December 29th Reflection by Bill Lynch

Luke 2:41-52
The Boy Jesus in the Temple

 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 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. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

Reflection
What strikes me in this passage on this day isn't so much the shock of not knowing where your child is while travelling for a day, but rather how Jesus seems to be living and learning and growing. With some simple research into this passage I find there are some who believe this was more about Jesus teaching in the Temple. Even artists interpretations of Jesus standing while the teachers listened. But what I get out of this passage is a wonderfully curious boy learning about his religion and being fascinated about how God has worked throughout time in the lives of so many people.

I can relate to this in my own fascination with the Bible and the teachings of the Church as a child. Loving the stories of the Bible and looking at the pictures of the small hand-outs that were so neatly folded by Sunday School teachers and placed into my shirt pocket. Saturdays spent in Catechism and Junior Choir. The moments as an acolyte and the emotions the Lord's Prayer would give me. The tingles up the spine while in worship that felt the closeness of God in a message, a song or a prayer. I can understand Jesus wanting to be  in the Temple and the questions he must have asked.

What fascinates me is that God would allow Jesus to be a child and to grow in wisdom, something similar to like many of us grow as a child. I don't buy the idea that Jesus was like some Wonder Child doing super human things as a little boy. I don't see that evidence in the Bible and I respect those Spirit inspired people who chose the books that would be contained in what we know today as the Bible. In this passage, I do see a child as a human child that is curious and desires to grow in wisdom. Sure, not all children were this way, but some are this way.

So God comes to us as a Baby in a manger. God comes to us in the attempt to understand the wonder of God. God comes to us in the questions of the teachers in the Temple. God comes to us as a little boy wanting to learn more and more and more. God comes to us fully human like the rest of us. God comes to us in a Jesus that is so excited about his faith that he seems to forget time and space.

I can relate to this passage and am overjoyed knowing that God comes to us in our curiosity of God and all of God's wondrous ways of entering into our lives and our hearts. Reading this passage makes me want to dig deep... really deep... to ask questions... and to question things that other's would never question for fear of the authorities. After all, isn't that what Jesus would do?

Prayer
Jesus, thank you for your curiosity. Thank you for being like us. Thank you for coming to us as a baby and as a young child with all the features of a child. I'm never going to grow up, so put up with my questions, my curiosity and my play. Billy wants to come out and play... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen