First Sunday after Epiphany

We would love to know more about the early life of Jesus on earth, but God has caused only one story of Jesus’ childhood to be recorded: the time when Joseph and Mary lost Jesus for three days. Imagine that. Every parent knows the terror that we experience when you turn around and discover that your child has disappeared in a public place. But, of course, after a moment of panic, I’m sure you found your child just around the corner. Can you imagine what it would be like to lose your child for three days? How many tears must have been shed as Mary and Joseph retraced their steps back to the metropolis of Jerusalem? And perhaps Mary’s anguish was greater because she knew that her child was the Savior of the world.

Mary, God honored you above all women. He entrusted the Messiah into your keeping, and you mean to tell me that you’ve lost him? You can’t find not just your child but the promised Savior that all faithful believers have been eagerly awaiting for centuries? God Almighty was miraculously conceived in your womb as part of the cosmic plan to destroy sin, death, and hell, and you don’t know where he is? But I think these top-level concerns must have taken a back-seat to simple maternal anguish. Mary had lost her dear child, and she and Joseph spent three panic-stricken days looking for him.

Imagine that someone wrote a book of your child’s upbringing, but the only story they told about your parenting was the time you lost your child for three days. Think about it. It’s the only account we have of Jesus’ childhood. I’m sure there were a thousand other stories that Mary would rather have been recorded. Why did God include only this in the Bible?

Among other things, this story provides a glimpse of the mystery of Jesus’ two natures: being both God and man at the same time. Jesus, the Author of God’s Law, the one who gave Moses the Ten Commandments, sits humbly at the feet of the teachers and listens attentively to what they have to say. Jesus, who has all the power and authority in the universe, then meekly submits to his mother and step-father and returns with them to Nazareth. Jesus, who is the sum total of all wisdom and knowledge, nevertheless grows in wisdom and stature. How can these things be? This is the mystery of the God-man, or at this point, the God-boy.

Some people think that Jesus was sitting in the temple teaching the elders and scholars. He certainly could have been the teacher. But that’s not what the text says. We’re told that Jesus was listening to the teachers and answering their questions. In the Hebrew method of teaching, the rabbis asked questions. Jesus was the Word incarnate. You could say he wrote the Bible, and yet, here he was sitting under their teaching.

We all live under laws, the law of God and the law of Man. God, of course, is above these laws. He wrote them. But in Galatians we read that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4). As man, Jesus had come to live under the law that we could not keep, and it fulfill it for us. God’s law can be summed up in the Ten Commandments. The first three commandments are about God. We ought to love God and love his Word. Jesus submits to this law. His parents brought him to the synagogue, to church, to hear God’s Word every Sabbath. And on the great feast of Passover, they brought him to the temple. This story shows us how eager Jesus was to hear and learn God’s Word. He cherished it above everything else in the world. Even after the feast was over, he continued to sit and listen to the Holy Scriptures.

The rest of the Ten Commandments are about how we are to love our neighbors, beginning with our father and mother. Parental authority is the foundation for civilization. When parents lose their authority civilizations crumble and fall. We are witnessing this today in America. Parents are either unaware of their responsibilities for their children or are unwilling to meet them. The greatest responsibility of all parents is to feed and nourish their children with the Word of God. We see all of this in the story of twelve-year-old Jesus.

Even though his parents were sinners, even though somehow lost him, they were doing their most important duty: bringing their child to the house of God and teaching him to love the Scriptures. And Jesus, who was entirely without sin, was perfectly obeying the Ten Commandments: loving God with his whole heart, and loving his neighbors, which included honoring and obeying his mother and step-father.

When Mary and Joseph find Jesus, after searching for three days, there is a bit of reproach in Mary’s question: “Child, why have you treated us in this way? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress” (Lk 2:48). Jesus is genuinely surprised. As the eternal Son of God, he had an innate connection to his true Father. Didn’t they know this? One could argue that Jesus’ answer is meant to remind Mary that God, not Joseph, is his father. This, of course, is perfectly true. Jesus is talking as the Son of God. But he is also talking as the most dutiful son of Mary. And because he is a dutiful son of Mary and Joseph, he places devotion to God’s word above devotion to them. This is how we honor our father and our mother. We do so by honoring God, who told us to honor our parents. To place obedience to God above mother and father is to honor mother and father. Nothing can bring Christian parents more honor than when we love and cherish God’s word above all else.

When we look at the boy Jesus, we are looking at our God. We are looking at our Savior. God joined the human race to do as a man what God required of men. We owed God our obedience and we couldn’t give it. We couldn’t keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. So God became one of us in order to do what we could not. He took upon himself our duties. He did our duty to God. He did our duty to our neighbor. He did it for us.

We marvel at this mystery. He who knows everything learns from the Holy Scriptures. He who rules all submits to his mother. He who is the source of God’s favor grows in that favor. How can this be? We can’t explain the mystery of our Savior, who is both God and man. We can only believe in him, and in the perfect life he lived for us. Jesus, who is the Temple of God, was in the temple learning about the Passover, and yet, he himself was the Passover sacrifice. Did the teachers of the law know this? I doubt it. And yet, Jesus humbled himself and learned from them.

Today, we find in Christ’s Church what Jesus found in the temple. He studied the Scriptures and found his identity as the true Passover Lamb. So we too study God’s Word and find our identity in Jesus, our Savior and brother. We study the Law of God and find our Passover Lamb who has fulfilled God’s demands perfectly in our stead. Jesus has lived the holy life of every boy and girl, man and woman. He has died our death so we are not afraid to die. And he lives again as the first of many to be raised to new life. One thing is needful: To hear and learn the Word of God, which teaches us of Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of the world. Amen.

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