The Women of Christmas Part 4

-More About MaryDecember 21, 2014

By John Partridge
Scripture:

Luke 2:41 - 52

Last week, we began our discussion of Mary, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus and this week we will
conclude both our discussion of Mary and our mini-series on the Women of Christmas.
Have there ever been times in your life that you wish you could see the plan?
When our parents did things without explaining, it made us crazy. They would tell us to get in the car but didnt
tell us where we were going. Our bosses sometimes tell us to do things that dont seem to make a lot of sense,
but it makes sense to them because theyve seen the whole plan. God does that to us too. Things happen to us
that we dont understand. God asks us to do things and to go places that dont seem to make a lot of sense
because we havent seen the whole plan.
Depending on how weird or how difficult things get, we would begin to demand that our parents, or our boss,
tell us what was going on. We would insist on knowing what the plan was so we could understand why things
were happening and why we were doing what we were doing. But God doesnt usually tell us much, no matter
how much we stomp our feet and insist that he reveal the plan to us. We might get impatient, frustrated and
even angry at God because our world just doesnt make sense, but Mary was different than most of us. Mary
was chosen by God because she was different. And as we remember her story, we understand a little better just
how different she was and how we should try harder to be like her. (Luke 2)
Mary and Joseph were betrothed soon to be married, and due to the census, they had to travel to Josephs
hometown. The house was full but, as families will do, a place had to be found that would give the couple some
privacy, and so the animals were moved around, or moved next door to the neighbors house or something, and
a place was made in the lower floor in the barn part of the house and a feeding trough was cleaned out for a
passable baby crib. And sometime while they were in town, the baby arrived. After the census, this young
couple returns home to Nazareth and gets married.
Have you ever wondered why Joseph lived in Nazareth if his familys home was in Bethlehem? While we
dont have definitive scriptural evidence to know for sure, we do know something from the study of
archaeology. Not far from Nazareth, during the lifetimes of Joseph and Jesus, the city of Sepphoris was being
built. In fact if you ever go there, you can see the ruins of ancient Sepphoris from the village of Bethlehem. It
is quite possible that since Joseph was a builder, that he did the same thing that many young people do today.
He moved to the place where he could find work. Sepphoris was founded by the Greeks and was considered to
be a pagan city. The Jews thought that it was corrupt and unclean and so a good Jew would not live in
Sepphoris. But Nazareth was a good Jewish town and was less than four miles from Sepphoris; therefore it is
quite possible that Joseph (and later Jesus) would walk there from Nazareth in the morning and return each
evening.
So here we have this young couple, a model of faithfulness to God, who is tasked to be the parents of the
promised Messiah. Mary accepts the whispers and the gossip about the parentage of her child, and she follows
1

Joseph to Bethlehem and back to Nazareth and these two teenagers set up housekeeping. Then only a few years
later, they dash off in the dark of night to Egypt (a journey of probably 350-400 miles on foot) and they stay
there for several years until Herod dies.
Finally, the day arrives when their firstborn son, now about twelve, is old enough to make the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem for his coming-of-age ceremony. Travel was dangerous. There were thieves and cutthroats along the
roads. For major religious festivals and other occasions, large groups of family members and townspeople
would travel together. This is how Mary and Joseph and Jesus arrive at the capital city. This is how they came
to the temple to give praise to God and to offer sacrifices to him. During feast days, the city would swell to
three or four times its normal size or more, and as I noted last week, normally there were no hotels. But
accommodations can be made where there is the possibility of profit. This is still seen in Jerusalem today
during important Christian or Muslim holy days. Thousands of pilgrims flood the city and vastly outnumber the
available hotels. Shopkeepers anticipate the influx of people and their need of a place to stay, and so they pack
up their storefronts and other rooms to rent them out to pilgrims for a rate that would be many times what they
could earn in a normal week selling their wares. My Greek professor, Dr. John Byron, lived in Israel for several
years and witnessed this for himself in the Old City of Jerusalem.
41

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42When he was twelve years old, they
went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning
home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44Thinking he was in their
company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45When
they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46After three days they found him in the
temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47Everyone who heard
him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His
mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching
for you."
49
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50But they
did not understand what he was saying to them.
51
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these
things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
After the last day of the festival, the caravan headed home. Caravans are long, tedious and boring. Human
nature being what it is, people most likely gathered into groups, men with men, women with women and
children of similar ages all walking together to talk, or play games, or anything else that would help to pass the
time. The caravans were large, so it was no surprise that no one had seen Jesus for a while. From what we
know, likely Jesus had caused his mother and father very little difficulty, and it must have been unusual for him
(if it ever happened at all) to disobey his parents, or for him to not be where he was supposed to be. They spent
the day searching. They searched and called and asking friends and family and total strangers if anyone had
seen their precious child. Mary and Joseph, and perhaps several Jesus sisters and brothers who might have
been old enough to travel with them, would have gone from group to group in the caravan. Surely they grew
more frantic with each passing hour and finally turned back toward Jerusalem, this time perhaps without the
protection of a caravan. If that is the decision that they made, it was one that was filled with risk and danger,
but what would you do, what would any parent do? Would you leave your child behind, alone in the largest
city in the country? Of course not. And so they headed back and, after who knows how much searching in the
city, they found him. Three days after they had left, they found him sitting in the temple chatting politely with
the teachers of the law.
And Jesus said, Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50But they did not understand what he was
saying to them.
2

51

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these
things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Jesus told his parents that he had to be in his fathers house. He had reached the age of manhood and he had
begun to exert his independence from his parents, but still he goes with them and is obedient to them. This is,
the last time that we hear from Joseph. The next time we see her in scripture, Mary appears to be his only
parent, and Jesus is responsible for her, as the oldest son would be. That transition strengthens the idea that
Jesus was the oldest son and that Joseph did not have children before his marriage to Mary.
Mary saw an angel, and had a baby before she ever slept with a man. She traveled to Bethlehem and gave birth
in a stable. She set up a household, started a family, and fled to Egypt all before she was twenty years old. As
Jesus was entering manhood, she was still short of her thirtieth birthday and on the day Jesus hung on the cross
she would be less than fifty. Mary saw something. She saw it when she met the angel of the Lord, when she
met Simeon and Anna in the Temple, and she saw it again on that day in the temple with the young man Jesus,
Mary was given special glimpses of who Jesus would be and why he had come, but she didnt understand.
She didnt understand what it all meant, but the scripture tells us that she considered these things and
treasured these things in her heart. Mary didnt understand, but she thought about what God was doing. Mary
didnt understand, but she had faith that God would lead her and guide her. God gave her a family and chose
her for a special role in history. God gave Mary a son, and kept her safe when a brutal tyrant was trying to hunt
them down and kill him.
Of course this is why both Mary and Joseph were chosen, but there is a lesson that we must learn from them:
They didnt always understand what was happening or why things happened to them, but they didnt scream at
God or doubt his existence. Mary didnt look for other gods to see if they would reveal the future to her. Mary
never asked to have the whole plan explained to her.
Mary was a woman of faith.
The message for us this Christmas is to be more like Mary.
Mary trusted Godeven when life was hard.

You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev.
John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry,
if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or
any of our other projects may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These
messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print by writing
to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at
http://eepurl.com/vAlYn. These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture
references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.