NL 320: Boy in the Temple - Luke 2:41-52
image: “Jesus among the teachers” by JESUS MAFA (Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
January 3, 2021
Luke 2:41-52
Initial Thoughts
Famously the only story in the gospels of Jesus between birth and ministry.
Apocryphal gospels are full of stories of Jesus leading a remarkable childhood.
Like these stories, Luke’s gospel shows Jesus who was remarkable. Unlike these stories, which feature an impetuous Jesus killing and raising from the dead as if he’s playing with play-doh, Luke’s story reveals a Jesus who is remarkable in knowledge.
I (Robb) preached from this text in my first sermon after being commissioned - at the church where I grew up - Our Redeemer’s United Methodist Church in Schaumburg, Ill.
Feels like Epiphany Sunday and this story should be switched.
Instead of Christmas, Epiphany, Boy in Temple, Baptism, the lectionary gives us Christmas, Boy in Temple, Epiphany, Baptism.
Bible Study
Jesus on his way to the Temple
Cannot forget that Jesus was a Jew, with Jewish parents, living according to Jewish law and customs.
The Temple was an important part of the Lukan story. He was dedicated in the Temple. His culminating act will be in the Temple.
Modern parents wonder how the heck Mary and Joseph lost their kid for so long.Traveling to Jerusalem would have been a group affair. Didn’t notice he was gone until they had travelled for the day - when he didn’t show up to sleep.
Three days of searching would surely have been stressful, to say the least
Found in the Temple
Jesus was “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them.”
He was not learning from them. He was the teacher. In the Socratic method, the one asking the questions is the teacher.
Two Reactions:
Everyone amazed (foreshadows people’s response when he is teaching in Synagogue in 4:22. But this time, at least, he doesn’t keep going to the point where they want to throw him off the cliff).
Parents shocked.
Jesus’s response
Semi-rebuke of his parents.
“My Father’s House” could have been translated as “My Father’s affairs” (According to Common English Study Bible notes)
Seeking God’s approval over his parents.
Growing into his mission of God more important than pleasing earthly parents - and surprised they didn’t get that.
Jesus’ ministry and teaching is of primary importance - even above familial relations.
This is a radical statement in a time when familial relationships were of paramount importance
Foreshadows stories like:
the Prodigal Son, where the son rebukes his own family
8:21 “My mother and brothers are those who listen to God’s word and do it.”
12:53 “Father will square off against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother…”
Anyone who knows a teenager might read this differently than intended.
Sarcasm in not in the Greek, but it is easily read into this response.
Luke points out that he is “obedient to them,” and that his parents cherished every word.
Piety of family is upheld.
Family still connected to God and the fifth commandment.
Error was not Jesus’s, it was Joseph and Mary’s.
Jesus “matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people.”
NRSV uses “Grew”
Growing in age and in favor with people is understandable
Growing in wisdom and favor with God is more perplexing - if you have an extremely high Christology (view of Jesus’s divinity)
Mary
Mary is the main parent here - like the annunciation stories, Mary is the main character. Joseph is little more than an afterthought (in opposition to Matthew, where it is the other way around).
Mary questions Jesus - which is strange in a public space, Joseph would have been expected to be the one to confront the son.
Mary asks, ““Why have you treated us like this?” We ask ourselves; we ask our families. We ask the church and we ask God, when our expectations are shattered.” (Craig Saterlee, Working Preacher)
Mary “cherished these things in her heart.”
“this translation is somewhat misleading. “Mary ‘keeps’ these things, much as Jacob kept events surrounding the troublesome Joseph or Daniel kept his visions. These events perplex and trouble Mary, who turns them over and over again and again.” (Charles Cousar, p. 74)
Thoughts and Questions
How is it that Jesus grew? What does it mean for Jesus to have developed, matured. If Jesus was fully human, than such human experiences as growth and development would be necessary. If Jesus can grow, shouldn’t we? How did Jesus grow? By going to Bible study. By learning in community. By going to Temple with his family. By being a part of a community that nurtured him. Yes, he had a special relationship with God, even from the start, but that relationship was not fully realized. May the Church’s relationship with God parallel Jesus’s own growth and development.
Did Mary know?
There is evidence here that she didn’t understand who Jesus was. That even to her, his power and greatness would unfold.
Though she had a clue as to Jesus’ special relationship with God, it is clear from this story that she did not fully grasp what the angel’s promises meant. To be fair, How could she?
David Lose, Working Preacher: “So I wonder, Working Preacher, if that’s not a strategy we could regularly adopt. Rather than analyze these passages, perhaps we can just invite our people to enter into them. Perhaps, that is, the way to extend our celebration and contemplation of the Christmas story is to make it our own, inviting our people to identify with the characters. Indeed, inviting them to see themselves as those characters and hear the words – of angels, shepherds or, in this case, the twelve year-old Jesus – themselves.”
There is another time when we searched for Jesus for three days, only to find him somewhere least expected. But should it have been unexpected?
The scary part, perhaps, is that our search doesn’t end where we expect. Mary and Joseph searched three days for Jesus, and on the third day found him alive and well. But they didn’t find him in the expected places -- the safe confines of his extended family or the familiar company of the pilgrims’ caravan. After three days, Mary and Joseph found Jesus alive and well in the Temple at Jerusalem among the teachers of the law, the very company where it all will all end as Jesus is tried, convicted, and handed over to be killed. Mary and Joseph find Jesus alive and well after three days in a place they didn’t expect. This sounds like Easter.”
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen