When the writer of Luke’s gospel litters his stories with the names of politicians and references to their political maneuverings, we are meant to pay attention. When the tale of a 12-year-old Jesus choosing to remain in the temple occurs DURING THE PASSOVER… and IN JERUSALEM… we are meant to notice. It is, after all, bookended with the story Luke will tell at what turns out to be the very end of Jesus’ life, also during the Passover and also in Jerusalem. What occurs in both occasions is a potent confluence of religion and politics. And, in Jesus’ very first independent decision in recorded history, he opts to stay at that confluence. Jesus chose to remain where faith was potent, consequential, and in direct conversation with the politics of his day. Perhaps we who follow in his Way are invited to do the same.
Sermon begins at minute marker 4:50
Luke 2.41-52
Resources
- BibleWorm podcast: Episode 620 – The Boy Jesus in the Temple, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr
- Many online resources tell a version of the events that took place in Zürich on January 21, 1525. An account from the GAMEO article on Zürich. An article from the Anabaptist World in 2015, by Valerie G. Rempel: “The Birth of Anabaptism.” Much can, has, and must be said to complicate often over-simplified stories of a monogenesis of Anabaptism, and over-emphasis on this story, as well!
- Wikipedia article on Josephus.
- Image: William Holman Hunt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (LINK TO IMAGE)
- Hymn 223 Bless'd Be the God of Israel. Text: based on Luke 1:68-79; Michael A. Perry (England), Psalm Praise, 1973, © 1973 Hope Publishing Co. Music: George J. Webb (USA), 1830; The Odeon, 1837. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.
