Reading: Luke 2.41-52
Various countries and communities have different days that
are special. For example, in 2007
Our idea of a weekend, with Saturday and Sunday off is very English. In French, Thursday (Jeudi) was long considered the day free of work. The English concept of a two-day break was an appealing thought, but they had to import the English word to describe it – “un weekend”!
In Biblical times, six days of work were followed by a “sabbath”, a rest-day. It was not simply a much-needed break from work, but a day holy to the Lord, a day for rediscovering the spiritual perspective for all of life.
They didn’t have our kind of “holidays” either! But they had special festivals which provided another break from work and helped them to see their national history in the light of what God had been doing.
The Passover was a very important feast. It went back to
Moses’ time and celebrated the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month Nisan (around the end of March or beginning of April in our calendar) the Israelites were to kill a lamb (or young goat). Some of its blood was to be sprinkled on the doorposts and beam above the door of the house as a sign to the Angel of Death that this family trusted the Lord and was to be spared. The meat was roasted and eaten with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. None of the food was to be left until morning. They were to eat quickly, dressed for travel, with sandals on their feet and a stick in their hand.
Those elements of the original Passover in
The Passover was immediately followed by the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The eight days together came to be referred to as the Passover (as in Lk 22.1,7).
It was for the annual Passover festival that Jesus and his
family went up to
Mary and Joseph were astonished and reproachful – Jesus had caused them both anxiety and a deal of bother. “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” That’s quite a natural reaction for parents. I suspect at some time or other a number of us parents have been put to anxiety by our children not letting us know where they would be or what they would be doing. Mary’s words also reveal how normal home life had been during these past twelve years.
We read this account in Luke after the announcement to Mary, the birth of Jesus, the coming of the shepherds, the testimony of Simeon and Anna... Surely they knew! Surely they would never forget!
Some later writings have fanciful stories about the
childhood of Jesus. They have the boy Jesus, for instance, making a clay pigeon
on the Sabbath day. When he is rebuked by Joseph, he blows on it and it comes
alive and flies away. That’s a phoney story – it wasn’t like that at all!
Joseph and Mary didn’t have a continual series of reminders of the divine
identity of Jesus. He lived and grew as their son, and Joseph, though not his
natural father, fulfilled the role of father and was
accepted as such by the community of
It was just natural for Mary to speak of “Your father and I...” Had they forgotten the angel’s words? “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (The KJV puts it “about my Father’s business”. Quite simply, “among my Father’s things”.) For Jesus, this was so clearly where he should be and what he should be doing. He had assumed that they would know that. But they hadn’t known it, and, even now, they didn’t grasp what he was meaning. Mary, of course, “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” and much much later the penny must have dropped.
It is a little flash picture to let us know that the boy Jesus, at this early age, knew that he was uniquely the Son of God. And this knowledge hadn’t come by any reminders of the unusual events of his birth – for Mary was caught quite unawares! Jesus wasn’t ready to start his great mission – not for another eighteen years! – but he had to be in his Father’s house about his Father’s business.
Following his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday some twenty-one years later, he went into this same Temple and began to drive out the merchants – “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’.” (19.46) This action angered the Jewish leaders and fired their determination to plot against him. What have you done to my Father’s house? Of course, his reply at age twelve didn’t arouse the suspicion or anger of the authorities.
Their plot against him was put into effect at the time of Passover. He became, in fact, the Passover Lamb through whom his people would be set free. We can see these things in the mind of the Father, but it’s not necessary to project them into the developing understanding of the boy Jesus.
After this little flash picture, it’s back to normal again.
A momentary insight into his identity and mission has been given and the
curtain closes again – he goes back with them to
Jesus grew physically. He also grew in wisdom. Far more than
intellectual development, that’s the ability to apply his understanding to
problems and needs, the ability to act in the right way. And his close
relationship with God was evident and people were pleased with him as a person.
Later, of course, when he had set out as a preacher, the people of
Jesus was the unique Son of God. In a broader sense we are all God’s children. So to make clear what Scripture teaches about Jesus, we refer to him as “God the Son”. And his Father’s business was also quite unique. He had come “to save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1.21). As he himself said later, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10.45).
It is this unique work of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, that opens to us the possibility of becoming children of God (as Jn 1.12-13). What we have to do is believe in him, put our trust in him, accept that his redeeming work is for us. What was required of the Israelites that first Passover night was quite simple. The blood on the doorposts was the sign – not that they understood, not that they were worthy, not that they were better than the Egyptians – it was a sign that they were trusting God and depending on his deliverance.
It is through that kind of trust – that dependence on God – that we receive a new identity as children of God. John wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 Jn 3.1a). Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children – part of his family and able to call him by the family name, “Abba, Father.” That also means, writes Paul, that “we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8.14-17).
These days people have wanted their
identity defined by a number of different areas – by their personality,
popularity, sexuality, achievement, employment, bank balance… Paul writes about
his own claims to that kind of identity, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the
people of
What’s your identity? What gives meaning and drive to your life? Are you a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ? Is that central to who you are? or is it “tacked on” to all your other qualifications?
When Jesus understood who he was – the Son of God – yes, even at age twelve he began to have an urge to fulfil his mission in the world. Does the realisation of the amazing love of God that we should be called his children – does this realisation impel us into action to fulfil our God-given mission in this world?
A New Year is about to begin – filled with new opportunities! The old Latin proverb, “Carpe diem,” urged people to “seize the day.” Yes, for us too, by grace, “seize the day”! By faith in Christ you are a child of God! Then be about your heavenly Father’s business! Happy New Year!
© Peter J. Blackburn, Ingham Uniting
Church, 31 December 2006
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible
Society, 1984.
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