When you were twelve years old, what was your main focus?  Mine was on having fun.  But apparently, not all twelve year olds are like that.  Recently I discovered a television show on the Food Network called, “Kids Baking Championship.”  Last year’s champion was only 10 years old.  The theme of her winning cake was San Francisco, and she even crafted a sea lion out of icing for the top!  For this year, all of the contestants are between 10 and 13, and each of them already runs their own baking business!  They are talented, focused, and winsome.

Those are three words that might apply to Jesus as a kid, too.  Talented, focused and winsome.  The Bible tells us surprisingly little about Jesus’ growing up years.  We’ve got some stories about him as a baby and toddler, and then almost nothing until he’s 30 years old and ready to start his public ministry.  In between?  Luke tells us twice that Jesus grew and became strong, that he was filled with the grace of God, that he grew is wisdom and stature.  But other than that?  None of the four gospels have any other stories about Jesus’ life as a kid.

Now, there is a book called The Infancy Gospel of Thomas—it’s not in the Bible, but it dates back to the second century—that depicts Jesus as something of a wizard growing up.  As a boy he performed miracles, amazed and frustrated his teachers with his knowledge, and irritated his peers and siblings with his superior wisdom and abilities.  In this account, Jesus did not always use his power for good!  As he was learning about himself and his unique powers, he was prone to mischief.  As he matured, he honed his powers and focused on using them for God’s purposes.

Again, these ideas come from a writing that is not in the Bible.  Luke paints a very different picture—of a Jesus who is very much a regular, good kid, not a wizard.  There are no accounts of Jesus performing miracles and playing practical jokes on his peers.  But Luke does tell us of this one time Jesus amazed a group of rabbis with his understanding and insight.  Of all the things Jesus did growing up, why do you think Luke records this one event in Jesus’ early life?

One reason Luke tells this story to make it clear to his readers that Jesus was a devout Jew.  Luke will go on to write the book of Acts, and he alone serves as the Biblical writer who spans the gap between Jesus’ time on earth, and the start of the early church.  Luke didn’t want the early Christians to have any doubt about the foundation of our faith.  Jesus grew up in a family that, like all families in his time, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year.  Passover in the early spring, Pentecost fifty days later, and Sukkoth in the fall.  The customs and rituals of the Jewish faith were the bread and butter of Jesus’ spiritual development, and he carried on observing the rituals of his faith throughout his life.

Another reason this story is included in Luke’s gospel is because this was the style of writing in Luke’s day.  In the ancient world, if you were going to write a biography of a great man, you included a boyhood story that foretold of his future greatness.  Luke’s gospel tells this story because it has so many parallels to what happens to Jesus later.  As an adult, Jesus captivated people with his teaching.  He amazed people with his insight and power.  He was supremely focused on doing his Father’s will.  And he disappeared for a time, only to be found again on the third day.  This story is like a coming attractions reel at the start of a movie, giving us a taste of what lies ahead.

And perhaps most importantly, Luke tells this story, the story of Jesus focusing even at a young age on doing God’s will, to call all of us to focus on doing God’s will.  When asked why he had stayed in Jerusalem instead of traveling home with his parents, Jesus responded, “Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”  Some translations word it, “Didn’t you know that I had to be about my Father’s business?”  In my Father’s house.  Focused on my Father’s business.  Doing my Father’s will.  Remember, in Judaism, a boy becomes a man at age 13, when he completes his bar mitvah.  He becomes an adult member of the synagogue, with the same spiritual responsibilities as all the other men.  But Luke tells us that, even as a twelve year old boy, before he was old enough to be a man of faith, Jesus was a person of great faith.  His whole life, he was focused on his heavenly Father’s business.

And what is that business?  Last Saturday, I went to our annual toolkit for ministry, a group of workshops to help United Methodists serve God and their churches.  During the opening devotions, one of the speakers asked the question, “What business are we in?”  He told the story of Kodak.  Remember them?  We’ve all been part of “Kodak moments”—times we took photos so the moment would live on in our memories.  But you hardly ever hear about Kodak anymore.  Even though Kodak is credited with developing the first digital camera, company leadership assumed their main business was making film, and they were hesitant to embrace this new way of taking photos.  But maybe their real business was in helping people preserve their memories?  As a result of this confusion, this tension, they failed to adapt to changing technology and consumer preferences, and they ended up filing for bankrupty and reorganizing.  They are now a much smaller company than they once were, focused once again on making film, mostly for the motion picture industry.

I think we can all relate to the struggle Kodak found themselves in as the photography world changed drastically around them.  Kodak had to decide—are we in the film business, or the memory capturing business?  They ultimately decided they are in the film business.  In the church, we have to decide, are we in the business of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?  Or are we in the business of institutional preservation—keeping the traditions and buildings and trappings of the organized church alive?  There will always be tension around these two competing claims for our attention.  Both are important to a certain extent.  But, as we said last week, we are now the Body of Christ.  So, like Jesus, we know our first priority must be on our “Father’s business”.  The question is, what exactly is “our Father’s business”?

We read in Luke chapter four that, as an adult, Jesus drew on the writing of the prophet Isaiah to define what he meant by his Father’s business.  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisons and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19)  How’s that for a job description?  How would you like to have a job like that, where all week long you get to bring good news to those in need, show people who are stuck how to get free, help restore and recover what has been broken and lost?  This is how Jesus understood God’s will for himself.  And this is how Jesus understood God’s will for all of us.

When Phil and I were only married a couple years, we joined a Presbyterian church on the Main Line, close to our apartment.  It was a very formal church—the ushers wore tuxedos!  They had Tiffany stained glass windows and not just in the sanctuary.  They had beautiful Oriental rugs in every room, and a real slate roof, and the word “elegant” came to mind every week as we walked there.  In the winter, I felt like the only woman who wasn’t wearing a fur coat. That wasn’t true, of course, but it was a fancy pants place.  It seemed to me to be an especially hard place to be a pastor, in the midst of all that wealth, and entrenched traditions, and extreme stability.  But when I asked the pastor about that, he didn’t think his job was particularly stressful at all.  In fact, he seemed overjoyed to be a pastor.  He said, “I get to do for a living what all Christians wish they could do more of.”  At the time, I was an accountant and had no idea I would someday be a pastor.  But it got me thinking about what it means to be a Christian.  Bringing good news to the poor, showing people who are stuck how to get free, helping restore and recover what has been broken and lost.  That might not be the job description your employer has for you.  But it’s the job description Jesus has for you!

A few years ago, I went to the dollar store and bought as many handheld mirrors as I could find, to use on a retreat.  I asked everyone to split off into pairs, and take turns.  One person to be the reader, and one to be the listener.  But the listener wasn’t just supposed to listen.  They were supposed to look at themselves in the mirror while their partner read the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and has anointed you to preach good news to the poor.  The Spirit is sending you to proclaim freedom for the oppressed and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  I don’t have enough mirrors for everyone, but you can try this at home, with or without a partner.  Get in front of a mirror, and read Luke 4:18-19 to yourself.  Can you see yourself as someone anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, show people who are stuck how to get free, and help restore and recover what has been broken and lost?  That is how God sees you!

There are many other passages of scripture that further define what Jesus means by his “Father’s business.”  Forgiving others, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, working for justice.  Even giving a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.    Friends, this is the “business” we are in.  And this business will always create tension.  Luke closes this section of his letter by saying, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”  But in just a few short weeks we will be reading how the favor Jesus found with men was short-lived.  Tension increased so dramatically that Jesus was put to death.  Being about our Father’s business will bring us in direct conflict with the powers of darkness.  That’s one of the reasons gathering for worship is so important.  It takes support, it takes encouragement, it takes the power of community in order to persevere in our faith.

Jesus had a faith that exceeded all expectations.  Even his own mother didn’t fully understand how deeply Jesus was connected to God.  I can only imagine the angst and real suffering Mary and Joseph felt when they searched for three days and couldn’t find their son.  And then to have Jesus say, basically, what did you expect?  Of course this is where I’d be!  Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things in her heart”—the same expression he used when Jesus was first born.  Jesus wasn’t the only person in his family who was growing.  As Mary watched Jesus mature, her understanding of him and his mission grew.  And she grew in her understanding of the prophecy, that one day her heart would break because of his mission.  I think Luke included this story so we could see the very real humanity of Jesus and his parents.  Yet despite the pain, Jesus would go on to remain faithful to doing his Father’s business.

Talented, focused, winsome.  Those words seem like good descriptors for Jesus as a kid.  And they can be good words to describe us!  Even if we never win any baking championships, we all have so much to offer.  So much good we can contribute.  No matter how old—or young—you are, you are called and anointed by God to help transform the world.  Go in peace, and serve your Lord!  Amen.