For Jesus, Appearances Count

The season in the church year that follows Advent is Epiphany, whose name comes from the Greek word meaning "manifestation." There are a variety of lectionary texts that come up for discussion at Epiphany. The main one in most Christian traditions is the text dealing with Jesus' baptism by John (and the accompanying manifestation of his divinity), but this is not the only one. Others are the story of Jesus as a youth in the Temple, found in Luke 2:41-52, and the story of Jesus' first public miracle at Cana in Galilee. We will be examining each of these texts in the next three columns.

Let us consider Luke 2:41-52 first.

Amazingly enough, Luke 2:41-52 provides us with the only story in the four canonical gospels that tells us anything about what Jesus was like after his birth and before the age of about 30. This reminds us that none of the gospel writers were trying to write exhaustive biographies of Jesus that chronicled all of the significant events in his life from womb to tomb. They had decided to present only certain vignettes that would reveal to us something about Jesus' character.

The very first thing we learn from this Lukan story is how devout Jesus' parents were. Every year, they would make the long pilgrimage on foot from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, the spring celebration of the Jews' deliverance from Egypt. We are then told about a particular visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12. That would possibly place the visit just after the beginning of the administration of Judea as a Roman province, which is to say, just after the demise of Archelaus, the last son of Herod the Great to rule Judea during Jesus' lifetime. Luke is not really interested in telling us what Jesus and his family did during the festal week in Jerusalem but rather skips directly to the point when the family was to return to Nazareth.

Joseph and Mary and other kin began the trek back to Galilee, assuming that Jesus was among the pilgrims going home. But, a day into their journey, they discovered he was not among them.

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