A Reflection for the First Sunday of Christmas: God who is being revealed to us

A reading from Luke, chapter 2, verses 41-52 

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search 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. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour. 

Here ends the reading. 

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By the 29th of December, it might feel like Christmas is over. We’ve eaten our Christmas feasts, opened our presents, and sung carols in church. However, the church’s season of Christmas is ongoing: the celebration doesn’t end until the 6th January, at Epiphany. For some, the season of Christmas doesn’t end until the 2nd February, on the Feast of Candlemas. It is still Christmas, a fact which we’re reminded of by today’s reading from Luke. 

In this story, Jesus is now twelve years old, travelling with his family for Passover. After going missing for three days, he’s found at the Temple, participating in intellectual debate with religious teachers. Everyone is amazed at his abilities, his understanding of Torah. His parents must have been relieved to see him but also confused. What is their son doing? Why is he insisting that the Temple is his Father’s house? 

Luke gives us a subtle clue, cementing this story as part of the larger story of Christmas. He tells us that Mary ‘treasured all these things in her heart’. Perhaps you have a feeling of deja vu when hearing the passage – wasn't that in a different part of the Bible? Luke also uses this phrase after the shepherds visit on Christmas night: we are told that ‘Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’. As these miraculous events unfold, Mary takes note, eventually piecing together the clues which illuminate the nature of Jesus, the Son of God. In this moment at the Temple, we glimpse the nature of Jesus as the one who reveals the full meaning of God’s law. 

On this first Sunday of Christmas, Mary reminds us also to take note – to take all we have been told into our hearts and continue to think about who exactly this child is, to us and to our world. The Christmas story is unfolding around us, as God is revealed in the person of Jesus. May we continue to ponder the character of God-with-us long after the last present has been opened and into this new year.