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Meet Father KempThe First Sunday after Epiphany– 10 January 2010
This past Christmas the Anglican Bishop of Croydon, Nick Baines, ruffled some Christian feathers when he said, “Some of the traditional carols perpetuate images of Christmas that have more to do with Victorian sentiment than the story we actually read in the gospels.”[1] Before we roll our eyes, throw our frustrated hands up in the air, and bemoan the godless bishops we Anglicans at times nominate, there is some truth in Bishop’s Baines words. One of the two songs the Bishop was referring to was the line in Once in Royal David’s City “Christian children all must be mild, obedient, and good as he.” Now there is a time and a place to tell our children they must be obedient and good (my children need to be told this at all times and in all places!), but the middle of a Christmas song extolling the glories of the incarnation is not an appropriate place. The second song the Bishop referred to was the ling in Away in the Manger “The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.” Nowhere does Scriptures tell us that Jesus was the only silent, cry less baby. In fact, Scripture makes in very clear that Jesus was a baby just like we were so we may reasonably conclude that he cried just like all babies. Bishop Baines might not have wisely uttered those words, but he was right, we do tend to make the stories of Jesus into romantic, fanciful ballads. In particular, we are tempted to romanticize the story in our Gospel, the boy Jesus left in the temple. We focus on the words “he went down with [Joseph and Mary], and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them…and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” We are tempted to think St. Luke tells us this story so that our hearts may be warmed by the cuteness of this handsome little Jewish boy who readily obeys his father and mother or we may be tempted to think less of our own children who are so unlike Jesus. I do not think St. Luke was anticipating sentimental Victorian literature when he recorded this story for our edification. I think St. Luke told this story because it beautifully summarizes Jesus’ life by revealing God’s business and our response.
One of the reasons I am lead to think this, is the structure of the first two chapters of Luke. Luke begins his Gospel in the temple when the angel Gabriel announced to Zechariah the coming birth of his son, John the Baptist. Then Luke moves to Nazareth, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is to be the mother of her Lord and Messiah. We are then told about John’s birth. Next, we are told of Jesus’ birth and the angelic hosts visiting the shepherds tending the sacrificial lambs in the wilderness. Luke then tells us about Jesus’ fulfillment of law through circumcision and his naming when he is officially given the name Jesus meaning God saves. Finally, Luke ends this section back in temple on Passover where the boy Jesus learns about His Father’s business. By beginning in the temple and ending in the temple and filling in the spaces with stories the Messiah’s forerunner and the shepherds tending the sacrificial lambs, St. Luke wants us to see that Jesus was born in order to be about God’s business of redemption. Furthermore, Luke records three songs that build upon God’s redemption, songs so important that they are three of the four principle canticles in Morning and Evening Prayer. First, we hear Mary’s song, the Magnificat, which poetically sings of God’s great mercy. Then we hear Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus, which praises God for sending a mighty saviour to redeem His people. Finally, we hear the Nunc Dimittis the song of Simeon, which he sung in the temple at Jesus’ circumcision extolling Jesus as God’s salvation for both the Jew and the Gentiles. The thematic progression of the songs is readily heard: God’s mercy, to God’s mercy reveal through the Messiah, to God’s mercy reveal through the Messiah in his salvation of both Jew and Gentile.
If the structure of the first two chapters of Luke were not enough to give us a clear glimpse of Jesus being about God’s business of redemption, Luke also includes three signs or we could use the fancy word motifs in Jesus’ first Passover visit to the temple that point us toward Jesus’ last Passover visit to the temple. First, Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem with this family on his first Passover and on his last Passover; he travels from Galilee to Jerusalem with his new family of disciples. Second, his family deserted Jesus in temple on his first Passover and his disciples deserted him near the temple on his last. Third, Jesus’ family desperately search for him three days until they find him on his first Passover and on his last Passover, Jesus’ disciples mourn for him three days until his resurrection.
For these reasons, I am inclined to believe the story of the boy Jesus in the temple is not the forerunner of Victorian sentimental literature, but a taste of the Gospel, which is the great story of God’s business of salvation wrought through Jesus Christ, the true and only Passover lamb. If this is a glimpse of the Gospel, how should we respond? St. Luke makes a powerful and often overlooked application: patience.
We know from Luke’s story that by the age of twelve, Jesus knew he had to be about his Father’s business of redemption and it is fair to say that since this story occurred in the temple during the Passover that Jesus knew how he was going to redeem God’s people by being their Passover Lamb. We have been taught that knowledge is power, but for Jesus knowledge is patience. Instead of rushing forth and claiming to be Israel’s Passover Lamb, Jesus went home. He listened to his father and mother, he subjected himself to their leadership and discipline, and he grew in favor amongst his contemporaries. Jesus waited eighteen years to begin his public ministry and another three years to accomplish God’s business of redemption upon the cross. This cuts across the grain of our culture of haste that distains a delayed response. Yet, patience is part and parcel of the gospel and we should expect it to be no different. We believe that we are saved by grace through faith as Article 11 of the Thirty-Nine Articles states, “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deserving.” Faith, according to the author of Hebrews, “is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) If we are saved through faith and faith is being certain of what we do not see, then we do not see our salvation. Our redemption accomplished upon the cross is not yet visible in our lives, even though we can be and should be fully assured of our redemption through God’s grace and even though in our justification we are actually and truly declared righteous and redeemed in God’s sight we still await our final and complete redemption. Therefore, just as Jesus knew he was the true Passover Lamb but patiently waited to become that lamb, so we know that through justification that we are declared righteous before God on account of Jesus’ sacrifice but we must patiently wait to become righteous; though we know that God has declared us to be redeemed, we must patiently wait for our redemption. As St. Paul said in Romans 8, “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Romans 8:23-25)
Here is the good news. We have not been left on our own as we patiently wait, the same God who has declared us to be redeemed in his Son and who has promised to one day complete our redemption has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit, as a down payment guaranteeing that he will be faithful, as St. Paul said in II Corinthians 5:5, “Not is it God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Therefore, in this time between God’s declaration of our redemption and the completion of our redemption we have been given the Spirit whose fruit is patience. Therefore through the work of the Spirit let us patiently wait for our final redemption and let us, through the same Spirit, grow in wisdom and stature with God so that in all things we may be made to resemble our Lord and Saviour Jesus.
[1] http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=18043
