"The Christian Family Lives, Moves, and Breathes in Jesus" — Epiphany 1 2025

12. January 2025

Epiphany 1

Luke 2:41-52

His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Let’s do a thought experiment. Was it more important for Jesus to be in His Father’s house or submissive to Mary and Joseph? If you had to choose between being in church or doing what your parents (and authorities) tell you to do, which do you do? Do you prioritize family over faith or faith over family? In Luke’s telling, it seems that’s the tension or dichotomy at play.

And it's a game we love to play in our minds. Let’s call it the game of This or That. Not this but that. Or this but not that. We play this game to establish a hierarchy of values in our minds and hearts. Once established then, this hierarchy guides our thoughts, behaviors, and actions. It is the formation of habit. Everybody does it, otherwise, how could you go through life? Do you think every morning about whether to go to work or not? Do you actively decide between this or that all day? Most of what we do is habitual, automatic, and instinctual.

The hierarchy of values and the habits they create are developed in our so-called “formative years,” i.e., childhood. What you say and do with children will form the pattern of their thoughts, words, and deeds into adulthood. As any husband or wife can attest, there’s very little that changes or that they can change about their spouse. More often than not, the little annoyances become more aggravating as time passes. So act now for the children’s sake if you want to see them go down a different path.

We usually think of Jesus coming out of the womb fully formed, a little baby with a big God brain. Some Christian art creepily pictures the baby Jesus with a mature face. St. Luke wants to remind you that Jesus is both true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. He’s the Child, and then He’s the Boy. Confessing the mystery of the Incarnation, St. Luke asserts that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” The Word of God, Wisdom Made Man, grows in wisdom. Oh, what a mystery.

Where does this Wisdom come from? True Wisdom comes from God, revealed in His Holy Word. Wisdom was spoken by Patriarchs, Prophets, and Kings. These last months, we’ve focused together on the wisdom articulated by Solomon in our Bible Study and Congregation at Prayer. Each day, we’ve listened, asked questions, and grown in wisdom ourselves as we receive it in the Scriptures. You could pray through all 150 Psalms each week, an ancient practice, receiving the Psalter’s profound wisdom would change your life.

You might even be surprised that God’s Word can do what no other instruction can. He makes you like children again. Jesus softens the ossification of behavior and breaks the bad habits down one by one. Jesus reverses the normal course of aging, opening your hearts to a new life and innocence. He makes you curious and imaginative, delighting in things you’ve heard a thousand times before, giving you insight into yourselves, your neighbor, and the world that you’ve never seen before. In Jesus, you have child-like faith, hope, and love again.

But you might say, “It’s too late.” Or, “I can’t help myself.” Or “That’s not the way things are anymore.” Oh, really? Do you think God’s Word is impotent, powerless to accomplish what it says? Do you not know the sting of the Law and its accusations? How much more so, why doubt the Holy Spirit’s working through the forgiving Word and your Baptism to bring about the new, clean hearts you pray for? For Jesus, it’s never too late for Him to turn over a new leaf in you, returning, restoring, refreshing, repenting.

The only time the church is at odds with the family (or other authorities) is when the family rebels against God’s Word. Parents do so when they refuse to teach “all things” of God’s Word, hold their children to the standard of God’s Law, and forgive their children in Jesus’ Name where they fall short. Parents, repent and be forgiven! And children so so when they obstinately refuse to listen to their parents when they speak according to God’s Word and in Jesus' Name. Children, repent and be forgiven!

Do you see? Was it more important for Jesus to be in His Father’s house or submissive to Mary and Joseph? Do you choose between being in church or doing what your parents (and authorities) tell you to do? Do you prioritize family over faith or faith over family? The thought experiment was flawed from the beginning. There is no tension or dichotomy at play. God-fearing families dwell richly in God’s Word, confessing their sins and receiving forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name from each other. They live, move, and have their being with Jesus “at church” and home.

This Christian life of family is so counter-cultural as to be a mystery to us. Even the Holy Parents are perplexed: So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.

Jesus would grow in wisdom and stature according to His human nature, so His parents would grow in wisdom and stature and in favor of God and men. We wrongly assume they came prepackaged perfect parents for the perfect Son. But they, too, would grow and mature as parents, receiving wisdom from God’s Holy Word. “His parents went to Jerusalem yearly at the Feast of the Passover.” As pious believers, they would pray God’s Word daily in their homes, repeat from memory verses they learned from childhood; Joseph spoke with his fellow elders at the gate, Mary pondered the words of God’s angels, and as a family, attended to the Word and gifts in weekly divine service.

Does this sound familiar? Of course! We follow the pattern established by the first family and every God-fearing family since. We have God’s promise to parents: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). And that way is the Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Eventually, St. Mary would finally be given to see that every household is a microcosm of the Holy Church, the family of believers, as Jesus handed her over to St. John at the cross. The family and church are not so sharply divided; our homes are a multiplicity that finds unity in Jesus and His bride, the Church.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin