Sermon - Epiphany I 2023 - Luke 2:41-52

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, William Holman Hunt, 1854/1855

Founding the family on faith.

1. The family is under assault.

2. The most important element for a successful family is faith.

3. Parents must raise their children to be faithful Christians.

4. Living faithfully is worth it, even if it’s more difficult.

“His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.” I suppose that sounds a bit quaint and uninteresting today. The whole story of Jesus getting left behind in Jerusalem seems a little unimportant, given the whole scope of the scriptures and all. Yet, in the decades between Jesus as an infant and Jesus at 30 years old, this is the only story recorded in the Bible. While at first glance this lesson may seem a bit unimportant, it does indeed teach a very important lesson. It teaches us about the significance of founding the family on faith. Afterall, the family has been under assault for a long time, and the most important element for a successful family is faith. Parents must raise their children to be faithful Christians. Living faithfully is worth it, even if it's more difficult.

Founding the family on faith truly is worth it, and it’s absolutely vital if we want Christianity to continue among us and our descendents. Unfortunately this is one of the areas where Satan has attacked us most heavily in recent generations. The family is under demonic assault in our country. The family has been having problems not just in the past 30 years, but for the past century or more. It seems as though we’ve lost sight of what is most important in life. 

Since the roaring 20s, after the Great War and the Spanish Flu, the level of wealth and prosperity among Americans increased dramatically, and the notion of the American Dream became popularized. After the 2nd World War, this trend picked back up after the Great Depression. Ever since then we’ve been riding this wave of success. Some may argue that we’ve entered a period of stagnation and decadence, which I think is accurate, however for most people their mindset hasn’t changed yet.

What this means is that success in life is largely defined by material wealth and social status. So for example, a frequently asked question of children is: “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Or we ask high school seniors: “where are you going to college and what are you going to do with your life?” Underlying these questions is an assumption that one’s career, income, and social status is most important, and we expect little children to believe that. Thus the primary intention of education and school is to work towards that goal. So my generation was pushed into college because it would supposedly make you a lot of money. If you weren’t going to college it was assumed there was something wrong with you. Today we’ve begun to recognize that colleges which incur massive debts aren’t necessarily the most profitable, so the new thing is to push trade schools. Why? Because you’ll supposedly make a lot of money.

It’s fine whether you go to college, trade school, or neither. I don’t particularly care one way or the other: we need both manual laborers and academics, both play an essential role in civilization. My point is that there’s something more important in life than career and social status. Namely, faith in God. It’s important that we have work in this life and can take care of ourselves, but that’s secondary to our faith, and in the scheme of things doesn’t matter that much. Any education which doesn’t prepare a child for heaven and build up their faith is a waste of time. Of course we want people to be able to read, write, and do arithmetic, but if they can’t even recite the ten commandments then it was a waste. Sure they might have a nice house or two and some fun toys, but that’s not going to matter if they spend eternity in hell.

Thus the most powerful assault against the family in the past century has been the emphasis on material wealth over and against faith! Certainly the family is under assault by means of divorce, contraception, broken families, and this whole marriage debacle with homosexuality and transgenderism, but the worst failure is that faith has taken a backseat (or no seat) in far too many families. So the most important element in a successful family is faith.

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus model this for us in this one story from Jesus’ youth. It was required in God’s law that every male make the yearly journey to Jerusalem for the Passover, and yet we see that Mary went as well. Joseph’s family made their faith a priority for the entire household.

Jesus Himself further deepens our understanding how important our faith ought to be in our lives. When Jesus stayed behind in the temple, Joseph and Mary’s mistake wasn’t that they left Him behind, it was that they didn’t first think that He would have remained in the temple. Like Jesus said: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” This is true for Jesus obviously because He is God in the flesh. However, it’s also true of every Christian because Jesus’ words could also be said by any of us. God is our Father, where else should we be than in our Father’s house? We aren’t Jesus so we can’t amaze everyone with our divine wisdom, but we sure can be in God’s house asking questions and pondering the word of God.

Prioritizing our faith is imperative if we want to have a successful family. Joseph and Mary brought up Jesus in the faith, and after this episode the scripture says Jesus “went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them… And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Jesus is God, so Jesus did these things perfectly. Nevertheless, these are things that most children will grow in if they’re raised in the faith. Like the proverbs teach us: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

It is the duty of parents to raise their children in the faith. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This isn’t a guarantee that children won’t fall away from the faith, but if you don’t train them up in the fear of the Lord, then they won’t even have a faith to fall away from. This is simply the command of our God that we are to train up our children in the faith. This is in part why we have midweek classes at church. However, some classes once a week at church aren’t enough. Our faith isn’t an extracurricular that we just practice on occasion, but our faith should so permeate our lives such that everything is touched by our faith.

Admittedly this is difficult, but it’s worth it in the end. It was difficult for Joseph and Mary to have temporarily lost Jesus; Jesus’ faithfulness was painful for others around Him. Our faithfulness isn’t always going to be easy, often it will be a sacrifice. Like St. Paul wrote: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Faithfulness is a sacrifice. Sometimes we forget this. 

Sundays and Wednesdays used to be free of most other social obligations, because people went to church, but this isn’t the case anymore. Now Christians will have to make a choice between their Father’s house and other things. This morning you all have made the choice to be in your Father’s house; well done good and faithful servants! Unfortunately many other Christians have not made the same choice today. Let us therefore be lights in the darkness, pointing others to Christ. Let us remain steadfast in the faith, remembering what our Father promises us here in His house. Finally, let us always look to our Lord Jesus, who is always about His Father’s business, not only teaching in the temple, but submitting to His heavenly Father’s will and laying down His life for us. The fruits of Jesus’ submission and obedience has earned us a place in paradise in our Father’s heavenly mansions.