Jesus Stayed Home, But Not Alone (Monday, Week 4 of Advent 2011)

What Did Jesus Do?

All who heard Jesus were amazed…and his parents were astonished,
but Jesus said to them, “Did you not know that I had to attend to my Father’s business?”
Luke 2:48-49

“Home Alone” is the totally far-fetched tale of a boy, Kevin, who, for very selfish reasons, stays behind when his family goes off for a Christmas holiday in Paris. While Kevin is left to fend for himself against a couple of nincompoop bandits, Kevin’s mom desperately makes her way back from France to Chicago. The film closes with the family amazed at what Kevin has been up to during the time he has been alone, while Kevin ends up mighty pleased with himself. In the second chapter of Luke we read of a holiday when Joseph and Mary frantically had to rush back to Jerusalem after they discovered that Jesus was not with them on the road to Nazareth.

Like Kevin’s family, Joseph and Mary were amazed to learn that Jesus had “stayed home,” but not alone. Instead of hapless burglers, Jesus contended with teachers of the Law, who were confounded by his amazing answers and precocious understanding of Scripture. As it turned out, Jesus stayed home, not for selfish reasons, but to be about his Father’s business.

Christmas is, or should be, the time when we recall and celebrate the coming into the world of Jesus, God’s Son, for the work of redeeming us and securing our adoption as children of the Father by grace, through our faith in the Lord. Like Jesus, our home is with the Father, now and forever. Like Jesus, we are also to be about our Father’s business, now and forever. The birth of Jesus was and is the Father’s way of saying that our home is with him, even as he has, through the Son, made his home with us.

One of the saddest realities about holidays is how desperately, painfully alone so many people feel. Want to astonish and bless someone this Christmas? Invite a family member, a friend, a co-worker, or a neighbor to come with you, in and through Jesus, to the Father. They’ll never again be home alone.


S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4