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Treasures in Our Hearts

Little did Jesus’ parents know that this particular trip to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem would end up being a kind of treasure hunt (see Luke 2:41-52).

I’m not speaking about treasure maps and buried gold. Rather, I’m thinking about those things we value — treasure — the very most. Jesus the Preacher one day told his followers on the Mount to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. He underscored the obvious: earthly treasures inherently decay while heavenly ones endure forever. His conclusions: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Jesus the Boy, according to Luke, had reached a pivotal stage in his life —  twelve years old — and he apparently was following the treasures of his heart. According to the Law, the people of Israel were asked to journey to the temple at Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate Shavu'ot (Pentecost), Pesach (Passover), and Sukkot (Tabernacles) (see Exodus 23: 14-17, Deuteronomy 16:16). Jesus’ parents followed the Law’s bidding as they gathered family, relatives, and friends to make the journey.

The age of twelve is significant. Jesus was entering adolescence. He was becoming a young man. He was now going to begin to take his place within the religious community in a more deliberately conscious way.

As a youth, I was able to observe a similar time of transition within the Jewish tradition through the life of my friend, Philip. His father was a rabbi. Invited to Temple services, Sabbath meals, and other gatherings over the years, I learned much about Judaism through Philip and his family.

Philip invited me to his bar mitzvah, a ritual signifying that he too had reached a new stage in his relationship to God and his faith tradition (for guys this happens when one is 13, for girls, when one is 12). The ram’s horn called us to worship. Philip was able to read and sing biblical texts and liturgies in his people’s ancient tongue after having studied Hebrew (it seemed) for years on end. He covered his head with a yarmulke — skullcap. A prayer cloth was draped across his shoulders. The tradition, once solely in the hands of his parents and the faith community, was now being passed on to him. As a “son of the commandment” (the meaning of bar mitzvah) he was now taking on a personal responsibility to study and follow Torah.

I understand that the more elaborate celebrations surrounding the bar and bat mitzvah in modern Judaism are developments within the last century. But the significance of making the faith one’s own when reaching 12 or 13 was also apparently known in Jesus’ time.

Maybe this is partially the reason why Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Those in the know — the elders of the faith — were in the Temple, and this boy had lots of questions to ask. And he was at the age when it was proper to do this. More than one commentator said that Jesus was probably “precocious.” He was developmentally ahead of others his age — at least in the area of spiritual formation.

With great relief, his frantic parents finally discovered him in the temple among the teachers. They found him, not hounding his teachers with his own insights, but listening to them and probing their insights with more questions. His teachers were simply amazed at the degree of his interest and understanding.

It sounds like he was an ideal student.

The text indicates that Jesus must have had an inkling of where his life was heading. His interests and gifts were apparently pointing him to a life which would be wrapped up in the Divine. His answer to his anxious mother’s query, “why have you treated your father and me like this?” only mystified his parents more. He talked about needing to be in his “father’s house.” The Ultimate was tugging at his heart and now, as a “son of the commandment,” he had to obey the Voice. Jesus the Boy was on the way to becoming Jesus the Student.

Jesus was not declaring freedom from his earthly parents. Honoring his father and mother, he returned home with them, probably honing his skills in carpentry, doing chores, playing with his siblings, and regularly attending the synagogue.

But when sitting among the teachers, he had evidently received a glimpse of his vocation as a preacher and teacher of the faith and as one who had a personal and authentic relationship to the Creator of the universe whom he called “my father.”

Could Mary, initially overwhelmed by fear for her son’s safety and well-being, also had a glimpse of Jesus’ vocation and relationship to God? Perhaps. But this singular episode from Jesus’ boyhood became a first memory, an important link to other pieces of historical memory about her son which she would hold onto and bury deep in her heart, counting them as treasures and sharing them with the world.

Educational Treasures
Treasured educational memories are what make up the major features of this issue. This is our “Educational Institution and the Church” issue, which we have run every March / April for several years. Inside this issue, you will find historical treasures and memories of church-related ministry within both higher education and schools.

Prof. DeAne Lagerquist, a teacher of religion, relates the major contours of links of the ELCA, and its predecessor bodies, to higher education over the years through church-related colleges and universities. Brent Christianson examines Lutheran campus ministry’s history which began nearly 100 years ago in public settings, as well as private higher education settings not specifically related to the church. Mel Kieschnick tells the story of our schools and sponsoring congregations which have been serving the needs of young people from preschool through high school.

These articles contain, of course, a short version of their stories. Each institution and ministry has a tanker shipload of memories stored in archives, computers, and people's minds concerning faculty and administration, campus ministers, activities, and, of course, class after class of students. These memories tell us where the institutions have come from. They also form part of the basis of where the institutions will be heading in the future.

As much as this is an issue on “Educational Institutions and the Church,” it’s just as much an issue on our aspirations for our kids. We want our kids to have a sound education, reflecting the ability to handle and discern what is the good and creative wisdom of the world. We also want our kids to see the world through the wisdom of our faith which we believe is fundamental to the meaning and purpose of all of life.

And such wisdom can be found in both church-related institutions and publicly funded and private non-sectarian institutions. In church-related institutions, the concept of vocation is often at the heart of their academic programs as they prepare students to serve their neighbors throughout the world. Formal chapel programs are also offered to students to deepen their faith life.

Campus ministry, through student centers and congregations, remains a main link to students in nonchurch-related higher educational settings. (Can we not also think that for our children at home, most of whom attend the public schools of this nation, our congregations are, in a sense, the “campus ministry” settings for them as well?)

In the transition between Jesus’ boyhood and his active ministry, Luke sums up Jesus’ adolescence and young adult years: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor” (Luke 2:52).

I can’t think of a better aspiration and prayer for each one of our young people as they seek truth and wisdom, both human and divine.

William A. Decker is editor of Lutheran Partners magazine, Chicago, Illinois.