After three days they found [Jesus] in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. (Luke 2:46)
In the Gospel of Luke there is no visit from the wise ones from the east. In Matthew, this is a scene where scholars of the stars come to see what they had learned in their studies, that someone holy was coming into the world. Instead, in Luke, we have this scene of a twelve year old having a conversation with the wise ones of the temple. I would not be surprised if Jesus' cousin John was not somewhere around as well. Is Jesus giving those in the temple a heads up of what is to come?
"When crossing a one way street a smart person knows which way traffic comes from, but a wise person looks both ways anyway." I love this saying. It encapsulates so much. Just because you know how something works, the mechanics of a process, you may not have the wisdom to understand the nuances or the possibilities that may emerge. Somebody just might turn down the wrong way. In the Church we see this so often. It is one thing to quote "Thou shall not kill," it is quite another to understand the deep wisdom of such a simple statement.
I bring these ideas together - the revealing of Jesus and what does wisdom look like - to maybe say something about this coming New Year. We know the mechanics of how a year will unfold. We know when the year begins and when it ends, we know that there will be children born and people will die, we know that we will eat, sleep and wake. But there is no way for us to know when these things will happen much less how they may effect our lives. So, we should look both ways as we proceed.
Jesus was brought to the temple, just like many other children, but no one would have predicted that the teachers of the temple would be challenged and perplexed by one of these preteens. These temple teachers insist that when you come to a one way street you only need to look one way. In fact, they might insist that you should never look the other way. That you should only look the one way, and to tilt your head just right and squint your eyes just so. But, sooner or later we will learn that the tilting, the squinting really means nothing and that it is not helpful to look just one way. Was Jesus reminding the teachers of the same thing?
This New Year is full of promise. Despite what is going on in this world, the wars, the violence, a new era of the oligarchy, we are wise to know that this not the only way. There is the way of the Lord. We are wise to know that love wins, empathy heals, and hope brings a new day. Even though the world is telling us to only look one way, we choose to look in a different way.
I live in hope and love because my savior lives. I live in hope because Jesus keeps asking the question, "how does this bring life to your neighbor?" I live in hope because the gift of the Holy Spirit is still active in this world. Thanks be to God!
