|
|
by Craig A. Satterlee
Finally arriving in the temple, Mary and Joseph are astonished to discover
amazed teachers and their precocious twelve-year-old son.
If I had been looking for my daughter for three days, I'd have exploded. But
Mary and Joseph ask, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your
father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." I wonder how Mary
really said it. More important, I wonder why Mary and Joseph looked for Jesus in
all the wrong places. Why did it take them three days to figure out that Jesus
must be in his Father's house and about his Father's business?
Had things been so blessedly ordinary for so long -- no more angels, adoring
shepherds, and OT prophesies -- that the mystery surrounding their son's birth
had begun to fade like a dream? Or maybe Mary and Joseph were aware of what
their son would do and become, but figured that was years away. Perhaps Jesus
hadn't shown any signs of theological curiosity and so his parents couldn't
imagine him hanging out in the temple. Maybe Mary and Joseph simply failed to
see that their baby was growing up.
Like Mary and Joseph, we cannot or do not want to see that our Jesus is growing
up even as we grow up. Our Jesus is growing beyond our childhood, beyond our
children's childhood. Our Jesus is growing beyond our expectations. Arriving in
the temple, Mary saw only her boy. She couldn't or wouldn't see that Jesus had
grown. Eager to be a good mother, always pondering the events that led up to and
followed Jesus' birth, Mary wasn't ready to "lend" her Jesus to God. Perhaps she
just wanted to keep her firstborn close to her. Maybe she simply wanted to delay
the symbolic sword that Simeon announced would pierce her own heart as it took
the life of her son.
Looking upon Jesus and seeing her baby, Mary asks, "Child, why have you treated
us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great
anxiety." And Jesus answers, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know
that I must be about my Father's business?" These same questions face us this
week after Christmas, as peace and goodwill fade and Christmas leaves so many of
us wanting. With Mary, we ask, "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.
And Jesus answers, "Why were you searching for me?" We know where Jesus has
gone. He's about his Father's business. But we aren't ready to let go of our
expectations and give our Jesus to God. We are not ready to accept that Jesus
did not come to fulfill our expectations. He is not to be found in sentiment for
the way things used to be or the way we wish things could be. Jesus is about the
future. Jesus was born and lived and died and rose to be about God's business of
putting an end to our searching by making plain the way to God, even if that
means shattering our expectations.
In the Temple, Mary expects Jesus to behave a certain way and Jesus expects his
mother to know why he isn't. The problem is that Jesus and his parents have two
different understandings of who Jesus' Father is. Mary tells Jesus that she and
his father have been searching anxiously. The message is plain to any child who
stays out all night and upon returning home is greeted with a parent's frantic,
"Do you know how worried I was?" But Jesus responds that he's been in his
Father's house, about his Father's business. Again, I wonder just how Jesus said
it. Was he surprised or scolding?
Regardless of Jesus' tone, the tension between Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph,
and Jesus, Son of God, is heightened. Sure, Jesus returns to Nazareth and is
obedient to his parents. But it is clear that his priorities have changed.
Jesus' primary concern is not the will of his parents but the will of God and
the mission that God's will entails.
The good news for us in this week after Christmas is that, like Mary and Joseph,
our search has ended. Jesus shows us the way to God. 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. Yes, Luke's hint here is of
resurrection. Jesus, dead and buried, is raised on the third day, and there is a
new temple, Christ's resurrected body. Our searching will come to an end in new
life, meaningful life, the life God intends, but not the life we expect.
But that's Easter. For now Jesus returns to Nazareth. He disappears back into
the fabric of his hometown. For perhaps two more decades Jesus is in an
out-of-the way place, far removed from the centers of religion and politics, in
the company of ordinary people, just like us. Here Jesus continues to grow "in
wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor." The good news is that this
description of Jesus is the description of every child of God, no matter what
our age. We all will grow as we respond to God's love. In Christ we can expect
nothing else.
Craig A. Satterlee is Axel Jacob and Gerda Maria (Swanson) Carlson Chair of
Homiletics, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, IL
See Also:
Sermons, Bible Commentaries and Bible Analyses for the 1st Sunday after Christmas
Sermons Home | General Sermons and Essays | Articles | eBooks | Our Faith | Prayers | Library - Home | Baselios Church Home
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio
