Luke 2:41-52 27 December 2009

Luke 2:41-52 27

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 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. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

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In this story Jesus is a particularly precocious twelve-year-old amazing all those in the temple with his understanding [of scripture.] Isn’t he also acting like twelve-year-olds we’ve all known; showing some independence and a bit of an attitude? Twelve-year-old children, and six-year olds as I learned again yesterday, think they can handle more independence than their caretakers are likely to consider appropriate.

I can see Mary many years later telling this story about her little Jesus with pride. Don’t we all have childhood stories about our siblings, our children, or ourselves? Could it be that these stories have been ever so slightly enhanced with each retelling? Could it be that your version of the story differs in some details from your brother or sister’s. When we tell these stories are we not wanting our audience to know something special about the nature of the subject that was apparent even as a child.

In telling this story what do you suppose Luke wanted us to know about the twelve-year-old Jesus. Why do Christians tell this story at Christmas? Is there a lesson here for UUs?