Sermon for the Second Sunday After Christmas
No Longer at the Temple for Epiphany, but for Christmas
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ! Amen. In today's Gospel, the King of the Universe gives us a
picture of manner in which He subjected Himself for us and for our
salvation. After a few days in Jerusalem that proved disturbing for His
parents, boy Jesus "went down with them [from Jerusalem] and came to
Nazareth and was submissive to them."
Dear Christian friends,
Historically, today's Gospel was preached during Epiphany.
Epiphany is the season that focuses on the visual display of God's glory in
the human body of Jesus. Other historic Gospels for Epiphany include the
miracle at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1-12); the
cleansing of a leper and the restoration of a centurion's servant (Matthew
8:1-13); the calming of the stormy sea (Matthew 8:23-27); and the
Transfiguration of our Lord (Matthew 17:1-9), when Jesus' "face shone like
the sun, and His clothes became as white as light" (Matthew 17:2). In each
of these Gospels, some aspect of Jesus' divine nature is displayed for you,
so that you may learn and know that this Child born of Mary is indeed "the
Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26).
When today's Gospel gets preached in Epiphany, it is preached in
such a way as to display Jesus' divinity for you, just like all the other
Epiphany Gospels. For example, Luther preached that today's Gospel shows
that Jesus "is not an ordinary but an extraordinary child, as He secretly
withdraws from His parents and oversteps the discipline which all children
owe their parents" (The House Postils, volume 1, p. 225). Stated another
way, Jesus displays His divine glory-His Epiphany glory-in today's Gospel by
staying in His Father's house. By so doing, Jesus is showing that "He was
not only His mother's son, but also her Lord and God" (Ibid., 226). Jesus
stays behind in Jerusalem because He is answerable to a much higher
authority than that of His parents. "And He said to them, 'Why were you
looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?'"
That would make a fine sermon also for today, if today's Gospel
had remained a Gospel for the season of Epiphany. That has changed with the
newer series of readings we now follow. It is not yet Epiphany. Today we are
still in the Christmas Season, on the Second Sunday after Christmas. Today's
Gospel is no longer an Epiphany Gospel, but it has now become for us a
Christmas Gospel (much to the chagrin of some of my dearest fellow pastors).
Epiphany focuses on the revelation and display of God's glory in
Christ. Christmas does not do that. Christmas focuses on God the Son's entry
into our human flesh. Where Epiphany displays for us the divine nature of
the human Christ, Christmas calls us to marvel at the fact that the divine
would even bother to come and join to the human. Epiphany shows us that
there is much more to Jesus than usually meets the eye. Christmas shows us
that our God went into hiding, as it were, voluntarily containing Himself in
our human likeness, hiding Himself within our human flesh, subjecting and
enslaving Himself to us-for us.
Today's Gospel makes for a good Christmas Gospel, just as it makes
for a good Epiphany Gospel. If this Gospel in Epiphany declares that Jesus
is an extraordinary Child (per Luther), this Gospel during Christmas points
us to the extraordinary thing that this extraordinary Child has done: He
subjected Himself to His parents. "He went down with them [from Jerusalem]
and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."
Your Lord did not submit to His parents because they were greater
than He. He is greater than them. Your Lord did not submit to them because
of the Fourth Commandment, which requires that we honor our father and our
mother. Jesus is greater even than the obligation of the commandment. Jesus
submitted Himself to Mary and Joseph for one reason. That one reason can be
stated in one word: love-love for Joseph, love for Mary, love for your
neighbor, and love also for you. Jesus "came to Nazareth and was submissive
to them" because He loves you.
· Because He loves you, Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary.
· Because He loves you, Jesus submitted to circumcision and to all the
worship forms of the Old Testament. That is the First Table of the Law and
Jesus took upon Himself the First Table of the Law when He was circumcised
(New Year's Eve) and when Simeon met Him in the temple (First Sunday after
Christmas).
· Because He loves you, Jesus submits to His parents. That is the Second
Table of the Law and today Jesus takes up the Second Table for you. That is
to say, today's Gospel shows you Jesus gladly stepping under and entering
into and obeying the Fourth Commandment and with it every other commandment.
Jesus does this, not because He is bound by these commandments, but because
you were once bound, gagged, imprisoned and condemned by these commandments.
The God who gave the Law today makes Himself less than the Law and
answerable to it. In this Gospel, the God who created Mary and Joseph makes
Himself less than Mary and Joseph by voluntarily submitting to them. That is
the essence of Christmas.
Think of what Jesus' humble love, displayed in today's Gospel,
means for you, for the way you think about yourself, and for the way you
treat your neighbor:
1. First, this wonderful Christmas Gospel shows you that there is no
part of your life that is beneath your God's dignity. There is no part of
your life that He considers unworthy of His presence and grace. Even those
lowly days of your childhood-those days during which you were instructed by
your parents and answerable to them-even those days belong to belong to this
God who subjects Himself to His parents for you. This is a beneficial Gospel
for all of us, but especially for you who are still children and still under
your parent's domination. Dear children, learn from this Gospel to obey your
parents and to be subject to them, even when they require you to do things
you do not like to do, such as washing dishes or taking out garbage. Even
more than that, dear children, take comfort from this Gospel while you are
doing those things your parents require. Think of your Lord Jesus while you
are carrying out your tasks, and thank Him that He did all of these things
before you because He "came to Nazareth and was submissive to them."
2. Secondly, this Gospel also gives you a good reason to treat your
neighbor kindly, and to faithfully keep the Ten Commandments because you
love your neighbor. Because Jesus died and rose again, giving you
forgiveness of all your sins-and because Jesus promises you your own
resurrection from the dead and live everlasting-you are now "partakers in
the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). When you were baptized, you died to sin
(Romans 6:6-11) and God's Ten Commandments now have no hold over your or
condemnation for you any more. Stated another way, because you have been
joined to Christ, you are no more obligated to keep the commandments that
Christ Himself was obligated to keep them.
Look at what Jesus does for you today. He who is above the commandments
submits Himself to them in every way. Jesus does not do this because of
necessity, but He keeps the commandments because of love. That is to say,
Jesus keeps the commandments for His neighbor's sake-for your sake-and not
for His own sake.
How much more should you carefully mark and strive to keep the same
commandments of God, not out of necessity but out of love? You, like Jesus,
have been lifted above the commandments. You are no longer bound by the Law
because your Lord Jesus Christ has set you from all sin, from death, and
from the power of the Law. But look at this Gospel: Jesus "went down with
them [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them." In
the same way, so must you submit yourself to God's commandments out of love
and for your neighbor's sake. This Christmas Gospel shows you that Jesus
obeyed His parents because He loves you. How much more shall you obey
authority, protect your neighbor's body and possessions, limit your sexual
activity to marriage, and suppress your covetous desires?
3. A third benefit of today's Christmas Gospel is that it displays for
you a Jesus who does all things for you. Even more than doing for you what
you cannot do, Jesus in today's Gospel does for you the things you do not
even want to do. What child has ever love his mother and father with a pure,
unadulterated love? Only this Child in today's Gospel. What son or daughter
has ever been able to set aside every shadow of selfishness for the sake
serving another wholeheartedly and without expectation of return? Only this
Son, born of Mary and subjected to Joseph. In so subjecting Himself, your
Lord has begun to pave the road to your salvation. In this Gospel, the Lamb
of God born to Mary shows Himself to be a lamb without blemish or defect (1
Peter 1:19), the perfect sacrifice for you. The activity of Christ's
obedience for your salvation begins here in His passivity to His parents.
Jesus "went down with them [from Jerusalem] and came to Nazareth and was
submissive to them."
Merry Christmas, my dear Christians! The peace of God which passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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