Second Sunday after Christmas

Second Sunday after Christmas                            

4 January 2009                                     

                                                                                           + Jesu Juva +

St. Luke 2:40-52

His parents are worried.  Appears that they have lost their Son.  Then worry turns to panic and terror!  Might want to put out the amber alert!  Where is our boy Jesus?  He’s not with aunt Margaret or Teresa.  He’s not with His uncles Ben, David or Daniel.  None of our friends have seen Him.  We always make this trip to Jerusalem for the Passover.  Never had trouble before!  Where in the world can He be? 

We know He’s growing and pretty strong for a twelve year old.  That He is smarter than any normal fifth grader.  And that God’s grace is with Him.  We’ll grant Him that.  But if He’s by Himself in the big city, who knows what could happen to Him?  All kinds of predators and scum bags roaming in the capital during Passover.  A little boy lost in the capital is as good as dead!     

Better head back to Jerusalem!  A desperate three day search and rescue mission.  Finally, after THREE DAYS they find Him!  He’s alive!  In the temple!  Sitting in the middle of all the bigwig Bible teachers and scholars.  Listening and asking them all kinds of serious questions.  Mary and Joseph are amazed. 

Now if you’re a parent you can sympathize.  Especially with Mary’s question:  “Son, why have you done this to us?  Look, your father and I have been worried sick looking for you.”  You’d say the same thing.  And more.  Like:  “You’re grounded.  No more cell phone and screens for a month!”

But then come the first recorded words in the New Testament that Jesus speaks.  “Why were you looking for me?  It is absolutely necessary that I’m here.  It’s my Father’s house.  I must be about His stuff.” 

Mary and Joseph don’t get it.  They just don’t understand yet.  Jesus is only twelve.  But remember that wisdom?  God’s grace.  There’s more to come.  Another eighteen years when everything climaxes when He’s thirty.  And still they’ll be wondering.  

But you get it.  You know what’s going on.  Luke’s given you a bunch of clues.  Passover.  Jerusalem.  Temple.  Lost is as good as dead.  Three days.  There to do His Father’s stuff.

Jesus is precisely where He’s supposed to be.  With or without Mary and Joseph.  At Jerusalem.  God’s city.   In the temple.  God’s house.  Twelve year old Jesus is God in the flesh.  No surprise that He’s there since He’s God.

Jesus has a preoccupation with Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is His destiny! He’s going to do a Jerusalem Good Friday as THE Passover Lamb.  The sacrificial Passover Lamb.  To bear your sin.  The world’s sin.  To die in your place.  To shed His blood and spread it on the wood of His cross.  And there He, the Passover Lamb, will be as good as dead.  Crucified on the altar of the cross.  And then after THREE DAYS . . . well, you know.  He who was dead is found in His glorious resurrection body.  That’s His Father’s will.  That’s His Father’s delight.

Mary and Joseph weren’t the only people who didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.  It all pointed to what He came to do.  To do a Jerusalem dying and then a Jerusalem rising.  To be the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Twelve year Jesus.  He will be the thirty-three year old crucified and risen Jesus. 

That He would give His life into death for you and for your salvation is His enormous gift for you.  There is nothing more important in all the universe than that He goes to Jerusalem.  To be there for you.  With all of Himself He is going there to do what only He can do.  What only He wants to do.  To do a Calvary.

Jesus comes as one who serves.  To give His life as a ransom for many.  He’s there in the Jerusalem temple to be your Suffering Servant.  Obedient to His Father unto death.  Even death on a cross.  That’s how precious you are to Him.  Even when He’s twelve.  And then on to when He’s thirty-three.  And even now.

He is still among you as one who serves.  Serving up the benefits of His dying for you.  The Meal of His Body and His Blood.  For the forgiveness of your sins.   Yes, for you.  There is no sin He holds against you.  He’s answered for them all. 

The immensity of that is something to treasure up in your hearts.  That He would do and give such gifts to you and me.  What a Savior!

In the Name of Jesus.