LUKE 2: 41-52

Laterally Luke…Christmas 1…Revised 2018

It may be the Sunday after Christmas, but today’s Gospel event takes place 12 years after Christmas! But what’s 12 years to God?! We have range of possibilities here. Starting with the Journey the Holy Family makes, along with other Hebrew families, to celebrate Passover. To journey to God, & with God, is a metaphor at the heart of Hebrew, Christian & other faiths. Isn’t what we have in common as we journey side by side often more important than where we differ? Perhaps that’s another way of expressing what it means to ‘travel in company’, as Mary, Joseph, & Jesus do? Are you & I still journeying on in Faith, to & with God, & each other, & in God’s time? 

The Holy Family journeys in this case to Celebrate God & what God has done for their people long before at Passover. Celebrating, a term we use often, keeps all the ‘God-events’ & us with them, alive & well & up to date. As Christians will celebrate Passover under another guise after the events of Good Friday & Easter. How good are we at celebrating the Liturgy? Are we personally involved in participating to the full? The answer to this may be a ‘marker’ of our progress along the way today. 

Might it be because Jesus experiences being a kind of ‘lost sheep’ in this episode that leads Him to have so much care for lost sheep throughout His ministry? On earth, as in heaven? In Heaven, as on earth?

This passage could help us explore the whole question of Obedience. To God, to those who have proper authority over us in the faith community or our natural family, or society - including our duty to our country. Are there priorities that call us to over-ride the authority someone else legitimately holds - or think they hold - over us? Who decides any ‘over-riding’? Does our style of ministering allow opportunities for questioning as well as listening? As young Jesus does in the Temple courtyard? Experience tells me small groups, Home Groups, formed from within congregations, are essential in providing opportunities for wrestling with issues of faith. Sermons to larger gatherings may open issues up, but can’t explore them as far as is needed. 

Another important principle established here is that Mary & Joseph don’t simply turn a blind eye to Jesus’ behaviour; though clearly He is ‘different’, ‘special’. Issues in natural families & church families need to be recognised, confronted (is that too strong a word?) & dealt with. If we don’t know how, why not make that part of the questioning & answering process above?

Brian

Afterthought: Does v.51 imply Jesus ‘turns over a new leaf’? If so, does that open some intriguing possibilities to explore? In Our Lord’s own ‘hidden’ life, & in ours, too? What new ‘leaves’ might we need to ‘turn over’ in order to be faithful disciples?