Where is Jesus?!

Dec. 26, 2021 

Somewhere along the way, Mary and Joseph lost sight of 12-year-old Jesus! Nazareth was 60 miles from Jerusalem, and they walked there on foot to celebrate Passover. The whole trip was more than two weeks. It took at least three days to walk to Jerusalem, the Passover festival lasted a week, and then three more days to walk home. It was a big trip, but to them it was not such a big deal. Nobody had a car. They were used to lots of walking. 

Maybe it seemed like a routine trip. Perhaps they had made the trip before. I think the same can happen to us at Christmas or at any place in our lives. Things become routine. We don’t think about the meaning behind them much.  

We can get so caught up in what we are supposed to do at Christmas, the parties and pastries, the gifts, even the get-togethers with family and friends that we forget to spend as much time effort and energy remembering that it’s all about Jesus. 

This is true not only during Christmas time, but it can happen during any season of our lives. There simply may come a time when it seems God is not there anymore. A time when we ask, “Hey where is Jesus anyway?” 

When we realize that God doesn’t seem to be there, it’s time to go looking for him. Mary and Joseph didn’t get worked up about Jesus’ absence at first. They figured he was somewhere walking with their family and friends in the crowd. But they looked for him for a day and asked people they knew, and nobody had seen him. So, starting to feel a real panic, they hurried back to Jerusalem. Where did they last see him? Was he at the inn they stayed at? Was there something interesting like a restaurant or video game store where he might be? The temple complex at Jerusalem was big, really big! Thousands of people could gather there. Mary and Joseph looked there too. It took them three days of looking in Jerusalem.   

I think a lot of us, when we discover Jesus or God is missing in our lives, will look a lot of places too. We will spend time in quiet and in solitude. We will go for walks on the trails or seek him somewhere in nature. We might long for a spiritual connection and try to find him in prayer and meditation. Some people believe in reincarnation, so I guess they assume if this life doesn’t go well maybe the next will be better. The point here is that people look in a lot of places when God is missing in their lives. Yet we don’t really have to look farther then Jesus himself. 

It took Mary and Joseph 3 days to find Jesus in Jerusalem and when they did find him, he was in the temple. Mary says “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you.” 

Jesus answered them, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” 

I find it interesting the central piece of the scripture lies in a misunderstanding between Jesus and his parents. I think it’s clear that Jesus at 12 years old wasn’t old enough to be on his own. And the fact the Jesus didn’t understand this shows us that even Jesus had more learning to do. Yet there is something that Mary and Joseph had forgotten. 

They had forgotten that Jesus’ father wasn’t Joseph. His father was God himself. Jesus had an identity issue in his family. He was saying Joseph isn’t my father. He’s my stepfather. God is my father.  

This is a central point of our faith. Jesus isn’t a prophet, he isn’t just another human, pointing us to God. Instead, he is God. He is more than a rabbi or a good teacher, he is God himself. That means for us to know God we don’t have to look any farther than Jesus.  

This is our Christmas story told in the gospel of John, chapter 1:   

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” 

Jesus has been around from the very beginning.  He spoke the world and creation into being.  And yet he also came to earth as a human. Yes, God was his father, but he emptied himself out to become human. I think Jesus himself had to discover who God fully was. If Jesus was fully human, like us, then learning about God goes with the territory.   

When we say Jesus was the Word, it means that Jesus came to teach us everything there is to know about God.   

Jesus still had a lot to learn: Luke 2:51-52 say,   

“Jesus went back with them to Nazareth, where he was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. Jesus grew both in body and in wisdom, gaining favor with God and people.” 

Jesus may have thought he was ready to stay in the temple at 12 years old, but he wasn’t.  He had a lot to learn.  He went back home with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them.  And he grew in both body and wisdom.  Gaining favor with God and people. 

If it ever feels like you are missing Jesus or that you have somehow lost God, all you have to do is to return to Jesus and learn from him alone. No one else and no other practice will do for you what Jesus can. 

And learning from Jesus isn’t a one-time event. Its about building a relationship with him.  It took Jesus himself 20 years to grow from the 12-year-old in the temple to the time he entered the water to be baptized by John. That means if Jesus was dedicated and committed to growing strong physically, gaining wisdom, and gaining the favor of both God and people, we need to understand that following God is a lifelong process for us too. 

At Jesus’ baptism the clouds opened and the voice of God said this is my beloved son, but even then, Jesus still took time to be with God. It was the Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness and Jesus consistently found time to be alone with God. 

The time leading up to Christmas can be a busy time of the year. If you didn’t spend much time with Jesus during advent, well we have good news. He’s still here. It’s still the season of Christmas. And there is no better person or way for us to get to know God than intentionally spending time with Jesus. Pray with him, read the scriptures, get personal and ask him, “What would you do Jesus?” 

None of us should fool ourselves that knowing Jesus or being touched by God is something that happens just once in our lifetime. We are given the opportunity to grow with him over the course of our lives. If Jesus himself found the need to grow and mature, then he set the example for us. Let’s grow as his disciples today, this year, and for a lifetime. 

Amen.