Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?
Luke 2:41-55

46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents [6] saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” [7] 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto us from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.  

    “Your father and I were worried sick!”  What youth has not heard these words from a parent at one time or another?  You visited a friend without letting anyone know where you were.  You wandered away from your parents at the grocery store or at the mall.  You stayed out too late and have wandered back home after your curfew.  Yes, parents worry about their children because the world can be a dangerous place with dangerous people. As it is only too apparent in our culture today - without limits and boundaries children and youth can become lost, physically, emotionally, and yes, spiritually. It is only natural for any good parent to set limits and boundaries for their children to keep them safe.  Parents desire good for their children and to keep them away from evil.

Mary and Joseph desired the same for their son, Jesus.  They wanted Him to be safe and they expected Him to follow their rules – which included going home with the rest of the family. His parents had traveled with the whole family to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, as was required by the law.  This was the celebration to remember the Lord’s passing over the firstborn while the Israelites were still in captivity in Egypt.  At the Passover celebration each family would sacrifice a lamb at the temple and then the whole family would eat the lamb together at the Passover meal.  After two days the family could return to their home and back to their daily lives.  Because of the danger of bandits large extended families and villages would travel together.  In these large family groups everyone watched out for one another – including the children.  In such a large group it is hardly surprising that one single child would be overlooked.  This is exactly what happened to Jesus.  After they realize that he is missing, Mary and Joseph anxiously travel back to Jerusalem.  They search for their lost son for three whole days, hoping and praying that nothing evil had happened to him.  When they finally discover him in the temple Mary has words of rebuke: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”  Mary’s words are words of accusation.  With these words Mary is asking Jesus, “ Why did you leave us?  We were worried sick. You could have been hurt.” But Jesus answers her, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”  Jesus rebukes His own mother.  He rebukes her not in anger, but He is lovingly teaching her about Himself, His identity and preparing her to rightly recognize and receive His purpose and work as the Son of God. 

So this morning’s gospel text is not a description of Jesus’ pre-teen attitude with the characteristic rebellious backtalk and attitude.  Quite the contrary, this is an account not of disobedience, but of our Lord’s obedience and love.

Luke records that after this incident “[Jesus] went down with [Mary and Joseph] and was submissive to them.”  All of us well know how difficult it is to be submissive to our parents and other authorities.  We all are, by our fallen nature, continually inclined to balk at and rebel against the authorities that God has placed over us.  But the 4th Commandment is not the only commandment that we break. We disobediently go down the line, repeatedly and willingly transgressing our Lord’s law.  We murder our neighbors when we hate them or damage their reputation by gossip. We fail to place the best construction on everything.  Our lustful thoughts and unchaste inclinations are adultery. We steal and covet, seeking to get our neighbor’s possessions.  Yes, we are disobedient.  We are disobedient because we lack trust in our Lord and His promises.  By our fallen nature, we lack the wisdom to discern good from evil.  We are excellent theologians of glory, who cannot stand to recognize God’s goodwill, behind things that appear evil, such as lack, pain, and suffering.  We become disobedient and transgress our Lord’s law, when we do not fully trust the promise of our Lord to daily and richly provides all that we need to support this body and life.  And so, in order that we may feel more secure and safe, we call evil good and good evil.  We rationalize our sinful actions and try to convince ourselves that they are good or that the ends justify the means – even if it means hurting ourselves and others in the process. This is the temptation that caught Adam and Eve.  They did evil by choosing to create their own security good, rather than trust in the promises of our Lord.

When we turn away from our Lord’s clear Word we are then doomed to wander around lost in the evil lies of the world or the delusions of our own depraved mind and flesh.  All of our disobedience stems from our trying to make ourselves into our own Gods.  And there also goes the first second and third commandments.  All of our sin flows from a complete lack of submission and obedience and trust in our Lord and His Word.   

But our Lord is not as we are.  He underwent the same temptations that we experience, but he did not give in.  As a man our Lord, Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient, and perfectly trusting of the will of His heavenly Father.  He obeyed His parents, kept the law, and respected those in authority, except when the will is His parents and other authorities conflicted with the will of the heavenly Father – as in the case of today’s gospel lesson.  Yes, Christ is to obey Mary and Joseph, but it is the will of His heavenly Father for Jesus to be about the Father’s business in His Father’s house.  

    Our Lord is no ordinary child.  He is not simply the son of Mary, but He is the very Son of God.  And as the Son of God His heavenly Father wills that He fulfill a special purpose.  This purpose is not for Jesus to be a mighty, well-respected earthly king.  It is the will, the business, of the heavenly Father that His only-begotten Son would die.  God would use what looks evil to us, namely our Lord’s passion and death, to create the greatest and most necessary good for all mankind.  Sacrifice is bloody and cruel, but the spilling of the blood of a worthy sacrifice accomplished good – because the promise of God’s word is connected with it.

Jerusalem, mount Zion, the holy city, is the place where blood is shed for forgiveness. For generations, the blood of the Passover lambs was sprinkled on the altar in the Temple so that the Jews could receive God’s forgiveness. This is the place where the blood curdling bleating of thousands of lambs was silenced by the blades of the temple priests. He sits with the teachers in the same temple halls that were filled with the sound of the bleating of innocent sacrificial lambs. Here, in the Temple, the place where sacrifice was presented is where Jesus needs to be.  This boy, Mary’s firstborn and God’s only-begotten Son, the true and final Passover lamb, the true High Priest, shed his blood on the altar of the cross for the sins of the whole world. It is the will of the heavenly Father that Jesus be obedient and willingly die for our sake. And that is why Jesus can and should rebuke His own mother.  Mary needed to be catechized. Mary should not and could not have kept her Son from His bitter passion and death.  She should not and could not have spoken words of rebuke to him.  In this, as in many other instances in the gospels, our Lord rightly rebukes those who would keep Him from His cross.  He rebukes those who would keep Him from being about the Lord’s business in His house.

The good gracious will of God is that we have life.  And this life only comes by Jesus’ own obedient suffering and death.  Mary and Joseph may have had the best interests of their son in mind, but our Lord’s wisdom was higher than theirs.  Our Lord’s wisdom is also higher than ours.  In this life we all will have times when we think that Jesus has stayed back from us, that he has abandoned us.  We are tempted to think this especially in those times when we experience evil in our lives: the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, economic hardship and other loss, mental, emotional and physical sickness and the like.  But our Lord does not abandon us.  He is continually by us, especially in our times of affliction and pain. St Paul writes these sure Words of comfort in today’s epistle to the Galatians, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known [3] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.  In Him you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

In faith in Christ, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our Lord’s good will and purpose for us. We receive the true life-giving body and blood of Christ, our true Passover Lamb in the Lord’s Supper to cover our sin.  In this place, the obedient Jesus is speaking to us with His marvelous words of comfort and hope.  He catechizes us, revealing to us true good and how to discern it from true evil – as he did for the great king Solomon and for humble Mary.  He has words of love and comfort for you.  He speaks to you this day “ Your sins are forgiven.”  He forgives your disobedience.  He forgives your sins of disrespect for your parents and other authorities.  He forgives your sins of disobedience when you have rejected his will and broken his commandments.  He forgives you for your self-idolatry, when you have placed your will above His own.   He forgives you for all of those times when you, in your sin-sick delusion, have called good evil and evil good.  And all of this, your disobedience, your hate, your selfishness, He forgives because of His obedience, His self-giving love.  Jesus Christ is your true Passover Lamb. He is in His Father’s house for each and every one of us.  And His Father is our Father.  His house is our house.  His home is our home.  His inheritance is our inheritance.  Where He belongs, we belong also.  We do not need to anxiously go about searching for Him.  There is no need to be worried.  He comes to us in the flesh forgiving our sin according to His Word of promise.   He was and always is the obedient Son of God who is about His Father’s business even today in this house for and among us.

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and our minds in faith, through Christ Jesus.  Amen.