In the Name of Jesus
Luke 2,41-52
2. Sunday after Christmas (2. Sonntag nach dem Christfest)
Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe, Pastor
2. January 2011
1. O Heavenly Father, who sent Your only-begotten Son to be born of the virgin Mary, we acknowledge that we fail to meditate and know Your Holy Word as we should. At times we are content with our Biblical illiteracy and ask You to send us the Holy Spirit to encourage and teach us the great and wonderful events in the Bible. We rejoice that Jesus grew in stature, knowledge, and wisdom regarding the Holy Scriptures and that on our behalf He remained in the temple where our Heavenly Father’s business is done. Pour out upon Your Church the Holy Spirit and restore to Your Church the blessed doctrine of law and gospel so that all may hear and believe that in Christ they have a Savior from sin, death, and the devil. Help us to proclaim this gospel throughout 2011 so that our borough may be blessed with the truth of Your Word. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the evangelist writes: Now Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing Him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for Him. And it came to pass after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when His parents saw Him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, ,,Son, why have You treated us so? Behold, Your father and I have been searching for You in great distress.“ And He said to them, ,,Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that it is necessary that I am among the things of My Father?“ And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. This is our text.
3. Three times a year, Jewish men were required to go up to Jerusalem and worship at the temple. On the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, Jewish men, along with their wives, and other relatives would travel to the temple, offer up sacrifices with the priests, and worship Yahweh. Children did not join these festive pilgrimages until they reached the age of twelve. St. Luke tells us that when Jesus attained His twelfth year, He joined His family in the festive celebration of Passover in Jerusalem. Passover lasts seven days, but it was only required that one spend two days of the feast in Jerusalem. Since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, the Feast of Passover changes from year to year, and falls each spring in either March or April. Passover is the greatest of the three Jewish feasts, for it remembers the great act of deliverance in the Old Testament, namely, the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land of Canaan. From the time Yahweh promised the land to Abraham’s offspring and their possession of the land, 470 years had passed.
4. Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple. He is in the midst of the teachers. They were discussing the Holy Scriptures. If you have ever heard two Jews discuss a topic or two rabbis talk about the Scriptures, then you know that a common Jewish methodology of discussing is to ask a question, which is then answered with another question, and so forth. At some point a definitive answer will be given, or if such an answer cannot be given then the discussion ends with a final, meditative question. In Jesus’ day, the temple courtyard served as a public classroom. On any given day, and especially on high holy feasts, the courtyard would be teeming with various rabbis and their disciples. These rabbis would teach the Scriptures, and any passerby was welcome to listen and learn. We notice that this is how Jesus conducted His teaching ministry throughout the Gospels.
5. It is likely that in the discussion between Jesus and the rabbis at the temple courtyard followed the traditional question : question format. Jesus would ask a question and the rabbis would answer with a question. The rabbis would then ask Jesus questions and He would respond with further questions. Through this point : counter-point procedure the depths of Scripture were mined. Here is an example: Who is the Christ? Is He not the Son of Man? Yes, but is He not also the Son of God? What does it mean to be the Son of God? Does not Prophet Daniel describe Him as the Son of Man who appears at the end of time? Yes, but does not the Prophet Isaiah also describes the Son of Man as the servant of Yahweh? As Jesus and the rabbinic teachers discussed the Law and the Prophets back and forth, the rabbis, scribes, and Pharisees who spoke with Jesus soon learned that this twelve-year old boy was well-versed not only in the Holy Scriptures, but He was also well-versed in the proper and correct interpretation of those Scriptures.
6. Luke informs us that »All who heard Jesus were amazed at His understanding and His answers«. In verse 47, Luke proclaims that Jesus is fulfilling the Old Testament. The psalmist rejoices in Psalm 119,97-104:
O how I love Yahweh’s torah! It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the elders, for I keep your instructions.
I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep Your Word.
I do not turn aside from Your judgments, for You have taught me.
How sweet are Your oracles to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through Your instructions I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
7. Jesus’ fulfilling of the Scriptures is also found in the fact that He remains behind during Passover in the midst of the teachers in the temple. Jesus tells His parents that ,,It is necessary“ (dei). In Luke’s Gospel, this phrase ,,It is necessary“ is a theologically significant word in Luke’s passion vocabulary, denoting the necessity of God’s plan of salvation to be accomplished in Jerusalem (Just 127). At twelve years of age, Jesus is revealing that He must be in Jerusalem, in the temple, where the business of forgiving sins takes place. The temple was were the animals were slaughtered and their blood spilt so that the people’s sins would be forgiven. Twenty-one years later, the man Jesus would be back in the temple at Passover where He Himself would be the Passover lamb to deliver not only the Jews, but all nations, from their sins. Thus, the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, »Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb has also been sacrificed« (1 Corinthians 5,7). In Luke’s Gospel, he only mentions two times when Jesus was in Jerusalem at Passover: the event in chapter 2 when He was 12 and at the end of His life during Holy Week.
8. The necessity of Jesus being in the temple during Passover indicates that it is the very salvation history (Heilsgeschichte) of the Heavenly Father that requires Jesus to be in temple. Thus, Jesus’ presence there in chapter 2 is a foretaste and a preview of the Greater Passover that is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The Exodus Passover merely delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and ultimately ushered them into the temporal Promised land of Canaan. The Easter Passover delivered all nations from their bondage to sin, death, and the devil and ultimately will usher us into the spiritual Promised Land of everlasting life in heaven. Exodus and Canaan were the type of Yahweh’s Heilsgeschichte, and Easter and eternal life are the antitype of His Heilsgeschichte.
9. In the temple, the boy Jesus proclaims that He is in His Father’s house and is about His Father’s business of forgiving His fallen creation. Jesus declares that He is not the son of Joseph, but that He is the Son of God who will take away the sin of the world. The Law and the Prophets prophesy the arrival of the Christ, the Son of God, who will redeem all nations from the bondage of sin. The old covenant with the temple, the animal sacrifices, and the three high holy feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles was given by Yahweh on Mt. Sinai to prepare Israel for the fulfillment of that covenant with a new covenant with the Son of God becoming the Passover Lamb who merits our salvation on Mt. Calvary. It is necessary that Jesus be about His Father’s business of forgiveness, and because He is it is for our good and blessing that He has redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father. Thus we rejoice with the psalmist: »O how I love Yahweh’s torah! It is my meditation all the day« (Psalm 119,97), for Yahweh’s torah is that He redeems all the nations through Christ Jesus. Amen.
10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, whose life made a joyful noise to the Lord and all the earth, send us the Holy Spirit as we study and meditate upon Your Holy Scriptures so that our hearts and minds are opened to see You in those Scriptures as our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 1:1––9:50. Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Evangelien-Postille für die Sonn- und Festage des Kirchenjahres. Copyright © 1859 Samuel Gottlieb Liesching. A sermon preached on Luke 2,41-52 for The 1st Sunday after the Epiphany. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2010.
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