Forgetting Jesus

Last Sunday, January 4^th, 2015, we heard an excellent sermon from our Pastor, the Reverend Chad Eckels, regarding our gathering as a congregation to worship. Near the beginning of this service, he uses the story of Jesus, as a young boy, being left in Jerusalem, and then being found by Mary and Joseph in the Temple. Jesus told his weary from looking parents, in so many words, that this was where he was supposed to be. Pastor Eckels makes a great point throughout this sermon about why we gather that could almost be applied to any congregation today… but the early part of this sermon also triggered another line of thinking in me that has persisted for almost a week.

Before I take off on that tangent, I’ll share last Sunday’s sermon with you:

http://vimeo.com/115928064

Now, review with me for a moment Luke 2:41-52:

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

                    Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve 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 three 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.

 

(Luke 2:41-52 ESV)

As Pastor Eckels was delivering his sermon, utilizing this passage, something struck. Maybe it was at the point where he said from the pulpit, “They forgot Jesus.” Maybe it just triggered another thread of thinking in my head but after the sermon a point really hit home with me (not to say at all that the sermon did not contain enough excellent points as it surely did, but this one went in a little bit different direction). Bear with me here… We will stay in the Gospel of Luke just to keep it fairly simple.

Mary and Joseph forgot Jesus…

Let’s review the timeline here:

Luke 1:11-17 – An angel of Lord (Gabriel) tells Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth is going to conceive a child (which is John the Baptist) who will “make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Luke 1:26-38 – Gabriel comes to the Virgin Mary and announces

that she will bear the Son of God and that he will reign forever. I am not trying to underplay this as there is a lot more detail, but the content of this message (let alone being delivered by an angel) is something that you would surely never forget). Gabriel also tells her of Elizabeth.

Luke 1:39-45 – Mary visits Elizabeth.  John recognizes from the womb that he is in the presence of the Son of God being carried by Mary. Imagine the conversation between the two women having both seen the impossible become possible. As Gabriel had already said, “for nothing will be impossible with God.”

Luke 1:46-56 – The Magnificat. Mary did you know? Yeah… she knew. Period. Verse 56 tells us she stayed with Elizabeth about three months before returning home. This is a lot of time to ponder.

Luke 1:57-80 – John the Baptist is born. Zechariah’s prophecy is listed. Just a question… sometime between this point and when Jesus was twelve years old, do you think that Mary probably heard this prophecy? Either by word of mouth, or from Elizabeth or Zechariah?

Luke 2:8-20 – An angel of the Lord announces to the shepherds that a Savior has been born… accompanied by a “multitude of the heavenly host.” The shepherds then make haste to find the baby Jesus along with Mary and Joseph.  Scripture then tells us in verse 17 that they made know what had been told to them concerning the child. Mary and Joseph are continually reminded of who this child is… The Gospel tells us in verse 19 that she “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

Luke 2:22-36 – When Jesus is presented at the Temple, we meet Simeon and Anna. Much more is again reinforced to Mary and Joseph including the ominous statement in verse 35… Did she know what would happen to Jesus? Yes, she knew.

Luke 2:40 – Verse 40 tells us He became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon Him. Mary and Joseph were there. I wonder what it was like to live in the presence of a child that never sinned. Do you think that was a daily reminder of who He was?

Luke does not record the visit of the Magi… we will just throw that in as a quite awesome knock on the door, most likely around age two, that once again clearly gave Mary and Joseph a reminder of who this toddler was that they were around daily.

Let’s now go to age twelve…

Painting by William Hunt

Luke 2:41-52 – They go to Jerusalem for the Passover. The leave after the feast and while on the road home they realize Jesus is not in the group. He’s gone. They forgot Jesus. They search for Jesus. After three days, they find Him in the Temple (keep in mind that Mary would lose Jesus again at Passover for three days at the Crucifixion).  Once again, He is in the middle of something astonishing. During those three days, by their own words, they were in “great distress.”

They not only forgot Jesus. They forgot who He was. They forgot His purpose. They forgot what the Angel had said. They forgot the words of Simeon. They forgot.

The two people who had the closest contact to Jesus… forgot Him. They forgot the Christ. They forgot the Holy Son of God, the Son of the Most High.

So do we…

We forget Jesus every day.

He slips our mind. If Mary and Joseph forgot Jesus, with their proximity to who He was, how much more opportune must it be for us? We may awake and pray. We may attend services. We may read our devotionals, articles, Bibles with their plethora of notes and wealth of explanations in the footnotes. We may provide Christian service and apologetics. We may grasp on to every human opportunity to have Christ on our mind… and we will still forget Jesus. Sometimes only for a moment… at other times for a few hours, we forget. The world closes in and He fades from our minds.

Maybe this is why it is never good enough to just attend, just read, just “do the right thing.” We are incapable. The fact that we can forget our Lord and Savior for even a moment illustrates why what we can do is never good enough. We are even told in Thessalonians (5:17) to “pray without ceasing.”

But that is not what saves us.

Sola Gratia… by Grace alone we are saved through faith.

He does not forget us. He is the atonement for our sins. He has performed that which we cannot do by our own power. It is at the cross and through His resurrection that we gain eternal life. Not by any other means.

Forgetting Jesus. It is what we sinners do. We are drawn back by what He has done. We are reminded of Him by our Baptisms. We draw close and are comforted through the Sacrament of the Altar. Through water and the Word we are saved.

We are comforted.

We remember.