It’s a rough time of year. Soon, if we haven’t done so already we’ll put away the Christmas decorations. We’re feeling the effects of all of the cookies, candies, and other Christmas treats we’ve consumed. It’s a bit of a let down after the build up of Advent and Christmas. We’re back to the daily grind of life.
In a sense that’s what’s happening in our passage from Luke.
No one seems to remember – or at least the scandal has lessened about Mary and Joseph having had their first child out of wedlock or the astounding circumstances of his birth: the Angel, the star, the shepherds, and the wise men.
Things look like they’re back to normal. Like all good Jewish families they travel to Jerusalem to observe the Passover, when Israel remembers and give thanks to God for delivering them from slavery in Egypt. Here we have a first look at how Jesus will shake up tradition and the entire religious system of the beliefs of Israel.
Instead of going home with his family, unbeknownst to them he stays in the temple to converse with teachers and religious scholars. When Mary and Joseph discover he is not with their traveling group, they are frantic (they’re also not bad parents because they just thought he was traveling with others in their community back to Nazareth). After three long agonizing days they found him. They truly are saints because if one of my kids did this I would ground them and take away all of their screens for a year. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?
I’m surprised Mary didn’t say: “Don’t talk to me like that, child. I am your mother!” But instead she senses that something is changing in her first born. This serves as a reminder of who this child would grow up to be and why her child was born in the first place. She ponders in her heart, meaning she is moved, and continues to reflect on the words of her son (who is also the son of God): “Did you not know I must be in my father’s house?” Meaning the temple, the main place of teaching of God’s word. He’s only 12 , but he has religious scholars probably twice his age amazed.
He’s no longer a little baby in the manger. He’s growing up.
Mary is feeling the growing pains. But Jesus still respects and obeys his earthly parents and goes home with them.
On Christmas, we celebrate the baby Jesus who is safe and who we can admire from afar. He grows up and starts offending people. Starting with his parents. Or at least it seems that way at first. When we let Jesus grow up from the manger, we allow Jesus to challenge us.
Are we willing to trust Jesus when he calls us to do hard things?
Things like admitting our sin and our wrongdoings. Admit when we’d rather be comfortable than be challenged to grow in our faith. To speak up for the truth when it isn’t popular. To speak up for the least of these when others would rather not listen.
Are we ready for Jesus to grow up? His life from this point on gets harder.
Things get darker until the darkness culminates at the cross. Thank goodness the story doesn’t end there. Are we ready to continue to walk with Jesus even thought it gets harder? I hope so, otherwise we’ve missed the miracle of Christmas. In the darkness our savior was born. In the darkness he was eventually arrested and wrongfully executed.
Things get dark, but they don’t stay that way. As we allow Jesus to grow up I hope it comes more real to us that in the darkness and light Jesus is present. In the hard and the good, Jesus is present. As we leave the manger I hope we know that Jesus is with us and always will be.
It’s why he was born in a manger in the first place.
