It is amazing that children grow very fast and Jesus is no exception. We just celebrated his birth two days ago, and here we are learning and talking about his adolescent life at age 12. Can you recall when you were twelve years-old? What were you doing then and what were your concerns? Did life seem simpler then? I still remember when I was twelve years old and I was in sixth grade. I was curious to know and do things and explore the world on my own.
At a certain age, pre-teens seem to need to show that they are different than adults. They seem to need to rebel and to do things differently than their parents. In fact if they do not, the other kids wind up thinking that they are strange, almost like a misfit. Why is this? Why do young people need to challenge the rules of life? Maybe this is their sense of individual identity. Usually adults do not like these rebellious stages. How do we support the creativity of our children and learn to listen to them through the seeming rebelliousness? Even Jesus went through such an issue at twelve. He stayed at the temple even when his parents left to return to Nazareth. Since the journey of this community was really a large family, it was possible in those days to not realize your child was not present. In this day and age of the nuclear family that would seem very odd to us within our culture of course.
Mary and Joseph were good parents of course. They raised Jesus well. When they did not find Jesus not among the extended family, they went back to Jerusalem and searched for three days. When they found him, he was in a state of learning: listening and questioning the teachers at the temple (and perhaps teaching the adults), this astonished his parents. It seemed that Jesus was transformed into a prodigy or a sudden genius and his parents were not quite accustomed to that in this degree or in this expression. Secretly, they were very proud of him, if somewhat angry. They actually did not understand him as he spoke, because it seemed that he spoke in abstractions or parables that would befit someone three times his age at least. Jesus was blessed by God to have the abilities he would need for the role he would play. He would spend the next two decades learning and teaching, even has he had to do the normal work that he needed to do in carpentry and the usual things for survival that a person needed to do in those days.
What would we do if we had a child like that? Of course we would be unaware that our child was actually the Savior of humankind and so likely we would scold and punish the child. How can we support the children and the teenagers in their learning and searching, especially when they seem rebellious? It reminds us to listen more to them rather than talk. We need to nurture, understand and love them with grace under pressure and difficulty. How do we retain perspective over the generation gap? Usually children and youth need to be heard and feel they need to be listened to. That is hard for adults to do, because adults want to immediately guide the children and the youth and hand out the wisdom in large packages. The important thing to remember is to take each person we interact with at the place in life that they are and to let them speak and feel understood first before any real progress in communication can be made. Can we be as nurturing, understanding, forgiving and loving as Mary and Joseph?
The bible does not tell us all that much information about the earlier life of our Lord. The gospel of Mathew mentions the visiting of the Magi and also King Herod’s order to kill the children under two years-old (Matthew 2:1-21). The gospel of Luke mentions the circumcision in accord with Jewish law (Luke 2:21). Luke also mentions the presentation of the newborn Christ to the temple (Luke 2:22-24), and this incident at twelve years-old at the temple as a precursor to what is to come in the later part of the life of Christ.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry he sought to be well understood. This was true in regard to his parents as well as the disciples and all who attended his teachings. It is hard for us to picture the twelve year-old Jesus trying to be understood by his parents and others, and yet the text tells us that this was the case.
How do we grow as a child of God? Christ increases in physical and intellectual maturity at this time. How do we grow through teachings? It is not the same thing to read something as it is to understand it. How does our life cause us to understand things better, to reflect and learn from scriptures? The wisdom of the ages and the Word of God are in the scriptures. That is why when we study the Word of God, we gain wisdom in a profound way. As we reflect at stages in our lives on how the scripture makes sense for us, we increase in Godly wisdom. As an example if one reads the book of proverbs or any of the Gospels, at various stages of life, it will reflect new truths about the world, God, and us. How can we increase that learning and desire to seek the Emmanuel in our life?
Jesus grew “in wisdom, and in years, and in divine and human favor” (verse 52). How do we grow in stature and wisdom? How do we stand tall for God? It may be in unexpected ways. We think of ourselves as being far different from the Messiah, but of course Christ is within us as Christians. The humanity of Christ growing up shows us that we have divine elements in us as well.
Luke has made a statement about the humanity of our divine Lord. In mentioning the life of Christ at age twelve, we get a different angle on the Gospel’s than we usually would. Jesus being a twelve year-old is not something we often contemplate. It is a level of humanity in Christ not often reflected on to that extent. The Christ child is described at various sections of the gospel, but it is certainly not the main emphasis. The point is that Jesus grew as a man and he did not remain as a baby in a manger. What does that mean for us? How can we listen and learn from the Word of God this New Year? Our lives can be touched in 2010 if we just accept the blessing of God’s grace and teachings in this New Year. Should we also be listening? What are our questions this New Year? What is our net impact on the world as Christians? Are we really listening?
When we apply our Godly principles based on the Scriptures to our lives, it makes all decision making far easier. What do we value in life? Where does real happiness lie? The quiet acceptance of the hard parts of a faithful life brings enormous peace to our hearts. That is biblical level wisdom working in our lives. If we base all decisions on material gain, and we look back ten years later where do we find ourselves? The surest path to total mental burnout is a continued focus on one’s self and on one’s own comfort. Again, only biblical wisdom can show us that. Our lives can be richer than what it is today in a real meaningful sense. According to the world, we should make ourselves comfortable and not worry about how we serve others. Each needs to worry about oneself. Is that not what we are taught much of the time? Then we can accumulate more riches on earth and feel very important. The right car can make us feel better. The right TV can make sports programs look nice. We all like material things and that is okay. But what about right investment in human life and in wisdom? The biblical wisdom that Jesus of Nazareth began at age twelve would lead to a message that has more meaning today than ever, and two thousand years later it endures the ages of humankind.
Why do we need our Savior more today? One reason is that the media and television gives us a distorted window into life and affects our thinking. We are being tricked by the hidden agendas of powerful money “centers of power.” Why are the biblical teachings less popular than most action or immorally oriented television? The television is fun to watch and we all do it and that is okay, but what if we gave just twenty percent of that time to reading the Bible? Where would our lives be in ten years? Where might we find a shift in peace and in meaning? Is that perhaps too old fashioned? Is it too out of style these days to read the bible? Even if we start today ten minutes a day, we will wind up getting blessed by the wisdom of the ages and the true everlasting Word of God. Can we include reading the bible daily as part of our new year’s resolution?
Why is it that these biblical truths always wind up reigning in the end? Why is the bible always right in its lessons? The first answer is that God has wisdom beyond human being. The second reason is that over many centuries of experience, the Godly lessons always seem to come back again and again. Whether it is the mortgage meltdown, AIG, Bernie Maddoff and the 50 Billion dollar pyramid scheme, or ten percent unemployment, why is it that God is always right? I suppose that question is totally silly. We need to have peace in knowing that God is always right and is always there. We need to know that worrying is far less valuable or useful than simply going back to the Word of God. We can accept any setback in life if we have the Word of God guiding us.
Put on the armor of the everlasting and ever-powerful God and a new peace will dawn on you like a spring morning. The fires of worry will wash away like an ocean of rain, and you will find a new and better life that is unimaginable. It is so simple that it only starts with reading God’s word and applying a new personal meaning to it. Without the burden of worry, are we not then more prone to live out the will of God that springs from the pure joy of a real life and a newfound peaceful wisdom in life? Are we not of more use to others and ourselves in that realm?
God uses normal everyday people to become extraordinary in some way. Again returning to the lectionary reading for today, here, Jesus was a six grader who would have finished Bar-Mitzvah perhaps recently and would have had learning between age six and twelve. Today how can we be instruments of God by supporting our family in the church or in the world? You may support someone more important than you think. All forests and trees start from seeds. God can help us support the old as well as the young.
Here at the Chicago Temple we provide Sunday school for K-3 to adults. We have a Confirmation class for the six graders (that is in a sense is somewhat like what Jesus went through at age twelve). We have Bible studies throughout the week. We offer a Taize service every first Friday of the month at 5:30 p.m. We have worship services on Wednesday noon, 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and at 8:30 and 11 in the morning on Sundays. These are some avenues and opportunities of how we bring Scriptures to all in a practical way. It is our prayers that what we provide here at the church will help you grow in your understanding of the Bible, your relationship with Jesus Christ and hopefully will inspire you to do God’s work in the world. May the New Year 2010 have more wisdom than the past years. Let us go into 2010 with a fresh and Godly perspective. Amen.
