Feast of the Holy Family C

[cappie]

The gospel story today may  stretch your imagination a bit. How did Mary and Joseph travel an entire day before discovering that their son wasn’t with the group? And how did a 12-year-old Jesus survive three days in the city on his own, apparently without any sign of anxiety or stress, all the while successfully matching wits with Temple scholars, most of whom had likely spent their whole lives studying the Torah?

To understand this story, we will have to ask:  (1) Where did this story come from and what is its purpose? (2) What does it reveal to us about Jesus? and (3) What implications does it have for our own lives of discipleship?

Scholars suggest that  Luke may have inserted it into his gospel to provide a transition from his birth narratives to his description of Jesus’ ministry as an adult. Luke is the only gospel writer who includes the story, and therefore the only evangelist who gives us even a glimpse into Jesus’ hidden life, that period between his birth in Bethlehem and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee.

Luke’s reason for including it in his gospel may have something to do with its uniqueness: it is the earliest acknowledgement by Jesus himself that he is God’s Son. Before this, all signs of his special nature or mission have been given to or through others – the angels, Mary, Elizabeth and Zechariah, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna – but now he claims it for himself.

 Scripture scholar Raymond E. Brown informs us that these boyhood stories customarily stress three features drawn from what is known of the person’s later career: namely, his piety, his wisdom, and some distinctive aspect of his life work. We see all three of these aspect in Luke’s story:

First, Luke calls attention to the piety of Jesus and his family. Jesus’ parents go to Bethlehem in response to Caesar Augustus’ decree (2:1); they name the child ‘Jesus’ in obedience to the angel (2:21); they go to the Temple in obedience to the Law of Moses about purification and presentation (2:22-24); and here, they travel to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover (2:41). The point is: He is a true Israelite, who was raised by faithful and devout parents.

Second, Luke calls attention to the wisdom of Jesus. He tells us that Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the Favor of God was upon him” (2:40) and later that he “increased in wisdom” and “Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and men.” (2:52). This wisdom is on display in the Temple: “and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. ,” Luke tells us (2:47). Jesus is already showing signs of being a wise spiritual teacher, and people are reacting in the same way they will react during his ministry.

The third feature   that Luke reveals here has to do with Jesus’ relationship to his family and his relationship to God. Already at this young age it is clear that Jesus’ priorities are with God rather than with his earthly family. When his parents express their worry over his absence, he seems surprised that they did not know that he would be in the Temple. “ Why were you looking for me?” he asks. “ Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?” (2:49)

 Jesus’ parents don’t understand (2:50), but their lack of understanding is not centred on his identity, but on the priority that he gives to the claims of his vocation over the claims of his parents. Not understanding, “ His mother stored up all these things in her heart.” (2:51).

So, what does this story tell us about Jesus? It tells us, first of all, that Jesus at this early age is aware of his unique relationship to the Father. It tells us that he is a faithful and pious Jew who was formed in the Jewish tradition by devout parents. It tells us that he possessed wisdom, even as a youth, and that he understood his calling from God to have priority over his relationship to his earthly relatives. And it tells us that he was humble, because after this incident “ He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority.” (2:51). He humbles himself, like a servant, to be obedient to Joseph and Mary, and to embrace a hidden life until God would call him to ministry.

 We might make use of this story to ask ourselves where we are in our own growing and changing sense of our identity and of our mission in the world. Who are you? On what do you base your identity? What is your “vocation,” your “purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God”? What do you know about yourself and your mission that you did not know when you were younger? How is that sense of identity and purpose evolving within you day by day, week by week, and year by year?

Jesus must have been an incredible child; an extraordinary child of God. But so are you. Why not claim your unique identity and mission in the world?

[Luigi]

For a number of years, whenever I hear this reading, I think of it as Jesus' Declaration of Independence. He was twelve, and although that seems quite young to modern people, it is the traditional age of the Bar Mitzvah, when a boy transitions to being a man. I don't know whether Jesus made his Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem during Passover - in fact, I don't know if Jews even had Bar Mitzvahs in the time of Jesus! But if Jesus saw himself as a man rather than a boy, then he'd suppose he had the right to make his own decisions - stay in Jerusalem or not, talk with the elders about the Scriptures, etc. The fact that, in the end, he does return to Nazareth with Mary & Joseph is, as you say, an impressive sign of humility.