Sermon - Christmas 2 - Luke 2:40-52 - “Lost and Found” - 1/4/09
January 4th, 2009Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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It was during the pre-Christmas shopping rush in a busy department store. The Christmas music that was playing in the background was interrupted. “May I have your attention please!” the friendly voice said. “There are two lost parents in the store. Would the parents of Jamie and Susie, please come to the office so your children may find you. ”
We may find this kind of story amusing because of the way its put, or because we know that it already has a happy ending to it. Maybe we’ve been there, done that and we totally sympathize with the parents because we now how easily it can happen. Yet, as we hear that Joseph and Mary lost their son, we are shocked. How could they? How could they have been so careless as to loose Jesus, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel?
Luke begins his gospel by telling us that what he has written comes from what “those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning have told us.” (Luke 1:2). Luke interviewed Mary and Mary told Luke how it all happened.
She and Joseph had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem just as they had done every year with Jesus. From Nazareth where they lived, it was 65 miles to Jerusalem, about a four or five day journey. They traveled with lots of other families. There’s safety in numbers and the fellowship and conversation along the way made the long trip easier. The children would play together and entertain each other as children do.
Looking back on the whole thing, Mary recalled that it was the year that Jesus turned 12. They just assumed he was with them, that is, with the caravan they were traveling with. They just assumed he was with his friends, doing stuff that boys like to do. But at the end of a day’s journey, He never checked in with them as He had always done. Mary asked Joseph, ‘Have you seen Yeshua?” Joseph responded, “Me? I thought he was with you. You’re his mother.” Mary might have responded, “I thought he was with you. You’re his father.” To which Joseph would have responded, “No, not really.”
You and I may find this account to be amusing, but it’s only because we know how it ends. Once again, we know more than Mary and Joseph do. They had never read Luke’s gospel.
In one of the great understatements in all of Scripture, Luke writes, “they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.” Try to imagine what was going through their minds. They had to be emotional wrecks, just as you would be if you lost your child. I have sometimes thought what it might be like to be told that your son or daughter is ‘Missing In Action,’ but the thought is too terrible and so I block it out.
But for them you can multiply the terribleness by 100 because of the child whom they had lost. They must have thought, “I am the one who is responsible for this. God entrusted this holy child to my care. We took Him all the way to Egypt and back safely. How could this happen now?”
For Mary, it had been 12 years ago, but it seemed like only yesterday that she had been the happiest woman in the world. “All generations shall call me blessed,” she sang. But now, she was the most miserable woman in the world. What else could she have been thinking but that, “now, all generations will call me the worst mother there ever was.”
The first Eve had brought the whole world into sin and her sin spread to all men and women. And now Mary, the second Eve, had lost the child who would take away the sin of the world and who would deliver the world from death to life. Who knows that at this point as she “returned to Jerusalem,” Mary may have wished that God had never given her this child. When he was 40 days old they had brought Him to the temple and Simeon had told her, “a sword has pierced your soul.” Mary was in a living hell.
Here is a situation that is completely unique to Mary. Mary is Jesus’ biological mother and He is her biological Son. Lots of other mothers have lost their sons, but no other mother has ever been the mother of Christ Jesus. Even Joseph’s anguish can’t be compared to Mary’s because his is not the child’s biological father.
Yet, it is also the uniqueness of Mary’s situation that makes it all too common. How many of us know the experience of losing Jesus? On Christmas Eve, we heard the announcement from the prophet Isaiah, “To us a child is born. To us a Son is given.” (Is.9:6). We said that you need to make that little word ‘us’ as big as the world, and big enough to include you, because that’s how big that ‘us’ is. Jesus has been ‘given’ to you. ‘Given’ as in gifted, pure gift, by grace alone. How often have you lost track of Him?
Sometimes, it happens suddenly, like when a crisis strikes and we question how God could ever let a thing like this happen to us. We thought as long as Jesus was by our side, we were immune from pain and suffering, unhappiness and things that make us uncomfortable. “Now where could that Jesus have gone?” We swear that if we ever find Him, we’re going to scold Him for treating us like this.
Sometimes, it happens gradually. Jesus drifts slowly out of our life as we find ourselves occupied with careers and children, stock markets and sports. We didn’t even realize He was missing from our life, until one day the pastor called and said, ‘it’s been awhile since we’ve seen you in Church. What’s up?’ And it suddenly dawned on us that we had lost Jesus and we never even realized it. Or maybe we did, but it never really bothered us too much. And the pastor told us that the fact that it never bothered us that we lost Jesus ought to bother us terribly.
There is, I think, a clear word of warning for us all in the fact that if Mary can loose Jesus, how much more can we? We dare not put ourselves above all of this.
Surely by now you have realized that there is something all wrong in the way we have been putting this. It’s not Jesus who is lost. It is you and I who are lost. It is not the Christ child who has wondered off, it is you and I who have gone astray, “each to his own way.”
This turns the whole situation as we’ve been describing it upside down. Now, it is God the Father agonizes as a parent over His children who have gone missing? “He is our true Father and we are His dear children.” And Jesus our brother suffers the same agony, for as He says, “I and the Father are One.”
So Jesus puts the meaning of our Christmas celebration into its proper perspective when He declares “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). He is the Good Shepherd who goes to look for the sheep gone astray and when He finds you, He lays you on His shoulders rejoicing. He is the woman who finds the lost coin that fell between the cracks. And when He finds you, He says to all of angels in heaven, ‘rejoice with me.’ He is the Father, who has never left you even though you have left Him. He has kept His eye on you from all eternity, and while you were still a long way off, He came to you by His Word and Spirit, embraced you in your baptism, fed you with His body and blood, and when He has found you summons all of heaven and earth to join in His joy because, ‘this my child was lost and is found.’
Once they returned to Jerusalem, they searched for Jesus for three days. You’ve got to wonder, where were they looking for Him? The candy store, the movie theater, the pool hall? Finally, they try the temple. And sure enough, there He is.
Luke writes, “They found Him sitting among the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” Little did they realize that this 12 year old boy is the Wisdom from on High which Solomon prayed for. God’s Wisdom is revealed in Jesus completely and perfectly.
“And when His parents saw Him they were astonished.” And his mother said to him. (Pause) How do we read these next words rightly? With what emotion did Mary says what comes next? Is it relief? Or anger? Or is it that highly volatile mixture of both. “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
And Jesus replied to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” These are the first words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, and for that reason alone we ought to listen to them very carefully.
First, anyone who says that Jesus was not aware of His own divinity simply isn’t being honest or reading the Scriptures honestly. Even at the age of 12, Jesus is fully aware of His divinity as the Son of God. And so He reminds Mary and Joseph and you and me just who His true Father is.
Second, Jesus makes it quite clear where all who seek Him may find Him. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
It is certainly true that God is everywhere present. He is ‘omnipresent.’ But the question here is not ‘where is He?’ The question is, ‘where can you find Him?’ Lots of people are looking for Jesus but cannot seem to find Him, because they are looking for Him where He never says He may be found but us; in nature, in church leaders, in signs and wonders, within themselves. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house.”
The shepherds were told that they would find Jesus they would find Jesus, not by looking anywhere seemed right to them, but only if they looked for a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now, His holy manger has become “His Father’s house.” And in His Father’s house, you will find Jesus wrapped in the swaddling clothes of His holy Word. Wherever the Word of God is heard according to the Scriptures, you can be sure that there is Jesus and He will be found by you. Likewise, wherever the holy Word is wrapped in the swaddling clothes of water or bread and wine and distributed according to His command, there Jesus is present and there, you will find Him.
To think that our faith is so strong that we would never loose Jesus or feel that terror of not being able to feel His presence with us is foolish pride. Like we said, if it can happen to Mary, it can surely happen to us. Even the best sailors may loose their bearings if a dense fog sets in. Let Jesus words to His mother be for us, and let it be like a lighthouse on the shore. Seek Him where He promises to be found. Go to where His Word can be heard and there you will be sure you have found Him because you will hear His voice. Go to where His body and blood put into your hands and onto your lips and there you will be assured that He is present with you.
And when you find Him there, in His Word and Sacrament, you will be relieved and overjoyed that He is neither displeased nor angry with you, as you were afraid He might be. Rather, you will find Him full of grace and forgiveness and sincere love for you.
“And His mother Mary treasured all these things in her heart.” Let us do the same.
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