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Where Can I Find Jesus?

The Question of Discovery

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast 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.

~Luke 2:41-51

Taylor Touchstone, an autistic twelve year old, was missing. His parents were wild with worry. Neighbors, friends and officials searched for four days until they found him naked and hungry in a swamp fourteen miles from where he disappeared. He was hospitalized in good condition: a story with a happy ending.

You read about it all the time. A child lost; a parent concerned. The community rallies together. The child is found; the parent is relieved.

It’s never that simple, though. All the words in the world can’t capture what a parent feels during those moments when his or her own child is lost. Mary, who alone does the talking, asks her son – the Son – the question only a concerned parent can ask. “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

“Why were you searching for me ... Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” Scripture records these as the first questions Jesus asked. The story is fairly straightforward. Mary and Joseph can’t find Jesus. They look high and low throughout Jerusalem, only to discover that the whole time Jesus was at the temple sitting, listening, asking, and answering.

JEN IS IN BIG TROUBLE!

When I was eleven years old, my family moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. On moving day, the moving people came to pack and load all our belongings.

When you were growing up, do you remember being around your parents when a sibling disappeared into thin air? You know – suddenly was nowhere to be found? I grew up with five brothers and sisters, so more times than I can remember we all ran around the neighborhood looking for one of my siblings who seemed to vanish. At some point, one of my parents – usually my mom – always said something to the effect that when we found whoever it was that had magically disappeared, they were in Big Trouble. Of course, that always made me wonder if there was an advantage in staying lost. Being in Big Trouble meant they would be glad to find us, but not so overjoyed that they wouldn’t spank us for getting lost in the first place!

Which brings me back to our move to Pennsylvania. When the moving truck was nearly loaded, my parents discovered that my youngest sister, Jen, was missing. My mom announced – to no surprise of those drafted to the newly formed Search Party – that when we found my sister, she would be in Big Trouble.

We eventually found Jen in her bedroom, asleep in her closet, on a shelf. By then my parents didn’t have the heart to wake her and spank her.

Now, I’m making light of a serious situation, but at the time, no one laughed. Everyone was running around and everyone was serious.

“Why have you treated us like this?” Jesus’ mother asks. Was she anxious? Of course. Was she upset? Better believe it. Was she laughing? No way!

Note the enormous contrast between his parents’ great concern for him, and Jesus’ lack of concern for them. Jesus – in a reversal he will use many times again in the Gospels – answers Mary’s question with a question. Not just one, but two. “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”

One truth I discovered as I studied the questions of Jesus is this: Jesus never asked a question because he needed to know the answer. In other words, not once did Jesus ask a question because he needed to know the answer. This principle is at the heart of understanding Jesus’ questions.

Jesus’ use of questions emphasized inward change. What do I mean? Jesus’ questions were designed to effect change in the hearer. In other words, Jesus was asking the question entirely for the benefit of the listener.

Jesus never asked a question because he needed to know the answer.

HAND-HELD GAMES & BULLDOZERS

If I suddenly discovered while driving back home from Wal-Mart that I left my son Christian behind, I would turn the car around and go back to look for him.

Where would I look for him first? The electronics section. If I lost Chase, the first place I’d look for him would be the truck aisle.

Why?

Because I know my children.

A proper understanding of where to find Jesus begins with understanding who he is.

If anyone should have understood, Mary and Joseph should have. Couldn’t they recall the visits by angelic hosts just twelve years before?³ Didn’t they remember the Magi bearing gifts for the Christ-Child?⁴ Was the divine protection from Herod’s sword so soon forgotten?⁵

A proper understanding of where to find Jesus begins with understanding who he is.

But Luke tells us they didn’t understand. Why didn’t they understand? Why didn’t they know where to find Jesus? Because they didn’t understand who he was!

The temple was the last place they looked. Why? Because they did not yet completely understand who he was. His questioning of them – “Why ... Didn’t you know?” – implies they should have understood who he was. “But they did not understand what he was saying to them,” Luke tells his readers.

That may sound a little harsh. Perhaps we’re more comfortable with saying they lost sight of who he was. But the truth is – just as with you and me – Mary and Joseph needed a personal encounter with the promised Messiah, Truth Personified. They were not exempt from needing salvation and the understanding that their son was the Savior.

This is a difficult passage for some to understand. Difficult in the sense that it is hard for us to understand the actions and words of Jesus. Was Jesus proper in what he did?

Explain his words and actions any way you like, but don’t explain them as sin. We must not think of what Jesus did as disobedient or mischievous. For we know Jesus was without sin. So explain them anyway you want, but however you choose to describe Jesus’ dealings, you cannot see them as sin.

And that’s why the passage is difficult for some to understand. It is a hard thing to swallow – not that Jesus didn’t sin (we accept that) – but we somehow would like to think Jesus did something wrong by staying behind in Jerusalem.

But he didn’t.

SURPRISE!!!

Before I married my wife, I naively thought I knew almost everything about her. After we were married three years, I was convinced I knew everything about her. One day we were sitting at the table enjoying lunch together. And then it happened. She said to me, “I’ll bet you didn’t know I could juggle.”

“No way,” I said. “That can’t be!” So she went to the refrigerator, took out three oranges, and proceeded to show me something I never knew about the woman I’d been married to for three whole years! I discovered I didn’t know my wife as well as I thought I did.

How well do you know Jesus? Do you know him as well as you think you do?

Mary and Joseph knew Jesus better than anyone else. They lived in the same house as Jesus, the Son of God. Yet, they didn’t know him fully. They knew him as their son, but not as the Son. They knew what they’d been told by angels, but they didn’t know that which angels never experience – knowing Jesus as Savior.

Where can you find Jesus? You can find him in the pages of Scripture. Colossians tells us he was the one who created the world!⁶ That’s an awesome thought: the one who created the world also came to live among us.

Where can you find Jesus? You won’t find him at the Temple. But if you believe he is the Son of God – that he died for you – he’ll come and live in the temple of your heart.

If you don’t know Jesus as Savior, tell him you want to know him. Ask him to forgive you of your sins. Tell him you believe he died for you.

MY STORY

Thirty-five years ago, as a young teenager, I asked Jesus into my heart. I can’t tell you the date; I only know it was the summer of my fifteenth year. Up to that point, I spent my entire life going to a church, which taught about Jesus. But never once during all those years had someone taught me where to find Jesus. What I had was head-knowledge about the person of Jesus. But what I needed was heart-knowledge about the work of Jesus on the Cross as it related to my life.

Do you know where to find Jesus? How well do you really know him?

Luke concludes: “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.” A story with a happy ending.

And so the journey begins. Do you know where to find Jesus? It’s a question of discovery.

Prayer

Lord God, I think I know you. I want to believe I know you as well as I can. Is it possible that I – like Jesus’ own mother and father – don’t know you as well as I should? Help me to know you, God. Open my eyes to you. Help me to see you for who you are and not for whom I have made you out to be. I want Jesus to come into my heart right now. I want to know him as more than just a good teacher or a prophet. I want to see what Mary and Joseph could not see. I want to see Jesus as the Savior – as my Savior. Amen.

Talking Points

1. Did it ever occur to you that Mary and Joseph lost Jesus? The very ones entrusted with his safety, lost him. But this question is not about losing him. It’s about finding him. It’s about discovering who Jesus is. What does it mean to discover who Jesus is?

2. Even if you think you know someone, it’s easy to be surprised by something you never knew about that person. The longer you know the person, the more surprising a revelation can be. Has God taught you anything about himself recently that has surprised you?