How was your Christmas?

Mine was quite chaotic – family staying with us, 35 at a long lunch, 12 or so kids (with Nerf guns, & yes, there were tears…) – it was hectic. It’s really hard to keep an eye on everybody – particularly the kids – in all that!

Today’s gospel reading is about a similarly chaotic time in the life of Jesus & his family.  Mary and Joseph, along with their family, including the 12-year-old Jesus, head up to Jerusalem to observe Passover.  They travel together with neighbours and extended family, as much for companionship as for security.  I imagine it to be a particularly festive occasion, with much sharing of responsibility for the kids. Hectic!

In the movie ‘Home Alone’ – things (Kevin), is left behind while the rest of the family head off on holidays.  He was overlooked in the chaos!

Sometimes in the chaos of Christmas we can lose sight of Jesus, can’t we? Life takes over – family duties crowd in, celebrations take over our usual routines.  I know my quiet times suffer, and it’s hard to hear the voice of Jesus even as we sing the well-loved carols to him.

I would like to refocus us today, as we read Luke’s forensic account of the life of Jesus.  Perhaps as we read these few verses we could do so with hearts and minds open to see him afresh, and even perhaps with new insight.

Let’s pray. Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear, and soul to love, and mind to understand … Amen (Christina Rossetti).

Read Luke 2:41-52

Jesus wasn’t lost at all!

It took his parents three days to find him – three very anxious and frantic days, no doubt. And so, when they did, it would seem natural to cry like Mary did, ‘why have you done this to us …?’.  An emotion somewhere between anger – wanting to throttle her wayward son – and joyful relief at having found him unharmed.

But her son’s calm response indicated that surely, they would’ve known where he was – if they’d really known him: ‘But why did you need to search? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?’

What does this tell us about the 12-year-old Jesus:

• At 12, he was not a child any longer. He was on the threshold of becoming an adult, in Jewish culture, and therefore beginning to make his own decisions.
• He seems to be holding his own within the synagogue – listening and asking questions of the religious teachers. And those who were present were ‘amazed’. This was a young adolescent who obviously knew Scripture and could converse with wisdom and understanding. It seems he is already – at 12 – ‘set apart’.
• These are Jesus’ first recorded words concerning himself, and they show a growing awareness of his relationship with God.
• Therefore, he is perhaps reordering his priorities. And in this response, priorities seem to be shifting heavenward.
• And yet, the following verse 51, tells us again that despite his awakening awareness of who he is, and perhaps his mission, he chooses to submit himself to his earthly parents and obediently return to Nazareth with them.

We don’t hear anything more until his encounter with Cousin John at his baptism, and yet we are assured that he ‘grew in wisdom, stature and in favour with God and all the people’ (2:52), in those intervening years.

Application:  What are we to take from these verses?

• We read (2:51b) that his mother ‘stored all these things in her heart’. She ‘wondered’, with God, at just what this all meant. And perhaps she saw him with fresh eyes.
• Just as Jesus seemed to have, Mary also had a growing realisation of who her son was – and remembered the prophecy at his conception. She may have looked back, in order to refocus, and therefore to change her relationship with this extraordinary young man.
• Every now & then, Jesus challenges us too, to refocus. We may have lost sight of him, and we may need to exert ourselves in finding him. We may need to get to our knees and repent at having ourselves become lost or distracted – at not having paid attention to him for a long time. We may also not see him as he truly is – the Son of God,

providing salvation from our self-focussed and rebellious lives.

• The apostle Peter – one of Jesus’ closest friends & disciples – was once asked by Jesus: ‘Who do you say I am?’ (Mark 8:27-29). Peter’s focus had wavered – he’d lost sight of Jesus. Peter’s response proved an understanding that was to underpin his mission for the rest of his days: ‘You are the Messiah’. The one sent from God to restore each one of us to eternal life with him – if we choose to accept him.

If you feel you may have lost sight of Jesus in your life, or if you’re view of him needs to refocus – even if you feel you don’t know what I’m talking about – please talk to myself, Kelvin or Luke after the service.  We’d love to pray with you to see Jesus afresh, or perhaps even for the first time.

But now let me finish this address by challenging us all to seek Jesus each and every day as we encounter a new year. Let us begin each day by praying that we would be able to see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and to follow him more closely. Amen.