Be relieved, whatever has had you anxious. He is with us and about his Father’s business, which is your salvation.
Childhood is a modern fascination. In fact, the concept of adolescence is a rather new thing historically. For most of history, the point of childhood was to get through it. People didn’t assign great importance to it. They certainly didn’t spend the rest of life analyzing it. They survived. And so, with a few notable exceptions, it wasn’t common to talk a lot about childhood in biographies. We see that to some degree reflected in the Gospels. We don’t find out much about Jesus’ childhood. Mark doesn’t even include his birth. What we have before us today is the closest we get after Christmas and Epiphany. People have come up with all sorts of fanciful stories about the child Jesus over the years, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John didn’t see fit to give us much more than this, so we do well to pay attention to it.
The Holy Family had gone to Jerusalem for the great festival of the Passover. Joseph and Mary were pious parents, so Luke tells us they went annually. Whole clans would often travel together for such a trip, which seems to be the case here. Jesus would have spent time with the other families and their children along the way. It was surely a fun adventure for a child. This explains why his parents weren’t surprised when they didn’t see him for a while. Eventually, though, panic set in.
Joseph and Mary must have been beside themselves when they realized Jesus wasn’t in the group traveling. They’d lost their child. Mary had lost God himself, born of her as a virgin. Joseph had lost the child the heavenly Father had entrusted to his earthly care. They scrambled back to Jerusalem. Three days passed without him, the same time between his death and resurrection. Imagine their relief when they found him sitting in the temple, listening and asking questions. Understandably, they were flustered. They asked him why he’d do this to them. He seems confused, though. Didn’t they know he had to be about his Father’s business? He was subject to his mother and stepfather, but he was more subject to the heavenly Father. He owed obedience first and foremost to God.
There’s a lot in here. First, God has entrusted many things to our care. We, like Mary and Joseph, are stewards of God’s gifts. We, like Mary and Joseph, know what it is to lose sight of them. There’s something more, though. We, like Jesus, are children of God. As Joseph adopted Jesus as his own, so that Scripture honors him with the title of “father” to Jesus, so God himself has adopted us. We are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. We, too, have a heavenly Father. We, too, have a Word to hear and learn.
Like Jesus, we are also subject to people. We have parents and employers and rulers placed over us. We owe them obedience, but only so far. Our obedience to them isn’t ultimate. We must be about our Father’s business. We are subject to him above all. To him, we owe all we are and have and do. And it’s a delight to be in his house and to hear his Word, to grow in knowledge of his words and works and love.
Jesus was subject to his parents and subject to the heavenly Father. We aren’t told of any other great works, as much as people have tried to make up stories. He seems to have lived a very ordinary life to this point and for a good while after this. We need not outdo Jesus. God has given us works prepared beforehand for us to walk in, ordinary as they might be, and he rejoices when we are about them, when we are doing his business, small as it might seem. We are no greater than Jesus, who was happy to serve in such a way. We do well to be happy in the same, knowing that God uses even these small things for our neighbor and for the good of his church.
We need not outdo Jesus.
We, too, like Mary and Joseph, have sometimes lost sight of Jesus. We’ve assumed he’s around, but become inattentive. It’s a terrifying thing to lose Jesus. May we never lose him from our hearts. And yet we do well to take this reminder not to take our eyes off him. There is nothing more important in this world than this Child.
Mary and Joseph rejoiced to find Jesus in his house, gathered at the Word. Rejoice to find him, too. He is with us, in his house, with his Word and Sacrament, present with his very body and blood. Mary and Joseph were relieved. Be relieved, whatever has had you anxious. He is with us and about his Father’s business, which is your salvation. Don’t leave that joy in the Christmas season.
Jesus sat and heard the Word. He listened. He pondered. He asked questions. May we take this new year to do the same. God is present. God is speaking. Hear him. Think about what he says. Ask what it means. This is the chief part of the Father’s business, to gladly hear and learn the Word because this is what creates and feeds faith, and all truly good works proceed from faith. Hear the Word of your humble Savior, who became an ordinary child and grew in stature and wisdom like you and for you. Treasure these things up in your heart like Mary. Build your life around this gift like Joseph.
We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood, but we do know this. God came and sat in his temple, flesh and blood, a child born to fulfill everything for which the temple stood. Even more, he still sits in his house, this house, for you. Knowing that is enough. Everything else is little in comparison, though not insignificant, as the little things are what serve our neighbor, and thus God, best.
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