“Jesus is Bar Mitzvah”
By Dayle Barrett
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Reading: Luke 2:41-52
Jesus is Bar Mitzvah.
Bit of a funny sentence that, isn't it? It doesn't really sound right, does it? It almost sounds as if we made a mistake when we printed the orders of service. I mean, obviously it should be saying “Jesus’s bar mitzvah”, right? With an apostrophe “s”? Or perhaps we missed a few words… “Jesus is having a bar mitzvah?” Because we all know that a bar mitzvah is that coming-of-age ceremony, that big party that all our Jewish friends have. And Jesus isn't a party. I mean, he was invited to lots of them, turned quite a bit of water into wine, was definitely the life of the party, but he wasn't himself the party, was he?
If you think that, you can be forgiven, especially by me, I'm very forgiving. But you would be a mistaken because bar mitzvah doesn't necessarily mean what we think it does. It's a word we don't find in the New Testament. We don't even find it in the Old Testament. The first time we see the words “bar mitzvah” are in the Talmud. And in the Talmud writing of the practices of first century Jews, it says, “And when they were 13 years old, they became sons of the commandments.” That's what bar mitzvah means. It means son of the commandments. It's not about the event. It's about the person the event is for. And Jesus is definitely that.
By the fourth century, they were having special prayers for people who had become bar mitzvah. The celebrations we see today didn't arise until about the 16th century. But it's something we don't really have in Canadian society, is it? Coming of age celebrations, I mean. It seems to be something missing from our culture. I mean, when exactly are you grown up? Some of us never, I suppose. But the lines between child and adult just aren't as clear for us as they were for people years ago. Think about it. When you're 16, you can drive, but you can't vote until you're 18. And then you can't drink until you're 19. And let's face it, no one trusts you till you're 25.
Me, I'm in my mid-30s, so in today's society I'm considered about halfway through my working life, right? I should be kind of set into my career, have an idea what I'm doing and have life kind of in place. But in United Church circles, look around. I'm pretty much a baby who somehow learned how to talk, aren't I? Yet if I was playing Premier League football back in the UK, I'd already be at retirement age.
So, what does it mean, these numbers? What does it mean, these stages of life? Child, adult, grown up, trustworthy, it all seems a bit fluid, doesn't it? The reason why I'm saying this is because if we look at this story through the lens of our own ideas about stages of life, we might be mistaken enough to think we're reading the story of Jesus as a pre-teen boy. And we miss the fact that to a first century Jew, there's no such thing as a pre-teen boy. There was no such thing as a teenager. This in-the-middle stage of life we have between being a child and being a grownup just wasn't there. You were an infant and then if you survived long enough to make it to childhood, you were a child.
And for that whole time, you were training to be an adult. Then when you were 13 years old, you had responsibilities. The things that you were supposed to know how to do for your life, you'd need to know by the time you were 13. You were held responsible for your actions before the people, held responsible for your sins before God. If you were at the temple, you might be called upon to read Torah. If there were 10 of you, you would be one of the minyan who'd be called upon to pray. At 13 years old, you stopped being one thing and you started being something else. And that's something that seems to be missing today in our secular society, isn't it?
So, Jesus isn't a preteen boy in this story, then what is he? Well, he's very nearly an adult. And so, when we read of the actions of his parents, we're not reading the story of two neglectful parents who weren't taking care of their baby boy, Jesus. We're reading the story of people who were quite confident Jesus was going to be okay. After all, verse 40 of chapter two tells us that Jesus was growing in strength and wisdom and had favour with God. That's a triple threat. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, Jesus is doing great. And he's just about to take hold and take responsibility of who he is as a full-grown man. And so, he goes to the temple as he had every single year with his family. And this time he decides to stay behind.
Now, if you're training to be an adult, that means you're learning how to do the things adults do. If you're the child of a farmer, guess what you're doing? You're farming. If you're the child of a carpenter, guess what you're doing? You're building stuff. If you look at the top of the stairs on my left over here, you'll see a stained-glass window with a picture of Jesus as a child holding a cross that he'd made himself.
Jesus wasn't just a carpenter's kid; Jesus was a carpenter. So, it stands to reason that when Joseph and Mary left the temple that day, they were planning on going home and getting right back to the family business. Joseph was a lot older than Mary. Tradition holds that Joseph likely died before Jesus even started his ministry.
Much of the work of building and carrying things around as a carpenter would have been left to Jesus and his brothers. This isn't just two parents that are worried about their bitty baby boy at the temple. These are two people who need their son to come back home and start doing some work. They've already lost a week's work going to the temple for the Passover. They've had to make sacrifices. They might be short on money. And now they have to go back again after three days of searching for him to find out who's going to be doing the work. And what do they find when they get there? Jesus is in the temple talking to the teachers of the law, listening, asking questions, and the Bible says they were amazed at His understanding and His answers. That word understanding there literally means putting together.
Jesus was taking what they were saying and putting things together. He was synthesizing what they were teaching him and coming to interesting conclusions that blew their minds. And the Bible doesn't tell us what they were, but boy, I wonder. Because Jesus was and Jesus is Bar Mitzvah. Jesus is the son of the commandments. Jesus is the very fruit of God's instructions to all of Israel, through all of the Old Testament. Jesus in John's words is the word made flesh.
So, when they're teaching from the law, what is he putting together? What is it he's understanding? I wonder if when they taught him the story of creation, he remembered when God said, “let there be light” and he went out to start ordering all things by the will of his father. I wonder if when they told the story of Moses at the burning bush, he remembered the look on the prophet's face as he terrifyingly heard this message from God. I wonder if he remembers marching out before the people of Israel in the wilderness, getting them to safety and driving out armies before them.
I wonder if when they read from Isaiah about Isaiah seeing God sitting on the throne of heaven, he remembered looking down and telling an angel to put the coal in Isaiah's mouth. I wonder if when they read the Psalms, Jesus realized that every single one of them had been said in his voice. For Psalm 119 says this:
How I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have departed not from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way.
Who could have said those things but Jesus?
So, he sits there among the teachers of the law, hearing more and more and more about himself, about the story of Israel, about who he is, and understanding through the words of the prophets what it is that he is meant to do.
I'm not sure what happened over those three days, my friends, but by the time Jesus' parents got back to him, he knew exactly who he was. And we know this because Jesus did to his mother the same thing he would do for the rest of his ministry career. He answered her question with a question. Don't you hate it when your kids do that?
Mary approaches Jesus and says, “Child, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been searching with much anxiety.” And Jesus turns back to them and says, “Why have you been searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?”
Some translations say, “did you not know that I must be about my father's business?”
I'm gonna paraphrase here, this is what Jesus was saying. “Hey mom, I'm kind of the son of God, I've gotta do God stuff now, okay?”
Jesus was right where he had to be doing exactly what he had to do. He was fully aware of what his life was going to be about because he'd spent time in the word of his father and was a son of the commandments. Jesus is Bar Mitzvah. But he's only 12. He's not bar mitzvah because he's come of age. He's not bar mitzvah because of where he comes from. He's bar mitzvah because he's the word made flesh who came to dwell among us. This is how Paul said it in Galatians four:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a child. And if a child, then an heir of God through Christ.
Jesus is Bar Mitzvah, the only one who can claim to have kept the law all his days. The only one who lived a sinless life and fulfilled the righteous commands of God. But because he is Bar Mitzvah, because he is a son of the commandments, he has given us the opportunity to be children, not by commandment, but by grace. That if we believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord and confess with our mouths that God raised him from the dead, we're saved, my friends. Not by the commandment, but by the very grace of God.
Jesus that day spending time in the word, spending time with the people of God, learned exactly who He is and exactly who He is to be. And my question for you today, friends, is what is your Father's business? What are the things that you were put on this earth to do? When you're found in God's house, what is it that He's created you for?
Perhaps you're there and you're a young person today and you're like, I haven't figured it out yet. I don't know what I'm going to do when I grow up. There are so many options and none of them look very interesting. It can be frustrating. It can be scary. Or maybe like me, you're halfway through your career. You're halfway through your working life and you've got those things sorted out, but there are other things that you still need to work on. What about family? What about finances? What about transport? What about traveling? What is it, God, that you want me to do? Maybe you've worked for your whole life already and now you're retired and trying to figure out what is there for me next? What is it that God can possibly do with me after all I've already done? What can the future possibly look like?
I'm here to tell you today that it doesn't matter what stage of life you're at. It doesn't matter where you are or where you come from. God has a plan for your life and there is much that God still wants to do with you. If you're looking for the answers to those questions, you'll find them in the same place Jesus did. When you go to your father's house, when you get about your father's business, when you realize that you are a child of God, and that God has much to do with you. So may we heed Jesus' and following the son of the commandments, become children of grace.
A little later today, we're going to see four young people go from one thing to another. This is a rite of passage in the church, but it's not a coming-of-age ceremony. We're not baptizing and confirming these young people today because they're old enough. That's not what it's about. We believe as Christians that when you're washed with these waters, the Holy Spirit cleanses you of your sin and gives you rebirth into new life. They'll walk up these steps as children of Adam and walk back down as children of grace.
My charge to you, my friends, is the same as my charge to the rest of the church. That after this day, you spend the rest of your lives discovering what your Father's business is and endeavoring to do it. My prayer for you is that, like Christ, you'll grow in strength and in wisdom and in favour with God and with all people.
This is my prayer. Let it be the prayer of our whole church. Thanks be to God. Amen.