THE GREAT 30 YEAR VOID

Two days ago, on Friday, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles; God’s message that His Son is the Saviour of all mankind. The Gospel appointed for the day was from St. Matthew, chapter 2.

Immediately after the appointed passage, in v.13, St. Matthew tells us that Joseph was warned in a dream to take the Holy Family into Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of King Herod. They returned to their homeland, to a town called Nazareth, when the Angel of the Lord again came to Joseph to tell him that Herod was dead.

A strange thing then happens in the Gospel narratives. They go silent on the life of Jesus Christ until he again appears to be baptised by John Baptist in the River Jordan.

They go silent with one very important exception, the short story we read in the Gospel for today, Epiphany 1, of Jesus at the age of 12, causing his parents great concern by tarrying behind in Jerusalem while they set off for home. There is, of course, great significance for this break in the silence.

You will remember that the attribute most commonly given to the Nativity of Our Lord is the great humility He showed in His Incarnation.

Now, at the age of 12, we find a young boy who still exhibits that humility, but who also and most dramatically, exudes a particular confidence.

Son, His distraught mother says, Why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

The twelve year old Jesus knew with complete certainty who He was and what was His mission on earth.

Then, after making this astounding declaration of His knowledge, Our Lord submits Himself to the authority of His parents and His life slips back into another 18 years of silence.

In fact, most of Our Lord’s earthly life is a void to us and it would seem at first sight to be a silly thing to try to preach on a void. But that is exactly what I want to do this morning, because this is God we are dealing with here and even His voids are articulate teachers; His silences are eloquent and instructive. He it is who teaches us the value of silence, in commanding through the Psalmist, Be still and know that I am God. Ps.46:10.

What God has to say to each of us, at any moment, is different, because we are each of special importance to Him and are each at a different point on our journey to the many mansions in the house of God the Father. So, please, try now to be still and listen in the stillness of your soul for the voice of God. I will keep talking, but reach, if you can, beyond my words, into that great and deep quiet where God waits to speak to each of us.

I want to draw four lessons from what we may call the 30 year silence. They are obedience, patience, trust and watchfulness. There may be more, certainly are, but it is on these that I want to spend the rest of this sermon.

V.51 says, And He went down with them and was subject unto them. Jesus was obedient to Joseph and Mary, a lesson which should not be lost on any child, or on any parent struggling with bringing up a child in an environment of loving discipline. Most importantly, however, is that Jesus was obedient to the will of the Father. It was the Father’s will that Jesus should spend the next 18 years, as He had spent the previous 12, in quiet obscurity.

It was not the Father’s plan to follow Redemption’s dawn with Redemption’s final act. Why, is far too deep a question for this occasion and is perhaps even a mystery which cannot be truly resolved in this life.

Consider, though, what that meant to Jesus, who was fully human and subject to all our impetuousness, our need to act precipitously to any situation. I know that I would be champing at the bit. But Jesus was also completely aware of His divine mission of Redemption, so when His Heavenly Father said, be patient and wait until I tell you the time is right, Our Blessed Lord was content to wait.

So must the faithful Christian accept the yoke of patience; be obedient to God’s command to be still and to Our Saviour’s example of obedience to parents, to those put justly in authority over us and, supremely, to God. And be patient, as Jesus was and as the disciples were in their wait for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

But there is more. These times when God requires patience are nothing less than God given opportunities for spiritual growth and enrichment. God does not want us to waste one minute.

Jesus didn’t. St. Luke tells us in ch.2:52, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. A little further back in the same chapter, in v.40, St. Luke tells us much the same about Our Lord’s first twelve years, the first part of the 30 year void. And the child waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the Grace of God was upon him.

Our Lord was preparing for His mission, patiently, diligently and, we can be absolutely sure, prayerfully. That is how we lighten the yoke of patience; by preparing for God through prayer, by fasting, by earnest increase of our knowledge of Him through Holy Scripture; by constantly submitting our wills to His. It requires effort, but it is not an unpleasant task. Rather it brings its own rewards.

And through all this, the voice of God speaks two words, Trust me.

Trust God. He has a plan, in which our lives are but a part, but they are a part. He will reveal His plan for our lives in His time and it will be a far better plan than we could ever devise. Trust Him, as Jesus did in all those years of learning from Joseph the trade of a carpenter. What relevance could Jesus the man find in the carpenter’s trade for His divine ministry on earth? No more than any human might find in his lot in this life.

But look how perfectly God’s plan unfolded in the three short years of Jesus Christ’s ministry. Does that not show us how supreme the wisdom of God really is? Does it not teach us to trust that He has a plan and that our part in it is to be revealed when God’s time for it is right? Obedience, patience and trust.

There will be times when we think God has abandoned us; that He is deaf to our prayers and supplications. At such times, we have only to look back on those thirty, obscure, silent years of Our Lord’s life and listen to the echoes of God speaking to His Incarnate Son. Through His trust in God the Father, we can seek the renewal of our own trust.

Without that trust it is difficult, if not impossible to act upon the fourth lesson from the void, the lesson of watchfulness.

We can be sure that Jesus did not appear at the age of 30 on the banks of the Jordan of His own volition. Our Lord was waiting attentively for the Father’s call and that is what sent Him to be baptised by John the Baptist. John was waiting, also attentively for the appearance of His Incarnate Lord and he recognized Him at once. We know that Christ will come again and that is the most important thing we must be prepared for and watchful for. But we must assume that God will call us to many tasks before that happens.

God will call us when He determines that we, through His Grace, are ready. The measure of our preparation through obedience, patience and trust will be found in our discernment of His call and our response to it. And we do well to remember that it is a mistake to be watchful only for the call to some form of greatness, which our human egos may drive us to desire. The call may come many times, indeed many times a day.

A big sandhill is built from millions of tiny grains and God’s call may be today to place another grain of sand upon the hill. Only He will know the importance of it, of the kindly gesture, the helping hand, the word of encouragement, the silent prayer of intercession, the cup of coffee offered to a cold street dweller; all those tiny acts of Christian behaviour which stem from the wellspring of Christ’s wondrous example.

The silence of those thirty years of Our Lord’s life do indeed speak eloquently, far more so than I could touch on today. May we pray for the Grace of heart’s open to their messages, so that, like Jesus, we too may increase in wisdom, and stature and in favour with God.

So that, at the end, we who salute Redemption’s manifestation may in our turn experience Redemption’s glory.

Peter Jardine+

Epiphany 1, 2006