In the 1990 movie "Home Alone" Kevin McCallister is left alone in his Chicago neighborhood for three days. As the story line goes, the McCallister family, with some extended family are heading to Paris a few days before Christmas to spend time with another family member. The power goes out overnight, causing them to wake up late and almost miss their airport shuttle. In the ruckus, eight year old Kevin, who everybody complained about the night before, is left behind. When Kevin is sent to bed by his mom on the night before the trip, he says, in a way only an eight year old can do, that he did not want to see her or his family again. For the first day alone, he is pretty happy, but later his Christmas wish is for his family to come back. What is interesting is that the basic plot mirrors the Gospel account for Holy Family Sunday. In the Gospel account of Luke, when Jesus was 12 years of age the family traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.
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| Painting of Mary finding Jesus in the Temple at age 12 |
Like many observant Jews, Mary and her husband Joseph would travel to Jerusalem for the spring Passover and related celebrations. At the time, the main temple was in what is now a Muslim site, Dome of the Rock. The Wailing Wall is the west wall of the old temple. With all the crowds departing after the festival, Joseph and Mary left for Nazareth and Jesus, somehow unbeknownst to them, stayed behind. According to Fr Stephen Brunner on Sunday, December 26, Jesus stayed behind at the command of his father, and he obeyed his father--God. Today, if a child was left behind parenting skills would be questioned and the child likely placed with Child Protective Services for a time while things get sorted out. Charges of neglect may even be filed. Kevin McCallister did not meet this fate due to his smarts of avoiding questions from inquiring minds, like the grocery store clerk.
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| Dome of the Rock, onsite of Jewish Temple in Jerusalem Photo by author |
Jesus' inquiring mind had him, for the few days that his parents searched for him, in the temple where he was being instructed and instructing. Luke says: "After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." Here we have a father (the big guy in heaven) who apparently directed his son to stay behind in the temple, as his mom and step father left and traveled at least several hours if not a day (not unlike Kevin's family) before they realized he was not to be found in the Nazareth bound caravan. Why would God put Mary and Joseph through that? Was there a miscommunication? God could have sent Gabriel, or some other angel to Joe and Mary with a message to allow Jesus to stay behind. Or--why did Jesus tell them he had learning and instructing to do in the temple, authorized by God? If I had allowed one of our sons to stay longer, at say an out of town camping trip, and I did not tell my wife, within the few minutes, (Yes, with a Momma Bear it would be minutes not hours, and certainly not days) it took her to notice he was gone when he should have been home, I would have been in a deep, very deep pile of manure, to be more exact the pile without the straw. And no paddle. But, I am not God, and God can apparently get away with it, because, well being God. The other thing, while Mary gave birth to Jesus, she was not his spouse. God does not have a spouse. Hence, his dynamics are quite different from mine as I have a spouse to answer to.
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| Home Alone advertisement |
Then there is the ending where Luke is trying to make sure we all understand that Jesus was never disobedient, or disobedient after this event. Luke phrases it this way: "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them." I think God allowed Jesus to have a lower bar to qualify as disobedient. Its a good thing he was obedient from then on, because how would Joseph and Mary ever punish him? After all he is God made flesh. I think purposefully going missing for three days at age 12 counts for a whole childhood of disobedience.
Mary, the mother of Christ, also has an interesting take on what the situation meant to her; Luke puts it this way: "But his mother treasured all these things in her heart." She is obviously a saint, because I find it hard to believe most mothers would suggest that a pre-pubescent boy missing for three days is a thing to treasure. A mother would be more than upset about this type of incident. A mother would remember, but I doubt she would treasure the event. She may be proud of her son at the temple and how he surprised the learned on his knowledge of scripture, but the whole thing of him going AWOL for three days is a big red flag. If I had failed to tell my wife, as outlined above, that incident would be not so much be treasured in her heart as tucked in her mind to be brought out again and again, when she saw fit.
While Christ is getting instructed and instructing the rabbis with his erudite answers and extensive knowledge of the Jewish scriptures, Kevin McCallister two millennia later is setting traps for burglars. Yet, as Kevin makes his way around his wealthy neighborhood, this young boy is assisted by people on the lower rung of the economic ladder--a store clerk; a guy in a Santa suit with a parking ticket on his car, but who gives Kevin the last thing he has in his pocket--a tic-tac. Kevin also meets the next door neighbor in church as a choir practices O Holy Night and finds the neighbor is not the serial killer his older brother made him out to be. The man is estranged from his adult son and Kevin suggests he call the son and invite him over the next day--which he does, and the son and his family arrives on Christmas Day. Kevin's family also find their way home. Kevin's mom finagles her way to an evening flight, not wanting to take the available morning flight, and by a series of odd flights goes south then north and ends up in Scranton. But, she cannot get to Chicago from Scranton, until a Polka Band from Wisconsin offers to give her a ride in a Budget Rental truck and offer to drop her off on the way to Milwaukee. After all, that is what Polka band people from Wisconsin do. Kevin is a little put off the rest of the family is not with her. The Dad and the rest of the kids arrive just after the mom, by a much less taxing, and polkaing, way.
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| Home that served as McCallister House in Movie |
Kevin can be forgiven for being home alone because it was not his fault he was left unaccounted for in a full house. He was still up in bed and no one thought to wake him. But, I cannot say the same about Jesus. Jesus bears, in my mind, some responsibility for not having let his parent know his intentions to stay a few more days, or at least to ask if they all can stay back. As Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity, I don't think Mary and Joseph could say "No" to him. With this interplay, I will now read/hear the passage from Luke, and see "Home Alone" in a different light.
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