Reading Luke Together #13 – Epiphany
The twelfth day of Christmas. January 6: Epiphany. No one knows when the magi showed up with gifts for the Christ child (and we don’t even know if December 25 was precisely the day Jesus showed up!). But Christians have traditionally marked this day as being as good as any other.
The story is in Matthew 2, so I won’t linger there as we’re focusing on Luke this year! Suffice it to say that they were astrologers who found the newborn King by deciphering patterns in the night sky. Theological humor / irony: astrology was viewed in the Bible as a bogus practice! But they found Jesus, and the Scripture scholars (whom Herod consulted!) missed him entirely – in that category of God will do anything to reach any and everybody!
They bring gifts, but part of me wishes they had not. I think I think kids grow up, and when they see a manger scene, it resembles Christmas morning for them – and they then identify with the little one, the child, to whom the grownups bring gifts. I wonder if Jesus ever rolls his eyes when we mark his birth by giving each other presents – as if it’s our birthday, not his!
And notice the fallout of their visit. They first inquire in Jerusalem where the newborn king might be – blabbing what maybe should have been kept quiet, for this possibility piqued Herod’s paranoia, and to slam the very idea of a little baby boy in Bethlehem challenging his authority, he has them all killed. Gruesome. It won’t be the last time that those who are in the vicinity of Jesus wind up suffering.
So, back to Luke: after the circumcision, and the refugee flight into Egypt, the holy family returns home to Nazareth. I love Luke’s summary: “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.” We want our children to grow, and to become strong – and maybe gravitate toward, not just being smart, but wise.
And then, every parent’s nightmare: like all good Jews, they make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover, the joyful celebration of God delivering the enslaved Israelites from Egyptian bondage. They’d have travelled in a caravan with kin and neighbors. No huge surprise then that when they headed home, they assumed he was with some other family with little boys… but Jesus was not with them at all. Panic. Consternation. Did Mary and Joseph question one another? Why didn’t you keep an eye on him? I thought he was with your sister!
For 3 surely terrible days, they could not find him (a little hint, a foretaste of the 3 days Jesus would be missing in the tomb before being found!). But then, Voila! There he was, in the temple, conversing with the rabbis, impressing them with his questions and understanding. Mary, in that complex place between exasperation and relief, upbraided him: “Why have you treated us so? Your father and I have been looking for you” – and she adds “anxiously.”
Calm at the eye of this storm, the 12 year old replies “Did you now know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Joseph heard. Trying to be a Father to the one with the heavenly Father. Jesus, precocious, at age 12 (their point of passing into adulthood) growing into a deep awareness of his identity, his mission.
Bishop Robert Barron’s thoughts here are edifying: “This story conveys a truth that runs sharply counter to our sensibilities: even the most powerful familial emotions must, in the end, give way to mission.” Mary “pondered” (again!) what transpired, and was growing herself into her place as the mother of not just another boy but God’s most special boy ever. Yet there’s something in there for all families and friendships. Barron again: “Precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s call for one another, the family becomes more loving and peaceful.”