Luke 2:41-52
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. 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. 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 them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
A number of years ago, when our four sons were much younger, my wife was out for the evening leaving me to take care of all parental duties. In those days that included getting all four through bath time; getting all four into their pajamas; getting all four sets of teeth brushed; getting all four into bed; story time; prayer time and, after several cups of water and la few dozen trips to the bathroom, bedtime at last.
While I usually enjoyed the whole routine, and miss it to this day, it always felt good to know they were all tucked in because I could just relax and wind down for the evening.
On this particular night I happened to spend most of the rest of the evening in my basement office, either working on a sermon, watching a playoff game, or both.
I heard Lorene come home sometime around 10 pm and knew that she would immediately go upstairs to check on the boys. Then I figured she would come down to thank me for doing such a great job getting them all bathed and to bed in her absence.
Sure enough, I heard her footsteps coming down the stairs but when she got to where I was she didn’t say what I thought she would say. Instead, she said, “Where’s Jesse?”
I said, “What do you mean, ‘Where’s Jesse?’ he’s in his room.”
She said, “I just checked his room, he’s not in his bed.”
I said, “What do you mean, ‘He’s not in his bed’? I put him to bed two hours ago!”
She said, “He’s not there.”
So I ran upstairs to see for myself, and, sure enough, our son, who was just 5 or 6 years old at the time, was not in his bed.
We started checking the house room by room; he wasn’t in his younger brothers’ room; he wasn’t our room and he wasn’t in one of the bathrooms.
Right about this time I felt the fear begin to rise in my chest. Where was he? What could have possibly happened in the two hours or so I was in my basement office two floors beneath my little boy’s bedroom?
Just when I was ready to call 9-1-1 and report a missing child; just when I was ready to go door to door through the neighborhood if necessary; I decided to check the garage for some reason.
I turned on the light and noticed that the door to our mini-van was slightly ajar. When I went to shut the van door I found our son strapped into a seat in the van like he was ready to go on a trip. He was dead asleep.
It turns out that he was simply sleep walking and found his way out of his room, down the stairs, into the garage and into the van without me hearing a sound.
As parents, most of us have had the unnerving experience of losing track of a child; maybe at the mall, or in a park, or even at church! At first we are annoyed; then we grow concerned; then truly frightened; then, when we find the child, we feel both relieved and rather foolish for having lost track of them in the first place.
That brings us to the beautiful little story we find in Luke, chapter 2. The main reason Luke includes this story about the 12 year old Jesus in his gospel because it points us to who Jesus really is and what he came to do.
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Here we learn the profound truth that Jesus is the very son of God. But as much as I love this story for what it tells us about Jesus, I love it for what it tells us about his earthly parents and what it tells us about our families!
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. 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. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
Think about it. Of all the ways God could have chosen to come into this world he chose to come in flesh; the mystery of incarnation. And of all the ways he could have chosen to send his Son into the world; he chose to send him through the normal human birth process. And of all the families he could have chosen to have his Son born into; he chose an ordinary family that did ordinary things like lose track of a twelve year-old boy in the midst of a family outing.
Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus knows what it is like to live in a family? Has it ever dawned on you when you are having one of “those” days in your own family that Jesus might have known what “those” days are like?
I think God chose to enter our world through a family because families, imperfect as they are, are absolutely essential in his plan for us. I think he placed Jesus in a family because he wants us to see that the gospel is not only for individuals, but for whole families as well. I think he wants us to see that family can be a kind of greenhouse for the gospel.
My prayer is that the gospel will take root and grow deep in and through the families God has given us.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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