Good Morning Friends,
Did you know that only Luke’s Gospel records the story of Jesus being left behind at the Temple when he was a boy? And did you know that it’s an event that more than likely didn’t happen?
Ahh. Let’s raise a glass to a steaming hot cup of heresy this morning, shall we?
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
In Luke 2 Mary and Joseph take 12-year old Jesus on their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to partake in the celebration of Passover and on their way back they lose him.
Oops.
Imagine that?
"Where is God?"
"Umm. I thought you had him?"
"Me? I thought you had him!"
"... yeah, we lost him."
Sometimes it feels like I lose God amidst the hustle and bustle of life, you know? Sometimes my life gets crowded like the streets of Jerusalem were during Passover and my heart and mind get overwhelmed with thoughts and worries and concerns and wonderings and I'll look around and go, "crap. I lost him again!"
Anyways.
So Mary and Joseph leave Jerusalem and at some point on their journey they have a Kate and Peter McCallister moment from Home Alone and realize they left without their kid, Jesus.
Panic sets in and they rush back to Jerusalem to look for him and end up finding Jesus in the Temple booby-trapping the place to catch the Wet Bandits / Pharisees ... just kidding ... it's Christmastime and Home Alone is my favorite movie on earth, so you'll just have to deal with my movie references today, HA!
They do find Jesus in the Temple, though, where he's listening to the teachers and asking them questions ... and they (the teachers) are in awe of his knowledge.
Interesting.
It's interesting because Luke is most likely making up this story ... it's most likely not something that happened.
I know.
I know.
Stone me, go ahead.
But I learned today that a 12-year old who was not yet bar mitzvahed would be deemed too young to have been allowed to converse in the Temple and so even though it's a cute story and it makes us think that Jesus was "Godly" and "All-Knowing" even when he was a child ... it's most likely made up.
Now that that's out of the way, the question becomes ... why?
Right?
Why does Luke include this story that isn't included in any of the other Gospels? What's the point? And if he did make it up ... why? Why make up this story?
The "Temple" represented, for the Jews, the very center of their faith, right? And Luke's readers, remember, were Jewish Christians who had recently been cast out of Judaism ... their Mother Ship, their Mother Faith. The newly appointed Jewish teachers, remember, were trying to rebuild Judaism after the destruction of the Temple and so they cast out any and all Jewish sects who believed the Messiah had already come.
And so Luke's readers found themselves cast out.
Pushed out.
On the outside looking in.
... The faith that they once called home was no longer their home, they were no longer welcome ... the Mother Ship was sailing off into the distance as they were left to flail their arms, swim around, and fend for themselves.
And yet in the story we see Jesus going to VISIT THE TEMPLE to INTERACT WITH THE TEACHERS before he heads back home after the Passover celebration.
If I were one of Luke's readers, that would have turned my stomach and would have been enough to make me stop reading.
Right?
"Ugh. Jesus going to visit the Temple that used to be standing right over there before the Roman Empire leveled it? The Temple that WE used to be welcomed in? The Temple that WE were a part of? The Temple that housed the Jewish faith, the faith that USED TO BE ours?
AND.
He was talking to the Religious Teachers? Asking THEM questions? Learning from THEM? And sharing his own thoughts and ideas with THEM?
Gross."
I would have skipped that section and put the book through a shredder because, really, I would have no desire to think about the Temple and the Mother Faith that tossed me to the curb.
"F*** them", would be my honest thoughts.
And so perhaps Luke included this story for that very reason, right? Maybe he wanted to emphasize to the Jewish Christians the importance of remembering that their current faith had it's foundations in Judaism and even though they were no longer welcome in Judaism, they could still honor their roots, honor their early foundation, and honor all that they had learned because (even though they may have evolved way PAST IT) they wouldn't be where they were in the present moment if it wasn't for where they came from in the past.
Yeah?
And so that makes me think about me and my own complicated history with Evangelicalism because even though I feel somewhat abandoned by the "Mother Ship", traumatized by MUCH of my experience, and find myself thrown overboard and out in shark infested waters as my Mother Faith sails off into the sunset ... I'm grateful for the time I spent on board, because ...
In the midst of the troublesome theology.
In the midst of the abusive doctrines.
In the midst of the toxic understandings of God.
In the midst of the rather questionable worship of the Bible.
... I picked up some good things that stick with me to this day.
One of those things IS my love for the Bible. I've said it before, but the Bible is my life's work. I'm by no means an expert or a scholar or even a theologian, but I've done my fair share of studying and researching and ... I love the Bible, and have an extremely high respect and regard for it.
I read it almost daily.
I write about it weekly.
I dialogue with people about it daily.
... I love it.
Sure, my thoughts about it have evolved and changed and shifted and people back aboard the ship accuse me of abandoning it and throwing it away altogether, but the fact remains: I love it, and it can bring my heart alive like no other text can.
And so, how about you?
What tribe have you come from?
What tribe has tossed you away?
What "Mother Ship" sails off into the distance, loaded with people you used to call "family"?
The reality is that aboard that ship is where your roots began to grow and so I wonder, what good came from that ship that still sticks with you today? What did you learn aboard the ship, what did you learn within that faith community that helped form some part of you into the person you are today?
Luke wanted his readers to think about it and I think perhaps he wants us to think about it too.