Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
text is the Gospel lesson. Luke 2:40-52.
As a parent, this
text infuriates me. I would have been livid had I been Joseph. For a child to
so completely disrespect his parents, to not follow obediently and trave with
them – at least be in the same group! – is unconscionable. He shows complete
disregard, not only for Mary and Joseph’s parental authority, but for their
parental responsibility, their fears, and their concerns. Overall, it seems
that Jesus simply doesn’t care about Mary and Joseph one whit.
As a parent, I
empathize with Mary and Joseph deeply. You parents, you grandparents, you
probably do as well because you’ve had that experience of having a child
disappear while you were at the grocery store or the mall or at the ballpark.
Your son, your daughter – he or she was right next to you just a second ago,
but when you turn around it’s as if – poof – they disappeared. The frantic
search, as concern quickly accelerates to angst and then fear; the terrible
“what if” thoughts; the scurrying down aisles, under clothes racks, below the
bleachers, to finally find them stretched out beneath a rack filled with coats,
simply needing a nap, them waddling towards you with two boxes of their
favorite cereal under their arms, or down the toy aisle staring at the latest
and greatest thing they saw at their friend’s house, or playing quietly with a
couple other friends, totally oblivious to your frantic and panicked search.
Thankfully, most of the time, these panicked searches end up well, but with a
bag of mixed feelings: joy the lost child is found, frustration the child left
in the first place, and shame that you missed the fact that your child
disappeared without your knowledge.
Because you’ve
experienced this, you can understand and imagine Mary and Joseph’s frustration,
fear, and concern. Luke wants us to see this story through their eyes. He wants
us to know their grief and pain, their frantic efforts to find their son. At
the evening camp, after a day’s journey – fifteen to twenty miles – from
Jerusalem, they discovered Jesus wasn’t there. A quick search among their
traveling companions identified Jesus was not among them. Then, the frantic
return to the city, swollen in population for Passover, growing and blossoming
hour by hour, stretching into a three-day search for their son, their
twelve-year old son, their only son.
I wonder if their
return to the Temple was motivated by spiritual, as much as physical and
emotional, need? You know how it is – in times of great crisis, turning to the
house of God for prayer, solitude and – perhaps – answers? A sense that they’ve
tried everything else, so perhaps this was the final option? Or was it less
spiritual, and simply checking the last place they remembered seeing Jesus?
And, then, I can
imagine – as can you – their mixed bag of emotions when they discover Jesus
there, in the Temple, surrounded by the great teachers of the Law. It was
apparently an incredible give-and-take between the boy and the men: Jesus both
listening to them and asking questions, but also answering and demonstrating
great understanding. Mary and Joseph, astonished at what was before them, both
seeing and hearing this dialogue; frustrated at their son’s seeming lack of
respect and concern; relief to find him safe.
And I have to
wonder if she remembered the day she and Joseph brought Jesus to Temple for His
circumcision, that strange day that the old man, Simeon, held the baby in his
arms, sang the Nunc Dimittis – Lord, let your servant depart in
peace – and then he looked at Mary and said:
This child is destined to cause the falling and rising
of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many
hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Did she
wonder if this moment was the first of more to come?
Was there understanding that in her Son, God deigned to dwell
among man, not in a Tabernacle, or even in the Temple, but in human flesh? Did
she have any inclination that the day would come when those same teachers of the law would turn against Jesus, instead
of sitting and engaging with Jesus in teaching and learning they engaged
instead in plotting to kill Him? Could she have any idea that He would, in 30
years, make His own journey to Jerusalem for Passover? Was there any inkling in
her mind that then He would be left behind again – this time not by parents but
by everyone – including His Heavenly Father? Did she understand that there
would be another three day period where she would be separated from her son who
lay, dead and buried, behind a sealed stone and where she would finally find
Him, but mistake Him for the gardener?
No…standing there in Temple, watching her 12 year old son
with pride and curiosity, with frustration and anxiety, she didn’t have any
idea of what lay ahead for Jesus and what was necessary for Him to fulfill His
name and be Savior. What she knew is that it was time to go home, back to
sleepy little Nazareth, and for Jesus to go with her. He did, Luke noting that
He continued to grow in wisdom and in stature with God and man. She had found
her Son, where He was most at home – in His Father’s house. But it was time to
leave the Temple behind for another year.
I started this sermon by putting us parents in the shoes of
Mary and Joseph. Whether you count your child’s lifespan still as weeks and
months, or by the decade, you have had those moments and experiences of anger
and frustration – some were righteously felt, but if we’re honest, others not
so much. Parenting is one of God’s great gifts and children are a blessing. It
is the primary relationship of all mankind, one where grace and mercy is freely
practiced and love and compassion are exercised. And the devil cannot abide
this. So, the devil loves to take the gift and fill us with frustration and
hurt so that we call it a burden, and he loves to take the blessing and fill it
with harsh words and broken hearts so that we call it a curse. Love and compassion are surrendered to
getting even and showing who’s boss and grace and mercy are given over to
self-justification and self-righteousness. And then, when we realize our
mistakes and our sins against our kids,
the devil takes that all and wraps it up with a horrible, thorny bow and
delivers it to us again as shame and guilt, that Christian parents would never
think such things, or feel such things toward their children. He leaves us
parents in our own despair, seeing only our failures and our homes as anything but
places where the Spirit of God dwells.
Parents – moms and dads of all ages – hear this Word of God.
Christ comes for you. He, who descends to earth as a human boy, who in holiness
perfectly submitted to earthly and sinful parents, is your Savior. For all of
those parental melt-downs, and fatherly conniption fits, and motherly tantrums,
Jesus is yours. In repentance, surrender them to Him. Don’t let Satan continue
to weigh you down with those moments. In faith, know, believe, trust and rely
that you, too, are forgiven by Christ. In humility, confess your failing to
your kids and ask them for their forgiveness, too, without excuses or condition
(you know, the “I’m sorry I yelled, but if you would have cleaned up your
room…”) and pledge to do better next time. When you do that, you give your
child the wonderful opportunity to share the Word of God with you, the Word
that says, “I forgive you, Mom; I forgive you, Dad.” You might have to teach
them to use those words; that’s OK, and it’s worth teaching. Because there, in
the family, united with Christ in Baptism and grounded in the Word, there is
Christ.
Amen.
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