Missing Son goes about his Father’s business
Joe Miller Jr.

Luke 2:41-52

Mary and Joseph had to be very disappointed and angry with their son Jesus. He was a good Jewish boy, was being raised in a devoutly religious household, and knew the Torah better than most adults.

He knew better than to disrespect his mother and father. When they first realized that he was missing from the caravan heading back to Nazareth, all kinds of worries and fears must have entered their minds.

Maybe he got lost in some deserted area and was wandering around tired and hungry. Worse yet, maybe he had been beaten and left for dead by bandits along the road. They had no alternative but to back track the way they had come from Jerusalem. Their return journey led them all of the way back to Jerusalem where they searched for another day throughout the town. Where could he be? Where was he staying? What was he eating all of this time?

We do not know the answers to these questions; the scriptures only tell us that Jesus was in the temple area learning from and teaching the learned scholars of the day.

You can imagine the quick change in the emotions of his mother. Anxiety and worry turned into relief to see that he was alive and well, but relief quickly changed to anger and consternation. Why in the world would a good boy disregard his parents' care for him in such a callous manner?

The Bible simply tells us that Jesus felt that he needed to be in his Father's house; not the house of his step father in Nazareth, but his real Father's house… the Temple in Jerusalem, the house that Solomon built for the Lord God of Israel many years earlier.

At 12 years of age, Jesus was beginning to grow up and start to pull on his mother's apron strings. This is something that happens to all of us, sooner or later, and although it is a painful and conflicted time of passing, it is a necessary thing.

We all must grow up and move out on our own. Of course, Jesus' situation transcends our own. Jesus would eventually take a completely different pathway apart from everyone in his world. He would “go against the grain” of the sociopolitical, economic, and religious culture of his day. He would confront and conflict with the religious leaders of his people in a very unusual way. He would seem to meekly and weakly accede to the severe and brutal punishment that would be doled out to him.

Then he would very powerfully defeat evil and death for all time and ascend to his Father's throne of glory. His kingdom would last forever and ever, and know no bounds or end.

We have just finished the celebration of the birth of the Christ child, and we look forward to Lent and Easter as the culmination of Jesus' ministry on this earth. Jesus had to begin to break away from the traditional roles of family, familiar relationships, and the established “system” at some point in his life, and Luke tells the story beautifully and poignantly.

As we each begin the New Year 2007, we also begin a chapter in all of our lives and the lives of our churches, as we look to breaking away from the old and gearing up for the new. In what new directions will the Holy Spirit lead our churches in 2007?

Some of us will make resolutions (I am going to lose 15 pounds!). What better resolution would there be than to resolve to spend as much time as we can this year in our Father's house? If you are not regularly attending church, consider making that a resolution for 2007.

I hope and pray that you have a very blessed and prosperous 2007! Email me at newtonumc@ valornet.com with your thoughts.

Joe Miller Jr. is pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Newton.