Text: Luke 2:41-52
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord knew what he was doing when he ordered the commandments. The first three commandments deal with our relationship with God. We are to fear, love, and trust in him only. We are to use his name in prayer, praise, and giving thanks. We are to gladly hear and learn his Word. This is what it means to love God. The rest of the commandments deal with our relationship with our neighbors. That is, they tell us how it looks to love them.
The fourth commandment serves as a bridge of sorts between the two tables of the Law. The Lord tells us that parents serve as God’s representatives on earth. The same goes for other authorities such as governmental officials, teachers, and law enforcement. Now, to be sure, not all parents and authorities recognize that their authority came from God, but that doesn’t change the fact that it did. It is also true that parents and other earthly authorities are imperfect. Sometimes they can even be defined as downright evil. Nonetheless, God calls us to love, honor serve and obey them.
That doesn’t come so easily for us. We have a general dislike of authority. We don’t like having somebody else tell us what we should and should not do regardless of their relation to us. It makes it even harder to submit to those in authority over us when they themselves are ungodly in the way that they live their lives or seem to be incompetent. When this is the case we, more often than not, start to make excuses for why we refuse to submit to those in authority over us. “They don’t deserve my respect” we tell ourselves. We’re smarter than they are and shouldn’t have to put ourselves under their authority. When we do this, we don’t just show ourselves to be disrespectful, though. We are sinning against God himself. For he himself has placed our parents and authorities over us, no matter how incompetent or undeserving otherwise they may seem to us.
If you think it’s a difficult task for you, a sinner, just consider Jesus in our Gospel reading for this morning. Jesus and his parents went to the temple each year for the appointed Jewish feast. The Jews would make a pilgrimage to the temple three times each year: once for Passover, once for Pentecost, and once for the Harvest Festival. Jesus and his parents were devout and faithful Jews. Going to the Lord’s house, where he dwelt among his people, was the right place to be. The Law of Moses commanded them to keep these feasts. This particular time they were there for the Passover. The Passover was the most important of these three feasts. The Passover was the most significant event in the history of the people of Israel. Passover celebrated the deliverance of God’s people from Pharaoh and the slavery with which he enslaved the people of God.
After the Passover was over, it was time to head back to Nazareth. Now Mary and Joseph and Jesus weren’t the only ones who came down from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the feast. They traveled with a significant portion of the population of Nazareth, in fact. So it was not unusual that Mary and Joseph weren’t initially concerned that they didn’t see Jesus with them when they started back home. After traveling for a full day, though, they wondered where he was. They went back to Jerusalem to find Jesus.
Mary and Joseph then proceeded to search for Jesus for three days. Add in the day that they had traveled without Jesus already and it makes four. They hadn’t seen their son in four days! Of course the world was a very different place 2000 years ago. The panic of Mary and Joseph in not finding Jesus for four days was probably nowhere near the panic that one would have today if their child were missing for that long. Nonetheless, this was a certainly a crisis for them.
At last they find him in the temple. There Jesus was doing what Jews did at the temple. He was asking questions. He was discussing the scriptures. He was being asked questions and giving answers. Those who heard him were amazed at him, Luke writes.
Mary and Joseph weren’t that impressed, though. They scold Jesus. How dare he worry them so! Jesus answer almost seems a little rude. “Why did you seek me? Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?” Mary and Joseph didn’t understand the answer that he gave. In the end, they all head back home to Nazareth where Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men”
Getting back to the fourth commandment, it kind of looks like Jesus broke it here. I mean, He wasn’t where his parents expected him to be. On top of that, his response to his mother almost seems rude and dismissive. But, of course you’re thinking that can’t be right. Jesus is the holy, perfect, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was without sin. He had to be. Otherwise his sacrifice on the cross, coming about 18 years after this event, is meaningless.
The truth is, though, that Jesus perfectly keeps the fourth commandment here, though. Let’s look at all the ways that he fulfills the Law. First, when he’s at the temple, notice how he interacts with the other men there. He’s the Son of God! He could certainly show every one of them up if he wanted to. They are astounded at his command of the scriptures, but they are not offended by him. Jesus doesn’t speak out of turn. He is not rude. Jesus submits himself to his elders here and respectfully discusses the Word of God with them even though he certainly knows the Word of God better than they do. I mean, he wrote it! In the same way, notice what happens after Mary and Joseph come back to find him. After his interaction with Mary (more on that in a moment), Jesus submits to their authority and goes home with them. Again, this is the Son of God putting himself under the authority of ordinary, sinful human beings. Luke adds that he grew in wisdom and stature. That further shows how Jesus submitted himself to those in authority.
Ah, but what about the fact that he was in the temple in the first place when it seems that he should have been on the road with Mary and Joseph? Recall the interaction between Peter and the other apostles and the high priest in Acts 5. The high priest told them that they were not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus. Peter answered “we must obey God rather than men.” Jesus does just that here. He must obey God rather than men. There are times, hopefully rare times, when we must do the same. If someone in authority over us commands us to do something contrary to the Word of God we are not just permitted, but we must disobey them. It doesn’t matter who they are. God’s authority always trumps man’s.
In every way, Jesus keeps God’s commands. The one who actually made the commandments lovingly submits himself to their authority. Epiphany is all about revealing to us exactly who Jesus is. Jesus is the one to identifies himself as a sinner even though he has no sin. We are the ones who fail at every turn to keep the commandments. Jesus never fails. He submits himself to each and every one of them and keeps each and every one of them. And he does it for us. He even suffers the wrath of God on the cross for sins we committed.
And there’s more. His perfect obedience and keeping of God’s Law is credited to us. In Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and in the Lord’s Supper, that which Jesus won on the cross is delivered to us that we might be raised on the last day just as he was raised from the tomb on the third day.
Glory be to Jesus who was obedient to his Father for us, that we might be called sons of God!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Preaching Dutchman 