Luke 2:41-52
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
During the Christmas season we heard great things about the child who was born to Mary. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will conceive and bear a son who will be called the Son of God (Lk 1:35). The angel appeared to her betrothed husband, Joseph, in a dream to tell him that that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and that He will save His people from their sins (Mt 1:20-21). On the night in which Jesus was born, angels appeared to shepherds and told them the child they would find wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger was the Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Lk 2:11). Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart (Lk 2:19). When Jesus was presented in the temple, Simeon calls the salvation that God has prepared for all people, a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him (Lk 2:33). Simeon also told them that their child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (Lk 2:34). The prophetess Anna spoke of the child to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Lk 2:38). Many great things had been said of the child before and after His birth. Mary and Joseph heard them all, believed them, and treasured them.
But it was no until His twelfth year that Jesus showed any indication of any indication that He was no normal child. When He was twelve, He and His parents went up to Jerusalem from Nazareth for the Feast of Passover with their relatives and friends. They celebrated the yearly celebration of the exodus from Egypt. They ate the Passover lamb. They did all the Lord commanded in His law. After the feast was completed, they went home, back to Nazareth. At the end of the first day of travel, Joseph and Mary looked for him among their relatives and friends. When they don’t find Him, they return to Jerusalem to look for Him. Any parent can imagine not knowing where their child is. Imagine the frantic searching. Imagine what they were both feeling. God Himself had given them His only begotten Son to care for, raise, and protect. And they’ve lost Him. When they find Him three days later Mary gives us a glimpse into the terror she felt when she says, “Look, Your father and I have sought you anxiously.” She uses the same word the rich man in Hades uses when tells Abraham, “I am tormented in this flame” (Lk 16:24). Mary is in agony of conscience as she searches for her son.
They search for three days, and on the third day they find the boy. He was just fine. He’s in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. The Lord gave the priests the responsibility to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses in Leviticus 10:11. Jesus sits there listening to their teaching. He not only listens but asks them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. What sorts of questions did He ask? What sort of answers did He give? No doubt He spoke about the true meaning of the commandments, that they touched not just the outward act but the entire man, including his heart. He no doubt spoke about how the Passover lambs which had been sacrificed and eaten just over a week before prefigured the Messiah and the exodus He would lead from sin and death. When Joseph and Mary come to the temple on the third day of their search, His mother has words for Him. “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” The twelve-year-old Jesus asks His mother, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Luke tells us that they didn’t understand this at the time, but that His mother kept all these things in her heart.
Today is the first Sunday after Epiphany. Epiphany was yesterday, January 6. Epiphany is a Greek word which means “manifestation.” Throughout the season of Epiphany, we hear in the appointed gospels how Jesus manifested His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Although He conceals His divinity under human weakness, although He lives a perfectly human life, during this season we will see Jesus manifest His divine glory and power in several different ways. Usually, He manifests His glory through miracles. But today He manifests His divine glory in a different way, so that we know Him as the only begotten of God the Father.
He manifests this first by staying behind in Jerusalem even as Joseph and His mother left for home. By staying behind, Jesus demonstrates that He is not under Mary and Joseph’s parental authority by nature. Our children, before they reach adulthood, are under our authority. This is God’s order, so that children are cared for, protected, and most of all, be brought up in the training and admonition of the Lord as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:4. And God commands children to be subject to their parents and to live respectfully under their parents’ authority. He tells says in the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” (Ex 20:12). Paul tells children, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Eph 6:1), whenever they tell you do what pleasing to God. Parents have no authority to command their children to sin and act against God’s word. If they do, they aren’t to be obeyed. Mary and Joseph weren’t acting outside their office as Jesus’ parents. But Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem as a testimony to the fact that, although Mary was His mother and Joseph His God-assigned guardian, Jesus owes primary obedience to His heavenly Father as the only begotten Son of God the Father. He is more than man, more than Mary’s son. He is the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus also manifests His divine glory, His divine sonship, by His questions and answers to the priests. Jesus was respectful of their office as priests. He listens to them. But He also taught them the truth of God’s word in a childlike way, so that all who heard Him—even these priests who had spent their entire lives studying the law—were astonished at His understanding and answers. He manifests His divine glory to His parents finally when He responds to Mary’s exasperation and asks, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” God’s business is His word, His will, His law, and His promises. He is her son, but He is primarily God’s Son, about His Father’s business, and He will demonstrate this all the more during the days of His earthly ministry. He will teach those willing to learn. He will chide those who think they have need to learn from Him. He will heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame walk, and raise the dead, each miracle manifesting His divine glory. His divine glory will chiefly be seen in being delivered up because of our offenses, and being raised because of our justification (Rom 4:25). But for now, once this brief epiphany in the temple comes to an end, Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. He lived a regular childhood, subject to his parents’ authority, gladly and joyfully doing all that His mother and Joseph told Him to do.
In this first manifestation of His divine glory, He shows Himself to be the only begotten Son of God in human flesh. The Son of God becomes a son of man so that we all who believe in Him might receive received the adoption as sons (Gal 4:5) by faith and baptism. Through faith and baptism, God adopts us as His sons and daughters, forgives all our sins, promises us eternal salvation, and gives us His Holy Spirit so that we might live as our older brother in the flesh, Jesus, lived. He is our Savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He is also our example and pattern. This epiphany shows us that God establishes authority and wants it honored, for Jesus willingly subjects Himself to Mary and Joseph. This is an example for children, but for adults also who are under authority, that they may obediently live under the authorities God has established—except when them command us to sin. Jesus shows us that such obedience is God-pleasing by subjecting Himself to His parents’ authority.
In this first of Jesus’ epiphanies, as He manifests His divine glory as the son of God, He teaches us that as sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we, too, should be about our heavenly Father’s business. Our Father’s business is His word, His will, His law, and His promises. God has given each us lots of business that needs attending each day. But in the midst of fulfilling the duties God has given us to one another, we mustn’t neglect our Father’s business; meditating on His Word so that in the joy of the gospel we live by His commandments for our good, for our neighbor’s benefit, and for God’s glory. All that we do, regardless of our business, should flow from the fact that we are about our heavenly Father’s business, and we are about His business because by faith He has made us His sons and daughters, forgives our sins, and raises us to new life each day to live even as Christ lives. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpassess all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
