The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 27, 2009
Vol. 12 No. 51

Everything But...

People prefer answers, not questions. Too bad. Answers are logically the end, and therefore Boring, nowhere to go. But questions can go in many a direction and what’s more they reveal what you are interested in and maybe even how you think.

This Christmas Story does not end with the answer of “Baby Jesus in the Manger.” That only raises more questions - Why a baby? How a baby? How can God be one of us, Emmanuel? There’s so much attention to the infancy of Jesus, especially right now, what was he like growing up?

Luke’s short story is the only mention of the young Jesus. It is a very human depiction of Jesus who skirts the edges of being a prodigal son, a more benign version of the “Home Alone” movies. In the midst of the Passover crush - 2.5 million strong is the report - Jesus is left behind. Or perhaps he did not bother to catch up. His parents were sick about it, but once they found him it is hard to read the Gospel without feeling they were ready to throttle him. He was a 12 year old boy, completely.

They found him with the teachers in the Temple, and it was as if he were the one conducting the class. In the ancient tradition still alive, Jesus was engaged in a bout of intellectual gymnastics with the Scriptures, the Torah, as his apparatus. Posing difficult questions, thinking on one’s feet and coming up with insightful answers, probably with a healthy amount of yelling and laughing and whispering - that is how you study the Scriptures. Why all the passion? Because it’s all about the Great Passion - about God and how we live with God and how God lives with us.

Jesus wasn’t ready yet for what would come in his 30’s, but he was excited by the life with God. Mary had to ponder all of this again.