Luke 2:41-52 * December 28, 2003 * Sunday after Christmas * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

Between His birth as a baby, which we celebrated this past Thursday, and the beginning of His ministry at the age of 30 is a three decade expanse in the life of Christ which Bible scholars sometimes refer to as “the silent years.” Within that period we have but one incident the Holy Spirit has chosen to share with us, and today we have it before us.

The account of the twelve year old Jesus in the Temple is instructive for us on a number of different levels, but more than anything else it is a story of human drama. Any parent can well imagine what was running through the minds of Mary and Joseph as they looked for a child, who as they understood it, had become lost. Likewise, any parent can also imagine the relief that must have been theirs upon His discovery. As far as the parents were concerned, our text is a marked display of contrasts: the agony of searching over against the joy of finding…

This morning we’d like to pick up on Mary and Joseph’s parental emotions toward Jesus as their twelve year old son and apply them in a spiritual sense to our personal relationship with Jesus as our Savior. As we see Mary and Joseph

ANXIOUSLY SEARCHING FOR CHRIST

we are reminded of

1. Where Christ can be found

2. Why we must cling tightly to him

We’ll begin by retelling in a little more detail the events of our text: “Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.”

For Jewish believers there were three great feasts held each year which they were obligated by Old Testament law to attend: Passover (commemorating the flight from Egypt and salvation from death through the blood of a perfect lamb), Pentecost (which took place at the beginning of harvest), and an end of harvest festival called The Feast of Ingathering (but also called the Feast of “Tabernacles” or “Booths” in commemoration of the Israelites wandering in the desert).

However, because of the fact the Jews were dispersed throughout the entire then-known world – as well as the reality of long distances for those living in the outer regions of the Holy Land – it became the custom of many to observe all of the great feasts but attend at least one at the great Temple in Jerusalem. The customary Festival for Mary and Joseph was Passover. The twelve year old Jesus went with His parents. Whether He routinely went with them or this was His first time, we are not told.

At any rate, “After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.”

The fact that Jesus could stay in Jerusalem without His parents missing Him was not so much a part of negligence on the part of Mary and Joseph as it was what we term today “a lack of communication.” If the custom which has been verified for a later date prevailed at this time, the caravan of pilgrims consisted of women and children in the front and the men and young men in the rear. At the age of twelve Jesus could have fit into either category. So what probably happened is a scene repeated in grocery stores and shopping malls to this very day: Mom thought the child was with Dad and Dad thought the child was with Mom, when as a matter of fact he was with neither. But it wasn’t until the end of the day that they figured this out. So they sorted through the friends and relatives who were also a part of their caravan, but no Jesus. Now what?

“When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and answers.” Mary and Joseph retrace their steps. After three days – one day out of town (at which time they discover Jesus is gone), one day back to town, and one day in town – they find Jesus within that large area surrounding the temple itself known as the temple courts. Since these were the days immediately following the Feast, and since Jerusalem was the center of all Jewish spiritual activity, we might well imagine that several well-known and respected Jewish teachers were still to be found in the area…

They apparently were, and it is among these notables that Mary and Joseph found their son. But something seemed not quite right. While it was not unusual for young inquisitive Jewish minds to ask questions of their spiritual leaders, what was unusual was the apparent role reversal that was taking place. We are told that Jesus was asking questions, but to the amazement of everyone present He was also providing answers; and answers which contained such depth of insight that they took these learned men by surprise. Not to mention Mary and Joseph…

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished [literally “knocked out of their senses”]. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’” We might describe Mary’s remark as being a combination of surprise and anguish, to which Jesus replies with His first recorded words in Scripture. He answers with a couple of questions and assertions of His own. “‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’”

I think most of us probably have a hard time imagining what Jesus would have been like as a child or young person. Our minds get confused when trying to blend the two natures of Christ within the limitations of our own experiences. How much did He know about Himself as true man? As true God was their anything He didn’t know? Maybe it is precisely to spare us from such confusion that God has chosen to leave us with only this one incident between the ages of newborn and thirty…

But what is very understandable to us from Jesus’ answer is that He recognized the unique relationship that existed between Him and the Father, as well as the mission for which He had come to this earth. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” asks Jesus. In other words, “where My Father is, where He centers His activity, there I am to be found as well.”

Or as it is allowable to translate in the original language (and as many of us remember it), “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business (or affairs)?” And what is the business of the Father? “God would have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” writes the Apostle Paul to Timothy. The work of the Father is the work of salvation; consequently this is the work in which the Son also “must” or “had to be” be engaged. Therefore it is natural, Jesus implies to Mary and Joseph, that you should find Me here.

“But they did not understand what he was saying to them.” Mary and Joseph did not fully grasp at this time the mission of their son. And yet, regardless of their lack of understanding, Jesus was the ever-obedient child. Another example of how, as man’s perfect substitute, Christ came to sinlessly carry out all the commands God makes of us, including the Fourth Commandment (honoring our parents). And so our text concludes: “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.”

So far the story. We see Mary and Joseph searching for and finding Christ. Let’s turn our thoughts to searching and finding of a spiritual nature as it relates to Christ and us…

Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple. Where can we find Him today? We find Him in the Holy Scriptures. It is here we learn of a God so loving He willingly sacrificed His Son to redeem a world of sinful, hell-bent creatures… It is here we learn of the promises of Jesus Christ not only to save us eternally, but to be with us and help us in the present… It is here we learn of the invitations our Savior extends to us to come to Him and communicate with Him in prayer… It is here – in every verse of every chapter it contains – that we find Christ, for all of the Bible in one way or another relates to Christ by pointing to Him or telling of Him or, like the Old Testament history books, by showing how God preserved a world and a nation out of which the Savior would come.

Toward the end of his Gospel the Apostle and Evangelist John declares why he wrote what he wrote. And what he said of his specific book applies to the entire Bible as a whole: “These [words] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Here, in the Scriptures, is where we find Christ.

And here we also learn of what He does. Let’s consider two important reasons why we, like Mary and Joseph, must continue to anxiously search for Christ through diligent and repeated study of His Word – and then having found Him, firmly cling to Him in faith…

Reason #1: He alone is the one who prepares us for and provides us with eternal life. And when it comes down to our last breath – which we’ll all take one day – nothing else will matter. Not our bank accounts. Not our worldly achievements. Not the legacy we’ll leave behind. The only thing that will count will be knowing and clinging to Christ.

There have been a lot of great men in this world, but none of them can do what the God-Man Jesus Christ has done for us by His perfect life as our substitute, His selfless sacrifice in our place, and His glorious resurrection to prove that our sins have been forgiven. For example, can the world’s greatest play-write William Shakespeare say “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me?” No. But Jesus can. Can it be said of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar that theirs is “the only name given among men by which we must be saved?” No. But it can be said of Christ. Can Buddha or Mohammed or Gandhi say “He who believes in me will never die,” and then back it up by rising from the dead? No. But Christ can, and Christ did.

He and He alone is the One who provides us with and prepares us for eternal life…

Reason #2: He is the One who provides us not only with the assurance of eternal life, but with the strength for daily life in the present. Jesus once told his disciples what they could expect on this side of heaven. He did not want His followers then or us today to think of the Christian life in saccharine or sugary terms where all is sweetness and light. Instead He speaks of the opposite. He said, “In this world you will have trouble… In other words, hardship, tears, disappointments, uncertainties and pain are all woven into the fabric of our lives. These things are to be expected; but even so, when they come upon us they can bring us way down.

However, the sentence doesn’t end there. It goes on… but take heart, I have overcome the world.” The promise of Jesus’ presence in our lives to help us overcome our temporary but inevitable difficulties sustains us. And so we search the Scriptures and find all kinds of strength for the journey and power for living. There we find promises such as “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” or “Fear not. I have summoned you by name, you are mine” or “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” And our spirits are lifted because we know we are never alone, but always loved and always cared for. Our senses may tell us otherwise, but our faith knows the words and promises of Christ to be true. So we watch and wait, confident and secure in His claims.

When Mary and Joseph found their son in Jerusalem we can well believe that their emotional state changed dramatically. Fear was replaced by joy. What they had anxiously searched for had been found. And with the finding came peace and serenity.

So it is with us. When the frenetic pace of this world and the crush of responsibilities and the cares and concerns of making a living and fears about the future begin to crowd Christ out of our lives or our consciousness, like Mary and Joseph, we need to anxiously go searching for Him. We’ll find Him in His Word. Then, clinging to Him in faith, like Mary and Joseph, we’ll also find true peace and serenity – now and forever. Amen.