Lk 2:41-52

28 December 2003

1st Sunday after Christmas / 4th Day of Christmas

“Where’s Jesus?”

            Where is Jesus?  That’s the $100 question of the day!  When we search for Jesus, where do we expect to find him?  And what do we expect to happen once we find him?  Sometimes we panic because we can't find him.  Is he lost or are we?  As we look at today’s gospel reading, does it seem too great a jump to go from the baby born in a stable to a 12 year old in just 3 days?

            There are numerous extra-biblical accounts of Jesus as a child and as a young man.  These include gospels that were never accepted by the church as scripture.  Among them are the Infancy Gospel of James and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  The one attributed to James was written in the latter half of the second century.  It’s also called the Birth of Mary, since it goes into great detail about Mary and her parents.  According to this gospel, the birth of Jesus took place in a cave, which Joseph had to find quickly when Mary went into labor.[1]

            The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a strange little work written in the mid-second century.  It presents the young Jesus in a way that can best be described as a “holy terror.”  I’ll mention just one story to make the point.

            “Once again [Jesus] was going through the village, and a child who was running banged into his shoulder.  Jesus was angered and said to him, ‘You shall go no further on your way.’  And immediately the child fell down dead.”  It goes on to say that the parents of the dead boy go to Joseph and tell him that he has to move away because of what Jesus has been doing.  So after Joseph takes Jesus aside and scolds him, he replies, “’I know that these are not your words, but on account of you I will be silent.  However, they shall bear their punishment.’  Immediately, those who accused him were blinded.  Those who saw him were very frightened and puzzled, and they said about him, ‘Every word he speaks, whether good or evil, happens and is a miracle.’”[2]

            To be fair, most of these extra gospels don’t present Jesus as a divine brat!  Then there are the legends and traditions that claim Jesus traveled to the East as a young man and studied in India and Kashmir with yogis and other wise men.  Some even say he survived the crucifixion and then went on his travels, living out a normal lifespan.

            Among the biblical writers, only Luke speaks of Jesus’ younger years in any detailed way.  Matthew tells the story of Herod’s attempt to have him killed while still a little guy.  (By the way, today is also the Feast of the Holy Innocents, in which the youngsters who died during the massacre are remembered.)  Still, it’s Luke, not Matthew, who presents Jesus in any active way, as actually doing something.

            The story Luke relates is rather strange itself; it even has a slightly comic feel to it.  We’re told that when Jesus is twelve, the family goes to Jerusalem for the Passover, as any good Jewish family would.  So when the festivities are over, and it’s time to go home, we can imagine a conversation along these lines:  “Joseph, where’s Jesus?”  “Oh, I saw him with Uncle Shlomo and Aunt Hadassah.  They said they’re ready to go, too.”  An entire day goes by, and Mary asks again, “Joseph, where’s Jesus?  Did he eat his lunch?”  And so begins the increasingly frenetic search for the young man.

            They realize that they must have left him in Jerusalem.  It’s likely that there would still be throngs of people who had gathered for the Passover.  Three days go by without success.  Then they find Jesus in the temple.  Does it make sense to you that it would take them so long to try checking there?  Maybe they thought Jesus would decide to explore the city all by himself, and so, they didn’t know where to look!

            We don’t know how long he’s been there at the temple, but we do know this:  Jesus is participating in a very intelligent conversation with the rabbis who are present.  He is definitely wise beyond his years.  Our scripture says that “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and answers” (v. 47).

            This is what’s happening when Mary and Joseph arrive on the scene.  I imagine at first, they’re overjoyed, and then, they want to kill him!  “Child, why have you treated us like this?” Mary asks, with obvious maternal pain.  “Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety” (v. 48).  We’ve been out of our minds with worry!

            Then Luke presents us with his first recorded reply by Jesus to a question—the first of many that leave people scratching their heads.  “Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (v. 49).  His use of the word “Father” really confuses them.  Still, he proves to be an obedient son, and we read that his mother Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” (v. 51).  Jesus is a continual source of both perplexity and inspiration for his mother.

            With this story, Luke provides us a glimpse of the development of Jesus from childhood to manhood.  His grand summation comes in verse 52:  “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.”  We can see a parallel with our Old Testament reading about Samuel.  By including this, I believe Luke shows us that Mary and Joseph only gradually begin to understand who Jesus is.  It’s one thing to hear a child described as Son of God; it’s quite another thing to know what that actually means.  After all, Jesus isn’t the first to be called a son of God.  In Isaiah 43:6, even the people of Israel are called the sons and daughters of God.

            I also believe that it took time for Jesus himself to realize his true identity.  If he were a real human, a real little boy, how could it be otherwise?  That may explain, in part, the need to “fill in the blanks” of Jesus’ life.  I’m speaking right now of those extra-biblical stories in which the youthful Jesus is doing miracles right and left—in which he displays his power just for the fun of it.  Some folks throughout history have been impatient with the way the Bible presents Jesus:  that is, just plodding along and not doing any miracles until somebody runs out of wine at a wedding!

            But that leads me to a different question.  Miracles aside, why has so much been omitted from the life of Jesus?  The gospels we have make very poor biographies.  They basically ignore all but the last three years of his life, and even that time period is told in a sketchy, haphazard fashion.  That’s because the gospels aren’t meant to be biography; they’re theology.  Their concern is in showing how God has spoken to, and visited, the human race through Jesus Christ.

            Is it possible that, if we had more of the details of the life of Jesus, we would be more prone to lose our focus?  Would we be more likely to try to imitate Jesus in some purely outward, external way, to seek a blueprint for our lives?  There have been plenty of attempts to “fill in the blanks.”  People have portrayed Jesus in many ways.  A few examples include Jesus as brown-eyed Jew and as blue-eyed European, Jesus as wealthy capitalist and as socialist reformer, Jesus as revolutionary fighter and as revolutionary pacifist.

            Here’s another question:  do we feel the need of a blueprint for our own lives?  Maybe we don’t care about those missing elements in the story of Jesus’ life.  But would we like a word from God about those missing elements in our own lives, especially those forks in the road, which we encounter all the time?  I don’t think I’m alone in wanting it spelled out a little more clearly for me!

            In the late nineties, Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote an excellent article entitled, “Listening with the Ear of the Heart.”[3]  In it, he mentions a character in a Gail Godwin novel who says, “Your vocation is something that keeps making more of you.”  Your vocation, your calling, is something that keeps making more of you.  What about that?  Is the life we’re leading making more of us?

            Are we becoming bigger people?  Is our vision expanding?  Are we finding more ways to share love?  Or do we find that we’re becoming smaller?  Do we find it more difficult to imagine new ways of being?  Have the walls we’ve put up hinder our ability to love?  Or does it seem that we’re neither progressing nor regressing—we’re just in a state of stagnation?  We’re not moving in any direction?

            In his article, Griswold also speaks of an unnamed “Russian Orthodox monk who lived in the forests of Finland.  When asked…what he has learned from his many years of prayer and monastic life he [replied]:  ‘The very circumstances of your life will show you the way.’"

            We might want or believe that we need a blueprint for life.  It may seem necessary to have the missing elements given to us, whether from the life of Jesus or from our own lives.  All of us ask the question, “Where’s Jesus?”  For some, it’s a cry of desperation.  But it is the very circumstances of our lives that show us the way.

In our epistle reading, Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16).  The twists and turns of our lives contain within them the seeds of growth that nudge us out of our stagnation—or even enable us to reverse a downward course.  How has the word of Christ been dwelling in us?  How will the word of Christ dwell in us?  Will we allow the word of Christ to dwell in us and take its root in the twists and turns of our lives?

            My prayer for all of us is that the new year of 2004 see us increasing in both wisdom and years—in both favor with God and with those around us as we seek Jesus in the Scripture, in the church, in the community, and in the world.

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