Sermon text: Luke 2:41–52
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
This week is the Second Sunday in Christmas. And there are different ways in which the Second Sunday in Christmas is observed. Sometimes, the church is directed to the account of the infant Jesus being presented in the temple, at which time Simeon the priest takes the child up into his arms and declares: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” That’s the Nunc Dimittis, if you know what that is.
But we have a different selection this year, so that we do not go over the same ground year after year. Our gospel text takes us to a different temple incident in the life of Jesus. This is the incident of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple — what is often called “The Boy Jesus in the Temple,” where He astonishes the teachers of the law with His questions and His answers. And at the end of it, the account says that Jesus went down with them to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
There’s one other account in the Christmas season that we remember: the visit of the wise men. Epiphany is the festival on January 6th that commemorates the wise men coming from the east to worship Jesus — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — guided by a star to the infant Savior. It marks the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles, to the nations.
So in the Christmas season, you have these gospel readings: the birth in the manger, the visit of the wise men at Epiphany, the presentation at the temple with Simeon and Anna, and the Boy Jesus in the temple. All of these show us who Christ is.
Our text is the account of the Boy Jesus in the Temple. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing Him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching 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 Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when His parents saw Him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
And He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
The key question in the text is really about Christ’s identity and His Father’s business. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” — or literally, “about my Father’s business” or “in the things of my Father.” Jesus had a consciousness of His divine Sonship, and a consciousness of what He was about. He was about His Father’s business — the business of salvation.
Now this is significant. This is the first recorded word of Jesus in the gospel of Luke. And what does He say? “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” In the Greek, the word dei is used: it is necessary, it must be. This is the first “must” in the gospel of Luke. Throughout Luke’s gospel, that little word dei comes up again and again: “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God.” “Today salvation has come to this house.” That word dei — “it is necessary” — is the thread that runs through the entire gospel of Luke, showing that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection were not accidents, but the necessary fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.
So when Jesus says, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He’s declaring His divine mission. He’s saying: I must be about the things of my Father. I must be doing the business of salvation.
What is the Father’s business? It is the business of saving sinners. It is the business of bringing sinners home. The entire Old Testament anticipated this business: the sacrifices, the temple, the priests — all of it pointed forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now, consider what it meant for Jesus to be “in my Father’s house.” The temple was the place where God dwelt with His people. It was the place of sacrifice, the place where sins were atoned for. And here is Jesus, at twelve years old, in the temple — the place of sacrifice — showing Himself to be at home there. But the irony is profound: the temple with its sacrifices was pointing to Him. He would be the final sacrifice. He would be the true temple — the place where God and man meet.
And so Jesus, even as a boy, knows who He is and what He’s about. He is the Son of God, about His Father’s business. And His Father’s business would take Him, eventually, not just to the temple, but to the cross — where He would offer Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
This is the great comfort of the Christmas season. The child in the manger is not just a sweet baby; He is the Savior of the world. The boy in the temple is not just a precocious child; He is the Son of God, about His Father’s business — your salvation.
And what does this mean for us? It means that in our baptisms, we too have been brought into the Father’s house. We are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And like Jesus, we are called to be about our Father’s business — to hear His word, to receive His gifts, to serve our neighbor in love.
Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. She pondered them. She didn’t fully understand, but she kept them, and she thought about them. That’s what we’re called to do as well: to treasure up the word of Christ, to ponder it in our hearts, to let it dwell in us richly.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He grew up. He lived the perfect life that you and I could not live. He kept the law perfectly, in our place. And then He went to the cross, where He bore our sins, and died our death, so that we might have His righteousness and His life.
This is the Father’s business: to save sinners. And it is finished. It is done. Christ has done it all. Your sins are forgiven. You are a child of God. You are in your Father’s house.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.