Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : May 14, 2006

Theme: Growing Up in God's House

Church year occasion: Easter 5, Mother's Day

What's a good definition of multi-tasking? Doing a number of things at the same time. How many of you talk on the phone when you drive? The other day I looked at how many people were talking on their cell phones as they were driving, and it was close to half -- and I was one of them. Just think of all the things you need to be doing when you're driving -- steering, looking at the road, putting on a turn signal, watching other cars, looking at traffic lights, looking at road signs, putting your foot on the gas or the brake, picking out a CD, telling the kids to be quiet, giving the baby a bottle, and more. Now add talking on the phone, and it can be too much for many people. It becomes dangerous, but that point is different for everyone. For some people, driving and talking on the phone is too much.

The world record for juggling bean bags is 12 at one time. To be considered juggling, each bean bag, or whatever you're juggling, has to be in the air, caught and thrown back into the air at least once. It's Mother's Day, and any mother can tell you that to be a mother means you are a multi-tasker, a juggler. It comes with the territory. I'm sure you can think of the things a mother needs to be thinking about all the time. I'm sure you also know why most men wouldn't make good mothers. Babies can make a lot of noise when they are hungry or have to be changed. But it's amazing how a man can tune them out when his favorite football team is down by four with thirty seconds left in the game, and they're in the red zone. With most men, if they have more than five things on their plate at one time, you can start to see the smoke rising from their ears. There's a reason why God made mothers the way he did.

Now think of this -- you are the mother of the Savior of the world; you are the mother of God. That's what Mary had to think about after the angel visited her that one day. No pressure there! Is it any wonder that perhaps every once in a while, Mary -- and Joseph -- dropped the bean bag? The story of Jesus in the temple shows us one such time.

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."

"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

When we look at this account of Jesus' childhood, first we have to realize that Mary was a great mom, and it showed. Let's call them parenting successes. Can you see two successes in these verses?

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover.
When he was 12, Joseph and Mary took Jesus along.

The first shows how important God was in their lives. They obeyed God's commands. Every adult male was required to go to Jerusalem three times a year -- for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Often their families went with them. At age 12 or 13, Jewish boys began preparing for their bar mitzvah, the occasion which showed that they were now spiritual adults. It means "son of the law" or "son of the commandment" and meant that now they were ready to assume the obligations of being an adult, especially spiritually. It's somewhat like our confirmation. This shows that they were raising Jesus to be obedient to God as well.

What are some things we need to thank our moms for on Mother's Day? Giving birth to us is a biggy. If you don't realize how difficult that was, you can ask your mom. Then we think of late night feedings, cooking for us day in and day out, caring for us when we were sick, encouraging us when we failed or when we were bullied, pushing us to excel (maybe pursuing opportunities they never had), dealing with our complaining, disciplining us when we needed it. But most important was making sure we were firmly grounded in God's Word and then teaching us about our Savior God as well, and then living for him. Hopefully you had a mother like that -- a mother like Mary. I think those things are worth some flowers or a nice dinner this noon, don't you. In fact, it's almost a sad commentary on how much we don't appreciate our mothers that we have to set aside a day to say thanks to our mothers. Shouldn't it happen every day?

But as with any mother, the parenting successes are also combined with some parenting failures. Let's look at the following verses to see some of those.

Verse 43 -- Lost Jesus. (It's not like losing the car keys! Imagine, Mary is the mother of the Savior; she's the mother of God. And she loses God! This would definitely be one to tell the grandkids.) We can understand this when we realize that often Jews going to the major feasts would travel with their relatives in a big caravan. Jewish women and children would travel together and the men would travel by themselves. Sounds like an episode from "A Prairie Home Companion." Mary and Joseph could have thought that Jesus was with the other parent or with other relatives. Remember, they couldn't just pick up their cell phone and check.
Verse 46 -- Looking in all the wrong places for a whole day. Shouldn't they have known better? Jesus wasn't an ordinary child -- he was God, the Messiah. He wasn't just a good kid -- he was the perfect child, all the time! Why didn't they know he would be at the temple? Let's not be too harsh with Mary and Joseph, though. Remember, they had to feed him when he couldn't feed himself. They had to change his diapers. You can imagine their shame later, not realizing fully what his mission on earth meant.
Verse 48 -- Mary's rebuke of Jesus, as if Jesus were wrong. We can understand it from Mary's perspective. Jesus had given them quite a fright. But he wasn't in the wrong. His parents, with everything else that was going on, had neglected something or assumed something they shouldn't have -- that Jesus was with them.
Verse 50 -- They didn't understand what Jesus was saying to them. Wow! How could they forget who Jesus was and what he'd come to do, after angels had appeared to both of the them, shepherds and wise men had worshiped their child as their Savior, and Simeon and Anna at the temple had pointed him out as the Messiah? But again, let's not be too harsh on them. How often haven't we failed to follow our Savior, even after we've seen Jesus complete his mission and rise from the dead?

Yes, Mary had some failings as a parent, all of which we can sympathize with. Have we failed our children from time to time? Absolutely. We might not understand certain struggles they're going through or we might think those things aren't important, when to them they are the biggest things in the world. We might not take time with them to be there for them when they need us. We also might not be very good at the most important aspect of parenting -- raising our children to be children on God. Have we been good Christian examples? Have we read devotions to them? Have we made sure they heard God's Word in Christian Day School or at least in Sunday school, or is it too early for us to get to church? Have we run through prayers at mealtime, showing that eating or doing it quickly is more important than remember our God who gave us that meal?

Mary had parenting failures, but we have had our fair share of them as well. But really this text isn't focusing on Mary as a good or bad mom. The focus is on Jesus and how all our failures are eclipsed by the perfect Son.

There are two main things to remember:

Jesus was on a mission from his heavenly Father -- to obey him, and to die for us.
Jesus knew his mission and knew who he was -- God himself.

Jesus was there, most importantly, to make it possible for all people to say God is our Father, that we can be called children of God and heirs of eternal life. So primarily Jesus was growing up not in Mary and Joseph's house, but in God's house. That's why he had to be in God's house. That's why he never deviated from his mission, even when it took him to places we would never want to go -- especially to the cross where he suffered hell itself to make us part of God's family through faith in him as our Savior. The perfect Son, giving his life for imperfect mothers and fathers and sons and daughters like we are. But now, we are perfect, simply through faith in Jesus -- every failure gone for good, and heaven's gates open to us.

After seeing Jesus fulfill his mission and give us eternal life, we have an obligation. Our primary concern is being in God's house also, in living as God's children. Part of that, of course, is being good children to our parents, honoring them, obeying them without complaining. When we do that, we are honoring and obeying God himself.

Mothers are always doing a juggling act. We thank God for them -- every day. We all juggle things in life, and sometimes we drop the ball. No matter what we are juggling, Jesus' forgiveness is ours. So let us live as part of God's family and grow up in God's house. Amen.