FIRST SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS
Listen to audio version
Readings: 1 Samuel 2: 18-20 and 26; Luke 2: 41-end
would not normally be. So Mary and Joseph were pitched into the nightmare that all parents must dread – a child adrift in a large city. But Jesus is depicted as unruffled, and in control. And yet, for all the miraculous happenings surrounding his birth – angels appearing; shepherds coming to the manger; the star, and the wise men arriving to pay homage, here we have a more reserved narrative.
The story is infinitely believable, and yet the details of it are packed with significance, as are all these passages about the early life of Jesus. The law laid down that Jews should travel to Jerusalem for three major feasts each year, if at all possible: for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. If distance was a problem, then people were excused two of those journeys so long as they made the effort to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover.
Jesus is twelve years old: possibly this detail is given to assure us that the incident occurred while he was still a child, for at 13, with the ceremony of bar misvah, the boy would officially reach manhood. Entire villages would join the pilgrimage, and the festivities in the city could last for eight days. So it was that Jesus could become lost in the company. And in the social structure where extended families were so important – something largely lacking in today’s society, some of the onus on individual parents was lifted. So when Mary and Joseph have sought the boy for three days – another detail perhaps anticipating Jesus’ three days in the tomb, they find him sitting in the Temple in the midst of the teachers and doctors of the Law.
Jewish teachers would normally instruct whilst sitting in the middle of a circle of their disciples. But here we find Jesus sitting in the centre, with the doctors of the law surrounding him. The point is clear – Jesus is the centre of attention, because it is Jesus who is doing the instructing, and the Jewish religion which has to be doing the learning. And yet Jesus is not preparing for ministry in opposition to Jewish law and practice, but rather in fulfilment of it.
What are we to make of this 12-year old, and the reply to his mother, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” or – in the King James version, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” One of the fascinating questions about Jesus is this puzzle –what was his understanding of himself at the different stages of his life? I believe that is important to us, for surely the good news of the Gospel is not only about what Jesus did and taught: it is also about what he experienced, as the Word made Flesh; how he underwent all the human experiences of infancy, childhood, adolescence, as he grew into a young man. I was recently reading the profile of a clergyman in a parish magazine. The article explained that at the age of eight this person knew he wanted to be a priest, and after Confirmation at 12, he was attending Morning and Evening Prayer daily at the local parish church. Undoubtedly, some children do know at an early age what they want to do with their lives. We see something of the same in the story of Samuel, of whom we heard a little in the Old Testament reading today. At quite a young age he heard God’s promptings, and with Eli’s help, responded. We read today, “The boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the Lord and with the people.” Jesus’ answer to his parents in the Temple might seem precocious; but it demonstrates single-mindedness that can be found in young children. He was already responding to God.
In the case of Jesus we see the relationship with his heavenly Father developing early, and yet we are not meant to discern anything abnormal in human terms about that. Jesus grew gradually – physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, in the usual way of maturity. He needed the stability of an ordinary earthly home to do this. We are told Jesus came back to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, and was obedient to them. We sometimes tend to dismiss the role Joseph played in Jesus’ upbringing, but it was surely very important in Jesus’ normal growth to maturity. But there is a note of sadness in the description of Mary’s conversation with her son at the Temple. “‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them.” Mary and Joseph found Jesus totally involved in his Father’s work. As well as being her son, he is also the heavenly Father’s son, which would entail separation – Jesus growing apart from Mary and Joseph. How did they feel when he used the term ‘Father’ of God, rather than of Joseph?
When we consider all this, some truths about Christian discipleship are brought home to us. If we are to embrace the different vocations God has for each of us, we must be prepared for spiritual growth. That process of spiritual growth may be hard; it may be a lengthy process; it may alienate us from family and friends who do not understand. We may have to let go of familiar surroundings and the solid base we have been given by our parents or upbringing or achievements, just as parents have to learn to let go of their children at certain stages.
And yet we have the capacity within us to accept this obedience to God’s will. So many Christians never progress beyond a Sunday-school level of understanding or exploration of their faith. The German theologian Schleiermacher said that Jesus was the human being in whom God-consciousness had been most perfectly developed. In other words, Jesus was the human being who had grown to be the closest to knowing God fully. You may think that an inadequate description of the Son of God, but it does suggest that we all have the capacity to move much closer to the Father’s presence through obedience and the spiritual growth of which we are capable. We see Jesus on his way at twelve years old; may we be continually striving to know God’s will for us through worship and adoration, and in the offering of our selves.