Jesus at the Temple: As an Infant and as a Twelve Year Old

Luke 2.21-24, 39-52

Friday, December 4, 2015 

            The stories of Jesus at the Temple, both as an infant as well as a twelve year old boy, tell us a great deal about Jewish customs of the first century C.E., and how Jesus was raised within those traditions.  However, even as early as the age of twelve, he was challenging the status quo by knowing that his place was “in his Parent’s house” (Luke 2.49) amongst the teachers of the Temple, both listening to them and asking them questions; his understanding and his answers “amazed” everyone who heard him speak (Luke 2.46-47).  Let’s dig a little deeper into these issues.

            From the time of Jesus’ birth, and probably before as demonstrated by the Magnificat, “Mary treasured [what the angels sang as well as shepherds said] and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2.19).  We are told that everyone else was amazed, glorifying and praising God, but Mary kept what was said of her son in a special place in her mind and her heart.  Moreover, if her response with Joseph’s of not understanding what Jesus had told them about why he was in the Temple after the event of the Passover when he was twelve (Luke 2.50) is any indication of her general state of mind, there was probably a lot about Jesus that more than puzzled her.  I have put myself in her place as I have read the birth narrative in the gospel of Luke, it seems as if her whole life in relationship to her son was one of a certain amount of incomprehension of events and words that were almost too wondrous to behold.

            Jesus was raised as a Jewish boy within the customs of early first century Judaism.  He was circumcised when he was eight days old, and then when the time for purification came, he was taken to the Temple to be presented to God.  As a first-born male, he was set apart as holy to the Lord.  A sacrifice of either “’a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’” (Luke 2.24) was made.  All of this was done in accordance with the law of Moses (Luke 2.22).  As was already reflected upon, the family also regularly went to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of the Passover.

            What does this say for us today?  We are no longer bound to fulfill the law of Moses for Jesus fulfilled it.  Rather, we live in a time of grace and love.  From these stories of Jesus as an infant and a twelve year old, there are lessons that we can learn about raising our own children, whether they are our biological children or the children in the church.  Not only can we raise them in our religious traditions, but we can also treasure their wonder in our own hearts as we envelop them in grace and love so that they can “increase in wisdom and years [or stature] and in divine and human favor” as Jesus did (Luke 2.52).  I am aware of how I have not been as nurturing of the children at CBC as I would like to be.  How can we all, not just fulfill our traditions, but also breathe the grace and love of our God into their beings?  Is there something special that I / we can begin during this Christmas season, which can become normative for 2016?