Christmas 2 Year A 1/4/2026
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 84; Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a; Luke 2:41-52
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
How many of you have questions that you would like answers for?
Probably most of us do…
Perhaps even all of us do.
We have plenty of questions ranging from practical to financial,
from philosophical to spiritual.
We all have questions that we would like to be answered.
Some questions we need answered right away – such as:
How am I going to pay for this medical bill?
Some questions we would like to have answers on yet have resolved to probably never know the answer – such as
Who wrote the New Testament book of Hebrews?
We might never know the answer on this side of heaven.
Questions regarding the Bible can be difficult in our faith.
Are we supposed to question what the Bible suggests?
Are we supposed to question God’s will in our life?
I would suggest that asking questions is one of the best ways to learn. Without questioning what we heard or what we saw we would never learn anything further than what we read or observed.
One day, a youngster was really excited about going fishing with his dad.
The inquisitive 7-year-old had lots of questions.
“Dad,” he asked, “What makes this boat float?”
The father replied, “Son, I don’t rightly know.”
A few moments later the youngster asked,
“Dad, how can fish breathe below the water?”
The father replied, “Son, I don’t rightly know.”
After a few minutes of silence, the youngster had another question, “Dad, why is the sky blue?”
The father again replied, “Son, I don’t rightly know.”
Another few minutes passed in silence when the youngster asked,
“Dad, does it bother you that I’m asking questions?”
His father thought for a moment and said, “No, son, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact,
I’m glad you ask questions.
How else will you learn anything if you don’t ask questions?”
The well-known pastor John Piper suggests in his book entitled, Think, that “asking questions is the key to understanding.” [1]
Speaking of questions…
Have you ever wondered what the childhood of Jesus was like?
There are a few legends out there in extra-biblical writings which are not trustworthy…
But the Gospel of Luke gives us the only biblical account of the adolescent life of Jesus.
It is the only bridge in the Gospels from the baby Jesus to the Jesus who is baptized and ministers the healing power of God’s love.
Except for this one story, the four Gospels focus their words on the accounts surrounding the birth of Jesus and the last 3 years of the life of Christ.
Luke’s account of the 12-year-old Jesus is unique to his gospel and gives us the only trustworthy glimpse into the young life of Christ.
So why is this story in the scriptures?
Why did the Holy Spirit see it fit to inspire Luke to include this one story in the canon of scripture?
A clue is found in the literary structure of our reading today…
As it is bookended by statements regarding the maturity of Jesus.
In verse 40 it says:
And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.
And the favor of God was upon him.
In the last verse of our reading (v.52) we heard:
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
This is an indication that we should read the story with an ear toward hearing the answer to the question:
“How did Christ grow in wisdom, stature, and favor?”
Jesus traveled with his parents to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
Perhaps this was his first time celebrating the feast in Jerusalem…
Jesus was at the age when many young boys began to travel annually for the feasts.
Nevertheless, when his parents left, Jesus stayed behind.
Begging the question, how did they miss their son not being with them?
Most families travelled in large caravans of extended family and friends.
Perhaps they thought someone else was watching out for him.
But, as soon as they discovered he was not with them at the end of the day they travelled back to Jerusalem…
a day’s journey back,
a day of looking,
and on the third day they found him.
Now we get to the heart of the story.
They found Jesus in the Temple.
This is our first clue in answering our question:
“How did Christ grow in wisdom, stature, and favor?”
Jesus was in the temple.
The temple is important for our story in at least two ways…
First, it was the place where the presence of God dwelt.
If you wanted to experience the presence of God – the temple was where you went.
Of course, you had to meet certain requirements.
If you were female, you could only get as far as the court of women.
If you were not a priest, you were not able to get past the court of priests.
Only the designated priest would venture toward the Holy of Holies – where the presence of God dwelt – and that was only once a year.
Praise God that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was accepted to make a way for all people…
Male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile…
We have become the temple where God’s Spirit dwells.
Praise God for the new covenant where the people of God are filled with the Holy Spirit!
But here is the point…
Jesus was in the temple where his Father dwelt.
He wanted to be in the presence of God.
The second aspect that we can note about the first century temple was that it was a place of teaching.
The best Jewish scholars would teach in Jerusalem, and the temple was the place to go for the best of the best.
A small town such as Nazareth (where Jesus spent his childhood) would have had very few Jewish teachers and certainly not the finest. Jerusalem had the best!
And the scriptures make it obvious that Jesus wanted to be there with the teachers.
Luke writes that Jesus was…
sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
I think we can learn from Jesus about being in a position to learn.
Being at church on Sunday, or at ABC on Wednesdays, or R&R on Tuesdays are important aspects of our Christian growth…
Being involved in the different areas of ministry…
Youth ministry, Men’s or Women’s gatherings…
Serving in various ways…
Put yourself in a position where you can learn and grow.
And your best position for learning and growing is being with other Christians in a learning environment where Jesus is worshipped.
Your best position for learning and growing in Christ is being with other Christians.
The Biblical practice of the church gathering is essential and foundational to living out our Christian faith.
But Jesus wasn’t just listening to them… he was also…
asking them questions. And Luke tells us: …all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Jesus was interacting with the teachers and with the scriptures.
This is an encouragement for all of us.
Listening and asking questions…
Our Gospel lesson tells us that this is the way Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
We can ask questions for all sorts of reasons…
Sometimes out of curiosity…
Or because we simply wonder why…
Sometimes we ask questions out of pain…
Or out of anger we feel about the topic…
Sometimes we ask because we have a difference of opinion…
Or because we have lived a different experience…
Regardless, we ask questions…
And you can only do that while being connected with others…
Being with others… in community…
We experience things…
We grow…
As the Psalmist said in Psalm 27:
As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another.
(Psalm 27.17)
And when we do that with the Holy Scriptures…
With the things of God…
We mature and increase in the wisdom of God.
May we be people that ask questions…
Isidor Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1944, was once asked the question:
Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighborhood?
Rabi responded with this:
My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it.
Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: “So? Did you learn anything today?”
But not my mother.
She always asked me a different question.
“Izzy,” she would say,
“did you ask a good question today?”
That difference – asking good questions – made me become a scientist!
Our lesson today is to heed the clues Jesus gave on growth…
Being present in the church, where God is worshipped…
Listening to God’s Word and to others…
And asking good questions.
So, as we enter a new year…
As many of us start new things…
As we pick up new books to read…
As we start new projects…
As we make plans for the year…
May we be present in the life of the church…
Listening and asking questions…
Especially as it pertains to our faith and Holy Scriptures…
May this be a year of growth…
May we by God’s grace… just like Jesus:
…increase in wisdom and in divine and human favor.
Amen.
[1] John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the of Love God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 48.
