Second Sunday after Christmas
January 3, 2016
“The Things of My Father” (Luke 2:40-52)
Maybe you’ve seen the GEICO commercial of Peter Pan going to a class reunion. Peter Pan is portrayed as a twelve-year-old boy who has never grown up. His classmates, though, have aged naturally, and now they’re all in their upper sixties. As a twelve-year-old boy, Peter is still young and immature and kind of smart-alecky. He tricks one man into going for a high-five, but then Peter pokes him in the stomach. And to a woman who presumably is about 67 or 68, he says, “You don’t look a day over seventy, am I right?” Well, you just want to slap that kid around a bit, don’t you? A twelve-year old boy, young and immature and kind of smart-alecky.
I’m reminded of that commercial when I read the story of Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy. He too could come across as young and immature and kind of smart-alecky. He doesn’t bother to tell Joseph and Mary that he’s staying behind in Jerusalem, and when his parents discover that he’s missing, they search frantically for him. Not finding him in the group, they have to go back to Jerusalem and look for him there. Eventually they do find Jesus, he’s in the temple, and Mary says, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And what does Jesus say? “Gee, Mom, I’m sorry! I should have told you and Dad what I was doing.” Does he say that? No. Instead, it’s “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Disrespectful kid! Typical twelve-old-boy, young and immature and kind of smart-alecky.
Is that what’s going on here? No, of course not. This is Jesus we’re talking about, not Peter Pan in a commercial. And Jesus, contrary to being disrespectful to his parents, was, as our text says, “submissive to them.” And far from being immature, Jesus was “filled with wisdom.” A wisdom far beyond his years. A wisdom which, in fact, he was using and putting on display, there in the temple. That’s why Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. He had work to do there, there in the temple. He had a higher priority to attend to. A higher allegiance that even outranked his devotion to Joseph and Mary. Jesus had higher things to be about, namely, as he says, “The Things of My Father.”
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St. Matthew Lutheran Church 