Bible Text: Ecclesiastes 5:10-14; Luke 1:41-52 / Mark 4 | Pastor: Pastor Jason Bryant |   One time, when Ben was just about to turn three, I took him with me to the Food Lion right up the road from our house.  Oh, we’d been there dozens of times in the past together but this day, for whatever reason, Ben decided he really didn’t want’ to ride in the cart.  I nervously agreed to his request vowing internally to keep my hands and eyes on him at all times.

  Then we got to the cereal aisle and I was trying to find a box of Grape Nuts, top shelf at the Food Lion in Mount Holly in case you’re ever looking for it.  As I scanned the shelves for that little white box, for just a second I’m convinced, I was neither looking at nor holding onto my two-year-old son.  Well, for those of you who know Benji, you know he’s got a lot of energy, so while I searched for that box of cereal, Ben abled off and into another aisle. 

  As I emerged victorious from my cereal search, I looked down to discover the Ben was gone.  Adrenaline coursed throughout my body like never before and my heart filled with dread.  “He’s gone” I said aloud as I went scrambling to find him. 

  Thankfully, all it took was for me to turn the corner and look up the next aisle.  There I discovered Benjamin staring at an assortment of cans which I’ve got to figure he was only a beat from pulling over. 

  So, I’ve got to confess – today’s lectionary reading from the Gospel of Luke always leaves me a bit flummoxed.  Theologically, I can see the vital need for Jesus to remain sinless for us and for our salvation.  At the same time though, we come upon this passage from the Gospel of Luke and my heart really goes out to Mary and Joseph.  I can’t help but put myself in Mary and Joseph’s place looking for their 12-year-old son for three long days.

  And so, like I said, Jesus behavior here isn’t sinful, going to learn more about God the Father while leaving his parent’s searching high and low all over Jerusalem for him.  But still, I wonder what Mary and Joseph would’ve thought about Jesus choosing learning over dutifully following them home.

  There are a host of good topics for sermons nestled within the verses of this passage.  A faithful pastor could talk about the specialness of Jesus.  There’s a preachable sermon in this passage that would highlight the nature of Jesus to be doing things in an unexpected manner.  One could easily talk about the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son that clearly emerges towards the end of this passage as Jesus declares the Temple to be “his Father’s House.”

  But what really preached to me this week as I studied this passage comes to us in the final verse of the passage which reads – “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.”   I mean, here is Jesus, son of God, one part of the Trinity and as he lives his life incarnate in a human body, he deems it important to be engaged in the process of growing in wisdom. 

  “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” 

  In some regards, this particular verse functions as literary bridge which allows Luke to leapt 18 years into the future.  After all, Jesus is twelve years old when this passage happens.  He’ll be thirty when his ministry to the world begins publicly.  Lost to the scriptures are 18 years of our Lord and Savior’s life.  Assuming Jesus would’ve lived his life as a regular-ordinary-person for those 18 years which span this event in Luke’s Gospel, there are a whole lot of questions we can ask about his life. 

  Sadly, that’s all we can really do – speculate because neither the Scriptures nor any other extant source that’s from the period really tells us. 

  We might make assume some things about these 18 years.  If we did, we’d be standing with a host of quote-unquote secular Biblical scholars and fiction authors who posit all sorts of things about these missing 18 years of Jesus’ earthly life before the Resurrection.  Some would try to convince you that Jesus took a wife.  Others, including a professor right up the road at UNC-Charlotte argue that Jesus was part of a group deliberately trying to give the impression that prophecies were being fulfilled through his actions.