JANUARY 3, 2010  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.

In today's Gospel, the King of the Universe "went down with his parents [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."

Dear Christian friends,

Historically, today's Gospel was preached during Epiphany. Epiphany is the season that focuses on the visual display of God's glory in the human body of Jesus. Other historic Gospels for Epiphany include the miracle at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1-12); the cleansing of a leper and the restoration of a centurion's servant (Matthew 8:1-13); the calming of the stormy sea (Matthew 8:23-27); and the Transfiguration of our Lord (Matthew 17:1-9), when Jesus' "face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light" (Matthew 17:2). In each of these Gospels, some aspect of Jesus' divine nature is displayed for you, so that you may learn and know that this Child born of Mary is indeed "the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26).

When today's Gospel gets preached in Epiphany, it is preached in such a way as to display Jesus' divinity for you, just like all the other Epiphany Gospels. For example, Luther preached that today's Gospel shows that Jesus "is not an ordinary but an extraordinary child, as He secretly withdraws from His parents and oversteps the discipline which all children owe their parents" (The House Postils, volume 1, p. 225).

Stated another way, Jesus displays His divine glory-His Epiphany glory-in today's Gospel by staying in His Father's house. By so doing, Jesus is showing that "He was not only His mother's son, but also her Lord and God" (Ibid., 226).

Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem because He is answerable to a much higher authority than that of His parents. "And He said to them, 'Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?'"

That would make a fine sermon also for today, if today's Gospel had remained a Gospel for the season of Epiphany. That has changed with the newer series of readings we now follow. It is not yet Epiphany. Today we are still in the Christmas Season, on the Second Sunday after Christmas.

Today's Gospel is no longer an Epiphany Gospel, but it has now become for us a Christmas Gospel (much to the chagrin of some of my dearest fellow pastors).

Epiphany focuses on the revelation and display of God's glory in Christ. Christmas does not do that. Christmas focuses on God the Son's entry into our human flesh. Where Epiphany displays for us the divine nature of the man Christ Jesus, Christmas calls us to marvel at the fact that the divine, that God, would even bother to come and join to the human.

Epiphany shows us that there is much more to Jesus than usually meets the eye. Christmas shows us that our God went into hiding, as it were, voluntarily containing Himself in our human likeness, hiding Himself within our human flesh, subjecting and enslaving Himself to us-for us.

Today's Gospel makes for a good Christmas Gospel, just as it makes for a good Epiphany Gospel. If this Gospel in Epiphany declares that Jesus is an extraordinary Child (per Luther), this Gospel during Christmas points us to the extraordinary thing that this extraordinary Child has done: He subjected Himself to His parents. "He went down with them [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."

Your Lord did not submit to His parents because they were greater than He. He is greater than them.

Your Lord did not submit to them because of the Fourth Commandment, which requires that we honor our father and our mother. Jesus is greater even than the obligation of the commandment.

Jesus submitted Himself to Mary and Joseph for one reason. That one reason can be stated in one word: love-love for Joseph, love for Mary, love for your neighbor, and love also for you. Jesus "came to Nazareth and was submissive to them" because He loves you.

Because He loves you, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.

Because He loves you, Jesus submitted to circumcision and to all the worship forms of the Old Testament. That is the First Table of the Law and Jesus took upon Himself the First Table of the Law when He was circumcised, and when Simeon met Him in the temple.

Because He loves you, Jesus submitted to His parents. That is the Second Table of the Law and Jesus took up the Second Table for you. That is to say, today's Gospel shows you Jesus gladly stepping under and entering into and obeying the Fourth Commandment and with it every other commandment.

Jesus did this, not because He was bound by these commandments, but because you were once bound, gagged, imprisoned and condemned by these commandments.

The God who gave the Law made Himself less than the Law and answerable to it.

In this Gospel, the God who created Mary and Joseph made Himself less than Mary and Joseph by voluntarily submitting to them. That is the essence of Christmas.

Think of what Jesus' humble love, displayed in today's Gospel, means for you, for the way you think about yourself, and for the way you treat your neighbor:

1. First, this wonderful Christmas Gospel shows you that there is no part of your life that is beneath your God's dignity. There is no part of your life that He considers unworthy of His presence and grace. Even those lowly days of your childhood-those days during which you were instructed by your parents and answerable to them-even those days belong to belong to this God who subjects Himself to His parents for you.

This is a beneficial Gospel for all of us, but especially for you who are still children and still under your parent's domination. Dear children, learn from this Gospel to obey your parents and to be subject to them, even when they require you to do things you do not like to do, such as washing dishes or taking out garbage.

Even more than that, dear children, take comfort from this Gospel while you are doing those things your parents require. Think of your Lord Jesus while you are carrying out your tasks, and thank Him that He did all of these things before you because He "came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."

2. Secondly, this Gospel also gives you a good reason to treat your neighbor kindly, and to faithfully keep the Ten Commandments because you love your neighbor. Because Jesus died and rose again, giving you forgiveness of all your sins-and because Jesus promises you your own resurrection from the dead and live everlasting you are now "partakers in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

As Paul says in Romans 6:6-11, when you were baptized, you died to sin and God's Ten Commandments now have no hold over you or condemnation for you any more. Because you have been joined to Christ, you are no more obligated to keep the commandments that Christ Himself was obligated to keep them.

Look at what Jesus did for you. He who is above the commandments submitted Himself to them in every way. Jesus did not do this because of necessity, but He kept the commandments because of love. Jesus kept the commandments for His neighbor's sake-for your sake-and not for His own sake.

How much more should you carefully mark and keep the same commandments of God, not out of necessity but out of love? You, like Jesus, have been lifted above the commandments. You are no longer bound by the Law because your Lord Jesus Christ has set you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the Law.

But look at this Gospel: Jesus "went down with them [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them." In the same way, so must you submit yourself to God's commandments out of love and for your neighbor's sake. This Christmas Gospel shows you that Jesus obeyed His parents because He loves you. How much more shall you obey authority, protect your neighbor's body and possessions, limit your sexual activity to marriage, and suppress your covetous desires?

3. A third benefit of today's Christmas Gospel is that it displays for you a Jesus who does all things for you. Even more than doing for you what you cannot do, Jesus in today's Gospel does for you the things you do not even want to do.

What child has ever loved his mother and father with a pure, unadulterated love? Only this Child in today's Gospel.

What son or daughter has ever been able to set aside every shadow of selfishness for the sake serving another wholeheartedly and without expectation of return? Only this Son, born of Mary and subjected to Joseph.

In so subjecting Himself, your Lord has begun to pave the road to your salvation. In this Gospel, the Lamb of God born to Mary shows Himself to be a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19), the perfect sacrifice for you. The activity of Christ's obedience for your salvation begins here in His passivity to His parents. Jesus "went down with them [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."

Merry Christmas, my dear Christians!

Christ is Risen.

AMEN