Thought for the week - 29 December 2024

Home Alone is a perennial Christmas film with, incidentally, a cracking soundtrack by John Williams. If you’ve never seen it, (spoiler alert!) the McAllister family is embarking on a Christmas holiday to France. There are rather a lot of them and somehow, 8-year-old Kevin gets left behind. It takes some time for the family to realise this and when they do, mum makes a frantic dash back home to get him. Meanwhile, Kevin is at home, having a whale of a time and thwarting a couple of would be burglars. Then, when mum gets home, it is quite a heart warming reunion.

Today’s gospel is a story slightly similar to Kevin’s story in that a young son, in this case 12 year old Jesus, is inadvertently left behind when His family embark, en masse, on a long journey. Jesus clearly lives in a very devout family which obeyed the law of God, making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. At this particular time, Jesus at the age of 12 was just about to transition from childhood to adulthood, 13 being the customary age at which Jewish boys became young men. The traveling party on the way home from Jerusalem would have been a large caravan of people, relatives, extended families. The women and children would travel at the front of the caravan with the men and young men bringing up the rear, at the back. We can only speculate that Mary, at the front, was expecting that Jesus, on the cusp of adulthood, was at the back with Joseph and the other men. Equally, Joseph was probably expecting that Jesus, still legally a child, was at the front with Mary and the other children. An understandable assumption by both parents. Until that heart stopping moment of realisation. Where is Jesus? At the back with His dad? No. At the front with His mum? Again, no. I have fortunately never been in a situation like that. My son, James, never went missing when he was a child and so I can barely imagine the panic that must have gone through the minds of Mary and Joseph, and their travelling companions, upon the realisation that Jesus was not with them.

I have to confess, each time I have heard this story that I have been somewhat shocked that the caravan would have set off from Jerusalem without first checking that everyone was there. Just as I am shocked that the McAllisters set off for their French Christmas without checking that everyone was present and properly accounted for. But what we need to remember is the kind of world Mary and Joseph lived in at that time. Extended families of kinsfolk and friends would have lived together in an environment of close knit mutual trust and His parents clearly thought that Jesus was there, either at the front or the back of the caravan and safely ensconced with cousins or other family members.

So, a very panic stricken Mary and Joseph hurry back to Jerusalem to look for Jesus, this time just the two of them. This in itself would have been a dangerous trip. They did not have the safety of the caravan around them, but they had to go back. They had to find Jesus. And they got back to Jerusalem, possibly expecting to find Jesus waiting for them at the gates of the city, emotional and upset at having been left behind. But He was not there. He was nowhere to be found in the streets of the city or anywhere else Mary and Joseph tried looking. Until, after three days of frantic, fruitless search, in a last desperate thought, they entered the Temple. And there He was. In deep discussion with the Rabbis and scholars. Astounding all who heard Him with His understanding of theology and His questions and answers. It was likely the custom at that time that after the celebration of the Passover, the visiting rabbis and scholars, the theologians of the day—the PhDs of Israel—stayed around the city. This was one of the few times during the year that they had the opportunity to sit down together and discuss matters of theology. And here was this 12 year old boy, not yet a man, engaged in deep conversation with them all.

It is at this point that we begin to reach, I think, the very crux of the story. That Jesus was interacting with such knowledge is, in itself, a major part of the story. He has been described in some quarters as being theanthropic. A sort of portmanteau word combining Theos (God) with Anthropos (man) indicating His nature as being divinely human, or is it humanly divine? So one could say that Jesus was engaged in conversations actually about Himself and this is why He was so knowledgeable. I did also come across an article, a couple of years ago now, that speculated that Jesus was in discussion and asking questions of those He had created, as God. The creator in discussion with the created. So if we accept that theory, every time Jesus was in discussion with a person, He was in discussion with someone He Himself had created. That is a rather profound thought, I think. Mind blowing…

But, back to the real heart of the story. Mary and Joseph finally finding Jesus in the Temple. Cleary there would have been relief in their hearts that they had at last found Him and He was safe. Mary, however, seems to scold Jesus ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’ This may very well have been the first time that Mary had had to scold Jesus, but we can only speculate this fact. And now we would perhaps expect Jesus to apologise for giving such worry to His earthly parents, but instead He counters with a question of His own (something He does a lot in the gospels – answers a question with another question) ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ Effectively saying ‘Didn’t you understand it, mother, that I wasn’t here trying to be defiant to your authority? I was here because I’m compelled to be in my Father’s house. I’m not talking about Joseph’s house; I’m talking about God’s house. I had to be here because this is where my Heavenly Father wanted me to be’ Woah! I wonder how this made Joseph feel? He would have known that he wasn’t Jesus’ biological father but all the same. The Bible is resoundingly silent on this.

Jesus is clearly beginning to make the distinction between balancing love and commitment to His earthly family with His primary obligation to His heavenly Father. His response that the Temple is His Father’s house is intended to remind His parents, and us, the readers of the gospels, that although He is born of a woman He is ultimately of divine origin. And this sets the stage for the miracles and teaching which would occur in the future. About 18 years into the future to be precise. This is something we need also to be mindful of. As Christians, a commitment to Jesus may have serious implications for our relationships with our own families. God’s plan to redeem the world is one that involves us all, and it should come first, even if it raises conflict with our family’s wishes. We still love our families, of course we do, but above all, we love and honour our true heavenly Father, and that can be a tough issue for us to face. One which our Lord Jesus also faced.

One small nugget which may sometimes be overlooked is that Mary and Joseph very probably thought they had lost Jesus for good when they realised that He wasn’t with the travelling caravan. They had travelled a day before they realised He was missing. Then they travelled back, probably another day, to Jerusalem. And then they spent three days searching for Him before they found Him. So that’s almost a week before they found Him. But it’s the three days in the city, three days – they thought He was lost and then after three days of search they found Him. When Jesus was crucified, His friends, disciples, His mum, thought He was gone, lost, but on the third day following the crucifixion, He was restored to them. Quite some parallel. And once Mary and Joseph had found Him, we are told that Jesus travels back to Nazareth with His parents and is submissive to them, and He grew in wisdom, and stature and grew in favour with both God and man. Seemingly no more going missing and no more angst for His parents. On this, again, the canonical Bible is silent. And although we hear nothing about the next 18 years of His life,

He is clearly continuing that transition towards His divinity ready for His three years of ministry. Luke is the only one of the four writers of the gospels in the canonical Bible to recount this story. And the next time we hear about Jesus in the Bible is His baptism by John the Baptist and that is when the story really gets started.

Let us pray.

Lord, you chose to shed light on the humble childhood of your Son by the manifestation of his wisdom. May we be filled by the spirit of prudence and be pleasing in your sight by our sincere humility. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen