Here’s my sermon notes from Sunday just gone (04-11-2018), along with some further questions that you may wish to reflect on alone or as part of a small group.
As always, as an alteranative to reading this, you can listen to it on Metro Christian Centre’s Youtube channel: just click here.
READING: LUKE 2:41-51
‘HE’S NOT THE MESSIAH; HE’S A NAUGHTY BOY!’[i]
Luke’s the only gospel that gives us this account—it’s a unique story; a story that I’ve heard people describe as the time when Jesus was a naughty boy.
For some, that’s what this story is all about—Luke’s reason for putting it in here. We have this tale of Jesus wandering off, worrying his parents, being rebellious and testing his boundaries (and for anyone who has ever lost a child—it is a traumatic experience). But the good news is, that by the end of the story, Mary and Joseph finally track their naughty son down and Jesus returns home with them.
And for those who understand the story in that light, Luke’s comment that, ‘Jesus returned to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them’ (Luke 2:51), is taken as the boy Jesus finally abandoning his reckless, rebellious ways as he becomes a good lad who stops giving his mum and dad panic attacks and starts doing what they ask.
Because of this take on the story, for some people, this childhood scene is a problem for seeing Jesus as “sinless”. How can someone be “sinless” whilst being so disobedient? And if he’s not “sinless”, then how can he be the saviour? So they conclude, to quote a famous movie line, that ‘He’s is not the Messiah, he’s naughty boy’.[ii]
But that’s all nonsense—this story is not about a naughty boy.
Firstly, if this passage troubles you with regards to the “sin” issue, then I think you have a strange definition of sin. My kids wander off and explore, and test their boundaries all the time—it’s called growing up. I’m nearly forty—and I’m still doing the same.
Secondly, Jesus is not a child in this story; he’s not a helpless kid. In an ancient culture and in the Middle East, unlike the modern West, being twelve would be regarded as a mature, independent age. Jesus is not quite an adult yet; he has to be 13 years old to be classed as a grown-up—but he’s not far off.
He’s a borderline grown-up. And knowing this, tips the focus of this story into another direction.
The focus of this passage is not that Jesus wanders off, but that Jesus has this conversation with the Scribes and teachers of religious law in the Temple.
As I’ve said, Jesus is 12 years old: a key age, he’s just about to begin adulthood. And at that age, he’s making career choices. The moment he turns 13 (which isn’t far away), he could be, if arranged, apprenticed to someone; be that to a tradesperson (like a carpenter, or a mason etc.) or to a religious figure like a Scribe. And if chosen, then Jesus would have to leave his family and be joined permanently to his new instructor/master, becoming a member of their household.[iii] The language of the ancient world reflects this; disciples were called Banim (children).[iv]
So what is happening in this chapter is akin to a job interview; and Jesus is exceptional! All these Scribes are impressed with what they are seeing in Jesus.
Normally, most interviews involve one company and a host of candidates to choose from. But in this passage, all that is turned on its head; they all want Jesus as their student/disciple and it’s Jesus who has the pick of the bunch. He could have any teacher he wants!
Imagine if this was you: Imagine if you were sat in a room filled with the top leaders of industry, or Hollywood, or politics, and they were all desperate to mentor you.
This is a huge moment: one that is pregnant with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And if we’re prepared to forget for a moment that we know where this story goes, and if we remember that Luke (through the nativity scenes) has already introduced Jesus as the Messiah—the political and spiritual leader that the world has been waiting for—the man of God who is going to save and rule the world—then it makes sense that we, as well as the people of Jesus’ own day, would expect Jesus to choose a master and go down this path towards greatness. . .
… but Jesus turns them all down flat. They must have been distraught.
The big shock in this story is not a 12 year old wandering off. The shock, the thing no one is expecting, is that this same 12 yr old would return home with his parents, instead of staying and discipling himself to one of these well-respected Scribes/teachers of the Law.
Jesus, instead of choosing a prestigious position, returns home to a life of ambiguity in Nazareth, and as Luke writes, chooses to disciple himself to (become obedient to), his parents. Jesus returns home and serves his mother and father.
It certainly wasn’t unusual for 12 year olds to choose a future with their parents. But for someone who has such potential, such ability, someone who, in the eyes of these teachers, would have been a phenomenal student and who would have gone on to be a great teacher (with the help of their tuition), this is ridiculous. But Jesus purposely chooses to avoid the limelight.[v]
Instead, Jesus—who says in this passage that he must be about his Father’s (God’s) affairs (v49)—takes the business of God out of the Temple environment and brings it back to serving the streets.
INCARNATIONAL SERVICE
Like the narratives of his birth (which are full of places and people of seemingly no significance in the world’s eyes), and like the means of his death (as Jesus dies a criminal’s death on a cross), God Incarnate seems to do things in a very unusual way.
God seems to love to work with the margins and to work from the margins, instead of taking the steps of status that others would expect.
Last week Paul talked about Jesus calling the disciples: that, unlike the scribes who interviewed Jesus and where looking for the best of the best, Jesus called the “wrong sorts of people” to be his disciples. Those that the world deemed not good enough, those they said had no value, no worth—those that we would just insult and avoid—Jesus chose to be his followers.[vi] When God calls, he deliberately chooses the people that the world would throw away.
But what we see in this story—and in the life of Jesus as a whole—is not only that God chooses to work with the weak things, but that God also chooses to personally work from a place of weakness, and not from a position of power, status, or authority.
You see, when it comes to serving others, we can often make it a top-down process: We come from a place of superiority, a better status level, a greater income, or with more possessions—and then we help those “below” us with what we have to spare.
What can often happen then is that we associate with those in need, and we affiliate we those in need, but there’s still a sense of alienation; there’s still distance and a distinction that we maintain between “us” and “them”. We want the world to know that we’re not with “them”; we’re just helping “them”. And so we don’t identify with those in need and because of this, we don’t actually provide them with what they need most: companionship; companionship that affirms their humanity and intrinsic value.
In short, we provide services, but we maintain our place of power.
But unlike our approach to service, God doesn’t work on a top-down basis. God chooses to become lowly, humble, poor, a servant. In Christ, God identifies with us; ‘I’m with them.’ Or as Matthew’s gospel would put it, quoting the prophet Isaiah, ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).
Jesus didn’t mind eating with the people that others thought of as scum. Jesus didn’t guard his reputation by making sure that only certain people could be seen with him at certain times. Jesus wasn’t so concerned with status that he took the first opportunity he got (at the age of 12) to escape and disassociate himself from his hometown of Nazareth; a place (as we heard last week) that didn’t have a great reputation.[vii]
There are also many times when Jesus places himself in a position of need (John 4), and when it came to describing the people who were most like him in the world, Jesus didn’t describe the powerful and “great”, but the naked, the hungry, the imprisoned and the stranger (which we’ll see if we’re willing to grapple with his parable in Matt 25:37-46).[viii]
I’m reminded of the hymn that the Apostle Paul quotes in Philippians 2:6-8:
“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”[ix]
That’s mind-blowing, if we grasp it. In the incarnation, it’s not just that God comes as one of us; God comes as the least of us.
There’s a Greek word that is used to describe this reduction of God in Philippians 2: Kenosis, or self-emptying.
God served humanity, but it wasn’t an occasional, sporadic thing. What I mean is that it’s not that Jesus occasionally served people in his free-time, or that he volunteered here and there, but that his whole life is emptied out for others.
I find this a real challenge: it’s easy to do acts of service now and then, it’s easy to give to charities, it’s easy to give from the surplus of my time or resources (and these are great things). But God doesn’t give of his surplus—God gives out of the entirety of his nature: Kenosis; Incarnational service.
Maybe we also need to become more incarnational in how we serve; more self-emptying. That’s the attitude that Paul wants to see in the Philippian church, when he quotes the hymn just mentioned above. And it’s also the bar that Jesus sets for his disciples.
WASHING FEET
In John 13:1-17, we have that powerful moment in the last supper when Jesus gets up to wash his disciples’ feet. It’s was a servant’s job, and an unclean job (by the standards of purity in Jesus’ culture)—but he does it; he gets on his knees, humbles himself, and becomes someone others would despise. And after doing so, he turns to his disciples and says, “You’ve seen what I have done, now do the same”.[x]
I don’t think Jesus was just talking about washing feet, when he says this. Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet illustrates/crystallises the posture of his entire life; it signifies his approach towards humanity. And he wants his disciples to follow this pattern. Love doesn’t just serve, it gives itself to servitude; Love lays itself down for the sake of others.[xi]
To go back to the beginning, and I can only speak of myself, and the challenge this continues to be to me; but if I had the opportunity Jesus was given, would I have chosen the path to greatness in the worlds eyes, or would I have chosen to return to Nazareth? Would I have chosen the road to status, or would I have chosen a path that would lead to washing feet? I’m I happy to serve, but am I unwilling to adopt a life of service towards others?
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:
- If you had been in Jesus shoes, would you have taken the opportunity to have become somebody within the human institutions of the world? Why?
- Can having a position of status, and the resources that some with this status, be a positive way of serving and helping others, and in what ways? Is this always the case, or can status and power prohibit our ability to serve others effectively (give examples)?
- What reasons do you feel Jesus had for adopting a serving posture? Was this only a tactic to get people to listen, or does this say something about the character of God?
- Can you think of other examples within the gospel accounts where Jesus puts himself in a position of need?
- What prevents you personally from serving others with the entirety of our lives, and not merely with our surplus?
- Does our reputation or credibility get in the way of us befriending certain people?
- Is Jesus’ example of self-emptying practical within the 21st century West and the modern pace of life?
ENDNOTES:
[i] From that famous comedy; Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Handmade Films; Python (Monty) Pictures, 1979).
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Leaving home would be an essential move; learning from their new master would require the new disciple to observe their master in everyday life. As Professor Brad H. Young puts it, ‘The disciple is expected to serve his master teacher in caring for personal needs. By serving the master the disciple learns how to conduct his affairs in everyday life situations […] The master teacher was a mentor whose purpose was to raise up disciples who would not only memorize his teachings but also live out the teachings in practical ways […] The disciple walks with God by living out in practice the teaching of his rabbi […] Therefore, the ties between a teacher and student assume precedence over the ties between and father and son.” [Brad H. Young, Meet The Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teachings of Jesus (Henderickson Publishers, Inc, 2007), p.30-31].
[iv] Ibid.
[v] We see the fruit of this decision in Luke 4 (and Matt 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6), which records Jesus’ debut in the local synagogue at Nazareth. His hometown is amazed with Jesus because they know that he’s not the student of a great and respected teacher. They’re aware that he is the son of Mary and Joseph—the banim of a carpenter—and not the banim of a Teacher. In a similar scene (in Matt 7:28-29), after giving the sermon on the mount, “The crowds were amazed at [Jesus’] teaching, for he taught as one who had real authority […]”. Again, they know he’s someone who has not had extensive training, or someone who is the student of a respected teacher. And yet, as a positive, they feel there’s something more real about the authority that Jesus is moving in; maybe because it’s not a top-down, pulling rank style of authority?
[vi] You can hear Pastor Paul Schofield’s message on Youtube (Vintage Jesus: He Calls)
[vii] As per Nathanael’s words, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there” (John 1:46, NLT)
[viii] For a pertinent discussion of the importance of Jesus placing himself in a position of need during his conversation with the Samaritan women in John 4, see Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (SPCK, 2008), p.202-205.
[ix] Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
[x] John 13:13-16
[xi] This doesn’t mean that we become self-defecating. Jesus did not have a low opinion of himself: but knowing his nature didn’t lead him to become selfish, but selfless.
TRISTAN SHERWIN 
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