2nd
Epiphany
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| Jesus Among the Doctors, Durer |
January 17,
2016
Luke 2, 41 - 5
Every year his [Jesus’]
parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve
years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled
the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they
thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day’s journey they
missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they
returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
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| Tissot |
After three days they
found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to
them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his
mature understanding and his answers.
And when they saw him,
they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done
this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great
distress.”
And he said to them, “Why
did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is
my Father’s?”
But they did not
understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with
them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.
And his mother carefully
kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in
maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man.
2nd Epiphany
January 17,
2016
Luke 2, 41 - 5
Twelve is a number of
completion. The thirteenth begins a new cycle. We might think of January as the
thirteenth month of the past year, a month that both looks back and looks
ahead.
In their forty years of wandering
the desert, the Hebrew people had something that remained the same – the commandments,
written in stone. Their God was a God of Anchoring Permanence, who accompanied
them in all their changing circumstances.
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| Durer, inset |
With Jesus things began to
change. At twelve he undergoes a process in the temple that changes him so
radically that his parents barely recognize him; they cannot understand what he
is saying. This is the development of a God of Transformations, a God of Change.
He will continually change and transform in his life on earth. And like John
his predecessor, He will encourage his followers also to change their hearts
and minds. At the same time, his is not a rebellious overthrow of the past; he
still honors what was written in stone. Instead he will amplify the meaning of
the commandments, giving them even greater depth and nuance, greater meaning.
Our lives too have a
mixture of permanence and change. We can remember and honor the immutable. And at
the same time we can develop the flexibility and fluidity to operate with
nuance in the midst of change. Christ is the great teacher of transformation.
He gives us the strength and the flexibility for all the changing conditions of
our lives. And like the mother, we are to keep all these things living in our hearts.
