Dennis Tuuri

# Luke 2:40-52 Light-bearing and the Father’s Business

Of this story are given to us by God for a particular reason. So it’s literature, it’s movie-like, it’s art, it’s a story, it’s true and a narrative, but carefully constructed by God. And we’ll want to look at that structure today as we move through this text. We’re going to actually read the text—it’s actually Luke chapter 2:40-52, but I thought I would read verse 39 as well, which is the end of the previous narrative.

So please read. I’m going to read Luke 2:39-52. Please stand.

So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own city Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.

When they had finished the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and his mother did not know it. But supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey and sought him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. Now, so it was that after 3 days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.

And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. So when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.” And he said to them, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. Then they went down with him. He went down with them rather, and came to Nazareth and was subject to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this piece of text. We thank you for our Holy Spirit that indwells us individually and indwells our church as well. We pray that your spirit would take this word, open our eyes, illumine us, give us light from it that it might be transforming to us, that we may be better light-bearers as we leave this place. In Jesus’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

So light-bearing is the goal of this sermon. It’s always the goal of the sermon—that we get transformed from glory to glory, go from grace to grace, and our light increases. Who’s the light of the world? Well, in the gospels it says Jesus is the light of the world. And it also says you’re the light of the world. And so Jesus is the ultimate source of light, but we’re lanterns shining forth into the world.

And this is a season of light. This is the church season of Epiphany. Epiphany—the day of Epiphany—Epiphany means a revelation, an appearance. It’s a festival of the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Specifically in church tradition it’s celebrated January 6, 12 days after Christmas, and it’s the time we remember the gospel accounts of the Magi coming and visiting Jesus.

Now on your outlines today I have given you an outline from a different sermon. I think it’s the third page from Matthew chapter 2, and you can go back to that sermon if you’d want at some point or maybe use the notes to teach your kids about Epiphany. But I wanted to mention a few things about it. With last week we sang, you know, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” And we kind of, you know, we have these traditions that we engage in and sometimes they’re helpful and sometimes they’re not, and sometimes they’re a little bit of both. And that song is a little bit of both. It’s always good to remember it, but it’s also important to remember some other things from the Bible.

And on this handout from Matthew chapter 2, these references to Bethlehem and the star and all that stuff are specifically fulfillments of stuff in the Old Testament about dominion and rule and power and authority. So what we’ve got here really is an emphasis from the manifestation to the Gentiles: the light that they go to is signs of a king, rule, authority, and dominion. And that’s easy to forget in these narratives we have about Jesus’s birth and the wise men showing up right away and all that stuff.

There’s something else going on in this as well, which we’ll come back to in just a minute. But this is, you know, the reason why do we think that these wise men came on camels? You always see that picture on postcards or Christmas cards, right? Well, there’s no camels mentioned in the gospel text. But in Isaiah 60, when it talks about—we read that as part of our call to worship this morning, the call and response—”Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the Gentiles will come to the light.” And it says they’ll come on dromedaries, on camels. So Isaiah 60 is picked up in the traditional stories of the feast of Epiphany and the coming of the Magi, the wise men.

So Isaiah 60 is pertinent to all of this. And Isaiah 60 is interesting because Isaiah 60 gives us specific names of peoples or tribes and people groups that will come. And if we took the time today, which we can’t, but if we took the time to go through a biblical study of who these peoples are that are coming to the light of Jesus, we’ll see they were the Medianites, the sons of Abraham by Keturah that he sent to the east. And then they’re also the descendants of Ishmael who were also out to the east. And we remember from the narrative in Genesis that these people are coming from the land where Havila is, and in Genesis it says there’s a lot of gold there. It’s a downstream place from the Garden of Eden and it’s over there to the east.

And so the idea was that mankind was to take those waterways out to develop gold, to mine gold and all that stuff, and bring it back as part of their worship of God at the sanctuary in the garden. So what we’ve got—and so we have this: Abraham’s children by Keturah are really Gentiles. They’re not part of the promised people. They’re gentile nations. And so what we’ve got now in this picture, this fulfillment of Isaiah 60 with the wise men coming, is the ultimate fulfillment that now the Gentiles will bring back all the technological developments, the beauty, the gold, the incense, all that stuff that they’ve developed. They’re going to bring it all in subjection to King Jesus. And that’s what’s happened in history now. History has changed and that’s now being fulfilled.

That original calling of man in Genesis is now going to happen because the second Adam has appeared and everything’s going to be put to right. And as well, it means that the Gentiles and Jews will be brought together. We have a picture of that in these Persians coming. You know, but why do we think three—”these three kings of Orient are”—three? Well, it’s just because there’s three gifts. It doesn’t really say there’s three people. So we don’t know if there were how many there were.

“These three kings”—why do we say kings? Well, there are kings mentioned in Isaiah 60, but specifically in the gospel text, these men are called Magi. Now, these men were king-makers. They were wise men. “Magi” is where we get our word “magician.” Don’t think of them as tricksters or, you know, demonic or anything, but they’re men who understood things, had lots of wisdom, and they would appoint and anoint kings. So they’re coming to anoint the King of Kings, you see. And they’re not kings ultimately. They’re Magi. They’re different. They’re Persians. They could be descendant followers of Zoroaster, most popular and well-known of which was Freddie Mercury when he was alive—his parents were Zoroastrians. Persians, Zoroaster’s descendants, became cult-like and rejected God. But Zoroaster himself probably had a belief in God, the God of the scriptures brought to him by the Jews. We don’t know. But they were men who understood the scriptures, wise men who understood what was going on, related it back to the Old Testament—no doubt Isaiah 60 as well.

So maybe they actually did bring camels just to fulfill the text. I don’t know about that. But that’s what they were. “We three, not three, kings, not kings of Orient.” Orient means east. And so, you know, when you reorient yourself, you kind of get things put back in perspective in the context of the east. And so these men are from the east. They’re returning back to the west. And it’s a picture of unity of Jew and Gentile.

These gifts—there’s only two places in the Bible that I know of where these three specific things are brought together: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. One is in the temple itself. And so there’s gold fixtures and myrrh was part of the anointing oil and frankincense was burned on the golden altar of incense. So when you see these three things together, it seems like we have to make associations in the story of the Magi with the comprising of a new altar, a new holy of holies, a new temple. Jesus is the temple. His church now is that temple. And so that stuff’s going on. We got the new fulfillment of what the temple was. The temple really was a picture of Jesus and ultimately Jesus and his church.

And those three things in there—that we usually have some other associations that the song gives us. But you know, if you want to use biblical thinking, it’s a new temple. The other place where these three ingredients come together are in the Song of Songs. And it’s in the wedding cart where Solomon, I believe Solomon sends this wedding cart out to get his wife and she’s brought to Solomon in this wedding cart. And it’s got those three elements in it as well. And so we have both a picture here of the new temple, the making right of the world, the unity of the world in Christ, the original pattern of Genesis coming to pass now. They’re bringing back in the gold to honor God at this new temple. As well as the fact that the temple really is a picture of the marriage of Jesus and his bride—the rest of the world is his bride. And so that’s brought in from the Song of Songs.

So all that stuff is rich material for meditation during the season of Epiphany. But, you know, the ultimate thing I wanted to talk about today and a couple more Sundays that we have left in Epiphany is really this idea of light and light-bearing. “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Jesus is the light of the world. An acknowledgement of that and a focus on that should cause us to shine light. And so we have a narrative today, I think, that will help us to see how Jesus shone light at 12.

It’s the only childhood narrative, and it reminds us of movies. You know, if you’re a Luke Skywalker fan, you probably have heard me talk about Luke Skywalker here at the triumphal entry as we get ready for Easter Sunday, the week before Easter, right? Because you’ve got those palm branches on the road and Jesus comes on them. He’s walking on the sky. That’s the picture. If you wanted to paint, you know, if you want to look at the symbolism, he’s walking on top of the trees. Now, to accomplish that, the trees are brought down and put under his feet. But the imagery is he’s Luke Skywalker. He’s walking on the skies. And you know, all people, we’re united with Christ. And where’s our citizenship? It’s up there in heaven. So we’re Skywalkers.

Movies, such as Star Wars, connect into some basic themes of life and reality—basic stories that come from God. Joseph Campbell, a complete pagan who hated Christianity, and yet if you can read it carefully, he has a very interesting book called *The Hero with a Thousand Faces*. And you can actually read things online or buy books that talk about scenes from Star Wars and this hero identification that Campbell does. He studied all mythology and stuff. And there are these common elements in hero stories—some common themes—and Luke Skywalker was an attempt to kind of draw forward the beginnings of a new global myth.

Campbell rejected Christianity, but he thought we need myth to help us develop as a people. And now we’re a global village. So what’s going on in our time is we need a global myth. And so Star Wars was in part an attempt to begin to form this global myth. And the global myth plays on themes from the old myth. And the old myth—these “hero with a thousand faces”—common themes. So for instance, you know, Luke is ordinary. He’s got an ordinary life, but isn’t quite—he gets a call to go do something. He doesn’t do it. And then his surrogate parents are killed. And that means he’s got to move now ahead.

At a certain point in the narrative, Luke has to go into a cave and he’s got to face his own fears. He’s got to die and resurrect, right? And in these hero myths, the relationship of the hero to the father is essential. You know, the kid normally has a good relationship with mom. Mom’s the nurturer, but dad is always distant. And so dad is kind of the picture of the ultimate father. And so that’s always kind of what you have to do: reconcile with that.

So this narrative in Luke chapter 2 has some of those same things going on. It’s got separation from father and mom. It’s got reconciliation to father, but it’s got reconciliation based upon his focus upon his Father in heaven. Right? And he doesn’t see those in opposition. So we can compare these hero myths and we can also contrast them because in the hero myths the hero has to make a definitive break with his parents. But as this story moves along, Jesus doesn’t do that. He goes back and voluntarily submits himself.

So there’s comparisons and contrasts. One thing that’s really important when you read this stuff or when you think about these kind of movies or narratives is that Jesus is one case and the rest of us are something else. “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”—really, the reason why cultures do that is because there’s reality in there. And the reality is these hero myths are all twists or perversions—some more accurate, some less accurate—of the ultimate story of salvation which is found in Jesus. And so they resonate because they resonate with truth, and we’re people that have been created to resonate with truth.

But in the hero stories, he’s always coming to self-actualization, right? You know, in *Dune*, the guy’s got to realize he’s a Messiah. And Luke Skywalker, he’s got to realize he’s the savior, right? In *Unbreakable*, Bruce Willis has to realize his calling and mission in life is to save people and have punish bad guys. Well, there’s none of that self-actualization going on with Jesus. So that’s different. But there is self-actualization that goes on with us.

We grow up and we need this differentiation of who we are. We need to transition from our biological father to our heavenly Father. We need to face our fears. We need to individualize ourselves—and what the particular calling is God has for us. We need, like Bruce Willis and *Unbreakable*, to realize we’ve got a purpose in life. And until we get about that purpose—which is serving Jesus in the particular capacity that he’s given to us—we’re not going to be happy and we’re going to run into all kinds of frustrations.

There are young people in our church—or always are—but right now there’s several of them that are really, really in tough straits. They’re going through this process, you see. And we should help. We should remind them of that: You’re becoming. The idea is you got to self-actualize. You got to recognize what you’re called to do here. And you’re not just called to be a child. You’re going to grow up. And growing up means developing some of these things we’ll see in today’s narrative. And it means realizing, “Oh, I’ve got a mission. I’ve got a purpose in life. I’m like Bruce Willis. I’m like Luke Skywalker. I’m like the hero with a thousand faces. I’m like everybody, all the other heroes in this congregation who’ve come to recognize I’ve got a calling from Jesus Christ to do something significant in my life.” And it may not look significant, but you come to realize that it is significant.

So this narrative is that kind of thing.

Speaking of individuation, what we’re going to see in today’s story is, you know, relationship with father, as I said before, is part of the deal. And in Luke Skywalker, of course, his father is Darth Vader. Hope I didn’t give away anything there. I guess it’s been 20, 30, 40 years. I guess you probably most of you have all seen it.

What’s interesting about Darth Vader and Campbell talks about this—is how insightful the guy is. The Empire has masks. They don’t have faces. They’re part of a machine. The Empire is a machine. And man can become part of a machine that just rolls along. And as a result, you don’t really have a face. The hero has a thousand faces. He’s got faces. When Luke takes off his father’s mask, his face is kind of just almost, you know, a little blobby. It isn’t really distinctive like your face or my face becomes.

And what they’re trying to show in that in Star Wars is that—as a man—if man doesn’t come to accept his calling in Christ (well, they’re not showing this, but I would say the lesson is), if we don’t go to individuation of what we’re particularly called to do that Jesus wants us to do, in our task, in our mission—okay—if we don’t come to that, we don’t develop. We just sort of are undifferentiated. And in Star Wars, the mask is an element of that. And Darth’s mask as well is an element of that. Or when he’s unmasked rather—he’s not been differentiated because he’s lived a lifetime just seeing himself as a cog in a machine: great power, great purpose, but a cog in a machine.

And the world is not a machine. The world is a personal universe. And God has personal things we’re supposed to get to. And that’s how we’ll become fulfilled. That’s how you’ll get fulfilled.

Young people, this is a story, you know, for you 10, 12, 13 year-old kids. This particular narrative is real important for you to kind of think about it a little bit. Place yourself in the text. What was Jesus like when he was 12? How’s that like me? How is it not like me? How about my dad? And what you’re going to find out—I hate to tell you this—but in these hero stories, most of the time as you get older, what you’re going to find out is your dad looks like Darth Vader a lot.

Dad, you know what I’m talking about? You know, you’ve been Darth Vader to your kids. I have. I know it. It’s okay if they know it because ultimately what has to happen is they’ve got to move toward their heavenly Father and recognize that in our fallen condition, our sin makes Darth Vaders out of us—at least for a second, a minute, a day, a week, whatever it is. And that’s okay, kids, because this story tells you there’s a greater Father in heaven that you’re ultimately hooked up with. And then it’ll tell you how to relate that back to your own dad. Okay?

So let’s look at the story. And now in your outlines, you know, we’ve got a particular way I’ve looked at it. Like I said, this is a carefully constructed story. This is a movie with an arc. It’s got a development to it, right? And so let’s just walk through it straight forward and then we’ll look at it in pairs. Okay?

First section: child grows. Growing at the beginning and end. He’s growing. He grows in wisdom and in stature and favor with God. So the A part: the child is growing up. He’s 12.

B part: he keeps the feast, right? So he goes up. At the end of the narrative he’ll go down. They go up to Jerusalem. They go down to Nazareth. The way it always is in the Bible and doesn’t have to be stated, but here it actually is stated in verse 42—they went up according to the custom. Okay? And they’re going to Jerusalem. When they go down, they’re going to Nazareth. So what does that tell us immediately?

You know, the wise men are warned in a dream by God about Herod’s true intention. And what they do is—it says at the end of their narrative—they leave stage left instead of stage right. They depart another way. They go home differently than the way they came because they’re not going back there and helping Herod assassinate all these children.

Now, I know this is an application and I know it’s a little playing a little bit loose with what that means, but you know, that’s what’s supposed to be happening to us. We come to Jesus bringing him our gifts, our tithes, our gold, and we’re supposed to depart another way—not because of fear of what’s going on outside, but because we’re supposed to be changed for the experience. We go up to Jerusalem and we come to church. And then we go back down to whatever town it is that we live in. But when we go back down to that town, our face is supposed to shine a little brighter.

Remember I said last week: Moses’s face shines meeting with God. We’re supposed to have more light. We’re supposed to depart a different way somewhat. So today, for instance, maybe some of you kids, young people will depart with a little different attitude toward your dad or your mom or church or whatever it is. Depart a different way. And so you go up to worship God on the mountain. Even though you may come from an even taller place, the point is in terms of the imagery, you go up to be with God. He gives you his light, his word, and you go down. And that light—which is a lamp to your path—you take get back to Nazareth with you.

If all you do is leave here unchanged, going back the same way you came, and there’s no going down to Nazareth with what you learned here, there’s no point in coming, right? Well, there is a point in coming. You still praise God. But the point is the ultimate what God is doing here is something with a story arc to it. You’re going to move. And in this case—I’m getting ahead of myself—but in this case, he moves from being in favor with God to being in favor with God and man. When we see these carefully constructed stories, there’s an art to them. There’s a movement, right? Something happens at the middle usually and it affects a change.

What’s the change? Now, Jesus is in favor not just with God, but with God and man. Now, he’s in favor with men before, but why does it say that? I don’t know exactly. But it wants us—one thing is it wants us to see the arc. And when we leave our place of meeting with God at the center here, where we go to Jerusalem, we should be growing in wisdom and in stature but also in favor with God and man.

And now maybe part of it’s because Jesus is 12, right? So this is maybe like a what do they call those balls when women are southern—things they become debutante balls? Coming-out parties, whatever it is, right? Which means something different these days. But when I was a kid, coming-out was kind of an age thing. And so Jesus has kind of this thing—he’s coming out. He’s hanging out with adults now. So maybe that’s why it’s added. I don’t know. But it’s added among other things to tell us that the end of the narrative is departing a different way means departing more in favor with men, okay? And it means going back to Nazareth with what God has taught us at Jerusalem means going back to your home, back to your everyday life.

And adults, same thing with you.

So Jesus—they go up to the feast. They go to Jerusalem. It’s the feast of Passover. And I’ll talk about that a little bit later. Then what happens is they lose sight of Jesus. When the feast was ended, they were returning. The boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. That word “stayed behind” is interesting too. Just put away a little note in your head—Pastor is going to talk about Passover and staying behind. He stays behind, okay? And they don’t know it.

So we got—this is a movie, right? I know some of us have had the same thing happen. We leave a gas station, child still in the bathroom, and we don’t recognize it for half an hour. This has happened to a few of you. I hear the laugh. Yeah. Did they do that to you, Tyler? I don’t know. I heard stories. I hear lots of stories. And hey, these were good parents, okay? These were godly parents. These were the parents God chose for Jesus. And if they did it and we end up doing it, hey, give us a little break, okay?

So they do it. They leave and he stays behind. His parents don’t know it, okay? Well, they think he’s in the company. They’re all walking back to Nazareth. There’s a whole bunch of them. They got relatives and stuff. It’s easy to lose a child in a big crowd like that, right? And this is a friendly crowd. This is not unfriendly. These are all people that just had Passover with. So you’re not, you know, worried about your child. He’s going back with the crowd. So I guess it is a little different than me leaving Ben in a gas station when he was a little tiny. I guess that is different. Okay.

Anyway, supposing him to be in the group, they went a day’s journey. Then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they didn’t find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching. So here they discover he’s gone and they start to search for him. Search for him. And the matching text will make clear that searching is anxious searching. They’re worried. Of course they’re worried. Where is our child? You know, remember they’re not Roman brigands. There’s all kinds of weird people about them. So while they were in a good group, Jesus isn’t in the group. So they don’t know where he is. So they’re searching for him. And as I said, we’ll find out later that they’re actually searching anxiously for Jesus.

So, you know, right there, right? I mean, I could do a whole sermon just on those two sections. People have done this. Losing sight of Jesus, searching anxiously for Jesus. There are times in our lives when we lose sight of Jesus, right? You just sort of drift. And when we wake up to that, we should search anxiously for him. I’ll say more about that in a couple minutes too. But in any event, the parents are searching for him.

In the next section, they come back, and it’s after three days. We’ll talk about it over there, but it doesn’t say two days. They’re okay for a day and it doesn’t say they searched for two days. It wants us to say three days. It doesn’t say “after a few days.” It says “three days.” It’s a story. It’s a true story, but it’s a carefully constructed narrative. It’s like a movie, okay?

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. So that’s, you know, that’s the beautiful center. Jesus at the temple—listening and then also answering. And his parents find him. So happy reunion at the center of the text.

But you know, like typical parents, their response isn’t “Oh, we’re so happy you’re safe,” right? Your child is off all night. You get anxious. 2:00 in the morning they call in: “Gee, I had a car breakdown or whatever it was.” And are you happy and relieved that they’re not dead? Well, you don’t act like it. You get mad then. So that’s what they do.

When his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so?” Now, that’s a strong statement in the Greek. It’s almost a formal accusation of betrayal on his part to them. I think that’s what it is. “Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And that’s a strong word too. Great distress. They were really, really troubled, okay? And they feel like Jesus has betrayed them.

Now, why does Mary talk? Well, we don’t know. But in terms of literature, in terms of the story, in terms of the movie, we could say if Mary talks, then it gives her the ability to talk about his father Joseph, right? So “your father and I have been searching anxiously for you.” And that sets up Jesus then to talk about a different father. So if Joseph had said it—”your mother and I, I’m about my Father’s business”—see, it doesn’t quite work this way. You see the movement from father to father, the connection up?

So, you know, like typical parents, this is when Mary gets upset and stuff. Verse 49, he says to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

Now, in the original text I read, it said, “Did you not know I was being about my Father’s business?” Either translation can accurately translate these Greek words. So he’s either emphasizing the Father’s house or the Father’s business. You know what’s important? Important is it’s the Father’s house and business. It’s his heavenly Father. Now, Jesus isn’t being a jerk here or anything. It seems like he’s honestly surprised by her getting so worried. It doesn’t seem like, you know, he seems to be expressing, you know, “Well, gee, I didn’t know. I thought you knew I’d be here.” So he’s—now maybe he’d send a message. I don’t know. But you don’t have to read into this any kind of rebuke of Mary. That’s what my point is. He’s just making a simple statement. And his statement is he’s being about his Father’s business, which again that kind of could be the focus of the whole sermon: being about our Father’s business in the world. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing with Jesus, all right?

And then in the B section, they come back down. “He went down with them and he came to Nazareth and was submissive to him.” See, this is the anti-hero story because in the hero stories there’s a break with parents so the guy can go on the journey. Here he returns voluntarily submitting to their authority, okay? So that’s significant. In Christian hero stories, a break with the parents—a critical break—is not necessary for you to establish a relationship with your heavenly Father. Should not does not necessitate, and should not cause some kind of crucial break with your parents like many of the hero myths the hero stories have in them. Okay.

But there is a transition. But Jesus voluntarily submits. And that’s all we hear about Jesus for 18 years—18 years before then we pick up the narrative when he begins the journey to move toward the cave, buried in a cave, and then resurrection. The hero, by the way, always comes back with life too when he’s raised up. Goes through his death thing, whatever it is—it’s not just for him. He comes back and saves the world. He brings the elixir back, whatever it is. And so Jesus resurrects, ascends, and sends his spirit with light, all right?

But so they go back down and he voluntarily submits to them. And his mother treasures up all these things in her heart. Beautiful statement. Second time it’s told us in Luke—of course, earlier in the narrative of preparation for Jesus’s birth she was treasuring this stuff up in her heart. And then finally, Jesus increases in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

So we have the story arc: God and man, up and down movement from one father to the other, anxiously searching, and then Jesus voluntarily submitting to them again. So there’s this story arc, and at the very center of it is Jesus in the temple, all right?

Let’s talk about it in pairs a little bit now. And I’ve already done this a little bit, but we’ll go quickly through the pairs.

The child grows. So as I said, we have this story arc that should help move our children to recognize that as they are in union with Jesus, when they get older, they should be growing in favor with men, okay? They grow in stature. They grow in wisdom. That’s what is happening. You get bigger. Abilities increase. Your body gets bigger. Your brain gets bigger. You have more ability to grow in wisdom, which you’re supposed to do. That wisdom will result in favor with God. But favor with God, if it’s favor with God, should result in generally favor with men.

Now, the Bible says, “As much as in you lies, be at peace with all men.” But I think it’s a significant point to you young people. You know, I want you to depart a different way today—and older ones too, but the young ones are the focus here. This is Jesus at 12, and you’re here at this church. You should want to be in favor with God today, but also with men. You should have respectful manners toward the adults here. You should be impressing us, okay? I mean, not—I don’t want to—that could sound weird. But you know, you should want to have a relationship with adults that’s respectful, that has manners, that begins to interact with them as Jesus did, right? To answer, to respond with good manners.

You should be at favor with the adults in this church. You should be at favor with the other kids here. And my wife—I think I mentioned this last week—my wife’s reading a book about how horrible girls are to one another. And it’s really true. In the fallen nature, girls are just so catty, you know. Well, let’s not have it like that here. Let’s make sure that all the kids try real hard to say kind things to one another so that they would, like Jesus today, depart from this worship service a different way, be a little more committed to good manners toward adults and having favor with them and favor with the other children of church at church, right? Not just your friends—that’s easy. But remember, we’re supposed to be coheirs, you know, have unity here, particularly with people that we’re not normally getting along with all that much.

So that’s the A and B. That’s the arc is that as this thing moves us ahead, it moves us in favor with God and men.

The B—the up and down thing. They keep the feast here, right? Now, a couple of things. One, why 12? Well, we don’t know why 12. It’s just what God decided. Now, at the time, 12 was sort of this age at which you begin to assume adult responsibilities. Now, the narrative goes on to tell us it refers to him as a boy. So he’s not an adult at 12. Don’t mix that up. But on the other hand, he’s not the same kind of boy he was prior to 12. He seems to be now entering into adult conversation and stuff.

You know, today in Judaism at age 13 you go through a Bar Mitzvah—the boy becomes a son of the law and he takes on new responsibilities. In rabbinic writings at the age of 12, a boy would be seen as having more responsibilities. He could also be subject to much more severe spankings. By the way, it is important to kind of crank that up and get him ready for adult life. But I’m not advocating that. But the point is, you know, we’ve got a thing in our constitution, and this coming elder meeting on Wednesday we’re going to go over a list of all the kids who have turned 18, those that have turned 20, preparing them for membership responsibilities, all that stuff.

And now looking at this text, well, there’s something about 12 too. And we don’t have to do it formally as a church. But if you’re, you know, 10, 11, 12, if you’re 13, 14, recognize there’s some kind of transition that maybe we could think of here. And it was a custom. So it’s not a law. But on the other hand, the narrative does sort of draw us. And that’s probably why it’s 12 here.

In hero stories, by the way—Daniel, Moses—I mean, not true narratives, but myths about Daniel, Moses, Cyrus—significant events happen when the hero is 12. It’s fairly common. So we don’t know why, but here he’s 12 and he goes up with his parents. It doesn’t mean he didn’t go up with them before, but maybe that’s true. You’re required to go up. All men were. So you’re required at 20 to go to these annual feasts—three annual feasts that are far away from where you live. But you know, you would normally, you would frequently bring your children with you, of course. Okay.

So I don’t know. But anyway, you go up and down, keep the feast. Now, what does this mean? This means that Jesus was the child of parents who did what they were supposed to do in terms of religious observance. And I think the application of this is: kids, you should be praying for your parents, and you should want to come to church.

The arc is accomplished. Being at favor with God and men happens because they’re going up to Jerusalem to do what they’re supposed to do in terms of worshiping God, taking Passover, and in talking with people about the Bible because they do that they grow. And so children should be the same way here. This is an example on the part of parents. It’s an example on the part of children to submissively attend the observations of worship that God has established that will help us, that will change us so that we can indeed depart a different way.

And notice at the end when they go back to Nazareth, he submits himself to them. That’s a voluntary submission. And children, even though you’re getting older, right? And Jesus is older, that shouldn’t—you know, when you get a better relationship with your heavenly Father, that shouldn’t make your relationship with your earthly father worse. It should cause you, like Jesus, to be willingly, more willingly submit. Well, he wasn’t more willingly, but willingly submissive to your parents. You see? So as you’re getting older, don’t think my job now is to get independent of my parents. Well, there’s some independence stuff you do. But you should be voluntarily. Jesus did it till he was 30. At least we don’t know that part. But we know at this age he certainly did it. We know that he didn’t really begin his formal ministry until 30. So you know, I’m not trying to keep all kids at home. But I am saying that your attitude, children, as you begin to get older, as you begin to become a teenager, your fallen nature will want a worse relationship with your folks.

So you’ll look at your dad as Darth Vader and not like it much. But you have to take on the attitude of Jesus who voluntarily submits himself to his parents when they go back. I think that’s real important.

Now, the parent—mom treasures all these things up in her heart. You know, parents should have an attitude of wonder and amazement at their children. I know it’s different with Mary and Jesus. But you know, with her attitude toward her children—when our children begin to differentiate and individuate, you know, it does kind of cause us to have an interesting perspective relative to them, and we should enjoy it. We should enjoy their maturation and their moving into their own adult life and independence.

One commentator said, “The fact that Jesus was God’s son made him the perfect son of his human parents. The real man of God does not despise earthly duties. Just because he is God’s man, he discharges human duty with supreme fidelity. And the parents stand for all the authorities.” So it’s the same with your authorities in the church, in your workplace. You should voluntarily submit to them as much as you can in good conscience with God.

And then we got the losing sight of Jesus thing and the searching—the matching C-sections. They lose sight of him, and then when they’re reconciled, Jesus then has a reference to the Father’s house. And so losing sight of Jesus is a theme.

Let me just read briefly from Job chapter 23. Job is speaking here.

“Job answered and said, ‘Even today my complaint is bitter. My hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him’—him being God—’that I might come to his seat.’ And then down in verse 8: ‘Look, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.’”

Oh, that’s beautiful. And of course, what it reminds us of is we can lose sight of Jesus in terms of our walk sometimes because God has hidden himself. God was hiding himself from Job in our afflictions and our trials and our sufferings. We lose sight of Jesus and it causes us great anxiety. But Job reminds us that the heavenly Father is still caring for us. He sees us. And Job was confident that when the whole thing was done, he would be refined gold, and that his job in the midst of not having sight, emotions, expressions of personal good feelings about God and Jesus—his job was to heed to what God had revealed of himself in his word and to treasure up his word in his heart, okay?

And so Job’s words tell us that when we lose sight of Jesus, we don’t assume that something bad has happened, like Mary did. Jesus has betrayed us. We don’t assume that it’s anything we’ve done, necessarily. Even sometimes it is. We correct. But sometimes it’s God’s way of maturing us and causing us to grow in our relationship to our heavenly Father. And our job in those times is to search for him by doing the simple tasks: going to church, reading our Bibles, trying to meditate on his word, doing what his word says, obeying him. We keep doing that stuff and God will bring us forth.

So they lose sight, and part of that is they’re also being matured in their relationship to their Father. They should be going about their Father’s business, and they should have a confidence that even when they can’t see Jesus, the Father is with them. Parents should have a confidence too in knowing that when they lose sight of their actual children, God doesn’t. They’re not your children. They’re God’s children. They’re God’s people. And you’re stewards, and he’ll hold you responsible if you do a bad job of stewardship. But if he in his providence takes them away from you for a while, you got to trust him. You don’t want to be anxious the way Mary got sort of anxious on this thing.

Calvin talking about Mary keeping these things in her heart said this: “Mary kept in her heart those things which she did not fully understand.” That’s good too from this text. Mary treasures these things in her heart, and the text tells us he says this stuff to her and they don’t understand. “What do you mean, your Father’s business?” They don’t understand now. You know, there are sermons you don’t understand. We watched some Francis Schaeffer videos and I don’t understand all of them, right? But you know, when God does things in our lives, there’s going to be things that happen that we don’t understand.

Calvin said: “Mary kept in her heart those things which she did not fully understand. Let us learn from this to receive with reverence and to lay up in our minds—like the seed which is allowed to remain for some time underground—those mysteries of God which exceed our capacity. I didn’t get it. I’m going to do a brain dump. Who cares? No. You didn’t get it. You didn’t understand what Terry was talking about, that story arc stuff. Think about it. Try to keep it in your head. The seed will sprout. Sometimes it’s going to stay underground for a while, germinate a long time. Keep these things in your heart, the things of God’s word.

Matthew Henry said this: “We must not think so of God’s sayings that which at first is dark, so that we know not what to make of it, may afterwards become plain and easy. We should therefore lay it up for hereafter. We may find use for that another time, which now we see not, knowing how to be, how it can be useful to us.” A scholar keeps those grammar rules in memory which at present he understands not the use of because he is told that they will hereafter be of use to him. So we must do by Christ’s sayings.

So when you don’t understand some things in the Bible or sermon or whatever it is, don’t just reject it. Treasure it up in your heart the way Mary did.

To honor your own father, you should grow in your relationship with your heavenly Father. Those two are tied together in the narrative: the father transition, father to father. But Jesus returns to his father in submission to him. To honor your father, though, you do have to develop a relationship with your heavenly Father. And you won’t always understand what’s being said, okay?

The D sections: they’re searching three days anxiously for Jesus, and then they are in great anxiety. As I said, Mary’s statement—this statement of Mary is a strong statement when she says “Why did you do this to us?”—commentators have referred to it as a formula of accusation. In various places in the scriptures, this is a stock saying that really is accusing somebody of deception or rivalry.

So now we’re back to rivalry. I think Mary probably does exhibit—I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong—but I think she does exhibit here this thing we slip into in distressful, anxious situations. We can begin to see God—in this case, Jesus—as our rival again. “Why is God doing this to me again? Why did he do this? Why did he cause my furnace to break? My car? Why is my child not feeling so well health-wise? Why is God doing these things to us?” You see, that’s a form of accusation. And it’s the old Adamic, mythic rivalry thing going on. That’s just what Satan wants you to think—that God is your rival.

Even if I’m right about Mary here—even Mary enters into this statement of rivalry, assuming Jesus is her rival. Now she had great distress. The text tells us that was really tough. And so you’re going to be tempted, when times are really hard on you, to think of God as your rival. “Why is he doing this to me?” You know, well, be like Job. Trust that while you can’t see him, what he’s doing, his purposes—you know, trust that you keep doing what’s right. The purpose is refinement. God’s going to bring forth gold.

Now, kids should try to avoid making their parents angry by stupid things. And when their parents do get angry when they return home with the car late at night, don’t get all worked up about it. They’re not your heavenly Father. They—you—they’re Darth Vader at times. So don’t respond in kind, right? Pray for them. Know that they’ve been very anxious for you. In terms of a practical thing, we have to trust God with our kids, parents, and when we don’t, kids have to trust God with us, all right?

And then finally, at the middle of this is something that kids do—you know what your elders worry about in terms of you most? At least I know one or two of them I’ve talked to. We’ve said this is our biggest worry. The biggest worry is what’s at the center of this text in terms of who you are.

Young people, 20 to 30-something—same thing. It’s our biggest worry about you. Our biggest concern. The biggest thing we pray for. At the center of the narrative, the thing that accomplishes all this cool arc stuff and increases light-bearing and favor with God and men and all that stuff—what happens at the middle, right? In these stories, there’s this transition point. And what happens at the middle is Jesus doing what we should be doing.

After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers. Jesus put himself where guys who were committed to the scriptures were. Now, Passover was a great opportunity for that. You didn’t get the opportunity to hear the great rabbis come together and discuss. I remember going to the early Reconstruction conferences where R.J. Rushdoony was. And you know what a few of us guys did? We wouldn’t get into the conversation, but we saw Rush talking to somebody. We’d just stand on the edge. We were 30, you know, whatever it was. We would just try to listen as much as we could, man, because we wanted to know what life is about, how Christians will reconquer the world, subject to the first Reconstruction conference.

You should want to be around guys talking, men and women talking about the Bible, children. And if you’re not, we worry about that. We worry about that. Now, Jesus does that. He listens to the teachers. Or rather, he sits among them. And then secondly, he listens to them. He’s with them. He wants presence with them. And he’s actually tending to what they’re saying, and he’s actually asking questions that—you know, so okay—he’s precocious. He’s the son of God. He can do that. And I think at 12, you know, if you’re sitting around with some of the adults here at church and we’re talking about the Bible or application to life or politics, you can ask a question too. And that’s what you should do most of the time, right?

What we’re mostly worried about you young people is the scriptures, is the word of God—is being around people who know the word of God, is listening to people talk about the word of God, and then you’re engaging in conversation about the word of God. Is that at the center of your life? Because if it isn’t, you’re not going to grow in favor with God and men. And if it isn’t, when you go down from Jerusalem to Nazareth, you’re not going to bear much light.

The center tells us what is going on, okay? And what’s going on is Jesus is an example to us. At the center—you know, what we’re all supposed to be like: strong commitment to the Bible. The people that started this church—all the people that started this church, founding families—man, we were into the Bible. We’re into finding out about it. I know it’s a different stage. I’m not trying to put anybody down. I’m just telling you this is what we worry about in terms of generational progression at this church. And we, you know, it’s not that we’ve seen no evidence, but I’m just saying that’s what concerns us.

Does it concern you? Is at the heart of your life, you know, kind of a typical secular life with an occasional Bible verse thrown on? Or is at the heart of your life trying to understand a knowledge of the world based upon God’s word and then living all that life—of course. But is that what’s at the center? You got to be honest with yourself. You got to go after the center that is God, God’s word, and dialoguing with people about that word.

Jesus isn’t off personally studying. As useful as that is, he’s engaged in community, and it’s a community of discussion about God’s word. That’s at the center of this narrative. That’s what will produce light in the context of our world.

I know I don’t know about you parents anymore. I know early on one of our favorite verses as parents was Philippians 2:14-15: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Disputing is answering back, children. Why? That you may be blameless and harmless children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Depart a different way. Grow in your commitment to know and have God’s word at the center of your being. Grow in your understanding of the story arc of your life and where you’re at in it. And what corrections you need to make. Understand the need to have a relationship with heavenly Father inform all other relationships and put you at favor in God and men. Commit today to depart another way. To take what you’ve learned on the mountaintop, to take the light of God’s word and shine it forth in your world this week.

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for the high privilege we have of being the light of the world. May we be that this week in Jesus’s name. Amen.