Growing Up
Luke 2: 41-52
The psalmist, remembering the faithfulness of God in younger days and praying for God’s faithfulness when the psalmist is gray-headed in old age, connects with our theme this morning of growing up in faith. This summer, our sermon series is called “The Good Book: Meeting Our Ancestors in Faith One Story at a Time.” Sometimes the Bible can feel distant—the most recent parts of the Bible were written more than 1900 years ago. Sometimes the Bible can feel confusing; we don’t feel like we have the tools we need to understand what’s there. And sometimes we carry wounds because when we were children, the Bible was used to beat us over the head rather than guide our feet. In this series, we’re learning and relearning how these ancient stories relate to our here and now.
After I read this text, we’re going to sing a hymn, which is a little out of order in our usual pattern. I’m telling you that not just to remind you but also to remind myself. We’re turning now from the Old Testament to the New and looking at Luke Chapter 2. Jesus is still a boy at home with his family. In fact, this is the only story in Scripture of Jesus’ childhood. He is 12 years old; he’s a tween. As we listen and reflect on this story, I want to think with you about the theme of growing up and specifically how we grow in our faith. Listen for the word of God to us today.
“The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. And when he was 12 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 were unaware of this. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, 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 Jesus 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? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.’ 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. 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 divine and human favor. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.”
Please stand and sing.
Would you pray with me? Oh God, you know our whole selves—small and grown and everything in between. Help us remember through this reading of Scripture and through my preaching that you are always calling us to be our full selves. Help us to be ever more your good creation made manifest to the world through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Luke begins this story about Jesus saying, “The child grew, became strong, and filled with wisdom,” and he ends this story by saying, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” The boy is growing up; he’s becoming a fine young man. Growing up, reaching our full potential, growing into maturity is what we hope for each of us and for ourselves—that in every way, in the course of life, we will continue to grow.
When we are young, we grow physically. We grow taller; we grow stronger. Our features change. You may remember asking your parents, “Am I taller than you, Mom? Am I taller than you, Dad? How about Grandma? Am I taller than her?” She’s usually the first hurdle to cross. “Can I hold my breath for this long? Can I hold my breath now for that long? How fast did I run across the field? Time me!” You remember those markers of growing up.
We grow up mentally as well. We start by learning to count; we learn to recognize our alphabet, to sing our ABCs. At some point, we learn to read. Along the way, our parents are our mentors and teachers. For a while, our parent says, “Yes, I can help you with that,” and then after a while, our parent says, “No, I can’t help you with that,” and it turns over to our teachers and mentors. We get certificates, we graduate, we receive diplomas and degrees, we learn skills and knowledge. We grow.
We grow emotionally. We learn who we are, who God created us to be, and the shape of our identity, especially the shape of who we are as opposed to who others are and who they want us to be. A wonderful example of this is in the news this week: Simone Biles is going to compete in the Olympics again. But do you remember four years ago when Simone Biles competed? Remember how she had to drop out and grow her inner self to be able to return to the Olympics this year?
We grow in faith and in wisdom. The word that’s used here in this story is about as good as any to describe the kind of faith that we grow into. The word was translated “wisdom,” but it means three basic things. First, it means a basic knowledge of right and wrong. Second, it means practical life experience—knowing how to apply your knowledge of right and wrong in different situations. And third, it means an understanding of God’s revelation to us. So first, an understanding of basic right and wrong—your conscience, God’s law, what you should and shouldn’t do. Second, an understanding of practical wisdom—what does this mean, when, and how. And third, especially for us as Christians, an understanding of God’s grace and mercy to us in Jesus Christ. When you put those three things together and you grow in them, you grow in wisdom—a kind of spiritual wisdom or faith wisdom.
The amazing thing is that Jesus too had to grow in this kind of faith wisdom. I don’t know about you, but I often think of Jesus kind of coming out of the womb fully formed. I mean, yes, he had to grow up, but he didn’t have to grow spiritually. He kind of came out just as the Messiah. Well, in a sense, he did come out as the Messiah, but he also had to grow in wisdom; he had to grow in his own faith. This is the gift of the Incarnation: God made flesh. Jesus grew up in every way like us and went through every stage that we have to go through.
Now, the problem is, for us, it’s hard to get our arms around faith growth. It’s hard to get our arms around spiritual growth. Let me share with you what I mean. If I go to the Y and I put the pin in the 60-pound weight, I know that three weeks ago I put the pin in the 40-pound weight, and so now I can put the pin in the 60-pound weight. It’s not a lot of progress, but it’s some. I know that if I can do three miles in this amount of time, and next time I go I can do three miles in that amount of time, I’m growing. I can measure my physical growth. In the same way with mental or intellectual growth, I can get grades and more challenging courses, different curriculum, certificates, and degrees. I can chart how I’m growing in skills and knowledge. Even with emotional growth, you can do tests and profiles and assessments to get a sense of where you are emotionally.
But with spiritual growth, it’s hard to get our arms around it. It’s hard to get our arms around what it means to grow in faith. I think for many of us, faith is just a static thing, kind of in our life: Is it there or not? So, you can learn to say the Lord’s Prayer; you can learn to say the Apostles’ Creed, and many of you know how to say that, especially if you’re with a group—it kind of helps you fill in the pieces. You can learn the books of the Bible. You can join a small group, as we’re going to hear about later. The session of our congregation is asking us to take this step of faith in joining small groups that give us community and study and accountability—three things that are really, really important for growth. We can create the containers for growth in faith, but it’s hard to get our arms around it. It’s hard to know what the goal is or how we know when we’re accomplishing it.
Growing in faith and wisdom is not like growing physically, mentally, or emotionally. It’s not something we can control. We can create the conditions for it, but we can’t make it happen. When Scripture refers to growing in faith, it often uses the analogy of fruit, and that’s very important. If any of you have planted a tomato plant this summer, you know that you put that seed in the ground and you can water it, you can fertilize it, you can watch it grow, you can treat it for pests, but you cannot make a tomato appear on that vine. That’s God’s job; it just has to happen. Growth in faith that comes by the Spirit is fruit that is born organically. We can create the conditions for growth, but the fruit has to come as a gift of the Spirit.
This story tells us something important about how we grow in our faith, about growing up spiritually, but we have to pay close attention to it. We have to look not only at Jesus in the story; we also have to look at Mary and Joseph because Jesus was growing, but so were Mary and Joseph growing. And as every child will tell you, as they grow, their parents grow too.
So, look with me at this story and pay close attention to the dynamics between Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Jesus and his family and members of his village are all traveling to Jerusalem for Passover together. This tells us something about the context Jesus grew up in. He grew up in a tight-knit community village where people knew each other, and they didn’t mind traveling as a whole group and kind of losing track of each other every now and then.
It also tells us that he grew up in a pious family because they did not need to go for Passover every year, but they chose to, kind of like coming to Holy Week services on Thursday and Friday. They were a pious family; they chose to do this. They traveled together to Jerusalem, they spent Passover there, and then on the way back, they were traveling again as a group, and Mary and Joseph weren’t tracking Jesus very well until they stopped for the night and realized that he wasn’t there.
This is a little hard for us as parents today to believe because we always know where our kids are. When they’re 12 or 13, we give them a phone and we track their every movement with a phone. Before that, we stick an AirTag in their backpack, and we know exactly where they’re going. But this was a different time, and Mary and Joseph were giving Jesus the right kind of emotional and physical space for him to grow. They were giving him some freedom, but they wanted to know he was there at night, and he wasn’t. So, they went back to Jerusalem, a day’s journey.
The amazing thing is they spent the next three days looking for him. So, that’s four days without their child. I lost my youngest child one time for five minutes in a playground, and I lost it. I cannot imagine what it was like to lose Jesus for four days in Jerusalem. Every child is special, every parent loves their child. You know how you would feel if you lost your child. How would you feel if you lost the Son of God? I mean, this child that the angel had talked to Mary about, and now he’s gone.
Where did they find him? They found him in the temple. The temple was a place of discussion and learning. It was a place where people went for business and commerce, for worship and teaching. And during the week, it was not quite like a church. It wasn’t quiet; it was actually busy every day. Jesus spent his time with the leading religious experts in his country, discussing scripture with them, asking them questions, and listening to their answers. And they would ask him questions and listen to his answers.
This is a very important point in this story that Luke wants to make. From the beginning of this story, from the time that the angel first hovered over Mary, Luke has wanted us to know that this is not an ordinary kid. Not every kid in Israel could have done this. Luke wants us to know that Jesus is a special person, a divine human person with a divine commission, and this once more reinforces it. At 12 years old, he can sit with the leading experts in his country and discuss scripture.
That’s a key point of this, but I want you to go to the next part, the interaction between Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Maybe you have a notebook or a journal where you record what happens in your child’s life, some special moment or conversation. Or maybe you can remember a time when you saw your kid, and you realized they’re not the same. They’re growing up. There’s distance between us. They are somebody different now. This is what’s about to happen to Mary and Joseph.
Mary and Joseph come and find Jesus, and they say to Jesus, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” How do they see him? They see him as a little boy, as a kid. Any parent can relate to losing their kid. Jesus responds in a way that shifts the ground, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I had to be in my Father’s house?” It’s kind of hard to translate that, but it’s really important. These are the first things that Jesus has ever said in the Gospel of Luke. This is the first time he opens his mouth, “I have to be in my Father’s house.” Sometimes that’s translated as, “I have to be about my Father’s business.”
What does this mean? It means that Jesus is saying, “I have to be aligned with God’s purpose.” So, he’s contrasting his heavenly Father with his earthly father. He’s contrasting God’s house and temple, where God is, with the house back in Nazareth where all his toys and clothes are. He’s contrasting his identity as their son with his identity as the Son of God. And he’s saying, and these are the words of Joel Green, a commentator, “Not even familial claims take precedent over Jesus aligning himself uncompromisingly on the side of God’s purpose.”
Jesus is saying to his parents, “I have to be aligned with God’s purpose, no matter what.” It’s kind of an identity marker in the ground. Mary and Joseph had no idea what he was talking about, but notice how the story ends. It began by saying they went up to Jerusalem. It ends by saying he went with them. There’s space, there’s distance. He went with them and was obedient to them as he continued to grow up. Mary treasured all these things in her heart. She wrote them in the book, and Jesus continued to grow, but now there’s distance, and he’s growing, and they are growing too.
So, what light does this story shed for us on how we grow in faith? What does it tell us about what happens, how this gift of faith is received? What does it tell us that allows us to get our arms around how we grow in faith and wisdom? Let me zero in on this. Mary and Joseph thought they knew where Jesus was. They assumed he was with them until they realized he wasn’t, and they had to go searching for him until they found him.
The basic dynamic of growing in faith as a disciple of Jesus is this dynamic: thinking you know where Jesus is, realizing he’s gone, and then going to search for him until you find him. N.T. Wright puts it this way, “We mustn’t assume that Jesus is accompanying us as we go off on our business. But if we sense the lack of his presence, we must be prepared to hunt for him, to search for him in prayer, in the scriptures, in the sacraments, and not give up until we find him again.” That’s how we grow. For the Christian, the basic dynamic of growing in faith and wisdom is searching for Jesus and aligning ourselves with him.
You know, often when children come down in the Children’s Moment or when we talk to kids, we assure them that Jesus is with you. Has anyone ever told you that Jesus is with you? He’s always with you. Wherever you go, Jesus is going to be there. Jesus will never leave you. It’s a wonderful assurance to give to children, and it is partly true. The problem is, when we grow up, if we keep just that part of the truth, then we think that Jesus kind of becomes like our buddy who rides shotgun with us wherever we go. Jesus wants to be with us but is also there to bless our opinions and our ideas and our decisions, but not to challenge us or press us or call us to a different place. We assume that Jesus is simply with us as we go about our business.
Incidentally, this is the heart of what’s wrong with Christian nationalism. We haven’t talked much about Christian nationalism, but I know that many of you have thought about it and talked about it. If we want to cut right to the chase of the theological problem that’s wrong with Christian nationalism, it is the assumption that Jesus is just with us, that Jesus looks like us, acts like us, thinks like us, would make decisions like us, and will not challenge us to be different. Growing up in faith and wisdom is realizing that Jesus is not always where we are, and that our calling and challenge when we realize that is to find where he is.
Let me give you some examples from Jesus’ own teaching. Jesus was always inviting people to follow him. He was radically inclusive in terms of who could follow him. He crossed many of the boundaries of his day, but he also challenged those who followed him to align themselves with God’s purpose. Last week, our Gospel reading was from Matthew about forgiveness. Do you remember the man who came and asked Jesus about his brother? He said, “You know, I’ve got this brother that keeps wronging me, and I keep forgiving him. How many times do I have to do this?” It happened to be a brother; it could have been a coworker, a spouse, a neighbor. Basically, he’s saying, “How many times do I have to forgive this person before I can just write him off? Is it two times, three times, as many as seven times? Surely that’s enough.”
Jesus says, “Not seven times. 490 times. Seven times seventy.” He’s saying, “Don’t keep count. The challenge is to continue to forgive.” And that lands with us too, as a challenge in a culture of scorekeeping and vengeance. How many times will we forgive?
Maybe you remember when the children were hanging out around Jesus, kind of causing a disturbance. You’ve seen little kids be disruptive before, and the disciples said, “Well, maybe we need to get these kids away, and that way Jesus can talk with the adults. We’ll have them on the playground over there.” And Jesus said, “No, no. Make way for them. Let them come.” And here’s the challenge: “Unless you come into the Kingdom of Heaven like a child, you will never enter it.” Now, what does that say about our pretensions, about our pridefulness, about our desire for knowledge and skill? For Jesus to say that unless you come with the kind of innocence and unknowing of a child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Do you remember the person who said he wanted to follow Jesus? He said, “You know, I’ve been following you for a while. I understand what you’re teaching. I like what I’m hearing. I’d like to follow you.” What did Jesus say to him? Well, he was a wealthy man. “You need to sell all you have, and then you can follow me.” And what was Jesus saying? He wasn’t saying that only you have to be poor to follow him. What he was doing was he was seeing through this man and realizing that he had built his identity on his wealth. Who he was was built on his wealth and accomplishments. And Jesus was saying, “If you want to follow me, get in touch with who you truly are. Let go of the false identity that you’ve built on top of your wealth and accomplishments. Follow me as who God truly created you to be.” And there’s the challenge.
Do you remember the disciples were debating who was going to sit next to Jesus, who would have power, who could be on his right side and his left side and tell everybody else what to do? And Jesus said, “This is the way it is in the Kingdom of Heaven. If you want to be first, you must be last. If you want to be the greatest, you must be the least. Strength is found in weakness. Leadership is found in humility. Power is exercised through servanthood.” This is the challenge that Jesus offers.
If you want to have some fun this afternoon, take the Gospel of Mark. It’s the shortest of the Gospels; it’s shorter than the New York Times. Read it from start to finish, and make a note every time of when Jesus is challenging some belief, expectation, or assumption. That’s how we grow in faith and wisdom, realizing that Jesus is not always where we are, but striving to find him where he is, to align ourselves with him there. What is the mind of Christ on any issue that you and I are facing in our life or world? How do we seek out the mind of Christ? What is Jesus thinking about this?
Growing in faith is not like growing physically. There are no percentiles. Nobody’s ever going to say, “You know, Mary, you’re a 95th percentile Christian.” And there’s no tests or graduations or degrees. There’s not even a therapist who will ever say to you, “You know, I don’t think we need to meet anymore. You’ve really resolved this. You’ve got a good foundation. Just go.” Growing in faith is always out in front of us. The movement along our whole journey is to find Jesus and be with him there, and so align our lives with God’s purpose.
Would you pray with me? Living God, help us to grow more and more into the people you desire us to be, into the image of your son Jesus Christ. Give us grace to trust that you want to grow us and not to grade us. Help us to always seek you in humility, seeking your mercy and grace and truth. And by your Spirit, help us to find you. And when we find you, give us the grace to rejoice in your presence. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rev. Patrick W. T. Johnson, Ph.D.
First Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina