When Heaven Meets Earth: Jesus Did You Know?

The Question of Whether Jesus Knew Who He Was

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

Tonight's gospel is taken from the Gospel of Luke chapter 2. Starting at verse 41. Now Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He was 12 years old, they went up according to custom.

And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing Him to be in the group, they went a day's journey. But then they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintances.

And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him. After three days, they found Him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

And when His parents saw Him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, Son, why have You treated us so? Behold, Your Father and I have been searching for You in great distress. And He said to them, Why were you looking for Me?

Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house? And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright, it's that time of the year when out come the Christmas carols, the popular ones and even the unpopular ones.

And I would note that there was a fad that seemed to run through our society not that long ago. And there was a song that everybody was hearing, everybody was singing, everyone was kind of excited about.

And it, well, it was such a flash in the pan, now that if you even mention the name of that song, people roll their eyes. It's the song Mary, Did You Know. Have you heard it? You know, on YouTube, the one version of it put out by Pentatonix has been viewed over 270 million times.

And it's one of those songs when you first hear it, you sit there and you go, you know, actually it's kind of refreshing to hear such good incarnational theology regarding the birth of Christ. Because always and again the refrain is Mary, did you know?

And then talking about the things that Jesus did. Did you know that he would give sight to the blind? All the things that he would do. And as it goes, it's not a bad tune. But nowadays when you mention that tune, there are people, and I've even seen satirical responses where somebody asks the question, Mary, did you know?

And they get a very loud, yes, she knew. Of course she knew. Such is the cynicism of our day. But I would note that a better question and one that I read in another pastor's sermon, he was telling a story about how in one of his catechism classes, there was a kid in his catechism class who asked the question, did Jesus know?

Did he know that he was the son of God? Did he know that he was God in human flesh? Not a bad question. And so the text that we are looking at here tonight for our second midweek Advent service really answers the question, and the question itself is quite stunning.

The answer is, yeah, he did know. In fact, what's really interesting about this particular text is that while Jesus' answer kind of hints at the fact that Mary should have known more than she did. One of those things.

But always and again, this is kind of a thorny text. And the reason why it's a thorny text is because Jesus legitimately went missing for three days. And you have to ask the question, did Jesus fall short here?

Was he disobeying his parents? Answer, no, not at all. And so here, our text will be actually helpful to work our way through. Back from the Gospel of Luke, now Jesus' parents, they went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.

And we learn from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, that Jesus' parents, although humble, and although not well padded in their bank account, let's say they were poor, better way to put it, Joseph is pretty much a blue-collar, hard-working fellow.

And the word that we use for carpenter could also be translated construction worker. So what is Joseph? He is the heir, by the way. He is the heir to the throne of David, legitimately the right descendant who should be sitting on the throne of Israel.

But there is no real throne of Israel at this point. And King Herod and his family dynasty after him, they're not even Jews. And so when we come to the story of the birth of Christ and his childhood, we don't get too much information.

But one of the things we see is that Mary and Joseph, they fear God and they obey his commandments. And this is super important for us because Christ is sinless and some of the things that were required for Jesus to do as an infant, he couldn't do them for himself.

Instead, his parents had to do them for him, like presenting him in the temple, circumcising him, and things of this nature. And also, when you read Torah, then you learn that the Jews who were in covenant with God in the Mosaic Covenant, the men were supposed to present themselves in Jerusalem in the presence of God at the temple, the place where God caused his name to dwell.

They were supposed to show up for the different feast days. And so on this particular occasion, the whole family, the whole family, they jump into their family minivan. No, actually they didn't have one of those.

They probably walked from Nazareth to Jerusalem. And they are heading to the Passover feast. Jesus is required to be there. Joseph is required to be there. The women are not, but the women, they oftentimes accompany their family.

And so when he was, this all happens when he's 12 years old, so they are faithfully obeying God's law. And Jesus here is required to do these things, and this is very good. They went up according to custom, and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Important to note that Jesus didn't actually disobey a command. His mom didn't say, be there, or whatever. And so Jesus, what did he do? Well, we know from this text, he goes into the temple and spends time with those who are teaching, asking them questions.

In fact, his parents didn't know that he was not in the family group. They supposed him to be there, and they went a whole day's journey. And then you can kind of see what happens here. Around this time of the year, a lot of people watch those movies, Home Alone, Home Alone, and Home Alone 2.

I think those are the only two that should exist. I'm just saying. And then you've got that moment where Kevin McAllister's mom realizes that Kevin is not with the family. The first time in Paris, second time they're heading down to Florida for Christmas, and she has that big moment where she goes, Kevin!

I can just see Mary going, Yeshua! Where is Yeshua? And the poor lady, the stress of the moment has got to be overwhelming. She legitimately lost track of the Messiah. She had one assignment. She understood the assignment.

All she needed to do.

Was keep track of Jesus and keep him safe, and he's gone missing. So they stop what they're doing. They head back a day's journey back to Jerusalem, and they didn't find him. They returned searching him.

After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. What's really interesting about the Home Alone movies is that in Home Alone 2, Kevin McAllister's mother figures out where she can find her lost son, because what does he like?

He likes Christmas trees. So she heads to Rockefeller Center, and wouldn't you know it, there's a big Christmas tree there in Rockefeller Center, and there's Kevin McAllister. You see, Mary should have put this all together.

Mary, didn't you know? You see, sorry. You'll note I'm doing a lot of play on words tonight. I'm getting groans and laser beams from certain people here in the congregation. Work with me, folks. Work with me.

So they found him in the temple. They were astonished. His mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I, we've been searching for you in great distress. And she's not speaking hyperbolically, alright?

I once misplaced one of my kids at the local mall for a few minutes. Utter panic, the ice cold feeling that runs through your body. That whole thing about your blood running cold, that's for real. The poor parents of Jesus, great distress for three days, but note what Jesus said.

Why were you looking for me? Why? Mary, didn't you know? I must be in my father's house. And the answer to the question, did Jesus know that he was God in human flesh is right here, yeah. He knew. He absolutely knew.

And that's kind of the point, because Scripture is so clear on this that Jesus, although he is by nature God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped when he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant.

And he humbled himself by becoming obedient, even at the point of death. Death on the cross. You see, Jesus knew full well where he was from, who his father was. He knew that he was God in human flesh.

And at the same time, in his state of humiliation, Christ did not make full use of the powers of his divinity, although he had every right to if he wanted to. You'll note that the count doesn't tell us that when Jesus was 11 years old, he scared all of his school kid friends away by glowing in the dark.

He didn't do any of that. Instead, in his state of humiliation, he muted his divinity and was, for a time, well, in a state where he was being obedient to the point of death. In fact, we see here in this text that Jesus went with him, came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them.

In fact, Jesus himself, as a child, grew in wisdom and in stature. And the psalmists make it clear that Jesus learned obedience to the Father through what he suffered. Hard to believe that God in human flesh, although God knows all things, he's omniscient, he's omnipotent, all-powerful, that Christ chose not to tap into all of that.

And like every other kid in his time, whatever it would have been to live a normal childhood at that time in his region of the world, he had to go to school. He had to learn his Alephs, Beths, Gimels, and Dallas, and probably had to learn his Alphas, Betas, right?

Because he had to probably learn Greek along the way, too. And maybe also had to learn Latin. Folks in that region of the world seem to know a few languages in order to survive. And so Jesus, he does all of these things so that he can then be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And as to whether or not Christ sinned in this matter, the scripture is very clear that Christ never sinned. In Hebrews 4, talking about Jesus as our great High Priest, it says, we have then a great High Priest who has passed to the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, so let us hold fast to our confession.

We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet is without sin. Did Jesus sin in this regard? Not at all. In fact, Mary should have known.

Should have known where Jesus was. Should have known that his mission was to come and save us, because that's exactly what the angel told her. His name will be called Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.

And so as we consider then the mystery of the Incarnation, and the mystery that not only did God join us in our human state, in human flesh, and had ten fingers and ten toes, also had to learn his ABCs, and also freaked his parents out for a few days.

We know then that Christ, because of what he's gone through in his state of humiliation, that he sympathizes with our weaknesses. You know, we live in a day right now where it seems like every week we hear a report of somebody that we know, or love, who's come down with COVID.

And every time that happens we kind of hold our breath, and we pray. I think about Ryan and Amy Seavers, who we've been serving in our Lethe Outreach now for years. Both of them having been in the hospital.

One of them was just released yesterday. And Amy is still in the hospital, but we got a report that she's getting better. But you'll note that each and every one of us, the reason why we suffer sicknesses and illnesses and things like this, is due to the fact that we've messed up God's good creation through our sin.

And as a result of it, we suffer from colds and flus and cancer and rheumatoid arthritis in old age and things of this nature. But worse than that, we all struggle then with sin. And it's just a daily slug.

And at times, we well, embarrassed by our weakness, we sometimes feel that God doesn't want to put up with us anymore. We're tempted to basically think, and maybe the devil has whispered in your ear, you know, if you really were a Christian, you'd have your act far better together than you do.

Right? What do you do in a situation like that? Well, when you're sick, you go to the doctor. And you tell the doctor, I'm sick. And the doctor says, what are your symptoms? You explain your symptoms.

If you have a rash, you show them the rash. If you have a lesion, you show them the lesion. If you have something that's bugging you and it's internal, they go and they take an x-ray of what's going on.

Right? If you're sick and you feel like you have COVID, you have a test. And then you actually get care. That's kind of the same way. Note that God isn't standing far off going, you know, I'm waiting for you to just hit the gym.

And would you go and get yourself strong so that you don't have all this weakness in relation to sin? Instead, we know this. That Jesus is our High Priest because He has been tempted in every way that we have and is without sin that He legitimately sympathizes with our weaknesses.

He's the one that you can go to and say to Him, Jesus, right now, I'm struggling. Right now, I haven't got my act together. Today, I have been tempted to sin in this direction, in this direction, in this direction.

And much to my shame, I have given in to that temptation in this direction. Christ doesn't sit up there and go, well, I have no idea how to deal with this. I don't understand this at all. Far from it.

He sympathizes with our weaknesses. In fact, He Himself bore our sin in His body, going to the cross and bleeding and dying for each and every one of our weaknesses. Each and every one of our sins. And He is our great High Priest.

And Hebrews then here says, because of this, we can have confidence. Confidence. What a big word. You have confidence nowadays and people will accuse you of being arrogant. Uh-uh. This isn't arrogance.

Arrogance is that self-reliance, that self-love. Here, we have confidence, not in ourselves. We have confidence in the One who sympathizes with our weaknesses, bled and died for our sins. So now, because He can sympathize with our weaknesses, we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence so that we can receive from our God mercy and find grace that is necessary to help us in our time of need.

That's.

How cool Jesus is. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5. All of this, he says, hang on a second here. I flipped to the wrong page. There we go. He says all of this is from God. All of this, who through Christ has reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

You see, Jesus knew He knew that He was God. He knew that He was sent to earth to fulfill a mission, to reconcile us to God, to take the strained relationship that we had broken by our sin and to repair the breach by His laying down of His life so that we can be forgiven.

All of this is from God and as a result of what Christ has done, He Himself has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Think of it this way. That is that Christ, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself.

That's what He sent Jesus to do. Not to judge us, not to send us to hell, not to condemn us. He sent Christ into the world to reconcile us to Himself by not counting our trespasses against us. And note then that we as Christians, we are entrusted with this message of reconciliation.

We as Christians are ambassadors now for Christ. God is making His appeal through us and so we should implore others and implore as many people as we can on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. And here we get these great words, for see our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Brothers and sisters, our God is amazing and the story of the incarnation is mind blowing in all of its capacities. And so let us this Advent season continue the work of recognizing our weaknesses, recognizing our sins, recognizing that scripture is clear that Christ has suffered these same temptations and is without sin and despite the fact that He was without sin, He instead took up your sin and iniquity and mine, bled for us and died for us, reconciled us to God and given us a joyful message to proclaim to the world.

Hmm. It's almost like you can begin to hear those, well, Christmas carols.

Glory.

Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth. Those God has reconciled to Himself. The story of Christmas is just around the corner. Let us repent of our sin, cast off the sin that so easily entangles us and run the race as if it was our last day.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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