Oh Father, we want You to reign in our hearts as Lord this morning. A primary reason why we gather as your people is that we would be reminded in our gathering that you are real, that you are sovereign, that you are preeminent, that you guide all things according to the counsel of your will, and that you call your people to seek refuge in you, to place their hope in you, and And so Lord, we're asking that you would do that now in our hearts through the preaching of your word. Let the words of the risen Christ, these words inspired by the Holy Spirit, reign in our hearts. We pray that you would do this as you have promised to do. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, as strange as it might seem, we are really officially in the beginning stages of the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. It seems like they start earlier and earlier every year. If you follow the political landscape, the potential candidates for each party are starting to put out feelers. Some of them have already declared their campaigns. Some of them just seem to be teasing the public for as long as they possibly can. With every time we approach a presidential election, right, every time we start to near that conclusive point when Americans go to the polls and go to the voting booths and cast their votes, we see the vetting process start to pick up steam. We don't just want to vote for anyone, we want to vote for candidates that we know. If you have a candidate like Hillary Clinton, who's been in the public eye for the better part of 2 decades, there's not much that we don't know about her background. But on the other side of the aisle, you have candidates like the Republican Scott Walker from Wisconsin. He's a relative newcomer. And so there's all sorts of things the media and just the American public don't know about Walker's past and about other potential candidates that will run. That's not to insinuate there's skeletons to be found, but you can be sure the media is going to search for those skeletons in every candidate. That's part of what they do in the vetting process. It's not just a search for skeletons, though. Even Walker's campaign and the other candidates' campaigns are gonna do their legwork. They're gonna do everything they can to make sure that the voting public gets to know the human side of the candidates, right? Make them appear like a normal, everyday American. Sometimes that's an easy sell. Sometimes it's not so easy. Sometimes the candidate is justifying 5 houses. And sometimes the candidate is telling stories about mowing his lawn. There's a vetting process that's involved, though. And so you see all of a sudden these biographic articles that start to appear in newspapers and publications that they tell us what the candidate is like. What was the candidate like as a teenager? Where did they grow up? What did his mother and father do? You can be sure if there's some relatable relative who was a male person, right? You're going to hear about that person. Oh, this is just a regular American. Those stories start to come out. We'll see these articles because America, the American public, has a curiosity, but more than that, we have a vested interest in knowing everything we can about someone that we might elect to the highest office in the land. That's why that vetting process takes place. But that's not a new phenomenon. The public has always been interested in the background of important figures. Throughout history, when people rise to prominence, the public wants to know Who was that person before they were famous? Who was that person before they were a leader or a ruler? What were they like before they were a household name?
That's no doubt some of the questions that Theophilus, the person that Luke is writing his Gospel to, is wondering. Who is Jesus? I've heard of Jesus. I've heard the stories of His ministry. But what was He like before that point? Before He started His public ministry at the age of 30? Well, today in our text, we get to see one of those stories; one of those background, almost human interest pieces about Jesus. Luke, remember, is laying out an orderly account. He's writing history. He's interviewing eyewitnesses. And now he gives us one of those stories that introduce us to the transition between Jesus the infant who we celebrate at Christmas, and Jesus the adult who we typically think of when we think of Jesus in the Gospels. What was Jesus like as an adolescent? That's what we see in today's text. So look with me now at Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 39 through the end of the chapter in verse 52. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. When they, Mary and Joseph, had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 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 3 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 Word of the Lord. May He write its truth upon our hearts.
The first thing Luke shows us in this human interest story of the adolescent Jesus is that Jesus is growing. He's growing in grace, in favor. He's growing in knowledge and stature and in wisdom. The entire passage, if you notice, it's bracketed by two verses saying the same thing. In verse 40, it says the child grew and became strong. He grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom. The favor or the grace of God was upon Him. And then in verse 52, the final verse, and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. That's called an inclusio. It's a literary device that marks out for us what the passage is about, what Luke is trying to say. This is what's happening in this episode in Christ's life. Jesus' full humanity is on display. He's like any other young boy. He's growing up. He's getting bigger in size. He's going to start going through puberty. He's increasing in wisdom and knowledge. And specifically, the favor and grace of God is upon Him.
I can remember in undergrad, one of my first classes as a biblical and theological studies major was the life and teachings of Jesus. It was a popular class at the university. My classmates and I were really excited to take it. It was just one of those classes. It was a really popular professor. He was fun to take classes from. But the subject matter as well. To get to sit for a semester just digging into the life and the person and the work of Jesus. It was exciting. We were all excited about it. The class was packed every day. But I also remember being a little bit disappointed early on in the class. I don't know what we were expecting. I had read the Gospel accounts before this. But it was almost like, man, is this really all we get of the young Jesus? I don't know if we thought there was going to be like secret stories the professor was going to tell us. But there was this sort of letdown. It happens here in Luke 2 a little bit, doesn't it? It just sort of leaves you longing for more information.
Surely Luke must have unearthed other stories. He's a historian. He's interviewing eyewitnesses. Is this really all that he has? One measly story about Jesus getting left behind in Jerusalem? We felt that way in the classroom. Maybe you felt that way as you read the Gospels. Man, we go from baby Jesus, a snippet of 12-year-old Jesus, to 30-year-old Jesus. 28 years and there's one story we're told. Is that all there is to know? The thing is though, under the Spirit's guiding hand, the inspired Gospel writers don't give us any more than this. And they don't give us any more than this for a very good reason. We don't need any more than this. The Bible is perfectly sufficient. Part of what we're seeing in Luke's Gospel is the sufficiency of Scripture. As much as our curiosity Curiosity exists. We want to know more about the young Jesus. Tell us cute stories about Jesus as a toddler, right? Tell us what He was like in the full-blown teen years. What was He like as a 20-something? We don't know them. We're told nothing of them. And we don't know them and we're told nothing of them because God has ordained that we don't need to know anything about them. This story, this snippet, is meant to be symbolic, it's meant to fill in the blanks, it's meant to be representative, and it's all that we need to know.
6 · Oswald contrasts the canonical Gospels with apocryphal texts like the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which contain fantastical and untrustworthy stories
There are other places you can go for juicy stories about Jesus. Apocryphal, non-canonical gospels tell stories about Jesus. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas tells fantastical tales about young Jesus as He comes to grips with His powers. But as you read it, it actually reads more like an ancient comic book. Jesus has these crazy powers and when He interacts with other kids, weird supernatural things happen to those kids. It reads like a book that's trying to go back and justify and explain and prove, see, even as an 8-year-old, He was incredible. There's one story where a kid has the misfortune of bumping into Jesus on the street. Can you get the picture of it? It's just a bustling thoroughfare and the poor little kid bumps shoulders with Jesus. And in the Gospel, Jesus turns around and gives him a look and the kid falls down dead. Whoa! Surely this is the Son of God! That's what the story is meant to say. It's apocryphal. There's no sense that it's true. But there are people going out and seeking to fill in those gaps because there's a lack of confidence in God's Word sufficiently told us everything we need to know about Jesus, about who he was and what he did, everything we need to know about God's plan of redemption. And so this little tiny snippet of 12-year-old adolescent Jesus is meant to be enough. We don't need mythical stories akin to George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Oh, what an honest man. We don't need those kind of apocryphal tales. Luke's lone story seems boring, but it proves he's also writing something we can trust. He's using eyewitnesses. He's one of Paul's companions. When Paul gets imprisoned in Palestine, we can assume rightly, like historians assume, that while Paul is in prison, Luke seeks out Mary and he interviews her. All these phrases that keep recurring, right? And Mary stored up and Mary treasured all these things in her heart. That's a tip. That's a clue. Luke is sitting down with Mary and she's sharing these stories with him. Accurate historical things.
7 · Oswald provides historical and cultural context for Jesus' age in the passage, explaining that twelve years old marked the age of discernment for Jewish boys—one year before they would become full members of the synagogue community and accountable for keeping the Law
So here we have Jesus, 12 years old. Now when you're 12 and you're a young Jewish boy, that's a significant age. 12 years old marks the age of discernment. Jesus is 1 year away from entering adulthood, from officially becoming a member of the synagogue community and officially becoming accountable for keeping all the Law. He's a year away from bar mitzvah, right?
8 · Oswald unpacks the temple scene, correcting a common misreading
Well, Luke is showing us the full humanity of Jesus in this young 12-year-old boy as we look at these comments. The heart of the story happens as Mary and Joseph encounter Jesus. As they find Jesus, they discover Him in the temple. And what He's doing there, interacting with these teachers and these experts of the law, is amazing. The crowd is amazed by His answers. He's an impressive 12-year-old. He's not a normal 12-year-old. The sense we get is that His answers aren't just unusual for a 12-year-old, They're just flat out unusual and remarkable. But He's also asking them questions and listening to them. Typically, when I read that passage, the image that comes into my mind is of 12-year-old Jesus sort of holding court in the temple. Is that kind of what you think of? He's there and He's amazing everyone with His knowledge of the Law and He's teaching them all of these things and people are like, man, get the— Get the scrolls! We gotta take notes on this! And some of that's happening. Jesus is shocking them with His knowledge. But He's also asking questions. He's also seeking knowledge. There's this very human element, this very humble element to the 12-year-old Jesus. He's not the typical know-it-all 12-year-old. He's positioning Himself as a learner. He's coming into the temple because He wants to learn from these men even as they're amazed with the answers He gives. He wants to learn more about the Law. He wants to learn more about God the Father. Jesus is growing in wisdom. He's increasing in His knowledge of the Law. And it's not by accident. He's growing because he's hungry, because he's studying, because he's humbly asking questions.
9 · Oswald applies Jesus' example directly to the congregation's spiritual lives
That's very applicable for us. There's no point in our lives where we should come to the text of God's Word or just come to theological concepts and think, you know, I've really figured out all I need to know about that. I've arrived. The sense we get of Jesus is He positions Himself even as He's amazing them with what He knows, He's hungry to know more and He's seeking to know more. There's something for us in that to see in this young 12-year-old Jesus a desire to come and to study and to learn. To humbly hunger for knowledge of God. And that's what we see in young Jesus. Hungry, but also growing.
10 · Oswald pivots from the theme of Jesus' growth to the passage's central claim: Jesus knows His identity as the Son of God and recognizes His unique divine calling, even at age twelve
But that's not the main thrust of the passage. The main point of the passage is that Luke is showing us in the very heart of the passage, the central point of the passage, where it's all driving towards, that Jesus isn't just growing, Jesus knows who he is. Jesus is aware of who he is. More accurately, Jesus is aware of who his Father is. Even at a young age, Jesus knows he has a unique divine calling, and even more than that, a unique divine identity.
11 · Oswald uses the movie Home Alone as a cultural reference point to make Mary and Joseph's experience of losing Jesus relatable and vivid
Before Luke gets to the heart of that, we have this weird episode of Mary and Joseph, and they realize they've left Jerusalem without Jesus. It actually reminds me of a movie I saw growing up, Home Alone. You know, Kevin McCallister, like his family, they're really wealthy. They live in this posh Chicago suburb. If you've ever seen pictures of the house, it's on this just beautiful immaculate street. It's this big brick colonial home. And they're going to take vacation in Paris for Christmas. And he has like 18 brothers and sisters and they're all going to Paris. So you know Kevin's dad has some pretty good money. They all seem to be like 4 stories in the home and somehow the power gets knocked out. And so in the morning they're supposed to leave for the airport. There's this rush of activity. They forget that naughty Kevin, who they'd sent upstairs to sleep in the attic, got left behind. And they all rush off to the airport and he is now, as the title says, home alone. And so the rest of the movie is about Kevin's adventures as he's home alone defending his house from the wet bandits, Harry and Marv. Right? These incompetent thieves. That's sort of the image you get is that realization of Kevin's mom when she wakes up on the flight. Kevin! She realizes he's not there. There's that sense in the story. Mary and Joseph are living the nightmare. You know, just kind of on the journey. This is great. All of our friends and family. We just celebrated the Passover. Life is wonderful. They're hanging out and caravaning back to Nazareth. Old school road trip. And all of a sudden, the end of the first day, okay, time to sit down for supper. Hey, where's Jesus? I don't know. I thought you knew where He was. I assumed you did. Well, maybe He's with Howard and Susie. And they start checking with the relatives and slowly realization sets in. He's not here. He's not here at all. He's got to be back in Jerusalem. And so they turn around and they head back. They'd already traveled an entire day, and so it takes another day to get back. And then it says it's not until the end of the third day that they actually discover Him in the temple. So they spent an entire day searching Jerusalem. Now we kind of envision Jerusalem like Kansas City. It's not that large a city. So they are scouring this city for an entire day, and it's only finally at the very end that it dawns on them, Maybe we should go look in the temple.
12 · Oswald unpacks Mary's likely expectations versus what she actually encountered
And so they go to the temple and then they're just stumped by what they encounter. I'm sure in Mary's mind she's picturing this distraught Jesus, you know, just pining away like, my mom and dad left me. I'm only 12 years old. How could they do that? She's envisioning, I'm going to see Him. He's going to see me. He's going to come running. He's going to throw His arms around me. It's okay, Jesus. I'm here! It's okay! Not quite what happens. Jesus almost seems oblivious to the fact they've left. Oh, you guys weren't here? I was having such a great time, I didn't notice. Jesus is totally disconcerted by the fact they've gone, much less that they've been searching for 3 days.
13 · Oswald performs close exegetical work on Jesus' first recorded words in Luke's Gospel
And here's an interesting thing. This is the first time in Luke's Gospel that Jesus speaks. These are the first words of the Messiah. What does He say? "Why are you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" I must be in my Father's house? It's so strategic by Luke that those are the first words Jesus utters. The way Jesus asks the question, "Did you not know?" In the Greek, it expects the answer to be yes. This should be obvious to Mary and Joseph from Jesus' perspective. The translation could be, "Why are you surprised? You should know I'd be in my Father's house." Now the text actually doesn't literally read "Father's house." The idea is supplied by the context—the temple being God's house. But the idea is still there. "You should have known where to find Me, Mary. You should have known where to find Me, Joseph. Wouldn't I be drawn to the place where My Father lives?" Another way to think of it: "Wouldn't I be about My Father's business?" Luke's point is unmistakable. Even at 12 years old, Jesus knows who He is. He knows who His Father is.
14 · Oswald draws out the theological weight of the passage: Jesus' primary identity is not defined by His earthly family relationships but by His relationship to God the Father
The text is all about pointing that out to us. He's with His parents. His mother Mary says to Him, 'Your Father and I have been looking for You.' But that's not Jesus' perspective. More than just knowing who His Father is though, this 12-year-old Jesus growing in wisdom has an unquenchable desire to be near God, to be near the Father, to be in His house, to be worshiping Him, to be learning about Him, to be in fellowship with others in the Father's presence. Why didn't you come look here first? Is basically what Jesus is asking. Isn't it obvious this is where I'd be? It's unfathomable to him that they would look or wouldn't have known instinctively where to go. The sense from Jesus, the disconnect from Mary and Joseph, is that for him there is this deep, deep calling to be near his Father and to be about his Father's business.
15 · Oswald observes the literary silence of Joseph in the passage, noting that Luke deliberately minimizes Joseph's role to emphasize how completely Jesus' understanding of fatherhood is dominated by God the Father rather than His earthly father
Business. It's really interesting we don't hear anything from Joseph in the episode, but part of what Luke is doing is he's showing us how significantly the identity of father for Jesus is subsumed by God the Father. Joseph is just another character. Mary's the one doing the dialogue. But God the Father is the one who Jesus understands as being His Father.
16 · Oswald applies Jesus' instinct to be in the Father's house as a picture of Christian maturity and Christlikeness for the entire congregation
But I think there's even application for us in just understanding Jesus' instincts here. This is a picture of Christlikeness. This is a picture of Christian maturity for us. The goal of holiness, to grow in holiness, right, is to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. To look more and more like Jesus, to act more and more like Jesus, to love more and more like Jesus, to love the things that Jesus loved more and more. This isn't meant to be just a little story where it's like, wow, Jesus is a really holy kid. My 12-year-old doesn't want to go to church like that all the time. That's not just the point. It's not a point just for 12-year-olds. Mom and dad's going, see, Jimmy, on Sunday mornings, it shouldn't be this hard to get you out of bed. No, it's, "Wow!" This is what it looks like to be a disciple of the risen Christ. This is what it looks like to follow Him. This is what it looks like to be conformed to His image. This is what it looks like to prepare for glory and eternity where we will have the same joys that Jesus has, namely to be about the Father's business, to be in the Father's presence, to be in the Father's words, to be drawn into fellowship with the Father's people.
17 · Oswald signals a shift in focus from Jesus' awareness of His identity to the next major theme: how Jesus navigates perfect submission to both His earthly and Heavenly Father
Jesus knows who He is. But there's also something else going on here. Jesus is also practicing perfect submission.
18 · Oswald names the theological tension at the heart of the passage: the mystery of the Incarnation
The whole episode is really a very interesting walking out of this dynamic of Jesus' full humanity Full divinity being on display. The mystery of the Incarnation is taking place in this passage. Full humanity. He's growing. Like physically, He's going to be taller next year at 13. He's growing in wisdom. He's amazing them now as a 12-year-old. When His ministry starts as a 30-year-old, He's going to amaze them even more. His knowledge of who He is as the Son of God is profound now. "I have to be in My Father's house." But that knowledge is going to continue expanding as He comes to grips with what the Father's will is for Him, even to death and death on a cross. His full humanity is there for us to see. And at the same time, we see His divinity. The perfect way He's obeying. But even in that obedience, it's hard for us to wrap our minds around. There's a tension in the story, isn't there? You sense the tension. Mary's response when she sees Jesus is what? Why have You treated us this way? Not only are You not coming and crying and throwing Your arms around me, You're just hanging out with these people. It's almost like You haven't given us a thought for 3 days. We know instinctively, right, as good Christians, Jesus is supposed to be perfect. But in some ways, when you read the story, it almost seems like he's being disobedient and disrespectful. Isn't it insensitive to his mother? These are good parents too. Part of what we see in the text is Mary and Joseph are devout.
19 · Oswald emphasizes the faithfulness of Mary and Joseph as parents, highlighting the sacrificial nature of their annual Passover journey and their commitment to raising Jesus in obedience to God
We know that they're not wealthy. He's a carpenter. They live far away in Nazareth. This is a long journey. This is like going from Kansas City to Dallas and realizing when you get halfway to Dallas, you left your kids back and you got to go turn around. But every year they're making this trek to go celebrate the Feast of the Passover. These are parents doing everything they can to faithfully model obedience to God, obedience to God's Word and the law to their young son. They are taking seriously the call to disciple Jesus and to raise Him in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. We hear so little about Joseph, but it's also so obvious that his leadership in the home is an incredible example.
20 · Oswald articulates the theological complexity of Jesus' situation: He must perfectly honor His father and mother to fulfill the Law (the most natural and universally understood form of submission), yet He also knows He is the Son of God with a Heavenly Father to whom He owes ultimate allegiance
But the complexity of Jesus' relationships are on display. Here's, on the one hand, a 12-year-old boy who has parents and an earthly father, and he's supposed to obey them and he's supposed to learn from them. Part of him keeping the Law perfectly is that he will never fail to honor his father and mother perfectly. If you have kids, you try to fathom that, and it's pretty remarkable to think about. There's really no relationship we can think of where submission and obedience are so naturally appropriate as a child to parents, right? Even people that are unbelievers have an instinct that children are supposed to obey and do what their parents say. It's just naturally understood. If Jesus will fulfill the Law, He has to be a perfect example of submission to Mary and Joseph. But on the other hand, Jesus already knows who He is. Yes, Joseph is my father, but I have a Father, a Heavenly Father. I'm the Messiah. At 12 years old, He has a knowledge that He is the Son of God. Put another way, He has competing people to submit to.
21 · Oswald clarifies that Jesus is not engaging in adolescent rebellion but rather correctly discerning the hierarchy of submission
That's not an easy situation for a 12-year-old, is it? There's submission required to his parents, and the sense Luke is careful to give isn't that Jesus is going through your typical adolescent rebellion. He's not like the precocious and arrogant Kevin from Home Alone, you know, ordering pizza and eating ice cream and not paying for the pizza because he's got the mobster movie with the firecrackers. That's not the image of Jesus. Not at all. Instead, here's this 12-year-old called to honor his father and mother and to submit to them and obey them, but he's also correctly discerning that his call to submit to Joseph and Mary as earthly parents is secondary to his call to submit to God the Father. Jesus uses really strong language. "I must be in My Father's house." It's the same word that Luke uses 40 times in the book of Luke and the book of Acts to describe something that is absolutely necessary to the unfolding of God's plan. "It is necessary" is how it often gets rendered. It is necessary that Jesus be in His Father's house. Jesus is willingly submitting. He's willingly submitting to the Father's will even as He discerns this is better than alleviating Mary's fears as she runs around Jerusalem for 3 days.
22 · Oswald articulates a principle that will govern Jesus' entire life and ministry: divine mandate always drives His decisions, even when it creates relational tension with people He loves who cannot fully grasp His calling
Even at 12, Jesus has a recognition that there is a divine mandate driving His entire life and every decision He'll make. He will do what the Father wills and what the Father calls Him to do. Even as that calling inevitably causes relational tension with people who don't grasp what he should do. Even as a 12-year-old, when it puts him in the awkward situation of having mom and dad not grasp who he is and not grasp the divine calling fully that he has. How do you walk that out as a 12-year-old, fully submitting and following God the Father, and yet doing it in a way that honors your earthly mother and father who don't get fully your calling to follow God the Father. Those are tough waters to navigate. There's a clear sense even from this young age, Jesus grasps that every choice he makes and every path he chooses will be driven by divine prerogative. Is necessary. Regardless of how others are unable or unwilling to come to terms with it. Regardless of how he loves those people.
23 · Oswald pivots from exposition to application, explicitly connecting Jesus' example of prioritizing submission to God to the congregation's own lives
It's really an example of how submission is meant to work in all of our lives, isn't it? We all have areas, every one of us, where we are called to submit. Obedience to God takes primacy over obedience to any person or human institution.
24 · Oswald catalogs the various submission relationships in congregants' lives (children-parents, wives-husbands, citizens-government, employees-bosses) and applies Jesus' example: when these compete with submission to God, believers must prioritize God while still seeking to honor the human authority as much as possible
So you think of your life. Children, the obvious example from the text, are called to submit to parents. Wives are called to submit to husbands. People, all people are called to submit to civil authorities. The one whom God has ordained would carry the sword. Employees are called to submit to bosses. But yet, over all of this, we are called to submit to God. To like Jesus be about the Father's business and the prerogatives of the Kingdom above everything else. That when push comes to shove, when tensions arise relationally, when the call to submit to your boss conflicts with the call to submit to God, when the call to submit to your husband conflicts with the call to submit to God's Word no matter how it brings tension into the relationship. Do it in a way that honors the person you're supposed to submit to, but do it above all else in a way that honors God and follows Him and submits to Him.
25 · Oswald provides a hypothetical but concrete illustration of competing submission demands: a believing wife with an unbelieving husband who wants her to skip church for Chiefs games
That's a hard thing. It's a hard thing for a wife who's been saved and has an unbelieving husband who loathes the fact that she goes to bed early on Saturday nights, that they can't go hang out on Sunday mornings. I want to go tailgate at the Chiefs game. We've had these season tickets for a decade. We've always gone and do this. And now you've got this love affair with Jesus. And now all of a sudden on Sundays you're telling me you're not going to go to Arrowhead? You're not going to go sit in there with me? This is with our friends. It's for our marriage. Why won't you do this? I love you. I'll find other ways we can pursue our fanhood of the Chiefs together, but God calls me to worship with His people.
26 · Oswald provides a second hypothetical illustration of workplace ethics—an employee facing pressure to implement an unethical sales strategy
The employer who has a new strategy for getting sales, and as you look at it and as you study it, as you're sitting there in the meetings with the rest of the salespeople, you realize this isn't just in an ethical gray area. This is really crossing the boundary, and this sales strategy violates your conscience. It is not something that you should do as a Christian or participate in as a Christian. And you know you're going to get flak. You know you're going to get heat. You know this boss is already a little bit hostile and a little bit annoyed by the fact that you're a believer and there's certain things you won't do.
27 · Oswald transitions from hypothetical to personal testimony, sharing a friend's real experience of annually refusing to participate in a team activity (visiting a strip club) despite social and professional pressure
I had a good friend in Minnesota. I remember him talking about He was in sales and when they would go up to do these sales calls in the summer to northern Minnesota, every year they would all carpool. It was expected you'd carpool. It was a team-building experience. And all the guys in the car wanted to stop at the gentlemen's club on the way up north. And every year he knew he was in for the awkward conversation of explaining, "I will not do it. I will not go in there." But prioritizing the Father's prerogatives, prioritizing the kingdom above all else, even if it costs you the sale, even if it costs you the promotion, even if it costs you the job, even if it creates massive tension around your home with your spouse or with your kids or with your parents.
28 · Oswald signals a major structural shift in Luke's Gospel
Luke's main point is that Jesus is now cognizant of who he is. He understands that he is the Son of God. It's a turning point in the entire Gospel. It prepares us for everything else that's about to come.
29 · Oswald identifies a narratological shift: up until this episode, Luke's Gospel required external interpretation (angels, divine messengers)
Up to this point, we have to interpret what's going on. Characters have to interpret. Divine messengers and angels have to come and interpret for us. That's how we figure out what's happening in the story. But from here on out, Jesus will interpret the significance of events. Jesus will explain, "This is supposed to be mysterious. It's hidden from you." He's supposed to explain the parables. He explains the significance of why He has to be handed over, why the Messiah, why the Son of Man has come to suffer and die. Jesus will now be the interpreter.
30 · Oswald traces a grammatical and theological shift within the passage itself: at the beginning, Mary and Joseph are the grammatical subjects with Jesus in tow; by the end, Jesus is the subject and His parents accompany Him even as He submits to them
The very scene opens, and who's the subject of the scene when it opens in verse 41? The subject is Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph, as devout Jewish people, are on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus is just sort of in tow. Now fast forward to the end of the passage. And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. And He, Jesus, went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. Everything has shifted. Jesus is now the subject. He's not going with Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph are now going with Him even as He submits to them.
31 · Oswald makes explicit the theological claim embedded in the passage: Jesus' revelation of God as His Father establishes the hierarchy of His allegiances
The revelation of who Jesus' Father truly is spells out where His primary allegiances lie. At the end of the day, the place of family, of His family, is important. It's going to be that way until the day he dies, isn't it? Hanging on the cross, looking down in agony and making sure that Mary, his mother, is cared for. The priority and importance of family is there for Jesus. He's the perfectly obedient Jewish boy. But not even family obligations, not even familial obligations take precedence over God's purposes.
32 · Oswald turns from exposition to direct application, challenging the congregation to examine whether they truly grasp Jesus' identity or are merely in the ballpark like Mary and Joseph
Luke is calling us to come to terms with Jesus' identity. This isn't just about Jesus knowing and realizing who his Father is. It's Luke putting it in front of us as the readers, as the audience. Do you understand who he is? What will we do with Jesus? Do we really grasp who Jesus is? Or are we just sort of in the ballpark like Mary and Joseph are at this point? I kind of get He's Messiah, but you're kind of still missing the major points. You're frustrated that He prioritizes the will of God over everything else. It's offensive to me that You wouldn't honor me the way I think You should, Jesus, in coming to worship the Father in this way. In the ballpark, I mean, I get you're Messiah, but do you really have to distress us this way? Do we give lip service to Jesus being Christ the Lord? Or do we live as though this were reality?
33 · Oswald issues a final application with three probing questions: Do Jesus' priorities reflect yours? Who is your Father? Who is your Lord? He frames the entire Gospel reading experience as Luke's call to encounter Christ and respond by living differently
As we walk through this Gospel, Luke wants us to encounter Christ. He wants us to encounter His teaching and His miracles and His person and His death on the cross and His resurrection. And he wants us to come to grips with who Jesus is, and he wants us to respond. He wants us to live differently. Do Jesus' unflinching convictions and priorities, even over and above other good convictions and priorities, reflect yours? Who is your Father? Who is your Lord?
34 · The closing prayer asks the Father to help the congregation see Jesus accurately through the illuminating work of the Spirit, to be refreshed by Christ, and above all to be changed and conformed to His image—responding appropriately to Him as Messiah and Lord
Well, Father, you taught us to pray and to call upon you, to recognize that you aren't just the Father of Jesus, but that you are our Father as well. You are our Father in heaven who sits enthroned above You taught us to pray and ask that your will would be done, that your kingdom would come, that it would be inaugurated in all its fullness. Lord, I pray as we work our way through Luke's Gospel that you would help us to see Jesus for who he is. Father, send the Spirit of the risen Christ in the midst of your people. Help us to be refreshed by the Jesus that we see. Help us to accurately see Jesus for who He is. Let Your Spirit illuminate Your Word. And Father, above all else, help us to be changed and to conform ourselves to the Jesus that we see. Help us to respond appropriately to Your Messiah. To Christ the Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.