Lost and Found (Luke 2:40-52)
Rev. Peter Heckert
01/02/22

+ Grace to you, and peace, from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + Amen.

The text for our meditation for this second Sunday of Christmas comes from our gospel text, especially where Luke records the question Jesus asks, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Here ends our text; my dear Christian friends …

There are some songs that just bug pastors. It can be for wide and various reasons, but especially around this time of year, what I see from my brothers in the ministry is their disdain for the song, “Mary, Did You Know?” “Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new; this Child that you delivered will soon deliver you?” The argument behind their frustration with the song stems from the very real fact that Gabriel announced all these things in advance to Mary at the Enunciation; in short, Mary, did you know? Yes. Yes, she did. So the argument goes, anyway. 

However, it would behoove us to remember that Mary and Joseph, though chosen by God to be the earthly parents of our Lord, were still human, still subject to sin and sin’s effects, just like all of us. As such, I’m sure there were moments when it was clear that they needed this Child Savior just as much as the rest of us do. I believe that is what we see in our gospel text today.

We’ve advanced twelve years in the span of a week. Little over a week ago, we all gathered around and fawned at the heavenly glow emanating from a stable in Bethlehem as the Word-made-flesh was born in our world. Today, we look at Him as a young man, freshly bar mitzvah’ed, going with His earthly parents up to Jerusalem, as was their custom. It was an annual custom, heading up to the City of Peace for the Passover, and this year was no different. They celebrated as they always had, and when said festivities and sacrifices and observances were finished, they started on their way back as per usual.

Except … this year was different. This year was not normal. The return to Nazareth was anything but usual for Joseph and Mary. They assumed that Jesus was in the group of pilgrims, and went about a day’s journey … until they realized something was amiss. Their child, their son, whose very name means “Savior” … was nowhere to be found. 

I can only imagine the panic, the frenzied thoughts that raced through their minds as they went back and forth amongst their family and acquaintances in the caravan, seeing if Jesus was there with them. When they saw that He wasn’t among them, “they returned to Jerusalem, searching for Him.” Did Joseph feel like he had let God down, being charged with guarding and protecting the very incarnate God in this life and having lost track of Him? Was Mary feeling like an unfit mother, thinking she should have known something was off the moment that they left? This went on for an additional three days, as they scoured the city high and low, searching for David’s Son, yet David’s Lord. 

Finally, after an undoubtedly exhausting, extensive, and frantic search for their lost son, one of them had the idea to check the temple, the very dwelling place of YHWH on earth. There He was, as if nothing was wrong, hanging out with the rabbis and the teachers, listening to them, asking questions, and answering questions that were asked of Him. Luke tells us that “all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.”

He was, at last, found, and as is the case of many parents whose child has been lost for some time, Mary and Joseph felt extreme joy and relief … and dumbstruck. Mary, we are told, asked her holy child, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” Jesus, however, seems perplexed at their astonishment and worry. “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” He asks them, but unsurprisingly, they don’t understand what He means by this. Nevertheless, they all go home and Luke tells us that Jesus “was submissive to them,” that Mary “treasured up all these things in her heart,” and that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

Who’s lost and who’s found in this text? Obviously, from the perspective of the average person on the street, Jesus was the one who was lost, and His parents found Him, scolded Him, and took Him home. I know that’s sort of what it looks like, even perhaps calling into question the lifelong sinlessness of Jesus (I’ve heard some argue this is Him breaking the fourth commandment), but is that what’s happening here? Is Jesus being a disrespectful smart-aleck as He’s answering Mary? Or is it a sincere question?

The truth is, even at the tender age of 12, Jesus was about His Father’s business, the very business that He was born to do. This was done, first here, in His Father’s house, as He sat with the rabbis and teachers. He was listening, conversing with them, and doing some teaching of His own through the perceptible wisdom and understanding he clearly exuded. This is what He was called to do according to both His natures, submitting to the answers of the teachers, and giving them wisdom from on high.

Jesus was doing what He was supposed to be doing; one can hardly say that He Himself was lost. But Mary and Joseph? I’ll give credit that, as His earthly parents, they were concerned for His well-being. However, as aforementioned, they were sinful human beings and thus subject to sin’s effects. Worry. Aimlessness. Frustration. They were the ones who were lost, not Jesus, and I can guarantee that it was by the Holy Spirit’s guidance and inspiration that they came to Him at the temple. 

Lest we think more highly of ourselves than we ought, it would behoove us to remind ourselves that none of us would do any better. We poor, wretched, sinful creatures are incredibly lost on our own. Because of sin’s lock on us, we cannot free ourselves, let alone find and love God for ourselves! With the Small Catechism, each of us rightly confesses that “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” Because of this, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person ….” We are the lost, hopeless on our own, and we rejoice that we are found by our Lord, that He has opened our eyes and given us the gift of faith. 

I don’t think that this incident at the temple with the teenaged Jesus as strongly foreshadows His salvific work on the cross and resurrection from the dead as other instances in the Gospels. However, it does point us to the fact that, even as a youth, from His youngest years, Jesus was doing exactly the work He had come to do, the work the Father had given Him. He came to save the lost, including Mary and Joseph, including the disciples, including you and me. He came to rescue all of us “from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,” that we may be His own, to “live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”

+ In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + Amen.