Word of Salvation – Vol. 20 No.20 – February 1974
The Twelve-Year Old Jesus Causes Amazement In The Temple
Sermon by Rev. N. Teekens, L.Th; Th.Grad. on Luke 2:41-52
Scripture reading: Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalter Hymnal: 312 – Opening Hymn.
20 – After Law, Pardon
335 – After offering/first Bible Reading
89 – After sermon
37 – Closing Hymn
Beloved congregation, boys and girls.
It is an exciting thing to be allowed to go with your parents on a three day journey! It is even more exciting when the destination is the capital city which everyone loved so much. But it is most exciting when in that city you will see the Temple, where so many strange and interesting sights are to be seen! Where you will see the Priests do those things you have heard so much about at the Jewish school! Jesus no doubt looked forward to this journey to Jerusalem, to spend the Passover in the Temple. Jesus was now twelve years old. For a number of years He had been taught the ‘Torah’ – about the 5 Books of Moses, and even knew parts of it by heart. At twelve years of age, every Jewish boy had reached an important stage in his life. He was now called ‘a son of the Law’! From now on Jesus not only knew all about the Law, but He was now personally responsible to KEEP the Law for himself. Now He was old enough! Yes, it was exciting, even for a twelve-year old! There would be the trip to Jerusalem, and the singing of the many thousands of people who would join the happy procession. As they travelled, they would sing together the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120 to 134. Then, at the gates of Jerusalem, the 122nd, Psalm would be sung:
“Our feet are standing at your gates, O Jerusalem!”
Our text shows “THE TWELVE YEAR OLD JESUS CAUSING AMAZEMENT IN THE TEMPLE” and Jesus causes amazement by showing deep interest and understanding; by showing surprise to His parents; by showing obedience to His parents.
1. THE TWELVE YEAR OLD JESUS SHOWS INTEREST AND UNDERSTANDING
Luke tells us that “when the Feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. There was much to see for Jesus. There were the animals, the sacrifices, the prayers symbolically arising to God as Incense from the altar, the pouring out of the animal blood at the altar as a sin offering…! Here Jesus walks around in amazement, aware in some mysterious way that all these visible, external signs would be fulfilled by His coming into the world. To an unknown degree Jesus perhaps felt that God Himself would supply the Sacrifice when the time had fully come. Yes, here Jesus walks, not as any twelve-year old boy, but “filled with wisdom, and the favour of God upon Him,” as Luke 2:40 states. Indeed, “the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem”, more deeply involved than other 12 year old boys!
Mary and Joseph return homewards. They presumed Jesus was with friends. At the overnight stop they expected to meet up with Him amongst friends. They were confident JESUS WOULD BE WHERE HE OUGHT TO BE! But Jesus was NOT where they thought Him to be. In this case, His ways were not their ways, and His thoughts not their thoughts. Jesus in the Temple shows – reminiscent of Isaiah 55:8 and 9 – that “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Three days after first leaving Jerusalem, they return to the Temple to find Jesus there. Four words describe Jesus’s involvement in the Temple: “Sitting, listening, asking and understanding”. The Temple feasts featured also the best of the Jewish Rabbis, teaching in the Temple courts, and answering any questions directed to them by visiting Jews. Here the Sanhedrin, the experts at the Law, were at work.
Amongst this select company Jesus listens, taking note of the questions and the answers supplied. Jesus shows deep interest.
Jesus also shows understanding. He also asks His questions. His questions are interested and show concern. He asks DEEPER than many. For His age, he shows great understanding. Jesus’ conversation shows that He is more than just interested; it is as if He is PERSONALLY involved and concerned! Jesus questions the pat answers of the Rabbi and provokes deeper thinking. Other teachers gather around. Fixed issues become debatable. Settled interpretations become questionable! “And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.” Jesus’ thoughts are on a high level. He speaks as if He is One who KNOWS deepest what the teachers thought they knew best! As THEY question Him, His answers continue to amaze them all!
II. JESUS CAUSES AMAZEMENT BY SHOWING SURPRISE AT HIS PARENTS
Upon this scene Joseph and Mary arrive, filled with concern for their Son. They saw Him so occupied and they were astonished. They received, as it were, “a blow”, says the Greek word. It was a blow to find Him SO occupied, in THIS place! Jesus shows amazement to His parents, as He asks them: “How is it that you SOUGHT ME? The fact that His parents LOOKED ELSEWHERE surprised Jesus. THIS environment should have been understood at once by His parents! He WOULD and COULD be only HERE, in His Father’s House! Jesus WAS WHERE HE OUGHT TO BE, and searching anywhere ELSE was futile! This PLACE goes together with My MISSION: here is My Father’s House! Here also Jesus states “I MUST be.” Of necessity THIS is my place whilst I am in Jerusalem: “I must be HERE” because an inner COMPULSION lets me be nowhere else! At the age of Twelve, Jesus knew the Father in a way no-one else knew the Father. At this moment, THIS was His place, because of Old God had chosen to dwell amongst His people IN THE TEMPLE. HERE Jesus truly felt AT HOME! Here in Jerusalem, Jesus’ love for His parents was overshadowed by His love for the Father. That Jesus was missing was not due to Jesus’ inattentiveness, but to His parents’ lack of understanding! And still they did not understand this deep mystery, vs.50 states.
Jesus’ understanding with the Sanhedrin teachers and also His surprise shown to His parents were both part and parcel of His awareness of His special calling. The SON OF GOD had come into the world, and the world ought to be getting USED TO IT! There are times when the SPIRITUAL matters take preference of attention over the HUMAN things. There are times when we must OBEY GOD rather than MAN. No PERSON must stand between GOD and the believer, when God obviously must have PRIORITY. Jesus was FIRSTLY born to OBEY GOD in all things. To be obedient even to the end, even if that end was to be a BITTER END. He came to do the WILL of His Father! And that was FOR A PURPOSE! Mary and Joseph were shown that God’s ways, and therefore also the ways of God’s Son Jesus Christ, were not THEIR ways; nor were the Temple teachers in any doubt that Jesus’ THOUGHTS were not THEIR thoughts, but that His were HIGHER than their thoughts! Jesus’ parents also had to learn to step aside for God’s PLAN OF REDEMPTION being worked out in Jesus Christ. As at Jesus’ BIRTH, so also now, Mary “kept all these things in her heart.” She had just ‘lost’ Jesus for three days. Not until over 20 years later, when she would AGAIN “LOSE” Him for 3 days, would she begin to understand that God’s ways are higher, and more beautiful than her ways.
III. JESUS SHOWS OBEDIENCE TO HIS PARENTS.
Finally, we see that Jesus shows, AMAZINGLY, OBEDIENCE to His parents. Arriving at this young age at a deep awareness of His divine calling and duty, Jesus nevertheless “Went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” THIS fact recorded by Luke is as amazing as the other facts in our text. For HERE Luke records the first words of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospels. Beforehand, the Gospel had been the works of the Father, HE had spoken and acted; GOD called the shepherds; GOD alerted the wise men; GOD directed Simeon and Anna; in fact, GOD gave His Son to the world. But now Jesus as it were ANSWERS, REPLIES to His Father, at this age. And Jesus, so AWARE of His calling, so ENGROSSED in His Father’s House, returns OBEDIENTLY with His parents to Nazareth. What must have amazed Jesus Himself in the Temple, and what must have LIFTED Him up spiritually still did not stand in the way of FULL OBEDIENCE to his parents. Yes, wonder of wonders, AS SON OF GOD, HE SUBMITTED Himself to Joseph and Mary, to two people as sinful as any two people. They who needed to be saved from their sins by Him, were in authority OVER Him. His OBEDIENCE was for us men and for OUR salvation. As SON of the Most High, He yielded to His parents’ wishes. Yes, already early in life Jesus became aware of His calling, yet in this awareness He lowered Himself to our human frailty in being obedient, so that by His full and perfect SUBMISSION and OBEDIENCE WE may be covered in our rebellion and disobedience. From now on, His life would be marked by giving in to the Father and to men. A giving-in which would be bitter, and painful, painful to the point of death.
Brothers and sisters we also need to stand in AMAZEMENT at the Lord Jesus. At the HUMILITY which He took upon Himself for OUR SAKE. At the EARLY as well as the LATE suffering of the Christ, for OUR sake. At the full and perfect OBEDIENCE to His parents, for OUR sake. Jesus entered His work in full submission. He accepted His calling willingly. He COULD do it, for He was God’s Son, our stand-in. Our Pioneer and Perfector of our faith, Who for the Joy that was set before Him endured the cross, and – yes – at the age of twelve, endured also the authority of His parents. The Twelve year old Jesus causes amazement in the Temple. Does He also cause YOU to be amazed at this? Amazing grace, which saved a wretch–like me? Yes, that grace IS amazing, and we must never cease to BE amazed! At times we may find ourselves wandering around in the wrong place like Joseph and Mary, seeking Christ where He cannot be found. Seeking Him everywhere except where He CAN ONLY BE. And then often we join Mary and Keep what we find hard to accept “in our heart,” storing it up for later. But we must not join Mary in this case, for WE KNOW THE FULL revelation, and Mary only knew THEN in part.
In our time Jesus HAS FULLY ATONED for our sins! Our SEARCHING has ended, because the Spirit and the Word ever direct us back to Christ. As we seek to do His will, He dwells in the seekers, filling them with His perfect obedience. Yes, His perfect obedience has “let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Many things Jesus changed. His Father’s House no longer is a visible place. God now dwells in the hearts of believers. Yet Jesus has ascended to be STILL INVOLVED in His Father’s business. He has gone to prepare a place in His Father’s NEW HOUSE, in the New Jerusalem, which shall come down from heaven, with IN IT a place prepared for all His children. Is there a place prepared in the New City for YOU? Are you yet able to say, “I have FOUND Jesus?” If not, in prayer and repentance, SEARCH for Jesus, there where He now dwells. Let the Spirit carry your prayers to Him while there is still time to find Jesus! May Jesus’ OBEDIENCE grow in our lives, that we all pray and work every day to BE and KEEP obedient. That we also may stand in such a relationship to the Father, IN Jesus Christ our Lord, that we too may “INCREASE in favour with God and man,” to the glory of His Holy Name!
Amen.