Fix Your Eyes on the Boy Jesus

How ordinary the childhood of Jesus must have been, although in many ways it’s hard to imagine.  He was a real Boy, and yet He was also the sinless Son of God, and none of us know any other little boys like that!  Even so, He had His friends and relatives and peers.  No doubt He played with toys, perhaps little wooden carts and creatures that His father Joseph might have crafted for Him.  He would have run and jumped and climbed and thrown things, because that is what boys do.  As the one true God in the Flesh, He lived the life of true Man from infancy to boyhood to adulthood.

He got dirty in the course of His days, just like you and your children.  He had to bathe His Body and wash His hands before meals.  He ate and drank.  As a little Guy He would have taken naps, and even as an older Boy He had to sleep at night.  He probably had a bedtime.  And during the day He did His chores, He studied His lessons.  He was taught things, and He learned.  He grew.

It’s not unusual to think of Jesus’ “birthday,” even as we celebrate His Holy Nativity every year.  But just think, His birthdays then meant that He was getting older, just like you.  He grew out of infancy.  He was weaned from nursing at His Mother’s breast to eating big boy food at the table.  At some point He was potty-trained.  So the very Son of God grew up, like any other ordinary boy.

He was a little Child in the midst of His people, experiencing the bump and grind and cut and thrust of daily life with all of its ups and downs and ins and outs.

Now, bear in mind that rearing the sinless Son of God was not easy.  Dr. Luther calls it a burden and a cross.  There were frustrations and anxieties, restless nights, and at least one frantic search.  And dear fellow parents, consider that, at least in the case of the little Lord Jesus, those worries, frustrations, and concerns were not due to any sins of the Child but to the sins and weaknesses of His earthly parents.  And so also with your children.  Though they are not sinless, neither are you.

So fix your eyes on this Boy Jesus, for He is your childhood’s pattern, the very Image and Likeness of God in which you have been created.  He actually lives the divine Life in His own human Flesh, the true human life as Man was created to live, as you are called to live in your own place.

Your duty as a child is to honor your father and mother through all the stages of life.  The keeping of the Fourth Commandment changes when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, when a woman is given in marriage to her husband.  But the Commandment still remains.  Whatever your age, you are to honor your father and mother.  And when they are old and infirm, or when they have forgotten most things, you are then to care for them as they once cared for you.

And when your own parents have departed from this life on earth, then you have the privilege and the opportunity to care for other elderly and infirm neighbors, especially within the Body of Christ.

Your duty as a parent, if you are a parent, is to care for and catechize your children in the fear, love, and trust of God, in His Word and faith.  So St. Joseph did for his family as the Prophet Samuel’s father did for his family.  He took them to church.  He brought his wife, St. Mary, and the Boy Jesus to hear the Word of God and to celebrate the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem.

Fathers and mothers are to care for their children in all kinds of ways, to feed and clothe them, to shelter and protect them, to teach them and train them.  And along with all of these good things, above all they are to catechize them in the Word of God, to teach them by word and example how to pray and confess His Word, and faithfully to hear and receive His good Gifts of the Gospel.

Likewise, whether you have children or not, your first and foremost duty as a Christian, as a child of God, yourself, is to listen to the preaching of His Word, to gladly hear and learn it.  For faith not only comes by the hearing of the Word of Christ, but so is it sustained and nourished by His Word.

Then, also, as a child of God, you are called to live a holy life according to His Word.  To worship Him in faith and love.  To fear, love, and trust in Him above everything else, no matter how much or how little you have in this world.  To confess what the Father has spoken to you by His Son.  And to call upon His Holy Name at all times and in all places, to pray, praise, and give thanks for all that He has said and done.  To go up to His Feast each week, and to live in the joy and peace of that Feast wherever the Lord has stationed you on earth; to love and serve your neighbor in that place, as surely as you care for your own body and life; and to forgive those who sin against you.

In all of this, fix your eyes on the Boy Jesus, and do not lose sight of Him in any of your activities.  For one thing, you ought to follow His example.  He is certainly far more than an example, but He is an example, as St. Peter writes in his First Epistle.  So, follow His example.  Not so much “What Would Jesus Do?” (in all sorts of situations He never encountered), but “What Did Jesus Do?”

For one thing, as you have heard this morning, He went to church.  He listened attentively to the Holy Scriptures.  He asked His pastors and teachers questions, and He listened to their answers, engaging them in conversation and discussion as a way of learning to know the Word of God.

He also honored His father and mother.  He submitted to their parental authority, even though they were sinful and He was not, because He followed and obeyed the Fourth Commandment.

Follow His example in these ways, and fix your eyes on Him — all the more so because He is far more than just an example.  Indeed, He is your dear Savior, in whom alone you have Life with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, that you know the Mysteries of God, His good and gracious Will for you.  It is in Him that God is your dear Father, and you are His dear child.  And it is through Him that you receive the Holy Spirit, the Life-giving Breath of God, the Pledge of your inheritance as a son of God in Christ Jesus.  Baptized in His Name, anointed with His Spirit, adopted by His God and Father, as Laura has been this morning, you belong to the Lord your God; you are His own, and He is with you, and in you, and for you.

It is in Christ Jesus that you live before God in the flesh, even now in your pilgrimage on earth, holy and blameless, righteous and pure in His sight.  You live a sinless life — shocking as that may sound — despite the fact that you daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment — because you live in Christ Jesus by faith in His Gospel, and His Righteousness avails for you.  Your sins are covered by His holy and precious Blood.  The Lord your God is at peace with you.

Remember that, and cling to that, when you find yourself in dire straits and desperate trouble — when you have done wrong, and when others have wronged you — when everything is crashing and burning around you.  Even then, your life is (and remains) safely hidden with Christ in God.

Christ Jesus is the Ark of the New Covenant.  His own Body of flesh and blood, conceived and born of St. Mary, crucified and risen from the dead, is the true and eternal Temple of God, wherein the Grace and Glory and Name of God abide with you and all His people here on earth.  And He is both your Priest and your King, the true Son of David, the true King of Peace.  He is the Whole Burnt Offering and the Peace Offering, the Sacrifice for your Atonement and your reconciliation with God and with each other.  For He is the true Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for you.

This dear Lord Jesus Christ gives you His own divine, eternal Life in both your body and your soul.  And as such, He gives meaning and purpose to your body and life here on earth, even now.

Fix your eyes on Him, therefore, and stay with Him.  Keep Him with you in all of your going out and coming in.  Abide with Him, as He abides with you, within the Temple of His Church on earth.

Too easily you depart from the Feast and return to your chores and regular routines, leaving Christ Jesus behind you — and not even realizing that you’ve done so!  He hasn’t left you, but you have left Him in the preoccupation of all your worries and concerns, projects and ambitions, as you turn your attention and your energies away from Him and His Word to other things.  You go along with the crowd, and how quickly a day — a week, a month, a year — goes by without a thought of Him.

Eventually you realize that something is terribly wrong.  Your life may be full and busy, hectic and overwhelming, and yet there is this deep lack, this gaping hole, this hollow emptiness.  And there is the distress and anxiety of duties you have neglected — promises and obligations you have not kept or fulfilled — friends and neighbors you have forgotten and failed to help — and your own family, missing you because you’re always gone even when you’re there, and you missing them.

But what’s really missing at the core of all of your troubles is Christ Jesus.  So, where do you go looking for Him?  Typically, according to your sinful nature and the wisdom of the world, you go looking for Him, His Life and Salvation, in all the wrong ways and in all the wrong places — in the ways of the world and your fallen flesh, in that which is already friendly and familiar to you.

With misguided zeal, you make a false god out of your family and friends and out of your own frantic efforts at life, all the while dying inside and becoming more and more anxious and afraid.

For all of that, it is the Lord who seeks you out and finds you and calls you back to Himself by His Word and Holy Spirit, by the preaching of repentance unto faith in His forgiveness of your sins.  He calls you back to the significance of your Holy Baptism, to the Temple of His Holy Church.

It is in His House and in His Word that the Lord Jesus is actively present, with you and for you.  And it’s not for you to fetch Him back to yourself, but He brings you home to His God and Father.

Remember that He has lived His divine Life in your flesh, and that He has also lived your human life in His own Flesh and Blood.  The almighty and eternal Son of God, from His conception in His blessed Mother’s womb, grew and increased through all the stages of human development.

Not only did His Body grow, but He got smarter and wiser.  He listened carefully, and He learned things.  In fact, He grew up and matured in all things, in favor with God and man, in holy faith and holy love.  He heard and availed Himself of the Word of God! — He who is the very Word of God in Person and in the Flesh.  He went up to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to the Feast.  And there, in the fullness of time, when His Hour had come, by His sacrificial death upon the Cross He became the Temple of God and the Passover Feast for you and for all the people of all times and places.

Through death into life, by His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension, He has entered the Father’s House, that is, the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens.  Indeed, He is your Anchor behind the Veil.  As your merciful and great High Priest, He has entered the Holy of Holies on your behalf, and there He is your Anchor; so that, no matter how you’re tossed about by winds and waves and all the storms of this life, you’re anchored to Christ Jesus in the presence of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ has entered the Holy of Holies; and that is now your “childhood pattern,” the Way in which you live and walk with Him by His grace through faith in His Word.

You know the Way, because He is the Way.  And you know where and how to find Him, because He calls you by His Word and Holy Spirit; He calls you to Himself, and He reveals and gives Himself to you — here within His House — by and with and in His Liturgy of the Gospel.

Yet, even so, He  knows that you are sinful, that your mortal flesh grows weak and weary, and that you will lose sight of Him and lose yourself in all the cares and occupations of this life.  Therefore, in His great love for you — which is the true wisdom, grace, and glory of God — He tabernacles with you on the way.  For you, as for Laura, His Baptism remains and avails for you, wherever in the world you may be.  And His Flesh and Blood, given and poured out for you to eat and to drink here at His Altar in His House, accompany you within your own body of flesh and blood.

In all your going out and coming in, from the day of your Baptism in His Name, yes, from before the foundation of the world, from this time forth, even forevermore, He goes with you all the way — unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul in Him.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Finding the Son in the Father's House

One of the most remarkable things about being a parent is watching the children grow and develop, as they learn to walk and talk, as they get taller and stronger, as they add to their knowledge and understanding, and as they increase in wisdom and maturity.  Even as you watch it happening over the course of weeks and months and years, it is both delightful and breathtaking; and then, as you look back, you wonder how they “suddenly” went from where they were to where they are now.

We have something of that sense in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ on this Second Sunday of Christmas, as we have gone from His circumcision to His “Bar-Mitzvah” in just a few days.  And whereas we are accustomed to the familiar images of the Christ Child in the manger or nestled in the arms of His Mother, we have really only this one Gospel story from His subsequent childhood.  But of course, for Mary and Joseph, and for Jesus Himself, those thirty years or so between His Holy Nativity and His Holy Baptism were not incidental, inconsequential, or insignificant.

Indeed, the great Mystery of the Incarnation — that God became Man, the Word became Flesh — that the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God was conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becoming flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, in order to be our Savior — that is no less awesome and amazing in His adolescence than it is in His conception, birth, and circumcision.

The incarnate Son of God was not only a little Baby, but He also grew, He got bigger and taller, stronger and faster.  His hair and arms and legs got longer, and as a young man His muscles began to fill out, His shoulders widened, His voice changed and deepened.  All of that may seem normal enough, because you already know that He went from a Babe in arms to the Man on the Cross, and that didn’t happen over night but over several decades.  But along with the growth of His Body from infancy to adulthood, there was also the growth and development of His mind over time.  He learned things.  He asked questions, and He listened to the answers.  He got smarter and wiser, and He interacted with the world around Him with increasing insight and understanding.  And while that is remarkable in the case of any child, it is all the more remarkable in the case of this Child.

That God the Son became true Man means that He did not simply pop into existence, but He took human life from its very inception and made it His own; He lived and grew through all its stages from the womb to His tomb.  Cell by cell He got bigger within the body of His Mother, and so also from His birth into His teen years and beyond.  He laughed and played, He ran and jumped and climbed things.  He learned to eat new foods.  He went to school.  His mind expanded.  His abilities increased.  His skills were sharpened.  “He grew in wisdom and in stature.”

Jesus wasn’t goofing off or playing games with the teachers in the Temple when He engaged them in conversation.  He was gladly hearing and learning the Word of God, just as you are given to do.  For He has taken your human nature to be His own, and so has He lived your human life, as well, save only without sin.  He has lived as the true Man, that you might live the divine Life in Him.

To live and grow, to learn and develop belongs to the goodness of life as a creature of God, and the almighty and eternal Son has made that His own as the Image and Likeness of His God and Father in human Flesh and Blood.  But He also took upon Himself the curse and consequences of sin, the circumstances and conditions of fallen man, subject not only to growth and change but to injury, illness, infirmity, and death.  He made Himself, not only truly human, but vulnerable and mortal.

He has done so, bearing your sin and death in His Body, in order to sacrifice Himself in your place, for all of your sins; that He should become the Sacrifice of Propitiation, not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  For He is not only the Son of God and the true Man, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who gives Himself as your Meat and Drink indeed.

So it is that your reconciliation with God, your redemption, and your righteousness are in Christ Jesus.  In Him you have divine Life and eternal Salvation.  Apart from Him, you have only death.

How, then, shall you hang on to the Lord Jesus and not lose sight of Him?  By what wisdom shall you grow and abide in Him, that you may have true and lasting Life in and with Him?  And if you are a parent, how shall you secure Him for your children?  That is the single most important thing you are given to do as a father or mother — to secure Christ Jesus for your sons and daughters, from their infancy through each stage of development.  How shall you not lose Jesus to yourself and to your children, so that you and they shall not be lost forever under the curse of sin and death?

You have a good example, to begin with, in St. Mary and St. Joseph, who faithfully went up to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Feast of the Passover in accordance with the Law of the Lord.  They were pious and faithful.  They went to church, to say it simply, and they took the Boy Jesus with them.  They went to hear and learn the Word of God in the fellowship of His people Israel.

Parents, that is how you keep from losing Jesus for yourself and for your children.  You go to the House of the Lord.  You give attention to His Word and the preaching of it.  You see to it that you and your family call upon the Name of the Lord in the fellowship of His Holy Christian Church.

By the same token, note that even such faithful and pious parents as Mary and Joseph managed to leave the Lord Jesus behind and to lose Him, simply by going on their way without Him.  Heed the warning of that example, and guard your heart, mind, body, and life against such temptations and dangers.  Do not leave the Lord Jesus behind as you return from here to your everyday routines.

The problem is usually not found in your activities per se.  After all, you have your responsibilities, your God-given callings and stations in life to serve and carry out — and it is quite right that you should do so.  But take Christ Jesus with you by the prayer and confession of His Word.  And when your activities distract your heart and mind from Him and His Word, Repent: Turn back around.

That’s what Mary and Joseph finally had to do.  After a day of fruitless searching among all those things that were so familiar to them, they had to turn around and go back to Jerusalem.  And in that you are given a picture of what your own repentance and return to faith in Christ will look like.

To begin with, when you first realize that He is missing — when you finally notice the big hole in your life where the Lord Jesus ought to be — then what anxiety and what dread settle upon your heart.  In many cases, you probably can’t even identify what’s wrong; but even so, when Jesus is missing from your life, then everything is utterly out of sorts.  You might even be doing all the right things, and yet they’re still all wrong.  If you have not held on to Jesus, then you have lost what is most important, most necessary and essential to both your body and your soul and to all of life.

So you start looking, and you search for what is missing, but just like Mary and Joseph at first, you look in all the wrong places, in all the wrong ways.  You suppose that you will find Jesus among your family and friends, in that which is comfortable and familiar to you.  Even if it’s not “Jesus” that you think you’re looking for, you attempt to find and make a life for yourself in those things and in those places; whereas you’ll have no true or lasting life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

You’ll not find life with God in your family or among your friends apart from Christ Jesus.  You’ll not find life with God in your job, in your hobbies and pastimes, or on vacation, if the Lord Jesus is not with you.  When Jesus is missing, you’re as good as dead, and He’s as good as dead to you.

But His Resurrection from the dead — on the Third Day — His Resurrection for you and yours — is in His Father’s House, in His Church, in His Word, in the hearing of the Word of God in Christ.

That’s the sort of heart that Solomon prayed for, and that God gave to Him by His grace.  English translations generally refer to a “discerning” heart, but the text actually says that he prayed for a “hearing” heart, that is, a heart that listens and gives attention to the Word and wisdom of God, which is the root of all true discernment.  It is when your heart hears the Word of the Lord that your heart is faithful, and trusting, and loves God, and obeys His commands, and lives by His grace.

It is in the hearing of the Word of Christ that you find Jesus, because it is by and with His Word that He finds you.  And you hear the Word of Christ in His Church, in the preaching and Ministry of His Gospel.  That is where you find Him; because, again, that is where and how He finds you.

And you should already know that, because the Lord your God has taught you and trained you to find the Son in the Father’s House.  Indeed, that lesson is at the very heart of the Passover Feast.

You know the story of the Exodus from Egypt, how the Angel of Death went throughout the land, but each of the fathers was instructed to take a lamb and sacrifice it, to put the blood of the lamb upon the door, and to feed his family with the flesh of the lamb, because it was the Lord’s Passover, and He would spare the sons of Israel and bring His people out of Egypt.  The sons of Israel were safe when each of them was in the home of his father, in the home where the lamb was sacrificed in place of the firstborn son, and eaten by the family in fellowship with the Lord and with each other.  That’s where and how the sons of Israel were kept alive, and preserved, and safe from death.

So, the Boy Jesus is exactly right, of course.  He is found precisely where He ought to be, that is, in His Father’s House.  So should Mary and Joseph have known and expected from the Passover.

Indeed, all of God’s people are to be found within their Father’s House — where the Lamb who has been sacrificed is found — where the Flesh and Blood of that same Lamb are given and poured out for the Household and Family of God in holy fellowship with Him and all His dear children.

What God did in the first Passover for the households and families of Israel in Egypt, what fathers did according to the Word of the Lord for their own households and families on that occasion, God did for the whole household and family of Israel in King Solomon’s building of the Temple in Jerusalem, where year after year the Passover lambs were sacrificed for the keeping of the Feast.  It was for this very purpose that Mary and Joseph took the Boy Jesus up to Jerusalem every year.

But now, in this Boy, the Lord has provided for Himself the one Lamb who is given in the place of all the sons of Israel — and for all the children of man, for all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  He is the true Passover Lamb of God, who is sacrificed for the redemption of His people.

Where He is found, therefore, is in His Father’s House.  That is where the Flesh and Blood of this true Lamb are given and poured out for you and for all the children of God to eat and to drink in the Holy Communion.  That is where you and your children are to be.

This one Lord Jesus Christ is the true Solomon, the true Son of David, the true King of Peace, who has established the true Temple of God in the true Jerusalem, that is to say, His Holy Church, the place where His Word is spoken and His Body and Blood are administered according to His Word.

It is here in that House of God, in His Church on earth, that His Flesh is given to feed you unto Life and Salvation.  It is here that His Blood covers you from sin and death, and protects you from the devil and hell.  It is here in His House that you find Him.  It is here in His House that He finds you.

So this is where you and your children belong.  This is your true home, and this is your true family.  This is your Father’s House, wherein your anxious heart and troubled mind find Peace and Sabbath Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Brother in the flesh, who has been sacrificed for your sins and raised for your justification.  It is here that you are raised up with Him from the fear of death to faith and life with His God and Father, who is now your God and Father.

It is here within His House that the grace of God is upon you, in such a way that you can live — and not just go about your activities, and go about your days and weeks and months and years, and go through the motions of your relentless routines, but you can actually live and learn and grow and thrive.  In your callings and stations, in your home and family, even at play, you can live and thrive and grow to and from this House — to and from this Altar, where the true Lamb is given to you as Meat and Drink indeed.  It is in Him that the grace of God is upon you.  And He shall not abandon you.  If you lose Him, He shall not lose or let go of you, but by His grace He seeks you out and calls you always back to His Father’s House, which is your own house and home forever in Him.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Seek the Lord Where He May Be Found

We have only this one story from the time of our dear Lord’s childhood between His Holy Nativity and His Holy Baptism.  But if it is at all typical of those years, then we must agree with Dr. Luther that rearing the sinless Son of God was a Cross for St. Mary and St. Joseph to bear!  So is it often the case that your greatest honor and blessing can also be among your heaviest burdens, as well.

On this occasion St. Mary is reminded that her precious and precocious young Son belongs not to her but to His Father in heaven.  That is uniquely true in the case of her Son, to be sure.  But do you not also pray that it would be so for your children, as well, that they should be the Lord’s.  And yet, you must also be prepared, along with dear St. Mary, for the burden of that blessing, which is indeed granted to you and your children through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Mary’s Son.

Today, as you can well imagine, there is the Cross in Mary’s sorrow and anxiety over her missing twelve-year-old Boy.  In the first place, there is the normal anxiety of any parent over a lost child.  For those three days of anxious searching, increasingly fearing the worst, it is as though He were dead — until He is finally “raised again” for Mary and Joseph when they find Him in the Temple.

They find Him on “the Third Day,” which is by no means a minor detail of chronology, nor merely a coincidence.  In the Holy Gospels, “the Third Day” is always the Day of the Resurrection.  But there is first of all the Cross and the tomb.  It is likewise often the case that God allows you to wait and “hunger” for a while, before He reveals and gives Himself to you within His Church of the Gospel-Word and Sacraments.  And then it is for you the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the death of His Cross — and it is your own resurrection from the dead in Him — on the Third Day!

In the specific case of this Holy Gospel, there is also the additional anxiety that St. Mary must have felt in view of her responsibility for the very Son of God, her Lord, the Messiah.  Salvation itself — not only for St. Mary, but for all the world — suddenly seemed to be at stake and in jeopardy, all because of her failure to keep the Lord Jesus in her sights and to hang on to Him.  And it is certain that, if salvation really did depend upon St. Mary, or any of us, then all would be lost!

Adding insult to injury, there is the guilt that descends upon you and accuses your conscience when things go wrong, because you know that you have failed in your duties and responsibilities, and that you have failed to keep the Lord Jesus in your sights and to hang on to Him for dear life.

Like Mary and Joseph then, you may suppose you know where Jesus is.  In the hustle and bustle of a your hectic life, you simply assume that He is there, too, in the midst of all your busyness.  And so long as things appear to be going smoothly, you see no reason to worry.  But when you turn your back and leave the Church and the Word of God behind, you are not with Christ Jesus, and you do not know where He is.  Yet, at first, you may not even realize that you are without Him.

When you are then confronted with the reality of your situation — perhaps by some tragedy, or sadness, or hardship, or sin — perhaps by the fear and panic of a lost or missing child — then, because your fallen and perishing flesh is subject to the accusation and condemnation of the Law, and you are prone to evaluate your place on the basis of your own works and achievements, you wonder if God has now written you off and given up on you.  Along the same lines, St. Mary also may have wondered — as she frantically searched for her Jesus — whether God the Father would now decide that she was no longer worthy or responsible enough to care for His incarnate Son.

That is what your guilt and shame will do to you.  It is one of Satan’s most powerful and effective tools, leading you away from faith and confidence in the gracious mercy and forgiveness of your dear Lord Jesus Christ to the doubt and despair of your own works and your own righteousness — which is to be cast upon the hopeless misery of sin, death, and hell.  And at that point, because you are already set upon the wrong track, you go about looking for Jesus in all the wrong ways.

That is what happened with Mary and Joseph, when they finally discovered His absence and set about trying to find Him.  They started out looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.  They sought Him in what was already comfortable and familiar to them.  They expected to locate Him among their family and friends.  But in all of that, they kept on coming up empty.  And so also for you.  Those are not the places where Christ Jesus is present for you.  That is not where He is to be found.  But how often don’t you attempt to find the Lord Jesus in all the “wrong places” of your own life?

In fact, the answer to St. Mary’s sorrow, anxiety, and guilt is not discovered in her own striving, no matter how earnest and well-intentioned it might be.  The answer is found only in Christ Jesus.  There is no peace or rest at all without Him.  And He is found only in the Temple of His Church, in the hearing of His Word — where you are likewise granted to seek and to find the Lord Jesus.

“Why is it that you are seeking Me?”  That is the question that Jesus poses this morning.  But it is a rhetorical question.  To whom else shall you go?  The Lord Jesus alone has the Word of Life!

To begin with, today there is the example of Jesus Himself — living your life in the flesh, as you must live in Him — remaining in the Temple of His Church, even when His nearest and dearest kin have left.  So must you remain and abide with Him, even if everyone else might go away.

There is also the lesson to be learned and taken to heart, that St. Mary and St. Joseph find the Lord Jesus, and they find all of their answers in Him, only when they have returned to His Church in Jerusalem and look for Him there, that is, in His Temple, in the speaking and hearing of His Word.

To reiterate this absolutely crucial point, the Lord Jesus is not found among the relatives and acquaintances, but in the Temple, in the Lord’s House, in the City of God.  For you now, in the New Testament, it is Christ Jesus Himself who has actually become the new, divine, and eternal Temple of God in His own Body, crucified and risen.  He is found, therefore, in the Temple of His Church on earth, in the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Flesh and Blood.

So it is that you are here called to follow the example of the sinless, almighty, all-knowing Son of God, who humbled Himself to sit at the feet of His teachers and pastors, in order to hear and learn His own Word from them.  He likewise submitted Himself in obedience to His earthly parents, to His Mother Mary and His Guardian Joseph.  He kept the Third and Fourth Commandments in holy faith and holy love.  And you no less are also called to humble yourself and submit to those authorities whom God the Lord has placed over you in this body and life on earth, and to hear and learn His Word from those teachers and pastors whom He has placed over you within His Church.

Now, it will always be the case that those who hear the Word of Christ Jesus — who seek and find Him in His Church — must be astonished and amazed by Him and His Word.  For the Lord is so very different from all the standards and expectations of the world and your own sinful reason.  Truth be told, His divine and holy Wisdom is foolishness to you and all the world around you.

So, then, what is it that you hear and receive from the Word of the Lord in this Holy Gospel?

First of all, you are taught to know the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is and what He does for you.  And then you are also taught what this means for you and your children in living the Christian life.

Every Pastor is asked, just as St. John the Baptist, Christ Jesus, and the Holy Apostles were asked, “What should we do?”  Certainly, as a Christian you know that you ought to be doing something to serve the Lord, His Church, and your neighbors in the world.  And the answer to the question is once more found in Jesus.  Indeed, you have His own example here for you and your children.

Simply put, you have the example of the Lord’s own obedience to the Ten Commandments — to the First, Third, and Fourth, in particular, which bid you to hear and heed the Word of God from both your pastors and your parents, and to fear, love, and trust in the Lord above everything else.

In this light, therefore, the first and most important answer to the question, “What should we do?” is one that contradicts the inclinations of your sinful heart, which otherwise assumes that you must do something for God or give something to Him in order to obtain His favor.  But, no, in absolute contrast to such reasoning, the answer is that you must listen to His Word and hear what He has to say; that you are to seek and pray for all things from Him, by grace alone, through faith in His Word; and that you are to receive His good and gracious gifts with thanksgiving.  It’s not what you do or give or say to Him that matters, first of all, but what He does and gives and says to you.

All of which is to say (as Christ Jesus Himself demonstrates for you today) that the most essential thing you are given to be doing as a child of God is to be in His House, hearing His Word, and receiving the Holy Sacrament of His incarnate Son.  That is where and how you will find Him and all the answers that you need — in the Holy Temple of His Church, in His own flesh and blood.

As Jesus says, “Do you not know that it is divinely necessary for Me to be in My Father’s House?”  Or, as some English translations legitimately put it, “to be about My Father’s business.”

Here again is the implicit recognition, first of all, that you and your children belong to God.  And as such, there is a divine necessity that you and your children must also be about the business of your Father in heaven — that is, to be in His House, in His Word, in the Body of His Son.

To parents is thus given the additional responsibility, not only to hear and heed the Word of the Lord for themselves, but also to bring their children to the Temple of His Church, where they too may hear and learn His Word and receive His gifts.  And as the Temple in Jerusalem has been replaced by the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, and His Body is the Holy Church, parents bring their children to the Temple first of all through Holy Baptism — wherein they are buried with Christ in His death and raised in His Resurrection.  In this way parents “lose” their children in the Temple, they entrust them to their own God and Father in heaven.  Of course, parents still have the responsibility to rear their children in the fear and faith of God, to feed and clothe and otherwise care for them in wisdom and stature.  But they must also leave them in the Temple to be about their Father’s business — which is to say, to be hearing His Word and receiving His Word-made-Flesh.

In this alone is found their forgiveness and life and salvation — because of the divine necessity that Jesus Christ from Nazareth, in particular, had to be about His Father’s business, that is, to give Himself over completely to God on behalf of sinners, and to humble Himself as a Servant even unto the death of His Cross.  In those divine works, you are not called to follow His example but simply to receive, along with your children, the gifts and benefits of His Cross and Resurrection.

And from His Cross and Resurrection, you may best follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary in faith and love, as St. Luke has portrayed her in his Holy Gospel.  For by the grace of God she sought and found the dear Lord Jesus in the Temple, in His Word.  And having thus received Him in and with His Word, she kept Him close to her and pondered His Word as a treasure in her heart.  You also are given His Word — the Word of His Gospel, and the Word-made-Flesh in the Feast of His Body and Blood.  For Christ, our true Passover, has been sacrificed.  He is your Temple and your great High Priest, in whom you have all peace and joy and the Life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Living as a Son in the House of the Father

We know that, as an adult, zeal for His Father’s House will consume Him.  Then He’ll roll up His sleeves and cleanse the Temple of all attempted righteousness by works, and of all the buying and selling of indulgences.  And after that He’ll bare His holy arms again, and stretch them out, and sacrifice His Body and Life upon the Cross, in the confidence that His Father will raise Him from the dead.  So will His own Body become the Temple of the Living God for you and for all people.

All of these things He has done and accomplished.  So you have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight as you hear this story of the twelve-year-old Boy Jesus in the Temple.  In that respect, you know more now than He did then.  For in a mysterious way that we can hardly fathom, He grew and increased in wisdom: He listened to His teachers, and He learned from them as from His parents.

The little Lord Jesus was catechized by and with the Word of God and prayer in His family’s home and in the liturgical life of Israel, just as you and your children are catechized.  He asked questions in order to learn, to make progress in His knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.

Of course, He is the very Word of God made Flesh, and He possesses at all times the holy Wisdom that begins and continues with the fear of the Lord.  And yet, He lives a truly human life in the flesh.  He lives the life that you and your children have been created to live, which flows with and from the hearing of the Word of the Lord.  It is a life that is lived always to and from the Temple.

The Word of God became flesh, conceived and born of St. Mary, in order that His own Body should become the Temple of God by the way of His Cross and Resurrection.  To that end, He lives and fulfills your own childhood pattern in His upward journey to the Father on your behalf.

Which means that Mary and Joseph catechized the truly human Son of God entrusted to their care.  They did for Him what your parents have done for you, and what you parents are called and commanded to do for your children.  Not only did they feed and clothe His Body and teach Him what He would need to know for temporal life in this world.  They also taught Him the Bible; they took Him to church; they brought Him to see His pastors; they prayed and worshiped with Him.

St. Mary and St. Joseph weren’t perfect.  They were righteous and holy by the grace of God, by faith in His Gospel.  But, like you, they made mistakes.  They got frustrated, worried, scared, and impatient.  They were astonished by their Son, and they did not always understand Him.  Yet, they lived within their calling to be His parents.  So they taught Him, and He learned from them.

So did He increase in His knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

And so did the Lord Jesus also learn from the Feast of the Passover, to which His parents brought Him faithfully each year.  He learned that every firstborn male is the Lord’s.  In truth, all of God’s people are His own children; He has not only created them but has redeemed them for Himself. Nevertheless, the firstborn sons are His in a pointed and particular way.  For the firstborn sons of Israel were spared in the Exodus, when the Passover Lamb was put to death in their place.

Thus, as we have heard this past Sunday, the infant Christ Child was presented to the Lord in the Temple when He was six weeks old, according to the Law of the Lord, because He was the firstborn Son of His Mother Mary.  He was consecrated to the Lord, His God and Father.  His Body and Life were dedicated to holy service.

And now He knows, at the age of twelve, that sons belong in their Father’s House at the Passover.  For that is what the Feast requires.  And He has listened to the rites and ceremonies of that sacred Feast.  He has learned from the Liturgy.  He has taken the Word and promises of God to heart.

He belongs in the Temple, as a Son at His Father’s Table.  And in time, when His Hour has come, He will Himself be the Lamb that His Father gives for the entire Household and Family of God.

Which is why, dear child of God, that you also belong here in your Father’s House, gathered here around His Table, no matter how “grown up” you may be (or think you are).  You belong to the Holy Family of God, and the Lamb who has lived your life has also been sacrificed for you.

Therefore, let us keep the Feast to which the Lord invites us.  For here in His Body is the Temple of your own dear God and Father, in which you now abide unto the life everlasting.  For the flesh of Christ feeds you and nurtures you for life, and His Blood covers and protects you from death.

The Lord your God, the Father’s Son, has come down from heaven to abide with you here for a little while, so that you might go up with Him to the heavenly Jerusalem and live with Him there.  Find Him here in the Temple of His Church, in the preaching, teaching, and hearing of His Word, enthroned upon His Altar at the center of His Kingdom — the Lamb who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives and reigns for evermore and evermore.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

You and Your Children in the Father's House

Consider here the human nature, the growth and development of the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, as He increases, not only in stature, but in knowledge and wisdom, and in favor with God and man.  It is remarkable, every bit as much as the Incarnation itself and His conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  But this, too, belongs to His becoming like you in all things, that He might redeem you in body, soul, and spirit.  That He can grow and learn and change as true Man, means that He can also hurt and bleed and die, as He will do for your redemption and salvation.

Thus are your reconciliation and relationship with God embodied and secured in the human body and life of this Lord Jesus Christ, from infancy and childhood into adulthood, even unto death, and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  For in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily and lives humanly among us, so that we might live the divine life with God in Him.

How then do you, for your part, hold on to Him and keep Him in your sight?  By what wisdom are you able to grow and abide in Him, throughout this life on earth and unto the life everlasting?

And if you are a father or a mother, how shall you secure Him for your children and preserve their faith and life in Him?  For that is the most important thing you are given to do as a parent.

How shall you not lose Christ Jesus to yourself and to your children, so that you and they shall not be lost but found in Him throughout all your days and years and hereafter for eternity with God?

There is first of all the good example of Joseph and Mary, who go up with the Lord Jesus to the Feast in Jerusalem.  They are reminiscent of the Prophet Samuel’s parents, Elkanah and Hannah, who were likewise faithful in going up to the House of the Lord at Shiloh.  That is good and right.

But then consider what happens, and how easy it is, even for such pious and faithful people, to leave the Lord Jesus behind and to lose Him as you go about the activities and busyness of life.

And when you do realize His absence, then there is such anxiety and stress, and the fear of death.  If you are a parent, and if you have ever had a missing child, you know well enough the terror of that situation.  But to lose the Lord Jesus, no matter who you are, is far, far worse than even that.

If you are brought to an awareness that He is missing from your life, that you have lost sight of Him and let Him go, then, to begin with, by all of your own wisdom, reason, and strength, you go about looking for Him in all the wrong ways and in all the wrong places.  Increasingly more frantic, more desperate, and more hopeless, you try to find what is lacking within your family, with your friends, and in that which is comfortable and familiar to you.  Maybe in hard work.  Maybe in reading and studying.  Maybe in recreational activities and hobbies, or in charitable endeavors.

But, no, you will not find the Lord Jesus in any of those ways or places.  For though He has come to be like you, and to live your human life on earth, He and His Kingdom are not of this world but from the Father in heaven.  So it is that His Body and His Life, and His Resurrection from the dead on the Third Day, are there for you within His Church, in the preaching and hearing of His Word.

You should know — because you are taught by the Word and Spirit of God — that you shall find the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Savior, within the House of His Father.

Is that not what the Feast of the Passover is all about?  That the sons of Israel are delivered from death and the devil within the house where the father has sacrificed the lamb, where he has marked the doors with the blood of the lamb, and where he feeds them with the flesh of the lamb.  And as for each household and family, so also for the household and family of God within His Temple.

The little Lord Jesus was catechized by the Feast to seek His Father in His Father’s House, that He Himself should finally become the Passover Lamb who is given in the place of all the sons of men.

So are you also taught that you and your children belong to the Lord your God, who has redeemed you, purchased and won you for Himself by the blood of His own Son.  And so it is that you and all your sons and daughters are called to live as the children of God within your Father’s House.

Remember that the Son of God has become like you in every way, so that you might be like Him.  Therefore, what is true for Him has also become yours by His grace and mercy in the Gospel.  For He has made a place for you within the true Temple of God, which is indeed His own Body, crucified for all of your sins and raised from the dead for your justification, never to die again.

It is within the household and family of God, that is to say, within His Church on earth, that the Body of this Lamb of God is given to you from His Cross and from His Altar, that you should Feast on Him and be strengthened and sustained in the one true faith, unto the Resurrection.  And it is in His Church that the Blood of this Lamb now protects you from the devil, death, and hell.

Here, then, is what you’re looking for, whether you know it or not.  Here is what you truly need.  Here is your true home and family in Christ Jesus, and here is the Feast to which you bring your children.  Here your anxious heart and troubled mind are granted Peace and Sabbath Rest in Him.  And here you are raised up with Christ from the fear of death to faith and life by His Holy Spirit.

So it is that you now live — you really live — to and from this House of your own dear God and Father in Christ Jesus; and for His Name’s sake, the grace and favor of God are upon you.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.