Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our
Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Amen
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions. And all who heard him were
amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his
mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in
great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know
that I must be in my Father's house?”
In the Name of Jesus
It
is a long process when a company decides it is time to move on from a current
CEO and seek after “fresh ideas”. It is
a long grinding process which includes a lot of questions that need to be asked
both of the company itself, so they know what direction they wish to go, but
also of the candidates they choose to interview because they need to know, they
need to be certain that the chose someone who will be able to take them down
the right path.
After
questions are asked, references need to be checked, backgrounds double checked,
and credentials even triple checked. The
goal at the end of the hiring process is to be able to state with absolute certainty
“THIS IS HE/SHE!” “This is the one that
we have been waiting for!” Perhaps you
have been a part of this type of process before, and therefore know how good it
feels to exclaim those type of words.
Believers
in the time before the birth of Christ, even after, have found themselves
asking, testing, examining a lot of people to find out if they were the
promised Messiah, the one anointed by God.
This was an important process.
They spent their lives waiting for the fulfilling of the promises made
for centuries. A savior was coming, one
who would lead them into the Promised Land, but when?!
The
one many believed to be this Promised One is the one whose birth we just
celebrated. If what the angel Gabriel had to say, or the angels
who appeared to the shepherds, or the shepherds themselves who came bearing
witness, or even the magi who came from the east who come looking for the one
told of in ancient Scripture were any indication, then all searching was
over. Everything pointed to the child
born in the manger, behind the inn, in Bethlehem as the Promised One.
But
as the child grew, as he began his public ministry, the excitement turned into
disappointment as they witnessed the actions of this so called “Messiah”. Not only did he become close friends with a
tax collector and fishermen, he went into their homes, he ate with them, he
touched diseased people, he touched dead bodies which meant he was
unclean. They even accused him of
blasphemy after a while as he began to teach that he and the Father were
one. Moreover, this self-proclaimed Son
of God succumbed to the threats and punishments given and died.
Imagine
the terror which Mary and Joseph had to have felt when they realized they lost
the Promised One! They were traveling
home from a festival in Jerusalem and one day’s journey into the trip, Jesus is
gone… They were entrusted with the care
of the Son of God and he was GONE! When
they find him, not just sitting in the temple in Jerusalem, but speaking and
asking questions, his response is telling.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his
understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.
And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in
great distress.” He
answers Mary Why were you looking for
me? Did you not know that I must
be in my Father's house?
He
had escaped from his parents care and he tells them did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? In essence, did you not know that I must be in my father’s
house and therefore about my father’s business?
For all who wondered about whether or not he was the true Messiah, it is
laid out right here. Friends in Christ,
THIS IS HE! He came to complete his
father’s business. He came to complete
that which we confess in the second article of the Apostle’s Creed. Let’s take a minute to read this
together. LSB 322, the Second Article of
the Creed with Explanation.
The Second Article:
Redemption
And in
Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Plate, was crucified, died and
was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does
this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from
eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. Who has
redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins,
from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with
His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may
be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead,
lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
This is His Father’s business. This is what he came willingly, cheerfully,
and solely to do. What is even more
amazing is that, while he came to be in his father’s house and about his
father’s business, he came to be about our business. Yes the Father sent him to earth to
accomplish his plan for eternal salvation.
But who is this plan really about?
Who is this plan for? It is for
you! He came and suffered, died, from,
and ascended back into Heaven for you.
All those who have, in faith, wondered if this
was truly the Messiah can with gusto exclaim “THIS IS HE!” This is the one people of all times and
places have waited for. He is the one
who would and did put an end to sacrifices because he was the perfect
sacrifice. He was and is the one who
would intervene for us, who stands in our place pleading for us at the throne
of the Father. He is the one who took our sin and guilt so that we would have His perfection.
Even though Mary and Joseph didn't understand what
he said at the time, we read in our text that Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. She held this event, the words of the
shepherds that night, the words of Gabriel together and was able to see that
this truly was the promised one. To
answer one of the popular Christmas songs, Mary Did You Know, yes she did! She and Joseph knew the mission, the purpose
of this Child. That he had come to do
His Father’s will.
While our sermon hymn isn't one of the well-known
Christmas songs in our hymnal, it serves as a great reminder, a great proclamation
of the Child born in Bethlehem. I love
the third verse. “This is he whom seers
in old times, chanted of with one accord.
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word. Now he shines the long expected. Let creation praise it’s Lord.”
Friends in Christ, THIS IS HE! This is the one who fulfills His Father’s
demands perfectly. This is the one who fulfilled
his Father’s will perfectly. This is the
one whose birth, life, and death and bee foretold of for thousands of
years. Now, in Luke’s Gospel, twelve
years after his birth, he states it with his own mouth. Why
were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?
Praise God for the birth of his foretold Son. Born for us, born for the world. Praise God that he came to fulfill all that
which was foretold beginning at the fall of man in the garden. So that he could one day, return to his
creation and call it home.
Amen
+SDG+
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