To love God’s Word as Jesus did

Sermon for the First Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

The purpose of what we call the Church Year is this: to walk with Jesus through His life and His teachings. We review the major events of His life and we review His teachings again every year. And no matter how many times we review them, there’s always more to learn, and there’s always the Holy Spirit working in hearts, if we’re paying attention, to call to repentance, to strengthen faith, to warn about the very real dangers to our soul, to comfort the distressed, and to guide the children of God to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church Year began in December with the Advent season, but it was Christmas that began our annual review of the life of Christ. We pondered His birth and His Circumcision. We would have considered His Presentation in the Temple, where Simeon and Anna worshiped Him, but St. Stephen’s Day took its place this year. We heard of the visit of the wise men who followed the star to Jerusalem and to Bethlehem, followed by the flight of the holy family to Egypt and the return to Nazareth. In all those accounts covering the first twelve years of Jesus’ life, we didn’t see Jesus doing anything or saying anything. What would this Child be like who is the very Son of God? Today we encounter the very first words and actions of the Word who became flesh, and it gives us another epiphany, another revelation about the God-Man.

But first, we learn something about the God-Man’s parents. We’re told that they went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. That may seem like a small thing, but it took about four or five days to walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem, plus the week spent there, plus another four or five days walking back. Factor in the loss of income for those two weeks, plus the expenses of the journey and the lodging for a family that certainly wasn’t rich. And it wasn’t for a vacation or for sightseeing or for relaxation. It was to spend that week performing the religious rites and ceremonies God had prescribed in the Old Testament: acquiring a lamb, taking care of it for a few days, then slaughtering it and eating it, accompanied by time spent in the temple, prayers and hymns and a recounting of the history of how God redeemed Israel from slavery. Every year Mary and Joseph made that two-week journey to Jerusalem (with or without Jesus, we don’t know for sure), and during the rest of the year, they would faithfully attend the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath day. What a wonderful example they were for all Christian parents!

When He was twelve years old, Jesus certainly went with His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover, where He who was the Lamb of God first participated in the festival that was entirely designed to foreshadow Him, and His own death at a Passover festival, in the same city of Jerusalem, some 21 years later.

But for now, Jesus is just a twelve-year-old Boy. And as His parents and the rest of the caravan from Nazareth got up early to start the long walk back to Nazareth, He stayed behind in Jerusalem. For some inexplicable reason, Mary and Joseph just assumed He was with their relatives or acquaintances who were part of the caravan, and they walked a whole day under that assumption. It must have been a pretty large caravan! They searched and searched, and didn’t find Him.

But it was already the end of day 1 by the time they realized He wasn’t there. So the next morning they got up and hurried back to Jerusalem. They made a quick search that evening, and still didn’t find Him. Finally, on the third day, they found Him, right there in the temple, sitting among the Rabbis, the teachers of Israel, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

That’s an epiphany, a revelation of Jesus’ divinity. It was also a foreshadowing of what the future held for this twelve-year-old boy. He wouldn’t be some great carpenter, or some politician, or some philosopher. He would be engaged in teaching God’s Word, discussing God’s Word, instructing the people of Israel in the things of God, with better understanding than any of the other Rabbis, or, for that matter, than anyone else who had ever lived. Because He was the Word made flesh. He had come from the bosom of the Father, as St. John puts in. He knew God the Father perfectly.

And yet, as a human boy, He also learned. He asked insightful questions, and He answered questions. He was respectful to His elders. He wasn’t stuck up or condescending. Just a humble student, truly interested in the things of God, who loved God’s Word and God’s house. The ideal catechism student. He loved being in the temple of God. The words of the Psalmist describe Jesus perfectly: O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house, the place where Your glory dwells… How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!  My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out to the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, among your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house…O God, our Shield, behold! And look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

But His parents didn’t understand. They loved God’s house, too, but not like this. Why would Jesus stay behind and cause them to worry? Mary said, “Son, why have you done this to us? See, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” And he said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in the things of my Father?” But they did not understand what he said to them.

It seems that Mary and Joseph had, what, forgotten?, that, while Jesus was their Son, His true Father—His only Father, in the sense of where He came from—was God the Father in heaven. And while Joseph had certainly given Jesus chores to do, His Father in heaven had given Him chores of His own. One of those chores—which was a delight to Jesus—was being engaged in His Father’s things, namely, in the things that have to do with hearing, learning, and discussing God’s Word, in the “chore” of spending time in His Father’s house.

But when Mary and Joseph said to Him, “Let’s go home,” He didn’t object. He went them, submitted to their authority as His earthly parents, and He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. What an example He sets for every child, for every person of every age! Love for God, and love for man. Love for God’s Word, and love for His parents’ word.

This is part of what we call Jesus’ “active obedience” as our Substitute. He did perfectly what we’re all supposed to do, except that we haven’t. He had the true love for His Father’s Word that we’re all supposed to have, but don’t—not to this degree. If that stings, it’s supposed to. But this is also what saves us and raises us up again, together with Jesus’ passive obedience—the things He suffered in our place. This is what earned our salvation, that Christ was righteous for us, even as a child, and now the Father counts His righteousness and obedience to all who believe in Him, as if it were our obedience, as if we had been perfect parents or perfect children.

But that doesn’t mean that we are now free to disobey. On the contrary, we have a holy calling, as those whom God has counted as righteous, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle.

So parents, be the fathers and mothers God has called you to be. As Paul writes, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Spend time with them. Teach them whatever you can, including the chief parts of the Small Catechism. Admit your own sins and mistakes and ask for forgiveness. Keep urging them, by word and by example, to grow into godly men and women who don’t just attend church regularly, but who show a genuine interest in God’s Word, a firm commitment to sound doctrine, and zeal for knowing God and discussing the things of God. And finally, commend your children to God and know that He loves them even more than you do.

Children, as Paul writes, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Learn obedience. Learn to honor your parents, not just outwardly, but with your attitude and in your heart.

Children, young people, and adults, ask yourself is it your goal to imitate Jesus, to grow in wisdom as well as stature? To grow in favor with God and man? Not the favor of the cool crowd or of your friends, but of all people? In favor with your parents, your brothers and sisters, your fellow church members, your teachers, your classmates, your neighbors? You do that by being good, honest, dependable, humble, caring, and kind, and generous, by humbly admitting your sins and mistakes and asking for forgiveness, by devoting yourself to living as children of God in a godless world, who are eager to hear their Father’s Word and be engaged in the things of our Father in heaven.

You see, we all have plenty to work on, don’t we?, no matter what else we can’t work on or fix in this world. Don’t be conformed to this world, as Paul says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. May God help you to live as His children during these trying times, even as He has brought you into His family through faith in Christ Jesus and loves and cares for you as a perfect Father. Amen.