Date:
December 27, 2009, First Sunday of Christmas
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel
GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TO ALL.
This year for the first time, we went to see the Living Nativity at the Friendly Street Church of God. Margit knew the costume manager and one of the children in a tableau. It was wonderful and rather amazing that the people could stand so still. Of course the highlight for me was the animals and the people standing like statues trying to keep frisky little goats in line. What fun! I also appreciated how the story continued even after the wise men brought their gifts. There was a scene of the boy Jesus learning carpentry with Joseph his father and another of children being taught their Bible stories by a rabbi—or maybe it was supposed to be Jesus with the children but I rather liked seeing the boy Jesus with other children in an ancient Sabbath School. I wonder if he always knew the answer or if he made mistakes like the other children.
I wish we knew more about the boy Jesus and his family. There is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas written about the end of the second century. It must have been written by a Gentile for there are no references to Judaism but does tell about the years between Jesus’ presentation in the Temple as an infant and the episode of Jesus in the Temple as a boy of twelve. It is clear why these stories of the little Jesus did not enter the Bible. Thomas tells of Jesus as a five-year old playing by a brook cleaning up muddy pools by his word alone—actually this would be a good text of Jesus combating pollution. Then he makes birds out of mud and sends them flying. The Koran also includes the story of Jesus making little dirt birds. The Koran includes the story to show that Jesus fulfilled the word of Gabriel to Mary that said that Jesus was to make birds from mud. In the Infancy Gospel the point of the story is that Jesus made birds on the Sabbath Day so he was condemned. The son of Annas the Scribe saw Jesus make the mud birds on the Sabbath and to get back at him took a willow stick and roiled up the water that Jesus had just cleansed. Jesus was enraged. He told the boy, “You shall wither like a tree and shall bear n either leaves nor root nor fruit.” And immediately the son of Annas withered up completely. On similar note, Thomas tells of the boy Jesus was walking through the village and a bully came and knocked against his shoulder. Now Jesus could have just punched him and taught the bully a lesson or Jesus could have started crying and run home. But Thomas tells us that Jesus was exasperated and said to the bully, “You shall not go further on your way,” and the boy fell down immediately and died. It got so bad that Joseph had to admonish Jesus for stirring up trouble and making the neighbors angry. In the Syriac version those who had complained to Joseph about his son all became blind. Thomas also records some good things about the boy Jesus. One time a young man was chopping wood and the axe fell and split the sole of his foot. He was bleeding profusely and about to die but Jesus healed him. There is also a nice story in the Latin version where Joseph who usually made ploughs and yokes for oxen got a commission to make a nice bed for a rich man. But one of the beams for the bed was shorter than the one for the other side. Joseph did not know what to do because he couldn’t afford to purchase more wood but Jesus said to his father, “Put down the two pieces of wood and make them even from the middle to one end. Jesus stood at the other end holding the shorter beam and stretched it out making it the equal of the other. Joseph was amazed at the great miracle and said, “Happy am I that God has given me this child.” Thomas ends his infancy narrative with the story of Jesus in the Temple, today’s Gospel from St. Luke. There are other fanciful tales about the boy Jesus both in the hidden books not included in the Bible and in the Koran—the Koran has Jesus speaking from his cradle; scholars have determined that whether or not the Koran was dictated to Muhammed, that sources the prophet had were the same hidden books which did not make it into the Bible. The only thing we can say for sure about Jesus, the boy, is what we learn from the Bible that at aged twelve Jesus traveled to the Passover festival with his parents. It was the custom of the Holy Family to go to Jerusalem, not just Joseph, the male commanded to do so, but also Mary and Jesus and if there were other children then they went along too. Our lesson shows that the Holy Family was especially pious. What else do we learn—Jesus was a student of Torah and well-versed in the Bible. He was able to sit and converse with the teachers of the Law something far beyond the range of a twelve year old. The later command that it is at thirteen that the boy becomes a man had not been developed yet nor the much later ceremony we know as the Bar Mitzvah—but there was still some coming of age time. This episode from Jesus’ life may have been included for us to see that Jesus had “increased in wisdom and statue and in divine and human favor”—words written by Luke about Jesus and John the Baptist, words very similar to that of the prophet Samuel: “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.” Jesus is a boy becoming a man, centering his life on the house of his heavenly Father and not the carpentry shop of Joseph. Our text calls Joseph Jesus’ father. “Your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Mary says but not really. Jesus is the Son of God, not Joseph. Jesus is the Messiah not a carpenter. Jesus must be about his Father’s, his Heavenly Father’s business and in the Temple, God’s house.
What finally convinces that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and all the other so-called hidden books, apocrypha and pseudopigrapha, are not authentic is that the Jesus who appears is not Jewish. The real Jesus can not be understood apart from the tradition of Israel. Luke’s Jesus is a man of the Temple and synagogue. The Gospel starts with the angel Gabriel appearing to Zachariah as he was performing priestly duties at the altar of incense in the Temple. Jesus was brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph to present him to God as the first-born son. There Simeon who represents believing Israel and Anna the prophet proclaim Jesus to be Messiah, the light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel. Then when Jesus is twelve he goes and sits with the teachers of the Law listening and answering questions. Later he will go to Jerusalem to cleanse the Temple, overturning the tables of the money changers quoting Isaiah, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Jesus challenged the priests and scribes calling for a return to the real message of Scripture and the purity and holiness expected of God’s people. Like prophets before him, this made Jesus unpopular and opposed by the powerful—only God is worthy to rule, not Herod, not Caesar, these will be toppled from their thrones. Sadducees and Pharisees, the proud who made themselves rich at the expense of the poor of the land, widows and orphans, will be scattered in their conceit. Jesus has come to do the work of the Messiah, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, good news to the poor, to bring about a realm of justice and peace. Jesus does not oppose the Jewish Law. Luke’s Jesus says, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.” Jesus has come to complete, perfect, fulfill the Law with its every jot and tittle.
And then at the end of Luke’s Gospel, after the resurrection and ascension, the very last words in the book are these: “The disciples worshipped Jesus with great joy and they were continually in the Temple praising God.”
One of my most moving moments in the Holy Land last summer was being able to be at the Western Wall for Shabbat. We had checked into our hotel in East Jerusalem and many folks on the tour wanted to take it easy after a long day. Some of us decided we wanted to go to the Wall, the last remnant of the western wall of the Temple. You are familiar with the scene: the wall has huge ashlars on the bottom which date back to the time of King Herod the Great. These stones would have been present when Jesus and his disciples taught in the Temple. Above them are smaller stones which date to Ottoman times when the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent decided to rebuild the walls of the old city and the Temple Mount. Jews from all over the world gather on Friday night at sundown for Shabbat, the men to the left of a dividing wall and the women to the right. You can take photographs at other times but not on Friday evening. Men must wear a yarmulke, a keppa, but even non-Jews can come and pray. There is a sign near the security entrance which describes God’s Shekinah, God’s glory. Certainly the Lord can be praised anywhere but the sign said that here in the remnant of the Temple of God, there was a special nearness to the Creator. A remnant of God’s glory still clings to the wall. People seemed overcome by joy to be able to worship in the special presence of God. I saw a young rabbi, probably a youth rabbi, with a group of his boys from New York. They were singing and dancing in a circle praising God—even so-cool New York teenaged boys. At first they seemed a bit self-conscious but then got into the spirit singing and dancing with abandon. There was a lot of male energy going into worship that evening—Margit and the women of our group could talk about the female energy on their side of the divider. It was perhaps the most spiritual moment of the trip for me—seeing and hearing and feeling the joy, the joy of worshiping God.
The last scene of the Friendly Street Church nativity was one of the risen Jesus with the words, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” The man playing Jesus stood still behind a light blue scrim. It seemed a strange ending to a Christmas tableau but really it is not. Jesus the baby and Jesus the boy, Jesus the teacher and Jesus who suffered and died and rose did all this that we might be God’s own people, not just Jews but Gentiles too; not just Gentiles but the Chosen People too. In Luke’s Gospel the Temple is at the center of God’s worship and praise. In Luke Jesus never talks about the stones falling or proclaiming that he was to be the new Temple. But in Luke at the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain of the Temple is rent in two. No longer are people excluded from God’s grace and favor. The words of the angels are Gospel, glad tidings of great joy—the Messiah has come. In Christ we give glory to God in the highest and proclaim to the earth, God’s grace, God’s goodwill to all. Amen.
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