Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival 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 man. (Luke 2:41-52 NIV)
Mary and Joseph took Jesus to church. Did you hear that? “Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.” Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple, to their church, as often as they could. It was their “custom.” We should add that the temple in Jerusalem was about 70 miles away from where they lived in Nazareth. Parents, take note of this: Mary and Joseph had a perfect child. The one perfect child in the history of the world. Jesus is God! Surely, Jesus wouldn’t need to go to church, right? No! Mary and Joseph took Jesus to church. If Mary and Joseph were here today, they would come to church every chance they could.
That also means this: Jesus went to church. Kids, I want you to take note of this: Jesus went to church. “When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.” Jesus didn’t just go to church when he was a little kid. He went when he was twelve years old. You know what happens when you get to be like twelve, thirteen years old, right? You get cool. It happens all of a sudden. Just like that, you’re cool. You’re too cool for a lot of things. Maybe too cool for church. Not Jesus. He loved going to church and listening and asking questions and learning about God. If Jesus were here today, he would come to church every chance he could. He would even come to Bible study. Every Sunday. If the doors were open, Jesus would be here.
Actually, that’s how Jesus got lost. Mary lost Jesus. For all of us parents here, you’ve experienced this. You’ve lost a child, at least for a moment. Maybe at the store, when he hid in a clothes rack. Maybe at the fair, when all of a sudden she wasn’t right behind you anymore. It seems like it happens so fast, but then time seems to stop. They are gone in an instant, but the minutes until you find them feel like eternity. On one of their trips to the temple, Mary lost Jesus. Jesus didn’t even have a cell phone yet. There were no police to call. Can you imagine the fear?
Actually, it was worse than that. Mary knew that her child was the Son of God. Can you imagine losing the Son of God? What guilt and shame must have filled Mary’s heart. “How could I lose God’s Son? What is God going to do to me? How can I keep being Jesus’ mother when I can’t even keep track of him?” Can you imagine that added burden on her soul? We have all done a lot of sins, but at least we haven’t lost the Son of God! But Mary did. She lost Jesus—God’s Son.
How could this happen? How do you lose Jesus? It’s pretty simple: “Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day.” Mary thought—she assumed—that Jesus was with her. When Jewish families went up to Jerusalem for a festival like the Passover, it was a big deal. Everybody was supposed to go. There was a group of people traveling together from Nazareth to Jerusalem. Friends, neighbors, relatives. Mary assumed that Jesus was with them in their group.
How often do we do the same thing? Assume we have Jesus. I’m afraid we do this all the time. “I’ve got Jesus.” Do you? “Yeah, don’t worry. I don’t need church. I’m just not into reading the Bible. Don’t worry. I’ve got Jesus!” Do you really? Mary thought she had Jesus, but she didn’t. Do you think we could assume we have Jesus but not have him too? I know a pastor who visited a family who hadn’t been going to church. He asked them, “If you were to die tonight, where would you go?” They said, “Don’t worry, we’re trying our best to be good people.” And he said: “You’ve forgotten! You’ve forgotten the most important thing!” What? Jesus! Do you realize that one of the most dangerous situations for your heart is when you just assume you have Jesus?
Until suddenly you realize you don’t. I wonder when it hit Mary: “He’s not here!” Can you imagine the sick feeling in her stomach? The dread she felt? She lost Jesus. I bet you’ve had days when suddenly it feels like you’ve lost Jesus too. Like you’re all alone. Like suddenly you don’t know anything anymore. Like suddenly all the things you thought were true aren’t true. Like Jesus suddenly seems so far away. Isn’t that an awful feeling? Losing Jesus is an awful thing.
So Mary immediately started searching for Jesus. Where did she look first? “They began looking for him among their relatives and friends.” They started with their family. That makes sense. They asked their relatives and friends. But did they find Jesus with their family? No! I think we should learn from this. If you’re searching for Jesus, is the best place to look in your family? No. That sounds wrong, doesn’t it? But your family isn’t where Jesus is. I’ve found that families can often lead people away from Jesus. “Pastor, you say this is wrong, but my family says it’s okay. So it’s okay.” Really? It’s good to love your family. But your family isn’t the place to find Jesus.
Then what? Well, Mary and Joseph “went back to Jerusalem to look for him.” For how long? For three days! They ran around anxiously looking for Jesus everywhere. Was he in the marketplace? Nope. At the hotel or inn? Nope. Playing with kids in the streets? Nope. Don’t we do the same thing? We run around everywhere looking for peace and meaning. Do we find it? In entertainment? Nope. In work? Nope. In shopping? Nope. In going along with the crowd? Nope. Is that where you find Jesus? Looking around the city? Around our society? No! He’s not there.
Then where is he? Well, “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.” Where did Mary find Jesus? In the temple. At church. Jesus was sitting and listening to the teachers and asking questions—for three days! I wonder if any of those teachers of the law were at Jesus’ trial 21 years later. Did any of them remember this boy in the temple as they sought to crucify him? Even as a boy, Jesus loved being in God’s house.
But Mary was upset. You can hear it in her voice. She said to Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” In other words, “Jesus, why did you get lost? How did you do this to us? Do you realize how anxious we’ve been?…” That’s a key word: Anxiously. Know how you know if you’ve lost Jesus—or are losing Jesus? You’re anxious. Anxious about life. Anxious about the future. Anxious about today. Whenever we lose Jesus, anxiety starts to fill our hearts and souls. “Jesus, why did you get lost like this?”
And Jesus said, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” When a 12-year-old rebukes his mother, it’s usually not a good thing, unless that 12-year-old is the perfect Son of God. Jesus said, “Mom, I wasn’t lost. I wasn’t lost at all. Actually, Mom, you were lost. You were looking for me in the wrong places. Why did you run here and there and everywhere? You should have known where I would be: In my Father’s house!” Wouldn’t Jesus say those same words to you and me? When we assume we have Jesus, we’ve often lost him, and our searching for him in all the wrong places leads to anxiety and fear.
Where do you find Jesus? In his Father’s house. In other words, wherever there is the Word of God. Finding Jesus isn’t complicated. You find Jesus wherever you find the Word of God. Jesus is never lost. Jesus is never far away from any of us. He’s always as close as those Bible passages you have memorized. Jesus is always as close as the Bible app on your phone or that Christian friend or pastor who encourages you with God’s Word. If it seems like Jesus is gone or lost or left, it’s not Jesus. It’s you. Come on back. Jesus is waiting for you! This is what God wants us to learn about losing and finding Jesus: The place you find Jesus is in the Word of God.
I once read a story about a Muslim man. Nabeel Quereshi practiced Islam his whole life. Until in college, he became best friends with a Christian roommate who kept encouraging him to read the Bible. He finally did, just to prove the Bible wrong. Can you guess what happened? He became a Christian. He read about how Jesus died on the cross to save the world. Wow! A God who died for his people? You don’t hear about that in Islam. He read about forgiveness and grace and salvation by faith in Jesus. You don’t hear about that in Islam. As he read the Bible, know what he found? Jesus! Nabeel wrote a book about it and called it, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.”
Seek Jesus where he wants to be found! Where? In his Word. Can I admit that I’m not great at this? My one New Year’s resolution is that I want to read at least one chapter of the Bible every day. Could you do that? It shouldn’t be hard, but it is because the devil hates it when people read God’s Word. I’ll admit that often I’m reading that one chapter at night before going to bed because I’ve been running around doing everything else all day. And feeling how? Anxious!
This past week, I’ve been in the book of Genesis and the story of Joseph. Remember that one? Everything in Joseph’s life went wrong over and over again. His brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused of rape and thrown in prison. But then do you know what happened? Suddenly, God allowed him to become the second in command of all of Egypt. God had a plan the whole time! I can’t explain it, but that story of Joseph has filled my heart with peace. Jesus is working in our lives even when it doesn’t look that way at all. I need that. I need Jesus! Do you?
So parents, if Mary and Joseph didn’t just let Jesus learn about God on his own… If Mary and Joseph brought him with them to the temple time after time, year after year… How much more should we bring our children to Jesus? God didn’t give us children just to play with them or to make them our servants. He gave us children so we can teach them about Jesus. We can’t believe for them. We can’t live their lives. But we can point them to Jesus. Where? In the Word.
Kids, don’t ever get tired of hearing about Jesus. Even when you get cool. Even when you become teenagers or college students or start your own family. You’re going to be told to run after all sorts of things: Relationships. Technology. Sports. Popularity. Money. That’s not where you find Jesus. Where do we find him? In the Word. That’s where you hear what you really need to hear: “I am baptized. I am a child of God. Jesus loves me. My sins are forgiven in Jesus!”
Remember how that pastor visited a family and asked, “If you were to die tonight, where would you go?” What’s the answer? “Heaven, by faith in Jesus!” The next Sunday that family was back in church. And the next. And the next. They came every time they could. Sundays. Wednesdays. Sunday School. Bible study. They weren’t about to lose Jesus again. Losing Jesus is not fun. But finding him is. Where do we find him? “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
(To listen to this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior podcast, please click HERE. To watch this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior YouTube channel, please click on the link below.)
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