Losing Jesus

Luke 2:41–50 LEB

And his parents went every year to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast. And after the days were completed, while they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And his parents did not know it, but believing him to be in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. And they began searching for him among their relatives and their acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. And it happened that after three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his insight and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astounded and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have been searching for you anxiously!” And he said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that it was necessary for me to be in the house of my Father?” And they did not understand the statement that he spoke to them.

Leading Questions

Before I started working in my church on a full-time basis, I was a subcontracts manager. Part of my job was leading negotiation teams as we would negotiate a subcontract to a company that would help us build our airplane.

Now, I love a good negotiation. I’ve been a negotiator just about all of my life.

If there was a line not to be crossed, I would ask, “why?”

This absolutely frustrated my parents, but it has served me well in life! I will negotiate anything that is negotiable. If I could negotiate the cost of a banana, I would do it!

Now, in Graduate School, SHOUT OUT TO UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO! I took a Graduate Level negotiation class. This was by far one of my most favorite classes to take. In negotiation class we learned the power of leading question.

Do you know what I leading question is?

Now, I know you do, becuase you’ve heard leading questions all your life. They were simplified, but they were leading questions nonetheless.

When you done messed up your room, your Mom would come in and ask, “Who messed up this room?”

Obviously, it was you! You are the only person home, and the only person capable of making this mess. Why in the world would your Mom even bother with asking a leading question?

She did that because she is trying to get a confession out of you.

That’s right… It’s not enough for her to know that you did it. It’s not enough for you to know, that she knows that you did it. She wants you to open up your mouth and feel the weight of responsibility as you say, “It was me! It was me, all right!”

Your Mom is a Negotiation Ninja!

TRANSITION

Now in this same way that your Momma asked you a leading question when you did something wrong, Jesus asked his Momma a leading question when she did something wrong!

If there ever was a person who could flip a script, it was Jesus.

Why Were You Looking For Me?

Jesus asked his Momma the leading question of ALL leading questions! He asked her, “Why were you looking for me?”

This is a loaded question! He asks this question, in this manner, becuase he’s trying to get her to admit, “I lost you.”

In a game of chess, this was CHECK MATE. The way he asked the question, the way that he LED HER with this question, brings her to only one response, and it’s a terrible response to be led to.

Jesus, the Son of God, is asking his Momma a question that would force her to admit, “I lost you.”

Now how in the world do you lose Jesus?

Think about this for a second.

When Mary found out that she was pregnant it wasn’t from a take home test. An Angel visited her and told her you are about to have a son - “Yes, I know that you’ve never been intimate with anybody, but get the crib ready, get yourself a diaper bag and buy a stroller while you are at it, because in 9 months time you are having a baby. Oh and by the way, his Daddy is God. OK Bye!”

Now, Jesus wasn’t the only kid that Mary had. We read in the Bible that he had other siblings. The most notable is James becuase he wrote the Book of James in the Bible. It would have been one thing to lose James. You can lose James and no one is going to trip. You can lose James and no one would even blame you, because he isn’t the Messiah, but you lost Jesus!?!? How, of all your children, do you lose Jesus? He is the single greatest person who has ever lived, and you lost him!

TRANSITION

But here is the deal. As much as we can look at Mary and Joseph and point fingers and accuse them of being negligent, people are losing Jesus every single day. How do they lose Jesus? Well its right here in the text.

The Sacred Becomes Common

We read here a couple of things in the story:

“And his parents went every year to Jerusalem...”

Notice that the writer lets us know that this is just something they did. This was just something that was on the calendar. It was a given that at this time of year, they would make the walk to Jerusalem. It’s what they did every year. It was a rhythm. It was a routine. Look at how the writer describes it,

“they went up according to the custom...”

It was just customary for them to go to Jerusalem.

What is a custom?

a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something.

Now, the problem with that is the Feast of the Passover had deep spiritual significance. This wasn’t just something to attend, but this was something to experience. You didn’t come to Jerusalem just to check a box and say you went, but you are to immerse yourself into the act of worshipping and remembering this very important date in their history.

But the reason that Mary and Joseph went from attending the customary celebration to losing their son was because they were already in the mode of going through the motions.

And that is how you start to lose Jesus...

No one makes it a New Year resolution that they are going to lose Jesus in 2021. No one does that…

So then, how does someone lose Jesus?

When something that is deeply spiritual, and an experience to be lived out becomes a custom.

Let me say it this way… when Sunday’s become an option, you start to lose Jesus. When youth group becomes something you do only when you have time, you start to lose Jesus.

Sunday’s are not an option. Youth Group is not an option.

Every time we gather it is the opportunity to have an encounter with creator of the universe and the savior of our soul.

I don’t go to church when I have time, I make time to go to church.

The creator of heaven and Earth wants to meet with me and the family that I call my church, and I am going to do everything that I have to do to get there.

Psalm 122:1 ESV

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

And when we get to the house of the Lord, make sure your posture is right. Don’t just worship when they sing your song. Don’t decide to get into it if your favorite preacher is preaching. The one thing that you have to be most concerned about is that the Spirit God is in the room, and because he is in the room, bring your best worship, bring your best praise and come ready to have an encounter with God.

When Common Leads to Complacent

Listen to me… the reason why this can never become common to you is becuase then you become complacent.

To be complacent is to be smug or to show uncritical satisfaction...

Mary and Joseph go through the motions of the Passover, and they make their way back home. What’s crazy to me about this story is that they go a whole day without even noticing that Jesus is gone.

One day.

One. Whole. Day.

When you are complacent, it takes some time to even realize that he’s no longer with you. It starts as just making the things of God common, but then it puts you in a place where you are complacent. There’s no urgency.

Listen, I’ve got three kids of my own. If I don’t see a kid for one hour, I’m looking for him. My kids… left alone for too long… and they are blowing something up. I’ll find them in the back yard doing the Milk Crate Challenge… there’s an urgency that I have with my kids.

That’s why I think that the fact that he went missing for a day lets me know that there is no urgency.

And what I know about our enemy is that he would prefer that all Christians lose their urgency. If he can get you to make what is sacred common, then he can get you to no longer value what is supposed to be of significance.

A Christian with no urgency isn’t going to witness to their neighbor.

A Christian with no urgency isn’t going to reach out to their loved ones.

A Christian with no urgency isn’t going to make a difference in the Kingdom.

So if the devil can get you to be complacent, he’s going to stop your progress.

And the life that God has for us is one of abundance.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

To many Christians are in the building, but they aren’t in Christ.

You can be in the building, but not be in Christ. To be in Christ is to share in the fellowship of his sufferings, but to also share in the power of his resurrection.

I don’t want to be in a building, I want to be in Him. It’s him that I live, it’s in him that I breathe, and it’s in him that I have my being.

Find Him in the House

CONCLUSION

When Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus, not only does he lead them to this place where they have to admit that they have lost him, but he lets them know that they would have found him in his Father’s House.

He asks his Mother, “Didn’t you know to look for me in the House of my Father?”

What I love about this is Jesus reminds Mary that the very thing that she treated as common. The very thing that she treated as casual. The thing that was just a custom to her, was the place that she was going to find him.

I know that this generation thinks that there is a hack to everything. I know that this generation thinks that if it’s old it’s irrelevant. But the truth is, the way you find Jesus is to go back to the place where he wants to be, and that is in the place that he meets you.

Sacred spaces, and sacred places still matter.

Can you encounter God anywhere? Absolutely.

The writer spoke of this when he said:

Psalm 139:8 LEB

If I ascend to heaven, there you are, and if I make my bed in Sheol, look! There you are.

But that expression was his way of speaking about the omnipresence of God. We also read in the Psalms this verse:

Psalm 27:4 ESV

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

You spend enough time in God’s presence and his presence gets in you.

Remove yourself from God’s presence, and you’ll stop feeling his presence inside you.

So how do we lose Jesus?

When we make him A THING and not THE THING

When he is on our list, but not at the top of it

When he’s a priority, just not the top priority

How do we make sure we never lose him?

Make him the center of it all.