It is a familiar saying that John 3:16 is the Gospel in a nutshell; that God loved the world, so He sent His Son. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17) Every week you sing the Agnus Dei which proclaims with the other John that Jesus is the “Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world.” St. Paul wrote that “[God] in Christ was reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Therefore, from Scripture (especially these passages), you learn this truth: Jesus is the Savior of the world. But, you can also discern this truth: If Jesus is the Savior of the world, then He is the Savior of each person, individually, that is part of the world.

This morning’s Gospel finds Jesus of Nazareth having left Nazareth, after passing through the people unharmed as they sought to throw him over the brow of the cliff on which the town was built—the end of last week’s Gospel. He had returned to Capernaum, teaching and amazing His hearers. He spoke with authority…His own authority. He didn’t merely repeat what had been repeated by teachers before him and teachers before them: “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…” (cf. Matthew 5:21ff)

I often wonder what it would be like if I were to return to my “home” congregation as a guest preacher.

For a little bit of background, I’ll say this: My grandparents were long-time residents of Tampa or the surrounding suburbs. When my grandparents married, there was only one LCMS congregation in the Tampa area. As the metro area grew, especially in the 70s and 80s, several other LCMS congregations were established; almost all of them began in my grandparents’ house. Not to boast, but the name Wagner is almost synonymous with Missouri Synod Lutheranism in the Tampa metro area.

That’s why I often wonder what it would be like if I were to return to my “home” congregation in Carrollwood (a Tampa suburb) and be about a task of ministry there. They know me there. They’ve seen me when my family would drive down from Ft. Gordon in Georgia for a holiday break. They received me as a member when I went away to college, and often saw me during that time. In a sense, they saw me grow up and certainly heard stories of me (and the rest of my cousins) from my grandparents. I was ordained in that congregation and was a first-time celebrant of the Sacrament there that afternoon. While it’s not the same for a pastor who grew up and spent every Sunday of their young lives in the same congregation, there is a certain renown that I have with Lutheran circles in Tampa that most others don’t share.

It doesn't take long in the Christ-half of the Church year for the boy Jesus to grow up. It was just a week ago that you heard about the 12 year-old Jesus in the temple. A day after that, the church observed Epiphany, and regressed about 10 years to when Jesus would have been no more than 2 years old, when he was visited by sages from the east.

Today, however, He is about 30 years old. Luke doesn’t give an exact age, but he does supply a date, relatively speaking: “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” It was at this time that John preached in the wilderness the sermon just before today’s pericope, the same time “when all the people were baptized,” and “that Jesus also was baptized.”

When it comes to Christmas, American Christianity (and even American Civil Religion in some respects) tends to be overly sentimental. Manger scenes are set up in a style the creates a peaceful scene with the animals in quiet awe of the Birth of the Creator of the Universe. Christmas pageants are performed with cute children dressed as angels and shepherds in oversized bath robes. And the entire world gathers to sing “Silent Night,” as if to pretend that it will “sleep in heavenly peace” that night.

Now, don’t get me wrong. In order to be heard at this time of year, even the secular artists cannot shy away from songs that proclaim the birth of the Savior of the World. It is Christmas, after all. But it’s almost always done with a bunch of sap and schmalz and false ideas of peace and what it means that the Prince of Peace has been born.

Every year they made this trek—Nazareth to Jerusalem. There was business to conduct at the temple. It was time to be in the presence of God. It was time to make a sacrifice.

This time, Jesus got to go. He was 12 years old—no longer a boy, He was a man, now. As such, it was time for Him to sit at the feat of the teachers for Torah instruction.

And, wouldn’t you know it, the first time He is receiving instruction from the Torah teachers, He amazes them. He was asking questions the teachers never heard before; He was causing them to think of things they had never thought of before. This young Man, supposed to be a student, had become the teacher, and the teachers became the students. This was no ordinary 12-year old sitting with them. Where did He learn these things? Joseph was a carpenter, certainly not a trained theologian, so it couldn’t have been from His “father.” Well, St. Luke wrote, “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”