1 Kings 8:6-13; Romans 12:1-5; St Luke 2:41-52
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Behold, something greater than Solomon is here. In the verse just before today’s account, St Luke tells us that the 40-day old Jesus held by Simeon and Anna in the Temple was filled with wisdom. Today St Luke tells us that 12 year old Jesus increased in wisdom. The Evangelist is putting us in mind of that great man of wisdom in Holy Scripture - King Solomon. But behold, something greater than Solomon is in the Temple.
Solomon was indeed great. Almost everything about him was great. He was the great King of Peace. Never before, not since did Israel experience such peace and prosperity as when Solomon sat on the throne. He was the Great Temple Builder, constructing an exulted house, a place for the Lord to dwell in forever, as you heard in the first reading. And he was the Great Man of Wisdom. Kings of surrounding empires would send their sons to learn wisdom from Solomon in his school in Jerusalem. The Queen of Sheba once journeyed up to the Holy City to test him with hard questions. But they weren’t hard for Solomon. The wisdom she heard with her ears and the glory she saw at Solomon’s Temple left her speechless.
But today something even greater than Solomon is in the Jerusalem Temple. And a woman greater than the Queen of Sheba has journeyed up to Jerusalem and is asking hard questions. And after a painful, agonizing, adrenaline fueled, panic ridden three day search, Mary found her Son. You parents who have ever lost a child in a public place know the feeling. Exasperated, her question shows that she was not fond of His treatment of her and Joseph. Why have you treated us so? Your father and I were looking for you in great distress.
But she didn’t understand. This is no Problem Child. This Child was God’s Wisdom in the Flesh. He’s never lost. He always knows what He’s doing. In fact, He couldn’t have been treating her any better. For He was revealing His glory to her and to Joseph and to the teachers of Israel. And to us.
You heard in the first reading what happened in Solomon’s day when God’s glory showed up in the Temple. A cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. God’s glory was threatening. God’s glory meant, “stay away and don’t ask questions.”
But God’s True Glory appears today in the Temple - in the flesh of a 12 year old Boy named Jesus who doesn’t drive people away, but draws them to Himself and even converses with them! All the fullness of God, His Wisdom Incarnate, dwelt in this Boy. As St Paul says, In Him the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). And yet, there He is, asking questions of those He created. And answering their questions. We might say He is participating in catechesis.
And He does it without rolling His eyes at His parents or looking down at His teachers or sitting silent and sullen unwilling to participate. All things you’ve done. God’s Glory is in the Flesh of this faithful, obedient Boy. He keeps and will keep the 4th Commandment perfectly because we haven’t. He actively and passively keeps the 4th Commandment and all the commandments, for you, in your place, both children and parents. He went down with them and was submissive to them.
But here Mary was wrong. Her Boy was not disobedient, but was treating her kindly. And then, even more kindly with His wise and wondrous response to her: Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house? Or another translation: Did you not know that I must be about the things of My Father? “Dear Mother, I am not lost. I am right where I need to be. And I have found you who was lost.”
Blessed Mary needed to gain understanding and grow in wisdom concerning her Son. She needed to be catechized, too. And so do we. We are indeed God’s people. The “sheep of His pasture,” as you sang in the Introit. But all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And our way is a self-chosen way. Our way is to despise God’s wisdom, His preaching and His Word. Our way is the way of stupidity and foolishness. The way of stubborn pride. Of saying “Yes,” when God’s commandments say “No.” Or vice versa.
Our way is be conformed to this world. To think more highly of ourselves than we ought. To harm and offend the very fellow members of the body of Christ. Our way is to think that God is not wise in how He governs our life. That He’s not fair in how He bestows blessings. We think we deserve better from Him even though we deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. We are the ones who are lost.
He is not lost. He always finds us. He is always where He needs to be for us. Not only for that little lost sheep named Mary, but also for sheep like us who need to learn that His way is always the best way, even when it hurts or even when we are confounded. Thus does He teach us the way of the Cross, the way of living sacrifice, as St Paul writes.
For He is never lost. He always where He needs to be manifesting His glory. At age 40 days in the Temple. At age 12 in the Temple. At age 30 in the Jordan. And especially at age 33 on the Cross atoning for our mistrust of Him and our disobedience. Doing what it takes to make His Father our Father. He is never lost. He is always right where He needs to be.
“Did you not know that I must be among the things of My Father? For all these things are about Me. I must be among these lambs being sacrificed for I am the true Passover Lamb of God who will be slaughtered for the sins of the world. I must be around the cherubim that overshadow the Ark of the Covenant for I am the true Mercy Seat. I must be here among these impressive stones because I am the Stone the builders rejected and God’s true Temple. A Temple I will destroy and raise up again on the Third Day so that I can find you and be your Cornerstone and Rock on which a wise man can build his life.”
Mary learned this. She was continually catechized, for that is what it means that she treasured up all these things in her heart. She too grew in wisdom and understanding. And what she got wrong this day in Jerusalem, she got so right 18 years later in Cana. In the only other conversation recorded between her and her Son, she’s no longer asking questions. She speaks wisdom. The wisdom of faith: Do whatever He tells you. As we will hear next Sunday.
By God’s grace you are growing wisdom too. For you are continually catechized in these things with a wisdom even greater than Solomon, though his wisdom pointed to it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Faith and love in Christ Jesus, who is Wisdom Incarnate, is the end, the telos, the fulfillment. And this is a wisdom the world knows nothing about. The wisdom of the Cross, which is actually foolishness in the eyes of the world. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
This wisdom transforms and renews your mind. Catechizes you away from the things of this world to the things of the Father’s House, the things above. This is no conventional wisdom, so we must be continually catechized in God’s wisdom to learn and to grow. In faith toward Him and fervent love toward one another. We must learn to submit in faithful obedience to God’s Word and will, even if it means bitterness and pain for awhile. For we trust in His Wisdom, that is, in Christ Jesus and His Word to us.
This is how we learn that when we are weak and dependent, then we are strong. How we learn that no matter how difficult, how sad, how heartbreaking life might be right now, His grace is sufficient for us. We learn to accept whatever trials His Wisdom has set before us, because this Greater Solomon has suffered our foolish sins to death, has conquered the devil and the world, and along with His Spirit, gives us the courage and resolve to deal with the things of this life, for they are for our benefit according to His good and gracious will.
People loved by God, you are absolved of your sins. You have a peace and prosperity that Solomon could never give. You are baptized and given the wisdom of faith in Jesus and the desire to walk confidently in the way of the Cross. Therefore even Solomon, in all his glory, was no arrayed like you. You have come to the Table in the midst of the Temple that Divine Wisdom has built and set up and called you to this morning. Behold, the One greater than Solomon is here, right where He needs to be, giving His very Flesh and Blood for you. And with it a Kingdom that is everlasting and glory and wisdom and mercy that leaves you speechless.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Behold, something greater than Solomon is here. In the verse just before today’s account, St Luke tells us that the 40-day old Jesus held by Simeon and Anna in the Temple was filled with wisdom. Today St Luke tells us that 12 year old Jesus increased in wisdom. The Evangelist is putting us in mind of that great man of wisdom in Holy Scripture - King Solomon. But behold, something greater than Solomon is in the Temple.
Solomon was indeed great. Almost everything about him was great. He was the great King of Peace. Never before, not since did Israel experience such peace and prosperity as when Solomon sat on the throne. He was the Great Temple Builder, constructing an exulted house, a place for the Lord to dwell in forever, as you heard in the first reading. And he was the Great Man of Wisdom. Kings of surrounding empires would send their sons to learn wisdom from Solomon in his school in Jerusalem. The Queen of Sheba once journeyed up to the Holy City to test him with hard questions. But they weren’t hard for Solomon. The wisdom she heard with her ears and the glory she saw at Solomon’s Temple left her speechless.
But today something even greater than Solomon is in the Jerusalem Temple. And a woman greater than the Queen of Sheba has journeyed up to Jerusalem and is asking hard questions. And after a painful, agonizing, adrenaline fueled, panic ridden three day search, Mary found her Son. You parents who have ever lost a child in a public place know the feeling. Exasperated, her question shows that she was not fond of His treatment of her and Joseph. Why have you treated us so? Your father and I were looking for you in great distress.
But she didn’t understand. This is no Problem Child. This Child was God’s Wisdom in the Flesh. He’s never lost. He always knows what He’s doing. In fact, He couldn’t have been treating her any better. For He was revealing His glory to her and to Joseph and to the teachers of Israel. And to us.
You heard in the first reading what happened in Solomon’s day when God’s glory showed up in the Temple. A cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. God’s glory was threatening. God’s glory meant, “stay away and don’t ask questions.”
But God’s True Glory appears today in the Temple - in the flesh of a 12 year old Boy named Jesus who doesn’t drive people away, but draws them to Himself and even converses with them! All the fullness of God, His Wisdom Incarnate, dwelt in this Boy. As St Paul says, In Him the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). And yet, there He is, asking questions of those He created. And answering their questions. We might say He is participating in catechesis.
And He does it without rolling His eyes at His parents or looking down at His teachers or sitting silent and sullen unwilling to participate. All things you’ve done. God’s Glory is in the Flesh of this faithful, obedient Boy. He keeps and will keep the 4th Commandment perfectly because we haven’t. He actively and passively keeps the 4th Commandment and all the commandments, for you, in your place, both children and parents. He went down with them and was submissive to them.
But here Mary was wrong. Her Boy was not disobedient, but was treating her kindly. And then, even more kindly with His wise and wondrous response to her: Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house? Or another translation: Did you not know that I must be about the things of My Father? “Dear Mother, I am not lost. I am right where I need to be. And I have found you who was lost.”
Blessed Mary needed to gain understanding and grow in wisdom concerning her Son. She needed to be catechized, too. And so do we. We are indeed God’s people. The “sheep of His pasture,” as you sang in the Introit. But all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And our way is a self-chosen way. Our way is to despise God’s wisdom, His preaching and His Word. Our way is the way of stupidity and foolishness. The way of stubborn pride. Of saying “Yes,” when God’s commandments say “No.” Or vice versa.
Our way is be conformed to this world. To think more highly of ourselves than we ought. To harm and offend the very fellow members of the body of Christ. Our way is to think that God is not wise in how He governs our life. That He’s not fair in how He bestows blessings. We think we deserve better from Him even though we deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. We are the ones who are lost.
He is not lost. He always finds us. He is always where He needs to be for us. Not only for that little lost sheep named Mary, but also for sheep like us who need to learn that His way is always the best way, even when it hurts or even when we are confounded. Thus does He teach us the way of the Cross, the way of living sacrifice, as St Paul writes.
For He is never lost. He always where He needs to be manifesting His glory. At age 40 days in the Temple. At age 12 in the Temple. At age 30 in the Jordan. And especially at age 33 on the Cross atoning for our mistrust of Him and our disobedience. Doing what it takes to make His Father our Father. He is never lost. He is always right where He needs to be.
“Did you not know that I must be among the things of My Father? For all these things are about Me. I must be among these lambs being sacrificed for I am the true Passover Lamb of God who will be slaughtered for the sins of the world. I must be around the cherubim that overshadow the Ark of the Covenant for I am the true Mercy Seat. I must be here among these impressive stones because I am the Stone the builders rejected and God’s true Temple. A Temple I will destroy and raise up again on the Third Day so that I can find you and be your Cornerstone and Rock on which a wise man can build his life.”
Mary learned this. She was continually catechized, for that is what it means that she treasured up all these things in her heart. She too grew in wisdom and understanding. And what she got wrong this day in Jerusalem, she got so right 18 years later in Cana. In the only other conversation recorded between her and her Son, she’s no longer asking questions. She speaks wisdom. The wisdom of faith: Do whatever He tells you. As we will hear next Sunday.
By God’s grace you are growing wisdom too. For you are continually catechized in these things with a wisdom even greater than Solomon, though his wisdom pointed to it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Faith and love in Christ Jesus, who is Wisdom Incarnate, is the end, the telos, the fulfillment. And this is a wisdom the world knows nothing about. The wisdom of the Cross, which is actually foolishness in the eyes of the world. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
This wisdom transforms and renews your mind. Catechizes you away from the things of this world to the things of the Father’s House, the things above. This is no conventional wisdom, so we must be continually catechized in God’s wisdom to learn and to grow. In faith toward Him and fervent love toward one another. We must learn to submit in faithful obedience to God’s Word and will, even if it means bitterness and pain for awhile. For we trust in His Wisdom, that is, in Christ Jesus and His Word to us.
This is how we learn that when we are weak and dependent, then we are strong. How we learn that no matter how difficult, how sad, how heartbreaking life might be right now, His grace is sufficient for us. We learn to accept whatever trials His Wisdom has set before us, because this Greater Solomon has suffered our foolish sins to death, has conquered the devil and the world, and along with His Spirit, gives us the courage and resolve to deal with the things of this life, for they are for our benefit according to His good and gracious will.
People loved by God, you are absolved of your sins. You have a peace and prosperity that Solomon could never give. You are baptized and given the wisdom of faith in Jesus and the desire to walk confidently in the way of the Cross. Therefore even Solomon, in all his glory, was no arrayed like you. You have come to the Table in the midst of the Temple that Divine Wisdom has built and set up and called you to this morning. Behold, the One greater than Solomon is here, right where He needs to be, giving His very Flesh and Blood for you. And with it a Kingdom that is everlasting and glory and wisdom and mercy that leaves you speechless.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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