Why Have You Treated Us So?

​2nd Sunday after Christmas – A                                                                     LSB #’s 410, 523, 376
Text – Luke 2:48
 
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 & I have been searching for you in great distress.”
 
WHY HAVE YOU TREATED US SO?
 
 
You can imagine the anxiety a mother would feel.   Satan would have a field day stoking the guilt of having left behind a child, alone, in a large city.   “What were we thinking, Joseph!  Why didn’t we make sure that Jesus was with us on the day we left?   He’s just a boy!” 
Jesus may not have ditched you while on a family vacation, but the words of Mary are not unknown to us.   Each one of us has at some point in our lives wondered why God was treating us in such a way to cause us great distress.  Whether the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or a wayward child, it’s common to wonder why God treats us like that. 
Of course, wondering why God treats us as He does, reveals more about ourselves than we care to acknowledge.  The Word of God makes clear that everything He brings, or allows, into our lives will in some way be used for good in the lives of God’s people.  The crucifixion of Jesus is the ultimate example.  Yahweh abandoned His Son on the cross to bring us salvation. 
We live in a sinful world.  It’s normal for bad things to happen.  Our wondering why God allows it, shows that we lack trust in the heavenly Father’s wisdom, or in His love for us.  Much of our disappointment in God stems from the reality that we are going through life here on earth trying to find success & happiness.   Happy New Year! 
Do you think that is the heavenly Father’s plan for you?  Is that what Yahweh is chiefly concerned about for your time here on earth – that you find happiness & success?  The wording of my question obviously warns you not to answer “Yes.”   No, Jesus is often not about doing what we want Him to do.  The Bible reveals His disciples having the same problem on numerous occasions.  When the soldiers came with Judas, Peter wanted Jesus to fight back.  The last thing Peter wanted was for Jesus to surrender.  When a Canaanite woman was crying out for Jesus to heal her, how did His disciples respond?   … “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”  (Matthew 15:23 ESV)   Wouldn’t we prefer to have Jesus send all our problems away? 
Yet, those problems are often the means through which our Lord is working to bring us to glory.   We are looking for success & happiness.  Jesus is looking to rescue us from the clutches of a roaring lion.  That’s necessary, first because we cannot rescue ourselves.  Second, it’s necessary because we are often clueless to the evil behind the lion’s roar. 
Jesus is often not where we want Him to be.  He is frequently not doing what we want Him to do.  We easily forget Who Jesus is & what He was sent to do.   He came to destroy the sinful nature of mankind; to create human flesh & blood that can never be corrupted by sin.  He came to rescue us from the clutches of a roaring lion.  We are looking for success & happiness. 
Eve heard words she’d never heard before, “Did God really say…”   Yet, Satan was actually roaring the word Rebel.   Neither Adam nor Eve heard the roaring of the lion, until after they bit into the forbidden fruit.   They did hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, & a feeling gripped their hearts that they had never known before. 
Their lives on earth would never be the same, because now they knew what it was to be afraid.  And in that fear, Adam might as well have said to His Creator, “Why have you treated us so?”  Here are Adam’s exact words, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, & I ate.”  (Genesis 3:12 ESV) 
In blaming God for giving Eve to him, Adam was essentially wondering why God had treated him so.  Adam’s wondering about Yahweh’s motive was actually revealing something about Adam.  He now lacked trust & faith in the goodness of his Creator.  That was new to Adam, but you & I have struggled with the lack of faith & trust all of our lives.   You & I have also failed to fear the roaring lion.  In fact, as sinful creatures, we were born deaf to that roar.  We have always struggled with doubting the goodness of our Creator.  That doubt is the motive behind teaching evolution as the source of all life on earth.   Darwin doubted God’s goodness. 
Our doubts are real even if they are a result of sin.  The question is, “What do we do with them?”  Do we make those doubts our guiding light, such as Charles Darwin did, or do we confess those doubts & turn back to our Creator?  Whatever your specific doubts may be Jesus Christ is waiting for you to turn to Him.  He will forgive your doubts & comfort your fears. 
Maybe you have doubts about who or what you are.  Maybe you have doubts about your ability to be a parent, or a student, or doubts about God’s willingness to provide everything you need.  All of us have doubts, in some way, about our future & what is in store for us. 
If we obsess over those doubts, if we allow them to become our guiding light, we are listening to the roaring lion.  It is he who plants the question, & the doubts that about our heavenly Creator, “Why have you treated us so?”  That question & those doubts are not from our imagination.  They are real because of what sin has done to us. 
Yahweh is completely aware of our struggle.  That’s why, shortly after the sentimental manger scene of the infant Jesus that drives our Christmas celebration, this account of Mary’s doubts & guilt over “losing” her son is recorded for us by St. Luke.  Mary & Joseph dealt with real fears.  You & I deal with real fears. 
Jesus does not so often speak the words, “Do not be afraid!” because He’s angry with us.  He says them because the lies of Satan are what cause us to be afraid.  Those lies are real because of sin, but the lies are not in control.  Jesus overpowered them when He rose from the dead.  As Luke recounts this event in the life of the 12-year-old Jesus, Luke is moving us beyond the sentimental story of an infant baby Jesus in a manger.  Luke is accelerating us toward the mature ministry of the One Who was chosen to die in our place.  The sense of leaving infancy behind & jumping ahead toward Jesus’ mission is integral to the text.  
The so-called “infancy narrative” of Luke’s gospel (1:5–2:52) does not paint us a Hallmark Channel portrait of Jesus.  Rather, it prepares us to witness & believe His life, ministry, suffering, death, & resurrection that you & I might be rescued from the clutches of a lying & roaring lion.  Jesus foreshadows that ministry with His reply to His mother Mary:
“Did you not know that I must be (about the things of my Father) in my Father’s house?”  (Luke 2:49b)  Years later, Jesus would again go to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be about the things of His Father – accomplishing His work as our Savior.  When Jesus was 12, His parents were still struggling to figure out who Jesus was & what His purpose in life was. 
They wondered why Jesus treated them so, & we do the same.  We also struggle to figure out who Jesus is & what His purposes are in our lives.  We continually face problems & plaguing questions of faith (Where is the Lord?  Does He really love us?) & we grieve Him by neglecting the truths & promises of His word.  We grieve Jesus by failing to turn back to Him in trust. 
Through complaining & doubt we rob ourselves of the comfort & encouragement Jesus wants for us.  He patiently continues to urge us, in our weakness & confused thinking, to seek His truth in His word.  He freely offers them to us.  That’s why it’s said, “Confession is good for the soul.”   Jesus is patiently waiting to forgive us, & to restore us to life forever.  Amen. 
 
 
The Church from You, dear Master, received the gift divine; & still that light is lifted o’er all the earth to shine.   It is the chart & compass that, all life’s voyage through, mid mists & rocks & quicksands still guides, O Christ, to You.      O make Your Church, dear Savior, a lamp of burnished gold to bear before the nations Your true light as of old!  O teach Your wandering pilgrims by this their path to trace till, clouds & darkness ended, they see You face to face!  Amen.  LSB 523:2-3.