January 20, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When He was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to their custom.” (Luke 2.41,42)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I do not know if you who have been following along this journey beyond the visit of the magi which led to their Epiphany that indeed “One who is the true King of the Jews has been born,” noticed that yesterday’s scripture for reflection began with the preaching ministry of John the Baptizer. There is little doubt in my study that at the age of two, Joseph took Mary and Jesus down to Egypt. He was told in a dream, thus he had become a mystic, to save his family from an impending harm. We know the harm was the murder of the innocents in Bethlehem. That event may well have been alluding to the murder of the Temple leadership at the hands of a deranged Herod who suffered from the dementia of fear and jealousy. He soon died after that event. He was replaced by his son Archelaus that same year, 4 B.C. This would mean that in just a matter of months, Joseph and his family ventured down to Egypt, perhaps even to Alexandria, and hearing that Herod was dead made their way to Nazareth. Remember, they had left Nazareth for two years following the call of the census to go to Bethlehem and there sojourned until the Magi appeared. Of course, they did not know that was the reason. They had made themselves at home in Bethlehem. Joseph practiced his profession as a carpenter and a stone mason there. The appearance of the Magi and the dreams Joseph received led to his understanding that Bethlehem was not their home. Just as the magi, being warned in a dream, returned to their homes by a different route, so did Joseph and his family. We do not hear anything more about Joseph, Mary and Jesus until John the Baptizer, Jesus’ cousin, began to preach in the wilderness. This happened when both John and Jesus had come of age as rabbis, being thirty years old.

However, in Luke, we are given a different view of “what happened next.” Some may ask why Luke has no mention of Herod’s threat against Jesus and the innocents of Bethlehem nor of the visit of the Magi. Was it because it didn’t happen? Was it because Luke had no knowledge of such things and so did not record it? We might ask the very same of Matthew who do not mention the Temple shepherds, their angelic visitation or the visits to the Temple by Joseph and his family according to their custom and to the Law. I believe the answer is simple. The theme and agenda of the gospels, all of them and not just the four gospels included in the New Testament canon, were like facets of a diamond. Each reflected a different aspect of “the Light of the World.” In each of those gospels we see the personal interest of the authors as well as those whom they represented as members of the body of Christ, the Church. Such individualism also reflects God’s intense focus on His people, His children by faith, hope and love. Making the message personal (to the specific audiences) and general (to the whole of the world beginning with the Church), God demonstrates His fullest intention to redeem, reconcile and restore creation to its intended purpose and reason for being. When we say “…to the glory of God…” or “…for the glory of God…” or “…for His Name’s sake…,” it isn’t about God’s ego. We recognize the simple truth that God is personally invested in “…the works of His hands, all that He has set in place including humanity for whom He has great love so as to honor them just a little less than the angels by giving them the sacred duty of being His shepherds, stewards and administrators on earth.” (See Psalm 8.) Each person is invested with God’s spirit and truth, individually and corporately, just as each gospel is invested with the same. So it is that the Church as the amalgamation of God’s Word, spoken and written and inspired, is given to the world that all people who on earth do dwell shall have the opportunity and honor of not just knowing about God but knowing God personally in the flesh and in the spirit. The Church is the incarnation of the very word which Jesus said to His disciples, “You ask to see the Father and I say, ‘If you have seen Me that is enough because the Father and I are as one just as you and I are called to be as one.“

So, in Luke’s gospel birth narrative the focus is not on the tragedy of death which Herod’s angst that a new king of Israel was born. Such angst demonstrates Herod’s refusal to truly recognize, as the Magi declared such a king was born, with utter sarcasm and vehemence. He had no intention to recognize the King of kings and worship Him. He saw Him as a threat to the throne to be eliminated as others had. Further, the very fact that outsiders, such as the Magi, knew of the birth where the teachers of the Law and the Elders of Israel did not, exposes the darkness which had fallen over Israel spiritually and religiously. Their practices of the Word of God and adherence to the customs of the people of God were rote, stale and self-serving. As Luke was instructing and building up the next generation of Christ followers who had no knowledge of Judaism, except the harshness of it via Judaizers and religious zealots, he was helping them to see the foundation of belief which God had established for them as He had for His people Israel. Luke’s “congregation” had seen enough tragedy and suffering in their lives. The gospel was their answer to life freedom and tyranny from their enemies. It may not save them from the world, but it would save them from eternal death. For Joseph and his family, following the traditions and expectations were normal life and living. For Luke and his “congregation,” following after Jesus should be as normal and alive. Where else should they expect themselves to be but “at home in the very House of God not built with human hands but eternal in the heavens”?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.