasonable for Mary and Joseph not to see Jesus for some time.
Once they realize Jesus is missing, Mary and Joseph trackback to Jerusalem and they find Jesus, sitting at the feet of teachers in the temple, listening to them and asking them questions. After they see Jesus, they have an intriguing interaction. Mary asks, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” To which Jesus replies, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?” Why do you think Luke includes this in his account? Is Luke showing us that Mary and Joseph didn’t understand who Jesus was? Is Luke trying to give us a scene of Jesus growing, so we see that he had to grow into his role as the son of God?
I don’t think so. Note the words Jesus uses “I must be in my Father’s house.” This key phrase is our way of understanding that Jesus, as a young boy, fully understands who he is. Jesus knows he is the Son of God, The Messiah, the very Word of God Incarnate. And yet, there he sat humbly at the feet of Rabbis. Jesus takes the posture of a student instead of the posture of the master. Is there any other way to be allow God to enter into your relationship with someone else, than to lower yourself, and allow yourself to be taught? Even by someone inferior to you? Then again, Jesus humbles himself. Now with Mary and Joseph. He completely submits to them as his parents because he is an adolescent, even though he is also God. This story is sort of, a retelling of the birth narrative, of the incarnation, so those of us who can’t comprehend how incredibly God, Jesus, has lowered himself, voluntarily becoming part of creation, they can finally understand the self-emptying God chooses in the incarnation. The boy Jesus in our Gospel today is the model of humility. The incarnation is God’s model of humility. This account of Jesus’s childhood is almost a parable of the incarnation.
We all must be humble. Today, Jesus shows all of us what true humility is. We too must humble ourselves. Humble ourselves to forgive the unforgiven. To ask for forgiveness to those we have harmed. To strive to understand those with whom we disagree. To seek common ground with those who we cannot see eye to eye with. To love the unlovable, to reach out to our enemies in compassion and generosity. Humility is a crucial Christian virtue. It assists all of us in maintaining a relationship with God. Jesus is the model of great humility; in fact, an Advent collect says, “Jesus Christ came to us in great Humility.” Jesus has modeled for us that humility is a crucial feature of Godliness. As the season of Christmas ends, where can we model humility, where can we humble ourselves so that we may shape our lives to be more like Jesus’s. When we are susceptible to great humility, we become vulnerable to the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us in an incarnational way. Humility empowers all of us to be the light of Christ. Humble yourself enough to allow God to work through you.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Christian M. Wood
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
5 January 2020
2nd Sunday of Christmas