Text: Luke 2:41-52

Sometimes when I do yoga, my yoga teacher will say “Okay, same, same but different,” when we’re about to do a similar cycle of poses but with some variations or movement changes. I thought of that when I was reflecting on the story of the boy Jesus in the temple. I thought of it because there is so much in this story that feels so much the same as the experience of parents and children even now. Especially the emotions and relational tension. 

And yet there’s a world of difference between Jesus and first century Judaism and our contemporary Christian understandings. So let’s get into it!

This is one of those stories that’s often included in bible story books because when you read it to a kid they can see themselves there. There are literally no other stories about Jesus as a child (other than the birth stories) in the Gospels. And as adults we can (at least I can) clearly remember what if felt like to be a twelve-year-old. It’s a formative age! And we can look around us in our families and churches and we can see the kids we know who are 12 and picture what that’s like.

The term ‘tween’ gained a real foothold in the 90’s, and we still use it to refer to kids who are in the pre-teen years, but even 2000 years ago, Jesus was peak tween. He’s becoming independent. He’s starting to discover his own interests and pursue them. He’s setting his own boundaries and testing the boundaries and expectations of his parents. 

He’s also engaged with ideas in ways that are new and starting to ask questions and have ideas of his own. This is one of the reasons that I have always really enjoyed teaching and working with middle school students. 

They are encountering ideas with a lot of curiosity and creativity and the concreteness with which younger children understand the world is starting to shift into an ability to see things in a more nuanced way. Also the grasp of and appreciation for sarcasm really comes into focus and I love a dry wit.

Jesus’ experience isn’t the only place I see sameness with my own and a contemporary experience. The parent response to Jesus’ newfound independence – Whew! Do I ever feel that! One of the reasons I love the image by Martini that’s on the front of the bulletin so much is that it is so human and real in its emotional expression. That image was painted around 1300 and seems like 2000 years ago and 700 years ago and today the universal exasperation and annoyance on everyone’s part is so real.

Like Mary and Joseph, who say, “Why did you think you could treat us like this? What were you thinking? We were looking all over for you! We were so worried!” A contemporary parent too might be that same combination of extremely angry and extremely relieved to find their child after days of disappearance.

When I was twelve I was a little bit like Jesus. I liked the have the attention of adults. I excelled at school and liked new ideas. I had grown up going not to the temple but to church conference and family camp at one of the Mennonite camps in Saskatchewan. These were our own kind of pilgrimages. Places where – as a family – we would engage with our tradition’s ideas, grow in faith and connect to other families who were engaged in a similar way. 

One thing I did not do was test any kind of boundary. I was a rule follower! And that is not the only way that Jesus’ story and mine – or ours – are pretty different from each other.

For one thing, Jesus was super Jewish. Those pilgrimages that his family did every year were to the temple – the same temple that he’d been taken to as an infant to be circumcised, where he’d been held by his elders Anna and Simeon. This pilgrimage and ritual were a part of the practice of faith and Jesus and his community were steeped in.

And actually, being 12 in the first century was pretty different than being 12 in the 20th century. Having a specific category of life stage for teens and especially tween are very recent ideas in development. The text refers to Jesus as a boy, his mother calls him ‘child.’ But he is on the verge of adulthood. 

Thirteen would have been considered the age at which a person becomes an adult in Jewish life. The age when girls became women and could be married. Mary might have been only 13 or 14 herself when Jesus was born. 

And in fact the text itself, and the author Luke, are showing us that Jesus is indeed becoming an adult. Jesus is not just testing boundaries here, the story is becoming his. This is the first time Jesus speaks and when he does, he says something about his identity: He claims his (capitol F) ‘Father’ over his father Joseph.

This is where the story reminds us that while Jesus may return home to Nazareth, his true calling is that of his Creator not that of a carpenter. The next time we hear of his engagement with religious leaders it will be much more contentious. The temple will become a scene of protest and conflict.

In fact, there is a kind of sameness with at least some contemporary experiences. At 12, Jesus sits with the religious leaders and they are amazed – isn’t he precocious? But at some point these same kinds of questions and challenges will become threatening. They will see him as dangerous. I have heard people – especially men – in Black communities reflect a similar experience. And in fact, when Black boys become teens they are experienced as threatening much earlier than their white peers.

In some ways this is a tiny fore-taste of the ministry that Jesus will enter into 20 odd years later. Deeply rooted in Jewish tradition but pushing at its boundaries with new ideas and ways of interpretation. His faith and the God who created him formed him to be the prophetic leader and teacher and ultimately a savior and center of faith beyond his Jewish roots

Luke was pretty brilliant to begin his account of Jesus life with his infancy and childhood, I think. It’s the only Gospel that has a glimpse of Jesus’ youth. It draws us into that place of identification, of family life that is both so much like our own and yet so extraordinary. 

Luke brings us back around again to an invitation of where we can enter the story. In this story Jesus is only a child, but very soon, we’ll launch into the story of his ministry and our call to discipleship. A ministry that opens the way of God to all, that will spread beyond the faith of Jesus’ birth out into the world. 

I’m excited to dive into the Gospel of Luke in the coming months and to walk with Jesus as he calls us along with him. Amen.

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image: “Christ Returning to His Parents,” Simone Martini 1342

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