‘Behold, the Lamb
of God’
ide
o amnos tou theou
College Study
101st teaching
3.2.2015
“Losing my Religion”
Luke
2:25-52
“And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and
this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the
Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by
the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to
do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and
blessed God and said:
“‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to
Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before
the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the
glory of Your people Israel.
“And
Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. Then
Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is
destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will
be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’
“Now
there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of
Asher. She as of a great age, and had live with a husband seven years from her
virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty –four years, who did not
depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all
those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
“So
when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they
returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and became
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
“His 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 returned, 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
sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 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
have sought You anxiously.’ And He said to them, ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you
not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’ But they did not
understand the statement which He spoke to them.
“Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to
them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
I’ve entitled tonight’s study: “Losing
my Religion”.
In the narrative we’ve just read, we
see Joseph and Mary at the beginning keeping the customs of their religion (performing
the circumcision and the days of purification) and then we also see Joseph and
Mary at the end of the narrative still keeping the customs of religion
(visiting Jerusalem for the Passover Feast). As good Jewish parents, they did
their best they could to observe the law of Moses, the keep their Sabbaths, to
uphold the commandments and the customs. But I think that what we see happening
at the end of this chapter, with them losing God in the flesh, is something
that goes beyond the normative “religious” experience that Mary and Joseph were
used to. They were not accustomed to returning to Jerusalem after the feast was
over, but this Child was going to grow up to do something more than what His
people were merely accustomed to. He would go beyond mere “religion”, and I
hope we can latch onto that thought tonight.
But our story begins first with the
parents of Jesus meeting two folks in the temple.
v.
25-26, this man is known traditionally as “Simeon the God-receiver”, which
some have found implication in the text to show that he was a priest in the
temple. And we’re told was waiting for the Consolation of Israel. There’s
another beautiful and obscure Messianic title for Christ out of Luke’s gospel.
Zechariah called Jesus the Dayspring. Now this Simeon looks for Him as the
Consolation of Israel.
The word consolation means “comfort received after loss or disappointment”.
If anything, the people of God were those in that day who were familiar with
loss. They had lost much of their heritage: the ark of covenant did not stand
in the current temple; they had lost much of their sovereignty: Rome stood
above them as an unwanted master; they had lost much of their hope: on a
personal level, many were looking for the Messiah, but it had been such a long
time since the last of the prophets had spoken and I’ve no doubt that for many,
the coming of the Savior seemed like a distant childhood dream. This, and
perhaps this above all else, left them disappointed, as cynical as exemplified
by Nathanael in John 1, who was told
that the Messiah had been found, Jesus of Nazareth, yet he responded: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
But Jesus was the Consolation of
Israel, the One sent to comfort their loss and disappointment with the offer of
eternal life. Christ Himself said in John
14:16, “I will ask the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever…”
speaking of the Holy Spirit coming and indwelling the believer. But if the Holy
Spirit is another Comforter, then
doesn’t that imply that there’s an original comforter? That’s Jesus Christ, the
Consolation not only of Israel, but also of the whole world; not only of the
people of God in the 1st century Middle East, but also the people of
God across the world today.
And so, young men and women, how often
do we find ourselves sick and do not take up the cure that lies in our very
reach? If you’d allow me to speak candidly, here’s a verse that a friend shared
with me in college when I was just bummed out because there was this girl that
I just couldn’t seem to get to like me. Here was the verse: Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a
tree of life.”
In that simple verse, he diagnosed the
sickness of my heart, the reason I was dragging my feet around, despondent,
depressed, withdrawn, full of anxiety, and over-analytical of every social
gesture. He showed me that it was because I was putting my hope in something
that I wasn’t getting and I was depressed about it. Obviously. So then what’s
the solution? Hope for the right things.
All the single ladies and single young
men, hope that is put off, postponed and delayed makes your heart sick. And if
you’re not careful, you will be sucked into that sickness, because you run the
danger of placing all of your hope, every waking thought and every anxious
desire upon the happiness of a relationship with another member of the human
race, or in popular vernacular: the One. I remember what it’s like looking for “the
One”, and it can be an awful emotional train wreck. Be careful our it will
wreck your life, your emotions, your mind, your heart. In modern vernacular, “You’d
best check yourself before you wreck yourself” over the amount of hope that you
place upon finding the One.
Relationships can bring a lot of
happiness but do not put all of your hopes into a relationship in the same way
that you ought to put all of your hopes into salvation in Christ. I think there’s
an incredible analogy there. Some may be so hoping for a relationship that it’s
almost as if you’re hoping for heaven, trusting in a person for final ultimate happiness and satisfaction. Not
only will you never find that in another human being, but so hoping for it can
lead to your own violent, depressing destruction.
Am I saying stop looking? Am I saying
don’t date? Am I saying keep your eyes to yourself? Let me just say that my
point is for you to think about how much hope you might be placing in a future
BF or GF to cure your singleness, when in reality your hope should be placed in
Christ to cure your sin. You don’t know how long it will be before you meet
that One, so don’t make your heart sick over it and live in that sickness.
Meanwhile, Christ Himself stands before you, the comfort of His people.
*But
this man Simeon was waiting for that Comforter. The Holy Spirit had told him
that he would not die until he had a chance to see this newborn Christ.
v.27a,
there were probably some intense rumors circulating throughout the land. News
of the birth of John the Baptist and his significant destiny had begun to
spread through Judea (Luke 1:65) and
more recently a motley crew of ragtag shepherds had begun to spread word
throughout the region that a Savior had been born. But though rumors were
circulating, we’re told specifically that Simeon was led by the Spirit, not the
hearsay of men, into the temple on this day. Perhaps he sensed that the time
was coming when his waiting would be over.
v.27-32,
First off, imagine yourself as Joseph or Mary. You’re walking in to a very
crowded, very large structure: the temple, with your newborn child not more
than eight days old. Now, there are people everywhere. The air is filled with
the murmurs of the crowd, the sounds of animals, the echoes of music and
prayers and instruments. It’s all you can do to figure out where you need to
go. And then somebody grabs your baby.
What did they think when this guy
comes up unannounced and interrupts the customs of the law, grabs their kid and
takes him up in his arms and then pronounces this prophetic blessing over him?
Probably the fact that Mary kept all
these things, the strange things surrounding the birth of this Child, and
pondered them in her heart that kept her from immediately calling the
temple-police. She may have been mentally prepared for things that were out of
the ordinary. The birth of this Child was already extraordinary. Thus when a
perfect stranger approaches them and takes up her baby, and pronounces this
blessing, she is amazed indeed, but there’s no fighting against it.
Jesus is being brought into His Father’s
House for the first time, the temple, and His Father has prepared a messenger
to receive Him: Simeon. So what does Simeon have to say?
Note, this is the third poetic work in
Luke’s gospel, the third of three songs. The first, you remember, was Mary’s Magnificat, a spontaneous song of praise
filled to the brim with Scriptural reference; the second, was Zechariah’s Benedictus, a prophetic pronouncement of
the destiny of the unborn Christ; and now the third, Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis, which means “Now your
dismiss…”, a reference to the opening words in Latin. This song still forms a
part of religious liturgy in our world today, often used as the final song in a
religious service among Lutherans, Anglicans and Roman Catholics to name a few.
Simeon’s song is full of thankfulness toward
God, since the Lord had faithfully kept His word to him, allowing this old man
to see the newborn Savior before he died. There’s an incredible statement here
about the character of God, that He would so orchestrate it with all the timing
of the birth of Christ and the life of this elderly man Simeon so that as baby
Jesus is being brought into the temple by His parents it says to be presented the
Lord, but the Child is also being presented specifically
to one little old man. This was Simeon’s day. God loves so specifically and so
acutely that He would orchestrate all this timing just to fulfill one promise
to one little old man. Out of all of the hundreds of thousands, the millions
alive, God sees the individual. Aren’t you glad God is not a corporation,
seeing people as numbers and metrics and percentiles? God sees the individual.
And Simeon realizes joyfully that his
life is fulfilled and is coming to a peaceful end. The Lord is about to dismiss
His servant Simeon and Simeon does not go out kicking and screaming. He does
not go out fearing death. He goes gentle into that good night. He passes on
peacefully. There is probably no greater mark upon a life to show that it has
been lived for the glory of God than this mark here: the peaceful passing of
the servant. Simeon had seen the light of the Dayspring, his shift was over and
it was time to come home.
Simeon not only gets that but he also
understands that this Savior was not going to be just for the people of Israel.
As opposed to Zechariah who thought of the Savior as being raised up in the
house of David, Simeon thinks of the universality of Christ, that He did not
come just to save a small people group only. Jesus came to be a light to the
Gentiles, to a people afar off, and to the children of Israel as well.
v.33,
They had already had many hints of the great destiny that awaited their child,
but this is still a shock to them. The old man has called their newborn Son the
salvation of God which He has prepared before all people. But Simeon hasn’t
said all yet.
v.34-35,
he turns now and delivers this message to Mary, describing Jesus’ destiny, a
mission that would involve the fall and rising of many in Israel. People would
find themselves on either side of Jesus Christ. He is the dividing line.
And what is this sign which will be
spoken against? It’s the cross. No other sign, no other symbol is so famous as
the sign of the cross, but no other symbol has been more exalted yet ridiculed,
more revered yet shunned, held more sacred yet shown more disrespect, glorified
yet spoken against than the cross of Christ. The symbol of Christianity
represents intense humiliation that brought great salvation, and since it is a
symbol that points directly at our human inadequacy and sinfulness, it is a
symbol that has been and will always be as rejected and despised as the Man
that it once bore.
Note that Simeon is the first human
being to reference the fate of the crucifixion after the birth of Christ. The
angels didn’t mention it. The shepherds didn’t know about it. But the Holy
Spirit told this little old man that this Child, this salvation from God, would
bring salvation but that it would involve a sign that would be spoken against.
There is great joy in Simeon at meeting this newborn Savior, but Simeon knows
that a great darkness lies ahead for this Child.
And he tells Mary more personally that
she herself would experience a kind of agony, a “sword will pierce through your own soul also”. We have no precedent
to run with this statement and say that Mary suffered alongside the crucified
Christ at Calvary and that she too atoned for the sins of humanity. No way. But
plainly, Mary suffered tremendous agony at the cross, just as any mother would
suffer if they had to watch their own son being brutally and horrifically
sentenced to death. As one commentator wrote: “The childhood in the Nazareth
home, and the early manhood in the Nazareth carpentry, were no doubt her
happiest days, though, in those quiet years, expectation, fears, dread,
curiously interwoven, must have ever torn that mother's heart. The days of the public
ministry for Mary must have been sad, and her heart full of anxious
forebodings, as she watched the growing jealousies, the hatred, and the
unbelief on the part of the leading men of her people. Then came the cross.”
But in that crucifixion, the “thoughts of many hearts” would be
revealed. The cross lays bare the hidden hearts of men and women, because one
man will turn to the cross and beg forgiveness because of his inner brokenness,
whereas another man will turn and look at the same symbol, only to reject it,
because of his inner pride. Or, two women can hear the same message and one can
walk away exalting God while the other walks away unchanged and unmoved. Why?
Because Jesus is the dividing line and the cross divides the world. There are
only two kinds of people in this world: those who embrace the crucified Christ
and those who turn away repulsed by Him.
v.36-38,
to add to the peculiar entourage that’s confronting Joseph and Mary, here comes
this elderly widow, Anna the prophetess. It’s been estimated that she couldn’t
be less than one hundred years old at this time. And she had been a widow for
eighty-four years. Why did she never get back in the game while she was young?
Why did she never remarry? We don’t know. But she was able to do one of the hardest
things that any human being, married or single, can ever do: be satisfied with
the Lord in whatever season of life she was in. Now as a widow, she used her
time to serve the Lord with fasting and prayer, night and day.
It is a crying shame that our modern
Christian culture tends to de-glamorize the kind of ministry that this little
old woman knew while at the same time over-glamorizing rock-star worship
artists and mega-church pastors, and treat those kind of people as celebrities.
But which has served God more? The artist who writes the hip new songs that
bring in tons of cd sales, the pastor who has suddenly found himself risen into
the arbitrary Christian spotlight and success for the short time that his
success lasts? Or the woman who refused to leave the temple for eighty-plus
years, who prayed into existence the movement of God upon a nation?
We’ve been subconsciously trained to
think of explosive ministries, ministries that get a lot of attention,
ministries that are popular or successful, ministries that generate followings
and wealth and bigger churches, ministries that are seen as the most important
ministries. But God sees in secret. God saw the secret daily and nightly
prayers and fastings of this elderly woman, and I can tell you will surety that
He in no way looked down upon her eighty-four yearlong one woman crusade.
Perhaps it was because of the prayers
of Anna that Simeon got to see the Child that day, that Zechariah had his son
at last, that Elizabeth carried him safely to term, that Joseph stayed with
Mary, that Mary was chosen to bear the Son of God, that the shepherds got to
receive the good news of the newborn Savior, or that the Savior came into the
world at that time at all. Prayer lays hold upon the willingness of God.
We often diminish the importance of
prayer next to the visually and audibly stimulating ministries of music and
preaching, yet we’ve really got the whole thing backwards. Music that glorifies
God doesn’t just happen. Preaching that wounds and heals the heart doesn’t just
happen. Prayer and even fasting (talk about a service we don’t think of often),
both are of vast importance on God’s scale.
I think we’ll be surprised when we get
to heaven, expecting rewards or expecting to see others get their rewards, and
yet we’ll be surprised to see the kind of people who get their rewards. Oh this
famous evangelist or this super-popular pastor or this exquisite worship leader
or this renown missionary will line up, but watch it be the little old woman
who prayed through many tear-filled and sleepless nights of prayerful agony get
the greatest reward. The least in the kingdom of God is the greatest and the
greatest the least.
v.39-40,
Imagine a perfect mountain lake. The water is still and crystal clear. It’s
beautiful to look at. The surface is reflective and slightly shimmering. It’s
relaxing. Everything is in its place. This pool is theology. This pool
represents the perfect network of the attributes of God.
Then somebody throws a boulder into
the pool. It is still beautiful, it is still perfect, and clear, but now it is
interesting: crashing waves form all across the surface as cool water leaps and
turns to foam and light catches in a hundred thousand points, dancing across
the surface and illuminating things in the water that you never saw before.
That rock somebody threw in was the incarnation and God threw it in.
The incarnation throws a wrench into
the whole perfectly running machine. You want proof that mankind didn’t invent
Christianity, it’s right here: the incarnation. Who would invent the
incarnation? Who would build up this perfect structure of theology and then
risk tearing it all down by introducing the incarnation? Think I’m
overreacting? No way, look here.
How do you explain a perfect God
growing? How do you explain an all-knowing God learning? How do you explain an
eternal God being born? How do you explain an immortal God dying? How do you
explain an invisible and immaterial God being flesh? How do you explain a God
who is complete and pure existence becoming?
Hebrews 5:8 says of Jesus “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered.” He learned
obedience? How? How does the God who knows everything learn something? How?
Pose just one of these questions to the guy who “came up” with the incarnation
and he would have said: “alright so it’s not such a good idea, let’s go back to
that perfect undisturbed lake”.
Nobody made up the incarnation. It’s
the “gospel” truth, evidenced by the sheer fact that it is notoriously
difficult to blend with traditional theology. How do you explain it? You hardly
can at all. You are merely confronted by it. You are assaulted by its mystery.
But angered or frustrated or baffled by the incarnation, it is here to stay, it
is the biblical truth, and it makes theology terribly fascinating. This one-time
event took everything everyone thought they knew about God and at the
incarnation brought ever more profound depth to the capability, the nature and
the character of God.
And as this unique Child grew, we’re
told of His spiritual development. The goodness and the favor of God was
already evident in his life from a young age. This general statement from Luke
takes us from the time He was eight days old to the time He was twelve years
old. And where the Bible remains silent, so must we. Indeed there are
superstitions and legends told of the childhood of Christ, such as when He
supposedly turned a man who had been turned into a donkey back into a man, or
when He supposedly healed people with a bit of His old bath water.
Remember, my curious young friends,
where the Bible remains silent, so must we.
v.42,
now getting into what we would consider the Childhood of Christ, his early
years, we find that His family remains a faithfully religious family. They went
with their countrymen to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Passover. Large
groups from the various regions of Israel would undertake this pilgrimage and travel
to Jerusalem to pack out the ancient city three times a year: for the Passover,
for the Feast of Weeks (aka Pentecost), and for the Feast of Tabernacles (according
to Deu 16:16). Every male had to
appear before the Lord these three times with an offering, and often times
these men brought their families with them. So this is a festive and solemn
time of year, a holy time, in a great and ancient city, Jerusalem.
So Jesus, now a young man, goes with
his family.
v.43-46,
did Jesus linger in the city because He had some sense that this was the city
that would fulfill His destiny? Did He see the Roman battalions and foresee the
torture they would someday put Him through? Did He watch the Jewish citizens go
about their business and wonder that someday these same folk would reject Him? Did
He watch the countless animals being sacrificed in the temple, their blood
spilt upon the ground, and sense the illustration they provided for what He
Himself would someday accomplish by spilling His own blood on the ground of
that same city? Did He already feel the weight of the cross? Did He already
hear the weeping of the women of Jerusalem? Could He already hear the roar of
the crowd: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”? Or maybe, as a boy, He chanced to look
through some window or over some parapet and spy the hill of Golgatha, Calvary
brooding like a black skull under a cloud in the distance, biding its terrible
time until that great and bloody day. Why did He linger in the city? Maybe He
was already beginning to realize that this city was where He would fulfill His
destiny.
He knew this city. This was where His
own Spirit had once dwelt in a glorious, radiant cloud in a temple long ago.
This was where His own hosts of angels and come to its defense. This was where
David had sung his psalms, where Solomon had written his proverbs, where
Babylon had triumphed, where the exiles returned, where Nehemiah rebuilt the
walls, where the blood of the martyred prophets stained every cobblestone-step.
This was where people came to seek His Father. This was where He lingered.
Drawn to the temple, His Father’s House, this is where His parents found him.
Note they found him listening and
asking questions. What infinite humility. If anyone in existence had ever had
any right to ever say “Let me teach them a thing or two” it was Jesus Christ
the Son of God at that very moment. He could teach them things that would cook
their brains in their skulls like hardboiled eggs, but rather He came and
listened and asked questions.
Being teachable has got to be one of
the greatest skills you could ever have. A while ago, somebody asked me how you
get to know the Bible better. You do it by listening and asking questions.
Jesus, in His humanity, wanted to know more about His Father, to learn about
God and the Scriptures. He went to listen and to ask questions in the temple,
and that is exactly what we should do.
Note, ladies and gentlemen, that Jesus
went to “Church”. Sure “church” was a little different back then. It was the
synagogue. But you see the analogy. Jesus didn’t shrug off corporately fellowshipping
with believers and seeking God and worshiping God in the temple just so He
could get a few more hours sleep. Jesus was drawn to His Father’s House. He
spent time there learning. His is an example we should seek to follow.
v.47-48,
here Mary lets her impatience show. She has no doubt seen some incredible
things over the last twelve years, but you know when parents reach that point
where they’re just tired? Mary was tired. They had looked for Jesus for days.
Sure they were amazed that He was going toe-to-toe with temple philosophers and
theologians. Sure it was impressive that Jesus was a Child Prodigy (discussing theology
with theologians would be like a junior higher today talking quantum physics and
blackholes with Stephen Hawking) but right now, Mary just wanted to know why
her Son had put her and her husband through such an ordeal.
As I mentioned weeks ago, if it can be
shown that Mary the mother of Jesus, the christotokos,
committed even one sin recorded in Scripture, then all the edifice of her
supposed sinless-ness and perfection and goddess-hood falls apart. Here, Mary
is literally rebuking God. Is that ever a good thing anywhere else in
Scripture? Was it a good thing when the children of Israel, fresh out of the Exodus,
complained against God and Moses in the desert? Was it a good thing when Peter
rebuked Jesus about going to the cross? Didn’t Mary, full of grace, ever hear
about Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without complaining and
disputing?”
Jesus had lingered in Jerusalem, but
really His parents had left Him behind. Consider the magnitude of that simple
statement: they left God behind. They forgot God. They lost God. Thinking that
He was with them, somewhere, some nebulous somewhere among friends or
relatives, they had actually left God behind.
In the book of Revelation 2, Jesus sends seven letters each to one of seven
churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and
Laodicea. To the church of Ephesus, the first of the seven, Jesus writes to
commend their labor and patience, their purity, their good works, but
nevertheless He has something against them, that this church has left their
first love: Himself. They had begun to pursue all the trappings of religion and
had become entrapped. They had built up a gorgeous tower of charity and good
deeds, but they had forgotten who the foundation was. In seeking how better to
love and minister to others, they had somehow forgotten to love and minister to
Jesus Christ, their first love. Just like Mary and Joseph, they lost sight of
God, they left Jesus behind.
And that’s why I think God is
interested in these three words, if I find myself having left him behind, the
words: “Losing my religion”. In the face of religious duty, Mary and Joseph and
the church of Ephesus were doing what they were supposed to be doing, but in
religiously doing, they had lost sight of God. Amid all the ministries and
music, the charities and work, the good things, they had left God behind.
Perhaps that’s you. Perhaps that’s me.
We may be doing a lot of the right things in our lives. Maybe we’re not even
doing that. But maybe we think we’re doing pretty good. Maybe you think you’re
a Christian because you go to church. Maybe you think because you don’t smoke
or because you don’t cuss or because you don’t drink that you’re a Christian.
Maybe you think because you serve in the church, or because you talk about
Christ with others, or because you’ve got some God-given gift that you’re a
Christian. But a Christian, guys, is primarily defined as a follower not of
gifts or ministries or good works, but a follower of Christ. And if you lose
sight of Jesus as the foundation of your Christianity and your first love, then
you’ve lost sight of God just as surely as if you’ve left Him sitting at the
temple in Jerusalem and you’ve walked away.
Maybe you’re Christianity seems
largely lifeless. Is it because you’ve left the Giver of Life behind? Maybe you’re
Christianity seems hollow. Maybe because Christ cannot be found to fill it?
Maybe you’re Christianity seems boring. Maybe that’s because it isn’t built on
your first love, love, the most exciting emotion in existence! Maybe you’re
Christianity seems like a bunch of laborious, religious do’s and don’ts. Maybe
that’s because you’ve lost sight of the One those do’s and don’ts are meant to
honor and glorify?
If we’ve lost sight of God in our
Christianity, we’re sailors who have lost sight of the sea, we’re architects
who have lost sight of the blueprints, we’re scientists who have lost sight of
our science, painters who have lost sight of our art, and dreamers who have
forgotten our dreams.
Rather lose the religion and keep God.
Maybe you need to take a step back from a ministry or two. Maybe you need to
reevaluate some relationships. Maybe you need to re-decide some decisions.
Maybe you need to get your eyes off the peripherals and back where your eyes
belong. All of this “church-stuff” is a means to an end. The Church is not an
end in herself. The end is to glorify God.
Now check out Jesus’ response and what
it says about Him.
v.49,
these, ladies and gentlemen, are the very first recorded words of
God-in-the-flesh, the earliest recorded words uttered by God with physical
human vocal chords. This is the first thing Jesus says in all the gospels: “I must be about My Father’s business.”
Commentator David Guzik writes: “It is
impossible to say when, in the context of the self-imposed limitations of His
humanity, Jesus realized who He was and what He was sent to do, but it was
early - this is probably not when it began, but when it was in full flower.”
Jesus had already begun to realize
some sense of His unique relationship to God as His Father, a sensation which
is most likely what fueled His searching and learning there in the temple. And
the way in which He responds to Mary seems to suggest that He thought she ought
to have known about His special relationship to the Father. It was clear to Him
but maybe He didn’t realize it wasn’t clear to everyone else yet. Or maybe it
was something they had already discussed in their household, and yet Mary and
Joseph didn’t understand. They didn’t understand now.
But when a Jewish boy reached the age
of twelve that was when he began to learn his father’s trade. Jesus would later
adopt His earthly father’s trade and become a carpenter, but here He
demonstrates an understanding that He was here for a greater purpose, to be
about the business of His heavenly Father. And He was doing just that, in the only
way He knew how, by lingering behind in the city to be in His Father’s House
and to talk with those who were seeking His Father.
v.51-52,
Jesus continued to grow up and develop into a Man. Even though He had begun to
understand His true nature, note that it did not make Him arrogant. Rather, He
went back to Nazareth and remained subject to His parents. He went on to do
ordinary things for the next two decades until He would enter His public
ministry. In this time, He learned Joseph’s trade, supported His family, earned
wages, sought God His Father and was faithful in all the tiny duties of life.
He was faithful in the small things, before the time came to be faithful in the
biggest things.
Right now, maybe you’re just stuck in the
mundane at school or work or with your family. But sometimes God would have you
go through the mundane, the small things, before He presents you with the
biggest things. You might have a small sense of your destiny someday, but that
doesn’t come before your learn to grow in favor with God and men.
In closing, don’t lose sight of Jesus.
If there’s one thing to remember, it is lose religion and keep Jesus. Lose the
busy-ness. Lose the sense of drudgery and duty. Lose it all, but don’t lose
sight of Jesus.
And if you have, if you know and sense
that you’ve drifted away from your first love, if it seems like your experience
now as a Christian is far removed and dramatically colder than it was when you
first got saved and met the Lover of your soul, then I’d advise you to follow
the same instructions that Jesus gave to the Ephesian church: Remember where
you came from, Repent that you left Him, and Return to where you were before.
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