Epiphany 1
Dear friends in Christ. We are now in the season of the Church called Epiphany. “Epiphany” comes from a Greek word meaning “appearance” / “showing” / “giving light to.” It is no coincidence that the Epiphany season of the Church follows Christmas. At Christmas a Baby is born—the Baby Jesus. But just who precisely this Baby is, we hear from the angels at His birth [Luke 2.11]: For there is born for you this day…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord; and we hear from the angel when His conception was announced [Luke 1.35]: That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Now, in the Gospel accounts of the Epiphany season we read, we find out that the Baby born in Bethlehem, Jesus, is indeed the very God Himself who became also a true human being and was born that first Christmas. It is an Epiphany because Jesus shows us that He indeed is the true God. The readings in this Epiphany season show us that Jesus is true God—they proclaim to us once again His miracles: turning water into wine and calming the storm showing us He is the God of creation and God over creation; by His healing the Roman officer’s servant, Jesus not only shows His divine power over illness and His undoing sin, but it also shows that He is the true God over all people, the Lord of all the nations, not just the Jews. The Epiphany season culminates with Jesus’ Transfiguration—that time He let 3 of His disciples witness His full divine glory shining forth in and through His human nature.
After the Epiphany season as we hear once again these accounts from our Lord’s life, there can be no doubt in our hearts and minds as to who Jesus, that Baby born of Mary in Bethlehem, is: true man but also true God. We are then equipped to follow Him into Lent and to the cross where He, the God-man, makes that perfect, once for all sacrifice for the sin of the world. There we recognize that on the cross is a true man, one of us, and thus our Substitute—for He is true man born of Mary; but He is not just any man but the God-man. And because it was God, the Son, who died on the cross, His suffering and death has infinite worth and value for the sins of all. Here is our great comfort and the certainty of the forgiveness of our sin. Our text is a great Epiphany—that ordinary boy is the very God Himself.
1. By its very nature, Epiphany is a glorious and also a mysterious season because it has two things side by side that don’t seem to belong together—but they really do; especially in the Epiphany season, we have the ordinary/ seemingly mundane side by side with the miraculous/ extraordinary. And the miraculous/ extraordinary sheds light on, shines on the ordinary and reveals the true glory, dignity, majesty in what is seemingly ordinary. And that’s precisely what we have in our text of the 12 year old boy Jesus in the temple.
In our text, we have a seemingly ordinary boy in ordinary life. Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they were returning, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey, and were thoroughly searching for Him among their relatives and acquaintances.
What is reported is seemingly nothing extraordinary. Although it was only required of the Jewish males to go to Jerusalem, here we read that going to Jerusalem for the Passover was something that the Holy Family did every year, showing the piety and love for the Lord in the home in which God entrusted His Son. That’s a bit of a glimpse into the life of Jesus as He was growing up in Nazareth, the only glimpse into His growing up years; the first account from Jesus’ life after the flight into Egypt and His return.
In our account, we have a normal event from Jesus’ growing up years—going to Jerusalem for the Passover. As people would travel in groups of relatives and from the same village, there was a large caravan going back to Nazareth. Like so many years before, Jesus being a true little boy would be with the other boys. So it was not a surprise that He would not be walking lock step with Mary and Joseph back to Nazareth. Like so many times before, Mary and Joseph figured He was probably with other boys or with other relatives or villagers. It was not surprising that Jesus was “discovered missing” at the rendezvous point at the end of the first day.
What we learn here is that Jesus truly was a real little boy who grew up and was like any other boy; what we learn here is part of that great mystery of Jesus—He is true man, a true human being like any one of us. There is nothing mentioned in Scripture of Jesus’ growing up in the decade or so before this event—because there was simply nothing to report. In the same way there was nothing to report for about 18 years after this event, as we read at the end of our text: Then Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in grace with God and men.
But just because there was seemingly nothing extraordinary to report in these years does not mean that there was nothing Jesus was doing in His work as Savior. All throughout His earthly life Jesus was each day keeping God’s just and holy Law for us in our place. As true man, Jesus is our Substitute: since we can’t keep God’s holy Law—which He gave people to keep—Jesus in every stage of human life went about and fulfilled every little part of it, just as God requires, for us. In order that we be saved from our sin, God’s holy Law has to be kept. Since we can’t do it, Jesus did it for us. That’s part of His work as our Savior.
So again, our great comfort is that Jesus is true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, born to be our Savior—and He was carrying out that work all throughout His life. Even and precisely in the day in/ day out life that the Holy Spirit did not see fit to record the events of, Jesus was keeping/ fulfilling/ doing God’s holy Law for us. There is not a stage of human life that Jesus did not go through and live without sin for us. He did that already in the womb, as a youth, as a young man and as an adult—from the womb to the tomb.
Our great comfort— even in the “silent years” of Jesus’ growing up—is that every single temptation and sin we fall prey to, Jesus didn’t! He overcame that temptation and rendered for us the perfect keeping of God’s Holy Law. That’s why we can have the forgiveness of sins; that’s why the absolution can be pronounced—God’s holy Law/ will, which He demands we keep, has been kept.
But if Jesus was just an ordinary boy who grew up to be an ordinary man, He could not be our Savior. Here in our text is the epiphany—that boy Jesus is not just an ordinary boy but the very God Himself. So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I were anxiously seeking You." And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that it is necessary that I be about My Father's business?"
The epiphany showing just Who Jesus is, comes in the words: sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed. At age 12, when instruction and training in the Law began for Jewish boys, the boy Jesus already showed extraordinary spiritual knowledge and wisdom. So what does this mean? To be sure, Jesus grew up in a godly house, but there’s more to it. Because of His sinlessness, because unlike the rest of us, Jesus was conceived and born without the corruption of original sin, the disturbing and destructive influence of sin were not there; His human nature had greater natural gifts like wisdom. So the “epiphany” in these verses is that Jesus is sinless.
But it goes beyond that! Why is Jesus sinless? He is sinless because He is the very God Himself, the Son, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity who took on human flesh and blood, becoming also true man—the God-man. By His listening and His questioning Jesus shows His divine majesty; He could do so during His earthly life when and where He willed. That’s the epiphany: the seemingly ordinary boy Jesus is actually the very God Himself. Jesus makes it crystal clear beyond any shadow of a doubt when He corrects His mother: "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that it is necessary that I be about My Father's business?" These very first recorded words of our Lord show Him to know fully Who He is—the very Son of God. He doesn’t just call God “our Father” but My Father. He raised Himself far above all human relations and as the only-begotten Son called God His Father.
Not only did Jesus know Who He is—and reveal it here—but He also reveals here that He had a mission and He knew what it was and His love for sinners impelled Him in it: My Father's business. What a glorious Epiphany our Lord Jesus here makes: this ordinary boy is really the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Here is something truly extraordinary/ miraculous in the ordinary!
But again, because it is ordinary we easily forget or don’t grasp in the first place. Our text: But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them…but His mother was guarding all these things in her heart. Mary and Joseph’s daily contact with Jesus led them to seem to forget the miraculous events surrounding His birth—the angel’s announcements to them; the report of the shepherds; the prophecy of Simeon and Anna in the temple; the report and coming of the wise men.
Dear Christian, so many spiritual enemies are arrayed against us. That means it is vital above all that we do not forget Who Jesus is—the God-man Who is our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. It is vital that we neither forget Christmas—the birth of Jesus, that He is true man—nor what we hear about Jesus in Epiphany, that He is true God. The day in/ day out lives we live will often divert our attention, drown out the divine mysteries we hear, cause us to put them “on the back burner.”
On top of that, often what we hear in church/ Scripture is difficult to understand and contrary to reason. We often have a weak understanding of the great mystery of the Person of Jesus—that He is both true, 100% God and true 100% man. Let us follow Mary’s example here in our daily lives: His mother was guarding all these things in her heart. She kept pondering them, mulling them over, not letting anyone or anything take them from her. She was working toward a better knowledge and a deeper insight into these mysteries. As we ponder the mysteries, let us remember that in holy Scripture the Lord has given us all we need to know and believe. There is enough there to treasure and ponder and glorify the Lord for throughout our lives. Let us never throw up our hands thinking Scripture is too hard to understand, or, even worse, think we know it all and not search and study it. Instead, like Mary, let us guard in our heart all that Scripture reveals of Jesus and our salvation. For as we ponder that word, the Lord, in grace, by His Holy Spirit, will grant us epiphany after epiphany and lead us step by step into the fullness of truth. INJ Amen.