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Dr. George A. Purnell
December 27, 2009
“Growing Up”
Luke 2:41-52
One of the curious features about the Christian story is that we know nothing about Jesus before he began his public ministry around the age of 30, except for the verses just read. Like many Christians, I have long wondered about what sort of person Jesus was growing up. Since this brief story about a trip he made with his parents to Jerusalem at age 12 is the only glimpse we get of Jesus’ life until he is 30, we can only speculate.
We know that the years from birth to age 12 are formative years. By the time we are 12 our personality and character are largely shaped, and the example our parents set has much to do with our growth into adulthood. We end up emulating our parents as adults more than we had ever expected we would, and probably more than we realize.
Luke tells us a lot about Jesus’ parents in his second chapter. The first 20 verses of chapter 2, of course, represent the Christmas story; the familiar birth narrative describing how Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem late in Mary’s pregnancy, and how Jesus came to be born in a stable.
Jesus is anchored in the Jewish faith from birth. Verse 21 tells us that Mary and Joseph had Jesus circumcised on the eighth day, pursuant to the Law of Moses (Genesis 17:12). Verses 22-23 then tell us that Mary and Joseph brought him to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to present their son to the Lord, and to enable Mary to offer a sacrifice for her cleansing, again pursuant to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 12). We then read: “When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” (2:39-40)
Then we come to today’s lesson, which begins by telling us in verse 41 that “every year his parents went up to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.”
Let’s consider this for a moment. Observant Jews were required to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the sacred festival of the Passover, but many Jews in Joseph’s day did not. The trip to Jerusalem was both costly and difficult. It was a 160 mile round trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem, and the trip is over rough terrain, across rocky desert land and up steep hills. Making this trip in that day by donkey and on foot would have required a week. The Passover celebration itself was another week. Then there was the trip home...
But Joseph was a religious Jew, and the Law of Moses required him to raise his children in the faith, to teach them the scriptures, and the sacred traditions. Luke wants us to realize that Jesus’ family was strictly observant of Jewish Law and custom.
Traveling to Jerusalem in that time would have been dangerous as well as difficult. Bandits often hid out in the desert hills and waited to rob people. One of Jesus’ most beloved stories, the parable of the Good Samaritan, illustrates the danger of travel in that day. It tells of a man who was traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of thieves, who robbed him, beat him, and left him for dead.
Accordingly, people rarely traveled alone through the desert in those days. They traveled in caravans, and in these caravans the young people typically hung together in the rear while the adults were up front. (Kids in that day would rather hang with their friends and not their parents, just like today.)
So the fact that Jesus’ parents didn’t miss him for a day isn’t unusual. They figured he was playing with his friends and cousins, as Luke writes: “Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends.”
Upon the discovery that he was not with the caravan, his parents returned to Jerusalem, searched until they found him, and his mother scolded him. The young Jesus seemed surprised that his parents would not realize that he would be in the Temple learning. (This reminds me of times when I was very upset with my children, and they were surprised that I was alarmed by their behavior.)
Our lesson today ends by telling us that Jesus “went down with them…to Nazareth, and was obedient to them…And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor…”
This last phrase tells me that Jesus did a lot of growing in his faith between the ages of 12 and 30, when we next meet him. He had a curiosity about faith uncommon for a boy his age, but to conclude that his faith was fully formed at this point in his physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual developmentis not supported by scripture.
We all have to wrestle with our own questions about God and about faith, and Jesus was no exception. We must each come to our own faith finally.
The gospel reading for next Sunday comes from Luke chapter 3, where Jesus is 30 and is being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. As he was being baptized, Jesus heard a voice from heaven saying, “you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (3:22) Luke then tells us (chapter 4:1-13) that Jesus went into the wilderness to fast for forty days and forty nights. During this time alone in the desert, Jesus sought God’s guidance on how he was to live out his life as the Beloved of God.
So, scripture tells us that Jesus was continuing to grow, to seek his true identity and to come to understand what he believed. We read that he came out of the wilderness firm in his calling, and went to “Nazareth, where he had been brought up” and “went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.” (4:16) He proceeded then to read the lesson from Isaiah and give the first sermon of his public ministry. (And nearly his last, as the townsfolk found his message blasphemous and tried to throw him off a cliff.)
But today’s reading ends with Jesus as a 12 year old Jewish boy in Nazareth, an obscure Palestinian village, where he is obedient to his parents and where he grew “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.”
Jesus was a boy who clearly had a mind of his own, as his going to the temple to sit at the feet of the teachers to listen and learn, and ask them questions, indicates. He was so consumed with his own world that he forgot to join the caravan back to Nazareth.
Don’t many of you remember being like that when you were 12? Don’t you remember resisting the direction your parents wanted you to take? Mary and Joseph were heading home, but the young boy Jesus wanted to do something that interested him. And his mother scolded him – “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Does this sound familiar? From when you were a young person, trying to find your way in the world…and, if you have children, from when your children were growing up?
As parents, we are often convinced that we know what is best for our children. We head them in certain directions, hoping they will understand that the road we are encouraging them to follow is best for them.
But our children often resist our choices for them. Maybe we want them to be a dentist or a teacher, an architect or accountant, but they want to be an artist or home builder. If we decide that they are too young to know what they “should be,” and insist that they study for a career we have decided is best for them, we will either get push back at the time, or have an unhappy adult child who resents the forced choice and rebels later in life.
We can only speculate about Jesus between ages 12-30, of course, because there is no record of these hidden years. I imagine that Jesus went home and was attendant to the laws and customs of his Jewish faith. We know that he was active in the synagogue in Nazareth growing up, because at age 30 Luke tells us that he went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath day, “as was his custom.”
It is likely that Joseph planned for his oldest son to learn his craft and become a partner in his trade to help support what Mark’s gospel tells us was a large family. (Jesus’ four brothers are named in chapter 6, and “his sisters”.) And it is likely that, as the oldest boy, Jesus did just that. He probably did work to help support the family until his younger brothers were old enough to step in, and then Jesus could go off and become what he wanted to be; and what he had first become intrigued with at age 12 in the temple.
As we enter the New Year this week, I would like for us to think about the family in which Jesus grew up. His parents were deeply involved in Jewish piety. They were observant of the customs and traditions of their faith, and were intentional about passing their faith on to Jesus and his siblings.
This family provides us with a wonderful example. What if we became “practicing Christians” in the way Joseph and Mary were “practicing Jews”?
I think it is important that we ask questions of our faith and growin wisdom and in years all the days of our lives. We all need examples and support, as we ask our questions and grow in faith.
What would our congregation look like at the end of 2010, I wonder, if many among us intentionally spent the next year learning about and practicing our faith? Amen.
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