Sermon for Epiphany 1

Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

In this Epiphany season (as also, by the way, in the Christmas season), we spend a few weeks looking at some key “epiphanies,” some momentary revelations of Jesus’ hidden divinity. Can you appreciate the need for those revelations? There was nothing—not a single thing—about Jesus that looked divine. In every way, throughout His life, He appeared to be nothing other than an ordinary human being. When He was a baby, He looked and acted like a normal baby. When He was a child, He looked and acted like a normal child. And when He grew up into a man, He looked and acted like a normal man—an especially good baby, and child, and man, but still, just a man.

Some people have always had a hard time with this, especially people who only know Jesus post-resurrection from the dead and post-ascension into heaven. We barely know Him as a man. To us, Jesus is God! (At least, we know that intellectually.) There were some people already in the second century who made up stories about Jesus’ childhood, stories in which His divinity was shown off regularly. In one such story, from the fictional Gospel of Thomas, Jesus, when He was 5 years old, molded some birds out of clay on the Sabbath day, and, when Joseph rebuked Him, He clapped His hands and brought the clay birds to life. In another story, Jesus was playing with some boys on the roof, and one of them fell down and died. That boy’s parents accused Jesus of pushing the boy off the roof, so Jesus raised the boy from the dead so that he could testify that Jesus wasn’t to blame. These are silly stories that don’t fit at all with the Jesus we have come to know through the Holy Scriptures. He was not regularly showing off His divinity. People everywhere, even His parents, at times, mistook Him for nothing but human. That’s why we turn to these little epiphanies in the Bible, because through them the Holy Spirit was teaching the people back then, and us today, that that baby, that child, that man, who was so obviously human, was not only human. He was, and is, God. In fact, the one and only story from Jesus’ childhood that the Holy Spirit wanted us to know is the story before us in today’s Gospel, which took place when Jesus was twelve years old. It was nothing as spectacular as bringing clay birds to life or raising a boy back to life. But it was still a little revelation of Jesus’ hidden identity as the God who became man to save us from our sins.

Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph made the annual trip from Nazareth down to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, as all the men of Israel were required to do by the Law of Moses. Even that tells us something important about Jesus’ childhood, that He was raised in a home in which the parents sought, above all things, to be faithful to God. As we learn later on, Jesus and His whole family were also well-known in the synagogue of Nazareth, showing that Jesus’ custom of attending synagogue every week on the Sabbath Day didn’t just begin when He began His ministry, but was the continuation of a lifelong practice, established by Joseph and Mary, of godliness and reverence for God’s Word. Christian parents do well to imitate this example of regular worship and devotion to God’s Word and to God’s commandments. You don’t have to be the parents of the Son of God in order to be models to your children of faithfulness to God’s Word. Every Christian parent is called to this.

They spend their week or so in Jerusalem observing the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then, after the feast is over, the caravan from Galilee gets up early in the morning and departs at the scheduled time. And Mary and Joseph walk a full day’s journey away from Jerusalem, assuming that twelve-year-old Jesus is in the caravan somewhere, with some of their relatives. That tells us a couple of things, too. First, that Jesus obviously spent a decent amount of time with His relatives and neighbors from Nazareth. Second, and more importantly, that even at twelve years old Jesus was perfectly dependable and trustworthy. His parents cared for Him but didn’t worry about Him. They weren’t overprotective of Him. And that’s usually a good thing.

But this time Jesus did something unexpected: He stayed behind in Jerusalem, apparently without telling anyone. By the time Mary and Joseph realized He wasn’t anywhere in the caravan, the day was already over, and they spent a sleepless night worrying about their Son. The next day they spent walking back to Jerusalem, and didn’t find Him when they got there. Finally, on the third day, they found Him in the temple, safe and sound, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions, and answering the teachers’ questions with a level of understanding that amazed everyone who heard. Jesus wasn’t preaching yet. He wasn’t pretending to be a 12-year-old rabbi, nor was He showing any disrespect for His elders, or calling on anyone to repent or believe anything. But this interaction between the teachers and 12-year-old Jesus, witnessed by Jesus’ parents and by the people in the temple who were there, is the first part of the epiphany in today’s Gospel, a clear indication that this ordinary-looking Child was no ordinary Child, but had a God-level understanding of the Holy Scriptures, of God, and of the ways of God.

Mary and Joseph were left astonished, too—astonished that Jesus hadn’t just joined their caravan as they expected, but stayed behind to engage with the teachers in the temple. When they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Mary is offended. She feels that Jesus has mistreated her and His father. So she scolds Him.

But He, respectfully and mildly, scolds her back: He said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in the things of my Father?” But they did not understand what he said to them. This is the second part of the epiphany in today’s Gospel. It had become so easy for Mary and Joseph to see their Son as their son. They hadn’t forgotten, intellectually, where He came from, or the things the angels had told them about Him. But they had been settled in Nazareth for nearly a decade by this point, and life had become very normal for them there. “Your father and I” have been looking for you. But she seems to have put it out of her mind that, in a one-of-a-kind way, Jesus had another Father, the Father in heaven, who had not sent His Son into the world to be just an ordinary, human boy, but had sent Him on a one-of-a-kind mission that only the Son of God could accomplish.

Jesus had been sent (1) to reveal God perfectly to mankind; (2) to live a perfectly righteous life under the Law as sinful man’s Substitute; (3) to call sinners to repentance and faith, giving the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe; (4) to suffer and die for our sins; (5) to rise from the dead, becoming the perpetual Mediator between God and man; and (6) to reign on God’s throne until the end of the world for the good of His brothers. These were “the things of My Father” that Jesus had to be engaged in. Not that He would do everything at the age of 12, but even at the age of 12, Jesus had work to do for His heavenly Father.

That work would continue at home. Yes, He had to spend some extra days in the temple when He was 12, fulfilling Mission #1 and providing that little epiphany of His true identity as the Son of God. But then it was back to Nazareth with His parents to continue fulfilling Mission #2. Luke tells us that He was subject to them…And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Obeying His parents, gladly and willingly, was part of Jesus’ mission to live a perfectly righteous life under the Law as our Substitute. As the 4^th Commandment says, You shall honor your father and your mother. And “growing in favor with God and man” is also part of that, as He devoted His childhood, and His young-manhood, to serving God and His neighbor, as every child and young man should, but as no one does as much and as gladly as they should, except for Jesus.

And so Jesus served as our Substitute under the Law, even as a child, covering the sins of all believers. And His devotion to His Father in heaven, while unique because of His one-of-a-kind relationship with the Father, still serves as a shining example for all of us. And His willing submission to His earthly parents and authorities certainly shines as an example that all Christians must follow.

But, above all, today’s Gospel gives us an important glimpse of who Jesus is, which was easy to forget for the people who lived with Him, but is also easy for us to forget, or to put out of our minds: This Child of twelve years old was God. That man hanging on the cross was God. The One now seated at the right hand of God the Father is your human Brother, but He is also your God, “who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and became man.” And as your God, He commands you still today: Repent and believe the good news, the Gospel of your salvation, brought to you for free by the God-Man Himself! And, as your God, He commands you who believe also to live as those who recognize Jesus, not only as a great man, or a great teacher, but as the Man who is God, and, therefore, who has every right to tell you how to live, as He does through the apostle Paul in today’s Epistle: I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Epiphany 1

Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

A blessed Epiphany to you! Epiphany was yesterday, January 6^th, although we celebrated it on Wednesday—the visit of the wise men to find the One who had been born King of the Jews. There are only three Sundays in the Epiphany season this year. Each one gives us a little revelation of the divinity, the divine identity that lay hidden in that otherwise-normal-looking Man named Jesus. He was (and is) the God-Man, the Man who is also God. In many, many ways, Jesus was the same as us, but also different. And it’s both that sameness and that difference that make Him our Savior.

First, we learn something in today’s Gospel about the God-Man’s parents, Mary and Joseph. We’re told that they went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. That may seem like a small thing, but it took about four or five days to walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem, plus the week spent there, plus another four or five days walking back. Factor in the loss of income for those two weeks, plus the expenses of the journey and the lodging for a family that certainly wasn’t rich. And it wasn’t for a family vacation or for sightseeing or for relaxation. It was to spend that week performing the religious rites and ceremonies God had prescribed in the Old Testament: acquiring a lamb, taking care of it for a few days, then slaughtering it and eating it, accompanied by time spent in the temple, prayers and hymns and a recounting of the history of how God redeemed Israel from slavery. Every year Mary and Joseph made that two-week journey to Jerusalem (with or without Jesus, we don’t know), and during the rest of the year, they would faithfully attend the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath day. What a wonderful example they were for all Christian parents!

When He was twelve years old, we’re told that Jesus went with His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover, where He who was the Lamb of God first participated in the festival that was entirely designed to foreshadow Him, and His own death at a Passover festival, in the same city of Jerusalem, some 21 years later.

Jesus was a twelve-year-old Boy like any twelve-year-old boy. The same as us. At the end of today’s Gospel, Luke tells us that Jesus returned home with His parents, that He was subject to them, and that He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. He had a family life. He had chores to do, and He did them. He had parents whom God the Father had placed over Him, and He loved and obeyed them, although He was the very Son of God. So He was the same as us. But different in that He always loved and obeyed His parents, from the heart. Never talked back to them. Never rolled His eyes at them. Never even thought badly of them. He was sinless, a perfect Lamb, without spot or blemish, and that qualified Him later on to be the sacrifice for our sins.

Now if Jesus was always so obedient, He must have had a very, very good reason to stay behind in Jerusalem when He was twelve years old. As His parents and the rest of the caravan from Nazareth got up early to start the long walk back to Nazareth, He stayed behind in Jerusalem. Not defiantly, as if He refused to go back. But for some inexplicable reason (maybe because He was so predictably obedient), Mary and Joseph just assumed He was with their relatives or acquaintances who were part of the caravan, and they walked a whole day under that assumption. But when they finally went looking for Him, they realized He wasn’t with them.

But it was already the end of day 1 by the time they realized that. So the next morning they got up and hurried back to Jerusalem. They made a quick search that evening, probably retraced their steps to where they had been staying, and still didn’t find Him. Finally, on the third day, they found Him, right there in the temple, sitting among the Rabbis, the teachers of Israel, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

We see a bit of Jesus’ sameness and of His difference here. As a human boy, He learned. He was curious. He asked insightful questions, and He answered questions. He was respectful to His elders. He wasn’t snobbish or condescending. Just a humble student, truly interested in the things of God, who loved God’s Word and God’s house. The ideal catechism student. He loved being in the temple of God. The words of the Psalmist describe Jesus perfectly: O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house, the place where Your glory dwells… How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!  My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out to the living God…Blessed are those who dwell in your house…O God, our Shield, behold! And look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. That describes—or should describe! —every Christian of every age.

The difference is that it described Jesus perfectly. No sinful flesh ever distracted Him from loving God first, putting God and His Word first. He loved God’s Word more than anything. That love for God’s Word would keep Him behind in Jerusalem, not to skip school, but to stay in school—that was an epiphany, a little revelation of the divinity that lay hidden in that Boy. His astonishing exchanges with the Rabbis were also little epiphanies. His love for Scripture, His understanding of Scripture and of God Himself were deep, not only for a boy, but for anyone. His questions and answers astounded the teachers of the Law, a hint that this Boy was different from other men.

That was also a foreshadowing of what the future held for this twelve-year-old boy. He wouldn’t be some great carpenter, or some politician, or some philosopher. He would be engaged in teaching God’s Word, discussing God’s Word, instructing the people of Israel in the things of God, with better understanding than any of the other teachers, or, for that matter, than anyone else who had ever lived. Because He was the Word made flesh. He had come from the bosom of the Father, as St. John puts in. He knew God the Father perfectly.

But His parents didn’t understand. They loved God’s house, too, but not like this. Why would Jesus stay behind and cause them to worry? Mary said, “Son, why have you done this to us? See, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” And he said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in the things of my Father?” But they did not understand what he said to them.

It seems that Mary and Joseph had pushed to the back of their minds that, while Jesus was their Son, His true Father—His only Father, in the sense of where He came from—was God the Father in heaven. And while Joseph had certainly given Jesus chores to do, His Father in heaven had given Him chores of His own. One of those chores—which was a delight to Jesus—was being engaged in His Father’s things, namely, in the things that have to do with hearing, learning, and discussing God’s Word, the “chore” of spending time in His Father’s chosen house on earth, the Temple in Jerusalem.

It wasn’t a spectacular epiphany. But it was still extraordinary, and we’re told that His mother kept all these things in her heart. Luke says the same thing after the shepherds visited them and found Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. She noticed the sameness in Jesus, even as she noticed the differences.

The fact that Jesus was the same as us in His humanity and in His submission to God’s holy Law is essential for our salvation. If we were to be saved from eternal death, we needed a Substitute who was the same as us to die that death for us. As Scripture makes clear, animal sacrifices weren’t really good enough to atone for human sin. It had to be a Man, the same as us. But because that Man was also different from us—different in that His obedience was perfect and sinless and genuine, and different in that Jesus was God—His sacrifice would be enough to atone for the whole world’s sins. This is all part of what we call Jesus’ “active and passive obedience” as our Substitute. He did (actively) what we’re all supposed to do, except that we haven’t. And He suffered (passively) all that we deserved to suffer for our sins. This is what earned our salvation, that Christ was righteous for us, even as a Boy, and now the Father counts His righteousness and obedience to all who believe in Him, as if it were our obedience, as if we had been perfect parents, perfect children, perfect people.

Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And now, as those whom God has saved, as those whom God has counted as righteous through faith in Christ Jesus, we have a holy calling, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—not sacrifices to atone for sins anymore, but sacrifices of thanksgiving.

So parents, as your daily, living sacrifice of thanksgiving, be the fathers and mothers God has called you to be. As Paul writes, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Spend time with them. Teach them whatever you can. Teach them the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer. Keep urging them, by word and by example, to grow into godly men and women who don’t just attend church regularly, but who show a genuine interest in God’s Word, a firm commitment to sound doctrine, and zeal for knowing God and discussing the things of God.

Children, as your daily, living sacrifice of thanksgiving, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Learn obedience. Learn to honor your parents, not just outwardly, but with your attitude and in your heart.

Christians of all ages, make it your goal to imitate Jesus in the ways you can. You can’t be God. But you can be good, honest, dependable, humble, caring, kind, generous, and submissive to those in authority over you. You can devote yourself to living as children of God in a godless world, who are eager to hear their Father’s Word, who love God’s Word more than anything, just like your Lord Jesus did, at twelve years old, and throughout His life. Amen.

Source: Sermons