12262021 –
(Christmas I)
I like subtle twists and turns.
Little things mean a lot…sometimes.
I like nuances…a subtle difference or a shade of meaning, or an expression, or a sound.
Something “new and different” that calls for our attention. A turn of a phrase…
Something strange to “pick up on…”
Something that leaps off the page, begging for our notice…and our attention.
I love how words can have multiple meanings…
Something that says, look at this again.
Pay close attention here.
This is done for a specific reason.
This has purpose. This has meaning.
Look at it closely.
The scriptures are “full of surprises.”
And delightfully so…
I am constantly amazed at what I am reading.
You have to read, and read again, and sometimes read again and again to catch the full meaning of the message…
And sometimes, maybe even many times, or most of the time, you MISS IT – still.
And you can “never be sure,” (let me say that again) “YOU CAN NEVER BE SURE,” if you understand the full intention of the author. You can never be sure or certain. NEVER.
Sometimes, even after 50 years of “constant studying and reading and re-reading of the WORD,” a “fresh pair of eyes, comes in handy!”
And all of a sudden, you see something NEW and DIFFERENT! You are seeing it for the very first time.
Poor Jesus, just a kid, not even a man…still a boy…still wet behind the ears.
Was it almost time for his bar mitzvah?
The Scriptures move us along quickly.
One day, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes…and the next day…a young kid running through the porticos of the Temple in Jerusalem and picking the minds of some of the elders…
So, he took his own sweet time and was nonchalant, not at all worried or concerned, he was otherwise engaged and involved. He could have cared less about their departure time.
To say he was unhurried or in no rush to leave was to say a lot.
The very next thing he knows, he is being confronted by his slightly perturbed and angered parents. Not only perturbed, but publicly scolded by them, too boot. Publicly shamed. Put on notice. Put in his place.
You know when this whole story began it says very clearly: Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. And when he was 12 years old, THEY WENT UP as usual.
“They,” it was a family outing. They went UP together. Joseph, no doubt leading the way. Just a handful of verses later, that all changes.
Next, I read, “Then HE went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.”
Now all of a sudden it is about him.
He went down.
He leads the way back home.
He is in charge.
Joseph and Mary follow him. They accompany HIM.
Jesus the child, Jesus the young man, Jesus the 12-year-old leads his parents through the streets of Jerusalem and back home to the village of Nazareth.
All of a sudden, he is in control. He is in charge. And “they” are following him.
Just WHAT is going on here and WHAT are we to make of this? WHY this subtle change? Why are THEY, now following HIM?
What transpired? What changed? What happened in Jerusalem?
And then, Luke, the gospel writer, tells us for the second time in his narrative, that Mary, his mother, treasured all these things in her heart.
The first time, if you will remember was after the shepherds “popped in” out of seemingly nowhere to come and see the infant born that holy night…
They spoke of angels and angelic choirs, the whole heavenly host…it was a troubling and frightening event. They spoke of the birth of “the promised one.” And used language like SAVIOR and LORD.
And now the boy, THE BOY, her boy, sitting among the TEACHERS OF THE LAW and listening to them, but not only listening…but ASKING THEM QUESTIONS.
And then, boldly, and confidently leading his parents back home from the HOLY CITY. WHAT was it all supposed to mean? I tell you the small little nuances are everything. Amen.