“Missing persons found”
Earlier this year the Western Australian town of Carnarvon was thrust into the international spotlight. Little Cleo Smith was taken from the family tent on a camping holiday. Cleo’s parents were frantic and distraught as the search for their precious daughter dragged on for 18 agonising days. But then—jubilation across the globe as the little girl was found unharmed, and reunited with her parents. That good news was such sweet relief to her parents, but also to the world watching on, with ‘good news stories’ seemingly few and far between of late.
In today’s Gospel reading Luke tells us that Joseph and Mary are anxiously searching for their son Jesus. The family had travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, the yearly commemoration of the great salvation event for God’s people centuries before, when he rescued Israel from slavery to Pharoah in Egypt. It is arguably the most important celebration on the Jewish liturgical calendar, and people from all over the land would make their pilgrimage to the nation’s capital. There was people and noise and busyness everywhere.
But when this particular Passover Festival in our text had ended, parents and child had become separated—Joseph and Mary left for home, but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, and his parents didn’t know.
Presuming Jesus to be in their company of fellow travellers, Mary and Joseph went on their way for a day, looking for Jesus among their relatives and acquaintances. That they travelled for a day without realising that Jesus was left behind seems strange to us, but it would not have been so unusual in their culture. In his commentary on Luke, William Arndt notes that for those living at a distance from Jerusalem, family relations, neighbours and friends would often arrange travel together as a group before setting out, which was safer than travelling alone, and practically helpful over long distances. On the occasions of major festivals, it would have been likely that the various groups of people would have become connected together in a steady stream along the route. Mary and Joseph assumed that Jesus would be with some trusted adults somewhere along the way.
When Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them, they look for him along the line of travellers. Any parent who has lost visual contact with their child in a busy public space can relate to this. Imagine Joseph and Mary’s growing sense of worry increasing with every person they ask: “have you seen our son?!” before the horrible, heart in the mouth feeling—“We’ve left Jesus behind!!” Without any mobile phones or automotive transport, Mary and Joseph do the only thing they can—turn around and go all the way back to Jerusalem, to search frantically for Jesus.
Imagine—if it’s even possible—their chilling, sinking, numb, sick feeling of fear and powerlessness as nightfall comes and they still have not found Jesus. Things do not get any better the following day either. It be just awful for poor Joseph and Mary. How numb and desperate they must have been. The search turns into a third day. The situation is serious.
But then…unexpected joy! The family are reunited. The parents find their child, safe and well. Now, imagine the sweet relief, and the tears and shouts of rejoicing.
Just yesterday we gathered around the Christ-child at the manger, and today Luke takes us to the adolescent Jesus in the Temple, now questioning the teachers around him and astonishing them with his wisdom and understanding.
When Jesus’ parents saw him they were astonished too. Perhaps, though, it is not only astonishment in Mary’s words, but a tinge of frustration, confusion, exasperation and disappointment: “Child, why did you do this to us? Your father and I were agonising as we searched for you.”
But Jesus uses this opportunity to testify to his unique identity: “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that it is necessary for me to be involved in the things of my Father?” (Some translations read: “Did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?”, but most literally it is “in the things of the Father of me.”)
These are the very first words that Luke records Jesus saying in Luke’s Gospel. They are Jesus’ self-revelation that he is the Son of God: he has not only a human father and mother, but a Father in heaven. He is the One more learned than the teachers in the Temple; the One who is spoken of in Proverbs 2:6: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Little wonder then that Jesus knows the word of God with such wisdom and clarity…because he is the word of God who became flesh—‘Immanuel’—God with us.
This is the one who would amaze everyone in the synagogue at Nazareth with his teaching with authority; his word that, on the one hand, would bring such joy for those desperate to hear Good News of freedom for the captives, yet on the other, cause such hostility and confrontation with people like the Pharisees who trusted in their own outward righteousness while their hearts were far from God. Jesus’ provocative teaching would result in the religious leaders rejecting him and trying to trap him to do away with him.
Indeed, in today’s text, there are numerous connections with the boy Jesus in the Temple and his suffering and death as an adult:
- The Passover reminds us of the Apostle Paul’s reference to Christ as the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for us. The next occasion in Luke where the Passover Festival is mentioned is chapter 22, where Judas Iscariot makes plans to betray Jesus, and Jesus is arrested and condemned by the religious leaders.
- When Jesus says in today’s text that “It is necessary” for him to be involved in the things of his Father, his words connect us to his teaching of his disciples in chapter 9 where he says: “it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
- Jesus’ questioning of the teachers in the Temple recalls the chief priests and teachers of the law questioning of Jesus. Mary’s agonising over her momentarily lost son would resurface years later while she stood near the Cross, weeping: “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.”
- The mention of Jesus’ parents finding him after three days recalls the period of three days between Jesus’ death and resurrection.
By so quickly joining Jesus’ birth to this account of him teaching in the Temple, with all the allusions to his suffering and death, Luke is showing that Jesus who was born for us, was born to die for us, to free us from sin, death and hell and be our living Lord with us, so that nothing would separate us from the favour of his Father in heaven. Indeed through faith in Jesus, his Father in heaven is our Heavenly Father too.
This good news is not just restricted to December 25th. Christmas day is done again, the Christmas lunch leftovers have been consumed, maybe some of the toys are already broken and the batteries flat, the scrunched-up paper hats and burst water balloons lie scattered on the lawn. The Christmas celebration that so many stress over and work so hard to achieve, was over in a flash.
But the pain of grief and the anxiety over problems in the future continue. Fear over the spread of COVID and frustration over restrictions remain. Family arguments resurface; parents and children clash over the games they play, husbands and wives say things in frustration that hurt. Disappointments resurface, those who are seriously ill have a constant reminder of the need for redemption from human frailty. After our over-indulging at Christmas lunch we still indulge our secret thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
How might Mary and Joseph’s emotions at losing and finding their child Jesus, reflect our own?
Are we elated, relieved, rejoicing to find that we have a Saviour who has rescued us from our bondage to very real foes—Satan, hell, death and sin? Or has our Christmas focus blurred into that of the world so that we join the frantic search for the perfect Christmas presents, or swept up into the pressure of creating the perfect Christmas magical wonderland celebration to forget our troubles and fears rather than turning to the Christ child with them?
Or like Mary and Joseph likely experienced, might we also be confused, frustrated, exasperated, or disappointed with Jesus, wondering why the things in this world and in our lives happen the way they do? Does Jesus seem far away, disinterested with you, lacking urgency and compassion for your urgent needs?
The troubles and problems of this life are always close. But so is your Saviour. He is not lost. It is we who were once lost and condemned, deserving nothing from God but eternal punishment. He is not far away, disinterested and uncaring. For God in Christ came all the way from heaven to earth. Jesus was born for you, clothed in human flesh to be God with you, whose flesh was pierced as the Passover Lamb to take away the sin of the world, overcoming even death for you by his own death.
Jesus is not lost. From the manger, to the Temple, to the Synagogue, to the Cross and to the tomb, and to your baptism and life…Jesus is always exactly where he is meant to be, involved in the things of his Father for you, bringing you divine mercy and grace, wisdom and guidance, compassion and help. You don’t need to search anxiously to find him. Jesus is here with us again today, just where he has promised to be found—for wherever God’s word is, the Word made flesh is also.
Christmas Day is done but Jesus still lives. May we not journey along life’s road our own way, indifferent to the presence of Jesus with us. May you stop and turn back each day to seek out the One who has already found you, finding him as he comes to us in his word. May we sit and talk with Jesus each day, marvelling at his answers, treasuring his words in our heart, that we might have abundant wisdom by which to live out our own lives and to help others seek out Jesus too.
For Jesus continues to be involved in the things of his Father: sending his Spirit through his astonishing words to rule your hearts by his grace, to take away sin and cast out evil, teach you and speak to you with wisdom and authority to strengthen your faith. And having been so strengthened by God, together with all the other children of his family who he has made faithful and holy, you will see your Saviour in the heavenly temple, rejoicing that, though we were once lost, we have been found by Jesus. Amen.
