The Second Sunday after Christmas, Jan. 4, 2009
BCP and RCL: Jer. 31:7-14; Psalm 84 or 84:1-8; Eph, 1:3-6, 15-19a; Matt. 2:13-
15,19-23 or Luke 2:41-52 or Matt. 2:1-12
Most who read this column have probably never needed to negotiate a really big business deal. But every one of us has entertained at least a brief fantasy about what we’d do if suddenly we had a zillion dollars. In that case, we would be smart to learn four little words: “Talk to my agent.”
Every human being, however, has “business” to “transact” with God, business for which we need an “agent.” In the religious life of our spiritual forebears, the ancient Hebrews, this role of agent was filled by the priests in the Jerusalem temple. The priests acted as the agents of the people. They transacted their business with God.
As Christians, we know that Jesus is our high priest. When he was 12 years old, his family made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It’s a familiar story—Jesus went missing for a couple of nights, and when his frantic parents found him, where was he? In the temple, carrying on a learned conversation with the teachers there. And when they gently suggested that he might have let them know of his plans, his response is penetrating. Jesus says, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” He was referring, of course, to his heavenly Father, whose earthly house was the temple.
It’s as if we had a retrospective glimpse of 12-year-old Babe Ruth surveying the grounds on which Yankee Stadium would be built, or an adolescent George W. Bush (or Barack Obama) taking a tour of the White House in which he would someday live. Jesus is in the temple, the place of doing business with God. Our agent is staking out the territory. He’s not there yet to act on our behalf, but that time will come soon enough. In fact, the deal that Jesus, our agent, will make for us with God will render the temple and everything it represents obsolete. As supreme high priest and supreme sacrificial victim, Jesus will make the one necessary sacrifice, offered once for all people in all times, the sacrifice that reconciles us to his Father and ours. Jesus our agent has cut a deal for us that we could never have made for ourselves.
And he’s still out there working for us. Whenever Satan accuses us and says, “You’re just a bunch of sinners, and you belong to me, so pack your bags for hell,” our response is simple: “Talk to my agent.”
Look It Up
Where in the Bible is Jesus portrayed primarily as a high priest? (Heb. 4-10)
Think About It
What “business” with God might you hand over to Jesus to “transact” on your behalf?
Next Sunday
The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Jan. 11, 2009
BCP: Isaiah 42: 1-9; Psalm 89 or 89:20-29; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11
RCL: Gen. 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11
