Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ s2

Luke 2:41-52 St Peter 4-01-2015

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

1. Jesus was a teenager!

He begins to go his own ways. Some people, some things have become more important than parents - Twitter and Facebook, or the peers at school, or friends, or a football star, or a political leader. The parents do not understand! How many teen- agers have experienced this: my parents don't understand! Well, they have to bear the consequences. If the teenager gets into trouble, the parents must bail him out. In this case, just imagine going back all the way in the heat of the sun and spending three days looking for him. We are not surprised that the parents were not very pleased: "How can you do this to us!" But he shows no signs of being sorry. On the contrary, he talks back: don't you know ... ? So what we have here seems to be a rather familiar story – a teenager in conflict with his parents. The Mother keeps this in her heart - as resentment, or as a treasure? Of course, mothers do not forget. Mothers have to endure a lot: giving birth, breast feeding, getting up countless times in the night to tend to her crying baby.

2. So Jesus was a normal human being.

Why is this story important? No other document in the New Testament is inter- ested in the childhood of Jesus, only Luke. Yet it is very good that we have this story. It shows us that Jesus was a real human being, no different from us. He was born; he needed nappies as a baby. As a Jewish child he was circumcised, just as our children get baptised. He grew in understanding, age and grace - bodily and spiritually. I still remember that we stood against the wall every year to see how tall we had become. So he had a normal human childhood. Later on in his life he struggled with God for clarity. In the Hebrews 2 we read that he had to learn obedience through suffering – and become like his brothers in all re- spects. All this is important, because we are to share his new life. We cannot become divine; we can only become truly human through him, who was truly human.

3. What is it to be truly human?

The true human being is a human being that is close to God. As a teenager Jesus did not run away to escape discipline, to have fun, to get drunk with his friends, to have sex, to come back late, to engage in irresponsible and dangerous activities. No, he was in the temple and listened to those who knew the law. According to Jewish customs, at 12 a boy became of age spiritually; from that age onwards he had to keep the law. So he had to learn the ropes – he listened to the scribes to learn the law. The teachers were surprised about his spiritual maturity, his interest, his ques- 2 tions, his commitment. It was clear that God's ways and God's will were more important for him than everything else. Teachers and pastors love such kids! It was a sort of confirmation class; or a youth camp. You go there without your parents. You are in good hands, parents don't have to worry.He just had an overriding priority: the will of God, his father, was more important than anything else, and he forgot that he also had a human father and mothers who might be highly inconveni- enced by his inconsiderate act. He could at least have informed them that he wanted to stay a bit longer.

4. The obedience of children

The text can teach us some further lessons! Children must be obedient to their parents as long as they are not mature enough to take charge of their lives. They have not gathered the knowledge, the experience, and the norms of behaviour of their culture to be on their own, to earn a living, to be independent. So during childhood parents must take responsibility for the children. The ancient Israelites were extremely strict in this regard: a young man who disobeyed his father was to be stoned to death. As long as the father lived, the son was subservient to him. The text says that Jesus went with his parents to Nazareth and that he was obedient to them. The Jewish community survived over two thousand years because they brought up their children in their culture and their faith. We are surprised to learn that Mary and Joseph could travel for three days without knowing where their child was. What kind of parents were they? We have to note, however that during festivals 50 000 extra pilgrims flocked into in Jerusalem; pilgrims travelled in village communit- ies. So, just as in traditional Africa, there was a communal spirit. The whole village acted as parents. So parents simply trust that their children are safe among them. Today it has become very different. The community has broken apart to a large extent. If parents do not care, children are on their own. They want their freedom and they are given that freedom – to the extent that often parents and teachers become the slaves of their kids. It is no longer a matter of shut up and obey! This new approach has its advantages because the children learn from the outset that they have to make their own observations, to assess the situation, to take their own decisions, and to face the consequences of their decisions. In this respect the new kind of education is superior to the older one. But it also has its dangers. Children often do not learn that life is tough; that you have to work for a living; there are limitations to their greed and their freedom. As a teacher in Germany once told us: they have become ego-monsters! For their part, parents feel entitled to neglect their children. Young fathers cannot care less if they have fathered a child. Young mothers just drop their children in the lap of their grandmothers. Even in more normal families, parents provide their kids with a cell phone, a video game or a TV show and then they are out of the way. However, we gradually discov- er that Facebook and Twitter cannot substitute for the warmth, the love, the protec- tion, the guidance of a mother and a father. 3

5. The responsibility of parents

The text speaks of the mother and the father of Jesus – and this is how it should be. That so many children grow up without a father, even without a mother these days is very bad. According to research done by the Human Sciences Research Council only 33% (that is one out of three) children in South Africa grow up with both parents. Al- most 40% grow up with only their mothers. What about the remaining 30%? Children need the firmness, the stability, the reliability of a father. Boys need a role model. Therefore there is no substitute for a stable marriage - we owe this to the next generation! Never, never put a child into the world without taking full responsibility for it until it matures! Never think that others will look after it. Nobody has forced you to make a child – it was your own decision, or your own carelessness, or your own weakness (I am not talking about the girls that have been raped!)

6. But then there came a time when Jesus came of age.

When you come of age, you must find your own way through life. You are responsible only to God. You must no longer try to obey your parents, or your ancestors. You are now responsible to God – and to God alone! When Jesus had grown up and was busy with his ministry, he told his mother and brothers who were looking for him that his disciples were his brothers and sisters - those who do the will of God. The text is very clear on this: God, our Father, is more important than our human parents. Parents and ancestors have no right to determine the lives of their offspring after they have reached maturity. They have their own lives to live in responsibility to God and the community.