Luke 2:39-52 "My Father's Business" Children, can you imagine having Jesus for an older brother? You may sometimes think that your big brother or sister is almost perfect. But what if your big brother was perfect! That would be annoying, wouldn't it? As Mary and Joseph are frantically looking for Jesus, you can almost imagine Jesus' younger brothers saying, "heh, heh, he's slipped up this time!" But then he pulls this line about "being in my Father's house" (or "about my Father's business") and he doesn't even get into trouble! Some pastors use this passage to say, "even Jesus submitted to his parents, so you, children, should submit to your parents." It is true that you should submit to your parents. And it is true that the fact that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, submitted to Mary and Joseph, dramatically illustrates the fact that God wants all children to submit to their parents. But that is not the point that Luke is making to Theophilus and that is not the point that I am making to you. What should you, children, learn from the story of the boy Jesus in the temple. You should learn that even as a child, Jesus was about his Father's business. Many of you are right about the age that Jesus was in our story. And you are called to be about your Father's business. What does it mean to be about our Father's business? Jesus shows us. You may have noticed that I refer to it as "my Father's business" rather than "my Father's house" as the ESV has it in verse 49. Literally it reads, "I must be in the things of my Father" Certainly the temple was one of the most important "things" of his Father. But the important thing is that it is plural. Yes, he must be in his Father's house, but he must also be doing his Father's work he must be about all his Father's business. Our passage today is bracketed by the two statements in verses 40 and 52 of how Jesus "grew and became strong, filled with wisdom," (verse 40) and how Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men." (verse 52) In other words, Luke wants us to understand that Jesus had a normal boyhood, he grew and became strong he grew up! But this was also a time of preparation for him. He was increasing in wisdom. We often tend to think that because Jesus was God, therefore his childhood must have been . . . well, to put it bluntly, fake. Really, he knew everything. He was the source of all wisdom. He just appeared to grow in wisdom. That is actually heresy the old heresy of Docetism (from the word "seemed" or "appeared"). Luke says that Jesus grew in wisdom, and even that he increased in favor with God and men. Again, we need to remember that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. And according to the properties of his human nature he had to learn things which according to the properties of his divine nature he had known from all eternity! I asked my Sunday school class last week, why did God become a baby? We focused, as we should, on the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Only one who was descended from Adam could undo the curse. But there is another way of putting it. By becoming incarnate as a baby, and growing up through childhood, and becoming a full-grown man, Jesus has sanctified infancy, childhood, and adulthood. In every stage of life, we must be "about our Father's business." 1. Passover as "My Father's Business" (2:41-42) In verse 41 we hear that his parents were faithful Israelites. Mary and Joseph went every year to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. There is much in this text that reminds us of Samuel. Not only does Mary's song echo the song of Hannah from 1 Samuel 2, but the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast, and the child growing in wisdom, also are echoes of 1 Samuel 1-3, as well as Jesus staying in the temple like Samuel with Eli. The Passover was the feast of redemption. It was the celebration of how God had delivered Israel from Egypt. The Passover was the feast of the firstborn as we saw last time because it was in Egypt that God had struck down the firstborn of Egypt in order to rescue his own firstborn son, Israel. The Passover was also the feast in which the son would ask his father, why do we do these things? There is considerable debate over the meaning of verse 42. When it says And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom, what custom is it referring to? Is it referring to Mary and Joseph's custom of going to the feast? Probably not. The word "custom" (ethos) refers to a tradition or practice that is common in a culture. The "custom" that Luke is referring to is the custom of 12 year old boys being included in the feast as men. Some would say that this is the first time that Jesus had ever gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Others would say that Jesus had regularly gone up with his parents, but that this was the first time that he went as a man. To use the later term, this was his "bar-mitzvah." Unfortunately the text does not resolve this debate. Luke is not interested in whether Jesus had gone up before or not. Luke is interested in what happened this time. Jesus is now entering his adult responsibilities as a covenant member. (Our culture does not have any clear rite of passage. In a few weeks we will be looking at the question of how children become adults in our "Sex and the City of God" study) But this custom was the rite of passage in the Jewish community. Around the age of 12 a young man would enter into his adult responsibilities, as a sort of apprentice. He was still under the tutelage of his parents, but he also was expected to begin making adult decisions. And you see this in verses 43-47: 2. Knowing the Word as "My Father's Business" (2:43-47) One of the key requirements for being a faithful adult is knowing the Word of God. And so Jesus went to the temple to test his wisdom against the finest teachers in Israel. And for at least four days he sat among the teachers, listening and asking them questions. (After all, we know that Joseph and Mary had traveled for one day, and then looked for him for three days). Where did he spend the night? We don't know. But then again, he was expected to begin making adult decisions! And when Jesus begins making adult decisions, we should not be surprised to find him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. We usually focus on Jesus' precocious understanding, and the amazement of the teachers at his wisdom. In other words, we focus on the revolutionary aspect of Jesus coming to the temple. But we forget that what Jesus is doing is in another sense profoundly ordinary. He is participating in the normal coming-of-age ritual of Judaism. He is sitting at the feet of the great teachers in the temple, the leading rabbis of the day. Obviously, if a twelve year old kid had come in spouting off at the mouth, they would have thrown him out! He came in humility asking questions (Questions can be so disarming!) At this point in his life he is engaged in mastering the Scriptures. The day will come when he will challenge these same rabbis and priests. But that is not today. Today he is studying the Scriptures, developing the beginning of the teaching that will one day rock the world! Because, as he tells his parents, he must be about the things of his Father. Deuteronomy 17 had said of the faithful king, that he should study the Torah the Law of God that he might be faithful in doing it all his days. Jesus is being revealed as the faithful king. He is attending to the Word of God with diligence, preparation and prayer, receiving it with faith and love, laying it up in his heart, and practicing it in his life. And because of his faithfulness and diligence in his study, he amazes all who heard him. His answers were filled with wisdom and understanding. Do you wish that you could have been there to hear the questions? What was Jesus saying that day? If you want to know, keep reading Luke's Gospel! Because Luke records much of the preaching of Jesus! But you are never too young (and never too old) to be diligent in studying the Word of God. But if you would be a faithful son of your heavenly Father, then make it your business to study the Word of God. The best way to be prepared for whatever God has in store for you is to be well-grounded in the Scriptures. If you know the Word of God and understand what God has to say about us and our condition, then you will be well-prepared for anything! 3. Being Faithful in Every Stage of Life as "My Father's Business" (2:48-52) At the same time, while Jesus is making adult decisions and playing the role of an adult in the temple, he is also still a child, and so when his parents admonish him, he submits to his parents and goes with them. Mary says to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. Jesus' response reminds her (and us) who is really his father! Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's things? They didn't fully understand this. But Mary treasured up all these things in her heart both the words and the action of Jesus: How he had spoken wisely, and how he had submitted to them. Jesus was becoming an adult, but he was still a child, and he honored that time of life by living faithfully as a child. I know that sometimes it is hard to be patient. You have great ideas for what you would like to do. But you are called to be faithful in the little things you are called to be faithful to God in your present stage of life. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought! Be faithful in your present calling, and God will prepare you for what comes next. I had a professor in college who took a rather circuitous route. She had been a missionary to Africa and a half dozen other things over the years. She only got her PhD in her late '50s and then started teaching college. But she liked to point out that the only way that she would have been prepared to teach what she was now teaching, was if God had taken her on this circuitous route! If you are a child, then devote yourself to your Father's business study the Word of God, be diligent in preparing for adulthood! And (here's the hard part), be patient and submit to your parents even as you begin to make adult decisions during your teenage years. We are called to be "about our Father's business." And as we devote ourselves to God's Word, we will find ourselves increasing in wisdom and in stature both with God and man. And as Jesus' example shows us, our Father's business includes both the big things and the little things. Jesus will go on to tell us that the one who is faithful in small things will be given big things but the one who is faithless in small things even what he has will be taken away. What are the small things that God has given for you to do? Think about how you can be about your Father's business in your home: what are the little things that God has called you to do at home? the little things that your husband or wife would appreciate! or teaching your children day-by-day the way of Christ. That may not sound like a little thing, but the way you teach is not just by talking, it is also by how you act. How do you show love to your wife? That will teach your children how Christ loves the church! We are also to be about our Father's business in the church: the timing of this sermon happens to coincide with the new servant schedule! How can we serve one another in the congregation? There are the obvious ways teaching Sunday school, bringing snacks, caring for the children in the nursery, or cleaning the building. Serving and loving one another, being about our Father's business, is very rarely convenient. But then again, our own convenience isn't the point. I don't suppose it was "convenient" for our Lord to go to the cross "I think next Thursday would work better for me..." And yet that is where our story is going. Jesus is being faithful in the little things as a 12-year old boy, so that he might be faithful even to death 20 years later! And we are to be about our Father's business in our community: how is your workplace "your Father's business"? How can you be "about your Father's business" in your neighborhood? These are the things we need to work on together as a congregation as we walk together in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ.