(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 12/31/06)

INTRODUCTION:

In a murder mystery, if a suspect cannot be accounted for during a specific period of time, including the time when the murder took place, investigators press hard for answers.  In the life of a person as important as the Savior of all human beings, it might seem strange that Jesus can’t be accounted for during a period of time that covers most of his life – 28 to 29 years!  After his birth, we have the presentation in the temple where we meet Simeon and Anna, the worship of the wise men, and the flight to Egypt, all taking place while Jesus was no more than an infant or a toddler.  Twenty-nine years later he comes to the Jordan to be baptized by John, and then we’re told the many details of his three-year ministry.  But 29 years is a rather significant gap.  Is this one of those instances where the Bible is silent, so we would do well not to concern ourselves with it?  Not really. 

While the church year seems to move so quickly from the Christmas season and Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem to the Epiphany season and Jesus’ baptism and ministry, there is one event that breaks the silence of those 29 (or so) unaccounted for years.  It’s the account of the preteen Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, and it’s actually an account which clues us in to what Jesus was doing during all those years that we don’t hear very much about him at all.  He was being who you and I needed him to be, something that is very evident when we catch a glimpse of him in Jerusalem.

Mary kept and pondered in her heart what the shepherds told her and Joseph the night of Jesus’ birth.  She treasured and kept thinking about what Simeon and Anna said about the baby Jesus in the temple.  And twelve years later, while she didn’t necessarily catch the full import of it all, she also kept and pondered in her heart what she saw and heard when her 12 year old son was found in the temple.  For the few minutes we have this morning, it would be our intention to catch the full import of what happened in Jerusalem during this Passover week, as we look into the one event that’s recorded during the 29 “silent years” of Jesus’ life and see -

The 12 Year-Old Jesus – A Savior Through & Through

Let me show you what is commonly referred to as a PDA (a personal digital assistant).  Even if you don’t like technology, this is a pretty amazing device.  It’s not an Ipod but it will hold a few hundred songs, it has some family pictures, all my contacts and calendar items, but it also has a Bible program on it, multiple translations, fully searchable.

One more feature of that Bible program is a daily reader.  It will bring up for me a daily reading which will allow me to read through the entire Bible in a year, and I do have it set up to start over again tomorrow.  But it does get pretty sad sometimes, because you know what happens.  Sometimes you pull it up only to find how many days you’ve fallen behind, and then you feel like you have to play catch up.

Together with going to church, reading God’s Word is a key component of what God wants happening in our lives.  I wonder how that’s going to play out this spring when it comes time for Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday – seven services in seven days).  This year Holy Week is also Spring Break week.  It would appear that God’s house in Lawrenceville may be in competition that week with Mickey’s place in Orlando, or other activities, you think?

But reading God’s Word and being in God’s house are only a couple of examples of what God’s will is all about.  There’s so much more.  The first people in Eden’s garden were given life for one main purpose – that they might live and breathe and function fully for the praise and glory of the God who made them.  Life’s purpose hasn’t changed.  Every morning that we wake up once more and every day that we’re taking nutrition are days that we’re to be about our Father’s business.  But how does that go?  Am I busily about my Father’s business or does the word Father fall out of that sentence so that far too often I am busily about my business and my business only?

An insatiable hunger for God’s Word, a genuine love for God’s house, complete, driven, undivided devotion to God’s will – strike one, strike two, strike three for you and me.  But this is no game. 

But nor was Jesus’ playing games with his parents when he stayed behind in the temple and they worried themselves sick looking for him for three days.  That was all business.  And that’s the late Christmas gift you get to take home with you on this morning of the last day of the year.

What a twelve-year-old Jesus was doing for about ten days during and after Passover week, during our spring break time of year, was what he did all throughout those 29 silent years.  He was doing his Father’s business and his Father’s business was to have someone delete and erase all of our strikes, all of our sins. 

The love for God’s Word Jesus showed here is the love he had for God’s Word all his days – gone is that first strike against us.  The love for God’s house Jesus showed here is the love he had for God’s house all his days – gone is that second strike against us.  God’s business was to have Jesus keep every commandment for us and to lay down his life for every commandment we’ve broken.  The complete, driven, undivided devotion to that will of God that Jesus showed in the temple here is the complete, driven, undivided devotion to God’s will that he showed all his days, till every commandment was kept all 33 years of his life and every broken commandment paid for when he did God’s business and laid down his life – gone is that third strike and every strike against us. 

The 12 year-old Jesus is a Savior through and through.  He was crystal clear about why he was here.  He came to do all of God’s will as our substitute, ultimately to die as our substitute, and he was fully engaged with that activity as a 12 year-old.  Here he was keeping the 3rd commandment about God’s house and God’s Word.  Back at home after this event, the 4th Commandment, being subject to his parents.  In the community, the 5th commandment, loving people and growing in favor with all who knew him.  God the Father’s smile just kept getting broader and broader as he observed all those years of Jesus’ life that we don’t hear much about, watching his Son doing the divine business of rescuing you and me. At the time Mary and Joseph didn’t really catch it.  This morning God is inviting you not to miss it.  Every day of his life in every way Jesus was the Savior, and you are the saved.

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