1.
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word this Second
Sunday after Christmas is taken from Luke 2:40-52. In
an age when growing numbers of people have an interest in “spiritual things” while shrinking numbers demonstrate a familiarity
with the basics of Scripture, the Bible has become something of an answer book
for many people. To them it’s an encyclopedia of solutions for modern problems. Parents who are hungry to fix their latest
problem with a teenage son or daughter might get excited to learn of a biblical
report on Jesus’ adolescence here in Luke chapter 2. But, this brief story is
the only biblical record containing any mention of Jesus’ youthful years. It
offers nothing in the way of direct help for everyday adolescent crises. Jesus
may be near adulthood. But there’s not a hint of insight about teenage issues
for those who seek biblical answers to modern teenage problems. What Luke does offer is a tension between
earthly parents and one’s Heavenly Father, a collision between two competing
loyalties. Here’s Jesus bringing to light his divine calling to be our Savior
and also to fulfill the Law of God on our behalf. This is Jesus moving his life
and purpose away from a private world into the realm of public
significance. The message is entitled, “Leading Our
Children to Jesus,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Peter
Larson (“Life in These United States,”
Reader’s Digest) came home one day to find his wife
exhausted, having spent hours on her hands and knees stripping wax from their
kitchen floor and buffing the new wax until it shone like the sun. She sat at
the table with a cup of coffee, recovering. Just then their children came
charging into the kitchen, hungry, and anxious to eat. Like a good husband, he
reminded, them how hard Mom had worked and how nice it looked. He then added, “Now, if anyone spills anything on it, they
have to wipe it up and then spend an hour in their room.” Without a
moment’s hesitation, his tired wife deliberately poured some of her coffee on
the floor, wiped it up, and went straight upstairs. She wasn’t seen again for
an hour!
3.
Maybe
Joseph and Mary wanted peace and quiet after celebrating the Passover in
Jerusalem. The reason they were there
was because an annual pilgrimage to the Passover was required of all Israelites
(Dt 16:6). Extended families and neighbors often traveled together, singing and
picnicking along the way. Luke tells us
that an entire day passed before they noticed that their 12-year-old Son,
Jesus, was missing. When they discovered that he was not with them, their peace
and quiet were shattered as they searched frantically for him.
4.
In
these days after Christmas, when our children have been out of school for
awhile, when moments of peace and quiet would be a welcome change from toys,
trees, and tinsel, do you know where your children are? No, not
physically—hopefully, you always know that but spiritually? Spiritually do you
know what issues, are on their minds? Do you know to whom they might be listening
for answers? Can you assume that other people will teach them the lessons you
want them to know?
5.
Even
though times have changed, the behaviors and needs of parents and children
haven’t. Sin still afflicts us all. It separates us from our family and from
God our Heavenly Father. Joseph and Mary
assumed that when the religious services in the temple had concluded, their Son
would have no interest in remaining there. How wrong they were! And today, there are many parents who assume
that their children have no serious interest in spending time with them in
worship, Sunday school, youth activities, or in sharing time with their parents
for family devotions. But, in a special report, “The Truth about Tweens: Kids 8 to 14” (Oct 18, 1999, 62–72), Newsweek magazine notes that 80 % of the “tweens” like school and count parents as
their most important influences.
6.
Don’t
be surprised if your children and grandchildren, like Jesus, want to linger
longer in God’s house. In worship, Sunday school, confirmation, and youth
groups they learn that they have been “fearfully
and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14–16). Caring teachers and mentors point to
“the dangers of sin” (Rom 5:12). Children
and parents alike hear “the love of the
Savior joyfully proclaimed,” just as it was announced by the angels to the
shepherds one holy night (Lk 2:10–11).
7.
So
what do we learn from this account from Luke chapter 2 of Jesus in the Temple
in Jerusalem. The first thing we learn
from this account is the way Mary and Joseph discharged their office as the
human parents of Christ. After Jesus was
circumcised according to the Law of the Lord, they brought Him up with the
greatest diligence. From the age of 12,
He was required to accompany them when they traveled to Jerusalem, according to
the Law, in order to serve the Lord publicly where the only temple of the
people of God was located, and to celebrate the Passover with the whole
congregation of Israel.
8.
What
a rich lesson this is for us parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, to
whom God has entrusted children as pledges of His love. Mary and Joseph must have carefully raised
Jesus in whom the Lord God had clothed His glory. They couldn’t imagine that this child would
develop by Himself without their help, and that without them, God would protect
Him. How much more should we recognize
our calling to be God’s instruments for the raising of our little ones! If the parents of the God-man, Jesus,
recognized it as their duty to lead Him into the house of the Lord, how much
more should we recognize our duty to lead our children, who are sinners in need
of grace, to the Lord early on! Now, we
don’t have the power to convert our children to faith in Jesus, to cleanse
their sinful hearts, and to keep them in God’s grace. But, we can be guilty of neglect and the loss
of their souls. So we should be God’s
agents and messengers in leading them to their rescue in Jesus. Our children aren’t given to us as toys or as
our servants. Instead, they’re entrusted
to us by God, so that when they know nothing about Him we would lead them to their
Heavenly Father.
9.
So
then, it’s our first duty as Christian parents that, immediately after they
birth of our children, we bring them to the Holy Baptism of Jesus. Jesus says in Mark 10:14, “Let the children come to Me; do not hinder
them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”
But, this in no way completes the payment of our parental debt to
them. No, if our children have been
baptized, they then carry Jesus in their hearts, and then, like Mary and
Joseph, we each have a little child Jesus in our house and in our arms. At this point, our care and protection of
that child is doubled. The salvation of
that precious child is then the object of our daily prayers and cares.
10.
Each
day, along with providing our children food, clothing, shelter, shoes, etc, we
should teach our children the love of Jesus and the fear of God. As soon as they’re able to grasp the
significance of their Baptism, we should teach them to say with joy, “I am baptized! My Jesus is mine! My sins are forgiven me!” And, this teaching shouldn’t wait until
our children go to school. Even before
that time, we must become their teacher and leader to Jesus. It can be as
simple as teaching them to pray with us at meals and at night, reading Bible
stories to them before they go to bed from a children’s Bible, and having
family devotions with them, and sending them to Sunday School and one of our
parochial Lutheran Schools.
11.
As
2013 has ended and the year of 2014 begins, God reminds all of us, children and
adults, that he sent his Son, Jesus, not only to the temple to learn the way of
faith, but also to the cross to forgive our sins so that we can be with God in
his house of worship and with him eternally in his heavenly home. This is good
news as we begin this New Year of 2014 and make fresh resolutions to live as
the Holy Spirit guides us according to the Word of God! And remember that Luke’s account of Jesus’
birth and childhood repeatedly sets the ordinary beside the miraculous (e.g., a
youth from the country stuns the big city Jerusalem rabbis with His wisdom). Given
the mysterious and often ordinary ways God chooses to reveal Himself and His
salvation to us—in the flesh of His Son, in simple words, in water, in bread
and wine—we easily underestimate the power of God’s Word and Sacraments for
ourselves and our children. Thankfully, the very common aspects of God’s gifts
mean that they’re never far from us. In
this New Year pray that our Lord Jesus, would open our eyes to His life-giving
presence found in His Word and Sacraments.
12.
When
Jesus returned to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (v
52). Joseph and Mary hoped from the day
he was born that these things would happen. We want the same for our children
and for ourselves. An appropriate resolution every day of the New Year would be
from Deuteronomy 6: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your
hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at. home
and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
(Deut 6:4–7) Amen.
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