Traditional Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

“What did he know and when did he know it?” When scandal breaks in Washington, that is the question journalists and investigators ask as they try to determine guilt. It’s also an important question for Christology, i.e., for what we can say about Christ. Who is Jesus, really? What did He know and when did He know it?

Today we have the only recorded event between the birth of Jesus and the beginning of His public ministry more than thirty years later. At the age of twelve, Jesus goes with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Every pious family kept this feast in Jerusalem if at all possible. And when the holy days were over, the people of Nazareth began the trek back home as a group. They would not necessarily walk together as a family, but as you might imagine, the men would talk with each other along the road, and likewise the women, while the children ran and played together. At the end of the first day’s journey, Joseph and Mary begin searching for Jesus among their extended family and neighbors. Then comes every parent’s nightmare: He is nowhere to be found. It’s not until the third day that they find Him, in the Jerusalem Temple, in the midst of a theological discussion with the most learned doctors of the Law.

Joy at finding Jesus turned to rebuke, as the woman who conceived this Child while yet a virgin says to Him, “Your father and I have sought you anxiously.” And the first recorded words of our Lord Jesus gently correct His blessed mother: “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

In other words, God – not Joseph – is the true Father of Jesus. Mark this well, dear Christians: Jesus is, as we confess in the Creed, very God of very God, i.e., true God in the flesh. He is the One and only God-man. And He does not become the God-man at the resurrection, or at the crucifixion, or at the transfiguration, or at His Baptism when the Holy Spirit descended on Him and the Father’s voice came from heaven declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son. Jesus does not become true God here at the age of twelve, or when the Wise Men visit, or when He is born in Bethlehem. The Child conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the embryo growing in her womb, was already true God in human flesh.

Why does this matter? Because your redemption depends on it. Your salvation from death, your deliverance from hell, the forgiveness of your sins, your life in the kingdom of God all rests on this, that God became man for you and redeemed your fallen human nature.

But Jesus doesn’t just coast through life with every advantage that being God would have. We treat our sports heroes practically as gods, but imagine if it truly were God in the flesh playing quarterback, and using His  attributes of omniscience and omnipotence in a game. In every aspect of life, how easy it all would be! But instead, in every aspect of human life, Christ sets aside the exercise of the divine majesty for His own benefit. Although He was from eternity truly and by nature God, nevertheless Jesus lived as a man, learned as a man, suffered as a man, hungered as a man, felt pain and loss as a man. And not just as any man, but He suffered humiliation and mockery, was betrayed by His disciple, abandoned by His friends, executed among the worst kind of criminals.

All this, for you. So He can truly sympathize with all your weakness, all your problems, all your fears, all your losses. And what is more, so He could truly redeem them and renew our race, as a man. God the Son assumed our human nature so that He could become the Man man was created to be.

God made the first man in His image and likeness; falling into sin, that image was marred and defaced. Every man since then has been a mere shadow of humanity. By the sin he was born with and the sins he committed, every man has by nature moved further from God’s intention for humanity: to live in self-giving love.

So God the Son Himself took on our humanity, assuming the human nature into His person. He passes through every stage of our existence (Kromayer/Pieper), repairing, remedying, perfecting who we are, what we have been, how we have failed. He knows your depression, your family problems, your death.

Back to the original question, then: What did Jesus know, and when did He know it? This story of the twelve year-old Jesus lingering at the temple doesn’t reveal just a child profoundly interested in religion, a wunderkind who amazes adults with his aptitude for understanding. It is the account of God the Son in the twelfth year of His assumption of the human nature. He astounds the teachers of the Law because He is the Author of the Law. What did He know and when did He know it? Jesus at 12 understands His mission: to be about the things of His Father.

Jesus is walking the path of obedience: subject to His mother and Joseph, fulfilling the Fourth Commandment for us; subject to the Law of the Passover, fulfilling the ceremonial laws for us; but most of all, radically submissive to the will of the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father. “I must be about My Father’s business.” In lingering at the temple, Jesus lives out the Psalm the way no person ever had: “Lord, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwells.” Finally, Jesus will be obedient “unto death, even death on a cross” (Ph. 2.8).

These things His blessed mother does not yet understand; just as there are many things we do not fully understand. But the mother of Jesus, most blessed of all women, is a model for us in that, even when she doesn’t understand the words and deeds of Jesus, she treasures them up in her heart and ponders on them. Today, the First Sunday after the Epiphany, is given to us to marvel at, ponder, and treasure up this truth in our hearts: God the Son was made man to do for us everything the Law required, to rescue us from death, to free us from our sins. This He did not just in a singular moment on the cross, but in an entire life lived in obedience to His Father, from childhood, all for our sakes. Keep these things in your heart, and rejoice at how Christ humbled Himself all for your benefit.

I’ve been struggling to fully understand the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday, Pentecost (John 14:23-31), particularly these words of Jesus: “My Father is greater than I.” Francis Pieper, in his Christian Dogmatics (II:62), says the following:

The statement of John 14:28: “My Father is greater than I,” describes Christ according to His human nature in the state of humiliation, for according to the context Christ is speaking of a condition which ends with His going to the Father. See Luther, St. L. XI:1079 f.

(I don’t have access to the referenced Luther text; if anyone does, I’d be glad if they shared what it says there.)

I have no tendency or interest in limiting the full and completely deity of our Lord JESUS Christ; this seems Pieper’s primary concern in his section, “The True Deity of Christ” (II:59ff). What I have never fully grasped is how this explanation squares with 1 Cor. 15:28, where it is written that “the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” Gerhard (referenced in Pieper) says this refers to Christ’s mystical body, the union of Christ with His Church. Chemnitz (quoted in Lockwood’s commentary on 1 Corinthians) says this passage also refers to the human nature of Christ:

In 1 Cor. 15:28 Paul also shows that the human nature in Christ is below or less than or inferior to God, not only when in the state of humiliation He says, “My Father is greater than I” [John 14:28], or when after the resurrection He says, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” [John 20:17], but even after the Last Day when He will have handed over the kingdom to God and His Father.

This is a great mystery to me. I guess I will have to be content to say with the Athanasian Creed that the Son is equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.

I don’t use canned sermons or series gimmicks (but after reading this, maybe you’ll think I should!). This year, we’re reading through Romans 4-7 at Vespers during Lent. This week is chapter 5:

“Therefore,” begins tonight’s reading from Romans, ch. 5. That “therefore” means that St. Paul is going to build on what he said in ch. 4, which we heard last Wednesday. You will remember that there, Paul emphasized that God credited Abraham with righteousness, for Abraham believed, trusted, the promise that God made to him. The word for being counted righteous, or credited with righteousness, is justification. That’s where Paul starts tonight: “Therefore, having been justified by faith,” he says.

Tonight, he tells us what results from that justification, what happens to us because God counts us as righteous: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Two things, then, result: Peace with God, and access. When man rebelled against God, he lost peace,  experiencing death and God’s wrath; in justification, peace with God once more is made. And when man sinned, he lost access to God; he was removed not just from Eden but from God’s presence. In justification, access is restored, the way is open.

That is a reality for us now, but we don’t enjoy the fulness of it yet. In this life, it is the will of God that we experience tribulations, so that we grow. For “tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.”

That hope is not in ourselves. During this season of Lent, we are reminded again that we have to look away from ourselves, outside of ourselves, and put all our hope in Christ. What is it that Jesus did for us? Paul puts the Gospel into four words: “Christ died for us.” So if someone asks you what Christians believe, that’s the four-word summary: “Christ died for us.” 

But notice who the “us” is – the ungodly! “Christ died for the ungodly … While we were still sinners”! That is astounding love. When someone offends us, we might forgive – but only after they’ve shown proper remorse. “I’ll be nice to you if you’ll be nice to me.” But the love of God is not demonstrated toward people who show sufficient repentance. The kindness of God is not shown to people who earn it. The grace of God does not come to people who try their best. That’s how we operate. We will do a great deal for our family and friends. We might show some kindness to a stranger. But to sacrifice everything for an enemy? Unthinkable! Yet God demonstrates His love for us in this, that Christ dies for His enemies.

So stop worrying about the economy, as though nothing is more important. Stop fearing, loving, and trusting in your health. Stop making a god out of what you can acquire, who you can be in a relationship with, what pleasure you can experience. For nothing surpasses this wonder, that we sinners have been reconciled to God. That’s passive; we didn’t do it, we receive it, as a free gift from God. And it’s past tense, done, already accomplished by Christ on His cross. That past action of God means our hope is in something future yet certain, that we shall be saved: “Having been reconciled [by Christ’s death], we shall be saved by His life.”

The main point, then, that Paul wants to make to us in this chapter is that Christ Jesus is the second Adam. The first Adam, the father of the human race, fell; and when he fell, we fell. In Adam, the whole human race sinned. In Adam, the whole human race died. That’s what our hymns tonight hammer home. We are born in Adam, and all who are in Adam die. But in the same way, all who are in Christ the second Adam, live.

So let that be your joy. Perhaps you’ve stumbled with your Lenten disciplines, and lost your self-control. Doubtless you’ve sinned this day, and failed your Lord. It may be you are struggling with an ongoing sin – anger, greed, lust, despair, apathy, or some other thing. Carry on with your struggle, and know that these tribulations are working in you perseverance, character, and hope. But go to sleep in good cheer tonight, and be filled with joy, because for you—an ungodly, impious, wretched sinner—Christ died. And there is no greater love than that. +INJ+

Dearly beloved, we are constantly in danger of forgetting that we are God’s dearly beloved, or even succumbing to the horrible thought that God does not love us. This is the root of temptation – no longer believing that what God says is true, no longer believing that God has our best interest at heart.

So our first parents were led by the devil to doubt God’s Word: “You will not surely die.” God is a liar. He is holding out on you. Or what of the twist you put on that sentence, when you are tempted to sin and you say, “I will not surely die; I will ask for forgiveness later.” That is taking advantage of God’s grace. Do you think you can continue playing Him for the fool?

God is no fool – and neither is the devil. He knows that he just needs a foothold, an opportunity, to find some weakness that will turn you. That’s what had happened again and again throughout the history of the people of God. Adam was given a paradise, but he could not keep himself from the one thing denied him. Those who followed Moses out of Egypt were given deliverance from slavery, and the parting of the Red Sea should have assured them of God’s power to care for them. But they grumbled against God and Moses. Again and again, despite the Lord’s mighty acts on their behalf, the children of Israel gave in to temptation and sought after other gods.

So after Jesus is baptized, He is “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus is led into the wilderness, recalling the wilderness where Israel did not trust God to provide them with food. Because of their rebellion, they had to wander the desert for forty years. What Jesus is doing by fasting in the wilderness is redoing, reliving, recapitulating the testing of Israel in the wilderness. Jesus suffers everything they suffered, but without sin. 

This is why the Son of God took on human flesh; this is why the Son of God assumed our human nature – so that He could suffer as a man, hunger as a man, be lonely as a man, be tempted as a man. In all of this, He does not exercise the powers of His divinity. He hungers as we would, He thirsts as we would, He grows weak as we would.

And in that weakened state, after a forty-day fast, the devil comes to Jesus. He makes Him doubt His identity, doubt the Father’s love for Him. He begins where He began with our first parents – with food. “Eating gets to the heart of our dependency—a dependency we try to deny” (Hauerwas). We cannot exist without food; we are dependent on the supply of food, and without it, we panic. Thus we are dependent on our neighbors, to plant, water, harvest, hunt, butcher, clean, deliver, package, prepare, cook. We depend on the rain, the sun, the soil; and ultimately, that dependence is on God. The need for food reveals our intrinsic weakness, our dependency on something outside ourselves to sustain our lives. So that is where the devil begins.

The appetite for food is simply the most basic of the bodily appetites, the craving for stimulation and pleasure. God created food—along with other tangible gifts such as drink and sexuality—to give joy and delight to His creatures. But it is a sign of our sickness, the sickness of our sinful nature, that we misuse and abuse these gifts, using them outside of God’s instruction. In so doing we end up destroying ourselves – not only in body, but also in soul. Theologian Stanley Hauerwas put it this way: “Our sin drives us mad because our very ability to revolt against our creator is dependent on the gifts we have been given by him.”

But revolt we do; the desire to be god, the desire to control, our turned-inwardness is at the heart of all our sin, and it manifests itself in lust, appetite, desire. St. James says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (1.14). And St. John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

What we see in the account of Jesus’ temptation is the One Man who does not succumb to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He is the One Man who does the will of God. And He does it under the harshest conditions. Jesus redoes, relives, recapitulates the whole history of Israel, and passes every test that they failed.

And this means that He has endured every suffering that you know, and has resisted and overcome every temptation you experience. And how does He overcome temptation? The simple answer is, by means of the Word of God. Jesus is confident that the Father will be faithful to Him, that He will not go back on His Word, that He will not break His promise.

So He refuses to turn stones into bread. Certainly He could; but He has come not to serve Himself by means of His divine nature, but to wait patiently on the Father’s gift of food for His body. Then He is challenged to fling Himself off the pinnacle of the temple, and here we see the devil using Scripture to his own ends: “Surely the angels will catch you, Jesus, as it is written in Ps. 91.” To combat a devil who quotes Scripture, one must know the whole message of Scripture and see the deception the devil employs. What Jesus is being tempted to do is again to take His destiny into His own hands, to carry out His own will instead of the will of the Father.

Finally, Jesus is offered the deal men dream of – to be offered everything we desire, if we just make one small compromise. We are surrounded by messages offering us our dreams. Gorgeous women are used to sell beer, razor blades, and even internet domain names, all implying that she can be yours if you simply use our product. In recent weeks I saw advertisements for government stimulus checks – supposedly you could get thousands in the mail, all for a small shipping and handling fee. We usually recognize that the ads are lying to us and nothing comes as easy as it seems, but still we are influenced by the offers of pleasure, riches, and immortality that we are inundated with.

But what the devil offers Jesus, though, is far more. It’s the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes – all the kingdoms of the world, and at such a small price: one little gesture, one genuflection. “Just bow the knee to me, Jesus, and all this can be yours. What’s the harm?” It’s the history of Israel. Seeking to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also blending it with the worship of the surrounding culture. What’s the harm? Who takes worship all that seriously anyway?

It seems a small thing. But genuflecting is no small thing, worship is no small thing, even if you treat it so. It’s serious, eternal life-and-death serious. Worship is not a game, not a show, not a matter of getting excited or feeding our lusts and filling our emotions. It’s a matter of faithfulness to the God of heaven and earth, the God of grace who is also a consuming fire, ready to destroy those who treat His holy things as common.

Jesus is faithful, responding yet again with the Word of God: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” 

Now in our baptism, we are in Christ. That means what He accomplished, His obedience and faithfulness is credited to us. But it also means that we embark on a new life, a life of following Jesus, of imitating Him, of being conformed to Him. As disciples of Jesus, we are called in this life to learn not to place our trust in bread alone, but to find our life in the words that come from the mouth of God. We are to trust patiently and not put God to the test. We are to take worship seriously and not compromise our faith for the sake of worldly good and kingdoms.

Think for a moment about the temptations that you, personally, are beset with, and the sins you struggle with. If the temptation comes through a certain situation, or place, or device (such as the computer or television), what are you going to have to do to minimize the temptation? Whatever it is, do it. The great Swedish bishop Bo Giertz said, “It is important to be careful not to dawdle and play with those things that one knows can easily lead to temptation.”

And there are some temptations that we cannot avoid. Here, the only thing to do is to meditate constantly on the word of God. God’s promise is not to remove the things that are heavy burdens for you, but to provide you with an escape in the temptation that comes. The Word of God is your recourse. Take it up, speak it aloud. Cry out to God, and repeat it to yourself again and again. Only by the Spirit, working through the Word of God, can temptation be resisted and the devil turned away.

Never forget this: you are in Christ. Although you are weak, and have fallen many times, He is not weak and did not falter. You are in Him. His victory is yours. By yourself you will fail. In Him is forgiveness, in Him is life, and in Him is victory over your sins.

I’m posting this rather late; Transfiguration this year was on February 1.

Myth. Fable. Fraud. Such is the verdict that so-called intellectuals issue regarding the birth, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus. Certainly the Transfiguration would fall under the same condemnation. Jesus’ face shining like the sun? His clothes as white as the light? Moses and Elijah, characters out of some ancient Jewish storybook, talking with Jesus on a mountaintop? A thundering voice from a brilliant cloud of glory? It’s all too fantastical, isn’t it?

Myth. Fable. Fraud. Why would Peter, James, and John even invent such a crazy story? Who would believe it? Well, according to the so-called scholars, Peter, James, and John didn’t invent such a story. It came decades, even centuries later, by people who never knew Jesus, in an attempt to make a wandering Hebrew rabbi into something more; to make a carpenter from Nazareth into a god. Why would they do that? Power and control, say these “scholars.” Power-hungry bishops invented the stories of the virgin birth, miracles, the transfiguration, and the resurrection for the purpose of setting themselves up as the only source of salvation. Today’s popular fiction presents wise, truth-seeking professors, scholars, archeologists, and other scientists fighting to bring this so-called truth to light, but they are hindered by violent priests and religious zealots who are lurking in the shadows with guns and knives, killing anyone who opposes them. In these books, the authors interrupt their narrative with long lectures by wise, noble, persecuted scholars, who explain that the Bible is a work of fiction, that there are no eyewitness records of the birth, miracles, or resurrection of Jesus, and that the Christian Church perpetuates lies and mass delusion in order to maintain control over people.

The sad truth is that these so-called scholars are themselves promoting falsehoods, myths and fables, by taking 2nd-century religious writings by people who believed in something called Gnosticism and equating them with the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles. The Gnostics, who never knew Jesus, used pseudonyms, pen names, for their writings, calling them such things as “The Gospel of Thomas,” “The Gospel of Judas,” or “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.” 

These fake writings took some of the sayings of Jesus found in the real Gospels, but used them out of their context to promote their belief that material things, the body, and creation are intrinsically bad. They say Jesus was not divine but just an enlightened man with special “gnosis” or knowledge. This fake Jesus helped people discover the divinity that is within each of us, and how we can ascend and escape the prison of the body so that we live on a strictly spiritual plane. In the Gospel of Judas, for example, Judas Iscariot is actually the hero; Judas doesn’t betray Jesus; by arranging for Jesus’ crucifixion, he is helping Jesus to escape the body and ascend to the spirit-realm. These gnostic writings use words to describe their teachings such as “secret” and “hidden” to sell the idea that there’s been a cover-up, and only they have the real truth.

Imagine if today someone all of the sudden presented a book entitled “The Secret Political Teachings of Thomas Jefferson” that said he thought the British monarchy was wonderful; or “The Secret Speeches of Abraham Lincoln” that said slavery is actually a really good idea? These Gnostic writings are just as preposterous.

But unfortunately, we live in an age where anything sensational, anything against Christian orthodoxy, gets all the press; and books with “secret books” or “lost teachings” sell like hotcakes. What happens to people when they hear these things? At best, they are left in doubt. They think, “Who can know the truth?” And we all love a good conspiracy story. I’m surprised Oliver Stone hasn’t made a movie out of all this – the wicked church covering up contradicting writings, banning books and consolidating power in an authoritarian structure, which then leads to wars and violence. All the ills of the world can then be blamed on Christians.

The truth is at once far more boring—there was no cover-up—but also far more wonderful than these pseudo-scholars and hack novelists are telling you. In fact, there were eyewitnesses who recorded what they heard Jesus say and what they saw Him do. One of those eyewitnesses was St. Peter, who says today, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” That is a statement everyone of us must wrestle with: Is he telling the truth? Were Peter, and Matthew, and John writing cleverly devised myths? Did Paul give up his career as a rising star among the Pharisees for a lifetime of poverty, being hated, stoned, whipped? Their lives were turned upside-down by their encounters with Jesus, and they shed their blood as testimony that their writings were true, and not cleverly devised myths. Having read that testimony, and compared it with the other writings and competing claims, I am convinced that Peter is telling the truth, that he really was on the mountain with Jesus, that he heard the voice of the Majestic Glory, that he saw something  so extraordinary that he could only come to one conclusion, no matter how amazing it seems: Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Lord, God in the Flesh, the Son of the Living God. “For we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

And what they saw in Jesus could only be likened to something that Moses saw: a bush that burned but was not consumed. As the bush burned but was not consumed, so the divinity dwelt in the humanity but did not destroy it. You and I are both mortal and sinful; if we come into contact with the divinity, with God, we would be instantly destroyed. But the divinity, the Godhead, dwelt in Jesus, and He was not destroyed. The fire burned in Him but He was not consumed. 

So why does this happen now, before Jesus is crucified? When they go down from the mountain, they are going to begin the journey to Jerusalem for the last time. Jesus will be handed over into the hands of the chief priests, and will be executed. By showing Peter, James, and John His divinity, Jesus is showing them that His divinity is not something that comes later, a reward for His crucifixion, but something He always had. They will understand then who died for them: not just a man, but God, who not only was made man for them, but as the God-man suffered for them and went into the grave for them.

And that is why they cannot stay on the mountain. Peter wants to build three tabernacles; but it is Jesus who is building a new tabernacle, the resurrected body and the new creation, of which He Himself is the firstfruits. That won’t happen on the mountain; it will happen on another hill, the Hill of the Skull, Golgotha.

So why are Moses and Elijah there? Moses and Elijah are there to show that all their writings, everything recorded in the Hebrew Bible, is pointing to Jesus. They cannot remain on the mountain, as Simon would like, for who then would fulfill the words, “They have pierced My hands and My feet”? Who would fulfill the words, “They divided My garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots”? And who would accomplish these, that “They gave Me gall for My food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink”? What other servant could be stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, bearing the sin of many and making intercession for the transgressors?

It’s an amazing story that Matthew tells today, and that Peter affirms. But is it a myth? Fable? Fraud? No. Still, wouldn’t it be nice if we could see and hear it for ourselves? If only there had been a video camera! I am prone to thinking that if I could have been on the mountain, if I could have seen the transfiguration, if I could have seen the cloud and heard the voice declaring Jesus to be the beloved Son, that would help my faith. But St. Peter tells us that we have something more sure – the prophetic Word. We have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention.” Peter, who was there on the mountain, tells us we have something better, more reliable: the prophetic Word, i.e., Holy Scripture. That is the one sure thing, the one thing we can rely upon, the one thing that is certain in a world of uncertainty, chaos, and death.

We have something better, because we have the advantage of knowing the entire conclusion. Peter, James, and John saw the transfiguration, but did not yet understand how the cross and the resurrection fit into that; they could not know of the Ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit, and they could not yet see that Baptism and Holy Communion would make disciples and join them to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

So we know the end of this story, where the Transfiguration is leading: The Jesus who is revealed on the mountaintop to three disciples as God in the flesh, the approved Son of the Father, will die for us willingly. No man could destroy Him; no army could seize Him; no prison could hold Him; but that He is seized, imprisoned, scourged, nailed, pierced, shows us that He suffers all this willingly, laying aside the exercise of His divinity, laying aside the benefits of His glory to endure the shame, the spitting, the mockery for us. Think of it! He endured your punishment, so that He might give to you His glory! It’s not a myth. Not a fable. Not a fraud.

And neither is this: when you die, you shall be like Jesus; for you shall see Him as He is. The apostles, prophets, martyrs, and saints all testify this to you, and we on this glorious day join them in singing our thanks and praise to the God who loved us so deeply.

N.b. – The recurring theme, “Myth. Fable. Fraud.” was inspired by Pr. Weedon’s wonderful sermon for the Conversion of St. Paul.

The Gospel reading is the historic one for this Sunday: Luke 2.41-52.

In today’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When the feast is over, Joseph and Mary begin the journey home, traveling with a large group of their relatives and friends. They imagine that Jesus is with them, probably running along the road with the other young boys while the adults talked about everything they had seen and done in the temple and throughout the great city.

But Jesus is not with them. He is lost. And that is the first application for us today. Sometimes we “lose” Jesus, too; i.e., sometimes we can experience a crisis of faith, where we stop looking to, trusting in, clinging on to the object of our faith – Jesus. Perhaps the most natural prayer for us to pray is in the words of the father with the possessed child: “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief!” Being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean that we never struggle with unbelief, or have doubts. This life in the world and in our sinful flesh is full of challenges and temptations, times when we seem to be losing, or even feel as though we have lost Jesus. There are numerous reasons: we see sins and sinners in the church; we are drawn to this world’s allurements; we become lazy or apathetic; we endure loss of property, reputation, or health; we suffer damaged relationships, sometimes beyond repair. All of these situations can, if we let them, cause us to lose Jesus.

Dangerous also, and Christians are afraid to talk of it, is depression. Some people are prone to it because of body chemistry or temperament; others are driven to it by circumstances in their lives. Manifesting itself in rage, anxiety, or a persistent melancholy, some people feel they are drowning in emptiness. Hope seems blotted out, and faith’s object, Jesus, is obscured. What anxiety, fear, and panic must Mary and Joseph have known, when Jesus was, quite literally, lost from them?

Whether because of our own sins, or through suffering, or prideful apathy, we can lose Jesus. But there is a great lesson to be learned in today’s Gospel. When Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus, He was right where He belonged – in the House of His Father, discussing with the rabbis the Word of God. And that is where we will find Him too, where He has promised to be: in the house of God, the Church, where the Sacraments are given out, and in the Word of God, where He speaks to us.

All of this happens when Jesus is at the age of twelve, which tells us something important about who Jesus is. Last Sunday Immanuel observed the Epiphany, where Jesus was worshipped as God in the flesh by the wise men. Jesus, you see, is both true God, and also true Man. Now at the age of twelve, Jewish boys would particularly begin to leave the society of women and enter the society of man. The rabbis instructed Jewish fathers to be gentle with their boys until age twelve, and then begin to teach him the way of manly living, including strict discipline if necessary. Probably at this point, Joseph would have begun teaching his trade, carpentry, to Jesus. The twelve-year old Jesus was now being treated as a man, and thus went up with Joseph to Jerusalem for Passover.

The point is, a twelve-year old boy begins to do his work. And at twelve, we see Jesus already apply Himself to His proper work – not only the things of His guardian-father, Mary’s husband Joseph, but especially the things of His heavenly Father. He says to Mary His mother, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Conceived without the aid of a man, in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary, God the Father is Jesus’ Father in a way different than God is our Father; Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God; God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten, not made; of one substance with the Father.

So now Jesus begins to apply Himself to the work that the Father has given Him to do, and He will keep on working until that work is perfected, when in Jerusalem several decades later, He will say, “It is finished.”

So in this Gospel we see that Jesus is manifested again as true God in the flesh, and we see Him already as a Boy applying Himself to His work on our behalf and on behalf of all humanity.

But we learn something else, too, by Jesus staying in the Temple instead of going with Joseph and Mary at first: If the situation presents itself where we have to make a choice between being obedient to parents or other earthly authorities, or being obedient to God, we must always be obedient to God first. So we will answer with Christ, “I must be about the business of my Father in heaven.”

The challenge of following through with that sometimes comes for us in dramatic moments of testing, but more often we are tempted by little compromises with the world, so that we don’t seem to be too weird, too out-of-step, too radical, too fundamental. But the Holy Spirit says to us something quite different: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This world, or age, seeks to conform us to it, so that our beliefs and morals match what society expects. Thus we allow certain sins to be acceptable for us as Christians. That must not be! You cannot be a friend of God and a friend of the world. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus and a friend of this age. You cannot be led by the Spirit of God yet embrace the Zeitgeist.

So the Scripture says “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God.” What do we test; how do we test? By means of the Scriptures. The will of God is shown in the word of God. If something in your heart or mind conflicts with what the Word says – your heart and mind are wrong. On account of original sin, many of our impulses, thoughts, feelings, and inclinations are sinful. That is why St. Paul tells us to “be transformed by the renewal of [our] mind[s].”

The first aspect of that is humility. By nature we put ourselves first, and above others. The transformation that God wants for us includes not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought; in other words, to think of ourselves lowly, to put others first, ahead of ourselves. This was always the attitude of Jesus; although He was God, and Lord of all, He became a servant of all, humbling Himself to the point of death.

Already we see that manifested today. Jesus “went down with [Joseph and Mary] and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” Jesus obeys the Fourth Commandment, even though for Him it is not necessary and did not apply. He obeyed that commandment and all the others perfectly, so that as the perfect man He could give His life for us imperfect men and women.

Now this “being subject” or “submitting” is to be part and parcel of who we are as Christians. The Scripture tells every one of us, “Submit to God” (James 4.7). Regarding the Government, the Word says,  “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake” (1 Pt. 2.13). To wives, the Spirit says,  “Wives … be submissive to your own husbands.” (1 Pt. 3.1). And again to everyone, it is written, “All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Pt. 5.5b). Submission is thus the characteristic of the Christian.

How then should we live? We should live in submission as Jesus did. Not in order to be saved, for Jesus has accomplished this for us all in His perfect obedience. Yet being a disciple of Jesus means striving to grow in this submission and humility because we are in Christ, buried with Him in Baptism, in communion with Him in this Eucharist, conformed to Him by His Word and Spirit. And when we fail, as we do daily, we cry with today’s Psalm, “In Your righteousness deliver me!” (Introit). When Jesus tells His mother, “I must be about My Father’s business,” that is it: to deliver us in His righteousness.

In an earlier post today, I wondered why Matthew renders “sons” in Jeremiah as “children” (tekna). Gibbs writes in his commentary on Matthew [thanks, Heidi!], “Matthew has taken ‘sons’ in both the LXX and the MT and deliberately rendered it as ‘children.’ His purpose in so doing is to emphasize that Jesus is the true and only ‘son’ and fulfillment of all of Israel’s history. In Matthew 1-4 only Jesus is called ‘son’ (huios), and he is so designated repeatedly.” (p131) Interesting that this comes so close to the citation of Hos. 11.1 in Mt. 2.15, “Out of Egypt I called My SON.”

I pray that you all have a wonderful, joyous celebration of our Lord’s birth. Here are some thoughts on the meaning of Christmas from C.F.W. Walther:

What happened [in Bethlehem] did not apply solely to the residents of Bethlehem, but to all whose nature the Son of God assumed, everyone who is called human and a sinner. For, as the angel of the Lord proclaimed, “I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.”

An unspeakably great, unexplorable divine mystery is at the bottom of all this. God’s holiness and righteousness must shut the doors of heaven to us sinners, and He knows that neither we ourselves nor any creature in heaven or on earth can open them for us. He had therefore determined from eternity that what we could not do, He would do Himself, and He would do it in such a way that His divine, wonderful, incomprehensible, and infinite love would be made known to all creatures, to His eternal praise and glory. God had decreed that His dear, only-begotten Son Himself would be sent into the world, that He would become man, that all of our sins would be laid on Him, and that those sins would be completely and eternally blotted out by His deep humiliation and death on a cross.

-God Grant It, pp72f

Trinity 18
St. Matthew 22.34-46
October 7, 2007

Today’s Gospel reading is divided into two parts: Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s question, and then Jesus’ question to the Pharisees about who the Christ is. In the first part, Jesus is asked a question about the Law – what does it all boil down to? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”; and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything hangs on that. Everything. It all boils down to love. What is God’s will for you? That you love.

What Jesus says is true; and, What Jesus says cannot help. Why? Because you don’t love. Not really.

To love God is to love Him for His own sake. But if you love God at all, you love Him not because of who He is, but because of what you expect Him to do for you. And when He does not seem to be doing for you whatever you think is best, then you are angry with Him. Or ignore Him (which might be worse).

So because you do not love Him, God is not really your god.

Your god is not God, but whatever you look to for joy and comfort, whatever you trust. Whatever your heart clings and entrusts itself to, that is really your god.

You don’t love your neighbor as yourself. You put yourself first. You are quick to spend the money of others, to take what you have not earned, to speak in a way that flatters yourself. And these two commandments–love God, love your neighbor–hang together. Luther said, “God looks on all the good and bad we do to the neighbor as being done to Him.” If you ignore your neighbor, you ignore God. If you look down on your neighbor, you look down on God. To love God is to love your neighbor, but we cannot manage to do either. Listen to the Word of God: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

Certainly there are good things you have done. But the standard that God has given to us is not to have done some good things, or to have done enough to balance out the bad things. What the lawyer asks Jesus is a question about the Law. That’s what lawyers do – they deal with laws. Skilled lawyers find loopholes and escape clauses, but there are none when it comes to the Law of God. God’s Law always accuses. There is no escape, there is no plea bargain. St. James sums up the demand of God’s Law that you be perfect, sinless, without error: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

So what Jesus says–”You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”–what Jesus says is true; but what Jesus says cannot help you.

Good thing, then, that in the second part of today’s Gospel, Jesus asks an altogether different kind of question! “What do you think about the Christ?” That’s the question! What does Christ mean? “Anointed one.” Christ was a term referring to the coming Savior, the One who would help God’s suffering people. Well, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” “David’s,” they answer. But how is that possible? Because the Scriptures say that David calls his own son the Lord?

Now let’s back up a moment. Who is David? David is the second king of Israel, after Saul. Holy Scripture calls him a man after God’s own heart. David’s line is the royal line of the house of Israel. Now no father calls his son his Lord. The son comes after the father, not before. Sons are commanded to honor fathers, not the other way around. So how is it, Jesus asks, that David in the Psalms refers to his son, his descendant, as his Lord? “The LORD (i.e., God) said to my Lord (i.e., my son who is my Lord), sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

What we have here is the mystery of the incarnation; i.e., the Lord took on human flesh and came as the Son of David. The Christ is at the same time David’s Son and David’s Lord.

David’s Son according to the flesh, born of the virgin Mary, but David’s Lord, according to His divine nature, begotten of God the Father and conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Everyone here should have the Small Catechism memorized, including these words from the Second Article: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord.” These are the two natures of Christ: He is true God, begotten of the Father, and true man, born of the virgin Mary. Jesus is God, from the substance of His Father, and man, from the substance of His mother.

Now that might seem a lot more boring or heady than a nice moralistic sermon, “Love God, love your neighbor,” but it’s really this second part, the part about who the Christ is, that we need.
Why is it important? Don’t let preachers deceive you into thinking doctrine isn’t important. Everything hangs on it. Your life depends upon it. Your eternal life depends upon it.

So why is this doctrine important – the doctrine that the Christ is both God and man at the same time?
Because the Christ had to be God, since only God could offer a fitting atonement for man’s sin.
And, the Christ had to be man, because only a man could make atonement for mankind.
No man could do it, no man could rescue mankind, and yet a man had to do it.
And so, God Himself became a man, became one of us, took on your flesh, in order to rescue you.

Rescue you from what? Your enemies. “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
What enemies?
The devil is your enemy, Scripture says.
Your own wicked flesh is your enemy – the flesh that teaches you to make yourself your god, to make the things of this world your idols, to not love your neighbor as yourself; the flesh with which you guzzle alcohol, ogle women, or treat as some kind of god through excessive pampering, primping, and preening.
But in the end, your enemy is death. It is written, “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

And what is the Father going to do? God the Father says to the Christ, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
What does that mean, “footstool”? That’s the Bible’s way of describing a victor in a battle putting his boot on the throat of the defeated king or general, showing to everyone the great victory he has won. That is what is going to happen on the last day. It will be shown, revealed, manifested that death is undone. Christ’s boot will be on the throat of our last enemy, death, and we will rejoice. All tears will be wiped away, all selfishness gone, all sins removed, and we will be gathered with joy around the banqueting table of our Lord, great David’s greater Son, the One who has redeemed us by His blood.

That is your hope, you Christians! The Jews each day would recite the Shema, including those words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But we New Testament sons of Abraham by faith ought every day to recite the Creed, tells us who Jesus is – true God, born of the virgin Mary to redeem us. And when we recite that Creed, we conclude with our hope – the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

So every day, dear Christians, recite the Creed, and remember that the last enemy, death, will be made Christ’s footstool. Pray the Our Father, for the forgiveness of our trespasses. And say the Morning and Evening Prayer, commending all things into the Father’s hands. Do this every morning, preparing for your work in this world; and do this e

very evening, preparing for the life of the world to come. That life, David’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has won for you. +INJ+