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Introduction
A few weeks ago, I introduced Kassandra to the classic film, Forrest Gump.
There is a scene in that movie in which Jennie, the love of Forrest’s life, has walked out on him.
To deal with the pain, he starts to run.
And he says very little as he runs.
He runs back and forth through the United States, and within time, people begin to follow him and run with him.
At the end of the scene, Forrest stops running, turns around and you hear someone in the crowd of people shush everyone.
“Quiet.
Quiet.
He’s gonna say something.”
The camera closes in on him as everyone waits in silence.
Then he speaks, “I’m pretty tired.
Think I’ll go home now.”
The befuddled crowd parts as he walks in the middle of them and that shushing character asks, “Now what are we supposed to do!?”
There was great anticipation as to what Forrest Gump’s first words would be; what wisdom would he impart?
Obviously, the crowd did not know him well.
This morning, we are looking at the first words of Jesus we have recorded, not just in Luke, but anywhere.
And these words have far reaching effects.
So as study this passage we will see Jesus’s mission and what that means for us.
And we’ll see it in four turn of events.
So we first will look at the place of Jesus’s person, the pain of Jesus’s parents, the purpose of Jesus’s position, and finally the progress of Jesus’s person.
The Place of Jesus’s Person
The Pain of Jesus’s Parents
The Purpose of Jesus’s Position
The Progress of Jesus’s Person
The Place of Jesus’s Person
The first turn of events comes as Luke instructs us about Jesus’s whereabouts.
He tells us the place of Jesus’s person, of Jesus himself, and he does so in relation to his parents.
I believe that this is critical to the narrative that Luke told Theophilus.
I say the “place” of Jesus’s person, but in reality there are three places of that Luke directly or indirectly tells us as to the person of Jesus.
The first place that we find Jesus is at home in Nazareth.
If we go back a verse, we find that once the presentation and cleansing rituals were done, Jesus’s parents took him home to Nazareth.
And that seems to be where he stayed until he was 12 years old.
Notice in verse 41, Mary and Joseph would go to the Feast of Passover, but Jesus did not.
He was not required under law to go.
However, once the boy turned 13, he was supposed to make the trek every year.
Luke pointed out that though Jesus’s parents went, they never took him along.
He stayed home probably with relatives or friends.
When his parents returned, they would fully and rightfully expect to see Jesus again—safe and sound.
They knew where he was and where they could find him.
But then, we see this turn of events: he was with his parents this time.
The law stated that when a boy came to the age of maturity, he was supposed to celebrate certain festivals.
Today, we tend to think of bar mitzvahs being celebrated at the age of 13, but that wasn’t always the case or custom.
So it is easy to accept that Jesus may have already celebrated his bar mitzvah or they were preparing him for it to come soon.
But as for now, once again, Jesus’s whereabouts were known.
Mary and Joseph know exactly where he is.
The problem comes in the third place we find Jesus, or rather where we don’t find him.
This is where the story gets troublesome.
Mary and Joseph lost the Son of God! Notice though, it wasn’t Jesus who left them.
It was they who left him.
They were the ones returning to Nazareth.
Jesus stayed put.
They assumed Jesus was somewhere in their group.
They supposed him to be among their relatives and acquaintances.
Oh how often we take Jesus’s presence for granted!
Certainly we know that Jesus’s Spirit is with believers everywhere we go.
He has promised to be with us day in and day out until the end of time.
He has promised never to leave us, nor forsake us.
But we don’t think about his body so much do we?
We’re probably more like Thomas than we care to admit.
Even when we take of the Lord’s Supper and we hear the words, “this is my body,” does it cause us to stop and ponder about the personhood of Jesus and where he is in his body?
We know the bread merely represents the body so that as we see it, as we taste it, we remember the actual person of Jesus in the flesh.
Do this—see this, touch this, smell this, taste this—in remembrance of me.
What does it mean though, when we can’t see him?
What does it mean when we can’t find him?
When we feel alone?
Ever feel that way?
Ever feel like Jesus wandered away?
Brothers and sisters, Jesus has never strayed from us.
It is we who have drifted from him.
In reality, he is there.
His Spirit is within you.
But you can’t see him.
You can’t feel him.
You can’t sense him.
You can’t hear from him.
But it is not his doing; it is our own.
Like Mary and Joseph, we are the ones who have walked away.
Sometimes inadvertently; sometimes purposefully.
But what do we do?
The Pain of Jesus’s Parents
Let’s see what Mary and Joseph did.
The first turn of events came about in the place of Jesus’s person.
The second comes about in the pain of Jesus’s parents.
So what did they do?
It’s easy to lose track of Jesus, isn’t it?
If his parents could do it, how much easier is it for us!? What did they do when they realized that Jesus wasn’t with them?
They began to search for him.
That’s a good start!
If you lose your child, the first thing you should do is start looking for them.
And so they did.
They looked among family members.
They looked among those people they knew.
But he was not there.
You can imagine what’s going on can’t you?
If you’ve ever lost your child, you certainly can.
You can hear Mary call his name, “Jesus.”
but there’s no answer.
She calls it again, louder this time “Jesus!”, and looking around.
The vocalization of the name becomes a question by the third time “Jesus?!”; she tries to remain calm.
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