Untitled Sermon

The Child

The New King James Version Chapter 2

41 His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. 43 When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.

I find myself overwhelmingly concerned with the larger issues of the day. It seems that there are so many who are lost. At times it seems that God is nowhere to be found. It is as if He has hidden himself. It is as if we have lost Him in the crowds and thongs of people. But God is never lost.

I find myself overwhelmingly concerned with the larger issues of the day. It seems that there are so many who are lost. At times it seems that God is nowhere to be found. It is as if He has hidden himself. It is as if we have lost Him in the crowds and thongs of people. But God is never lost.

The Gospel reading finds us with Mary and Joseph at the time of the Feast of the Passover. Mary and Joseph, with the boy Jesus have travelled to Jerusalem. And having spent the days proscribed for the feast, being eight, they returned home.

We do not know at what point Jesus was not to be found. But clearly, his parents were not concerned about the boy while in Jerusalem or as they departed. At twelve he was nearly a man according to the law, soon to be Bar Mitzvah – a son of the commandments. It was likely that along the whole journey to Jerusalem Jesus was reciting the fist five books of the Pentateuch and meditating on them. Perhaps he was eager to go to the temple to listen to the great teachers of his time as they disclosed the teachings of the law to the people.

Form some of us it may be hard to imagine losing track of your child. But in Israel at the time Jesus was nearly an adult and had probably shouldered more responsibility than our children. We live in a different time and in a different context. We are so filled with fear that we could not imagine a “child” roaming free in the city. I think Jerusalem had a different air about it.

Over ten years ago my family and I made a pilgrimage to Orlando, to an international conference of churches in the jurisdiction we were in at the time. We stayed at a premier hotel and the compound was like a small town. It was surrounded by walls. There were three pools. Our four kids played with the many kids of all the other attendees for a week. Most of the time I did not even know where they were. My son and daughter were up till all hours and I barely paid attention to it. That was because I trusted everyone there. (maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did). The gathering constituted a large body of implicit trust. I think it was very much the same for the holy family.

After a day’s journey Mary and Joseph search for Jesus among family and friends from home. The caravan is large as crowds of people pour out of the city and return to their homes. He is not among them. He is hidden. He cannot be found. Not finding him they return to Jerusalem where they search for the boy. They search for three days.

It could be a literal three days, it could be a figurative three days. The three days harken to the grave, where Christ is hidden after death. The ancient writers were less concerned with the factual detail as they were the significance of the events described and alluded to. Luke is connecting the hiddenness of the boy with the hiddenness of the grave.

Eventually they find him in the Temple, sitting with the Rabbis and men who are listening to the interpretations of the law. And there is the boy Jesus, found, astounding the teachers with his questions and his understanding. And finding him Mary say’s,

Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”

49 And He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I would have necessarily been about the things of my Father?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.

In as much as the boy Jesus is hidden from their sight, his divinity is hidden from our sight. We see the boy, but we may not see God. We may see the boy in captivating dialogue with the Rabbis, and we may still not see God. God is hidden, cloaked, in the form of this boy, just as He was cloaked in the form of a child. Just as God is cloaked in the mundane. Just as God is cloaked in your neighbor. Just as God is cloaked in the body of Christ. God is hidden among us.

These days I wonder about the hiddenness of the gospel amidst so much noise and opinion. Where is the church? Which is the church? What voice shall I attend? Where is Christ? We have lost him in the crowd. is he among those of my village? Has he returned to the city? I know not where?

No. He is in the temple, in His Father's house, amazing the teachers of the law with His understanding? Where are we to find Him? In the streets? In the crowd? No. We shall find Him in the Father's House.