“Jesus in the Temple,” Luke 2:40-52

⁴⁰The child [Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

      ⁴¹Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. ⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. ⁴³And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, ⁴⁴but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, ⁴⁵and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. ⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” ⁴⁹And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. ⁵¹And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

      ⁵²And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. (ESV)

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Looking for Jesus.  That’s what the parents of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were doing.  They together, with Jesus, relatives, and acquaintances, had gone up to the city of Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.  Passover was one of the three major feasts that God had commanded His people to keep.  It was a memorial feast for the time that God had delivered His people Israel from slavery in Egypt.  There, God sent His angel to destroy all the first-born males of the Egyptians.  This was the last plague of ten, and afterwards, stubborn Pharaoh of Egypt finally let God’s people go.  With a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, God saved His people, even through the death of the first-born.  With a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm God saves us, even through the death of His First-Born, His only-begotten Son, Jesus the Christ.

It was the Passover feast that Jesus and His family had gone up to Jerusalem for.  And afterwards, on their way back, Mary and Joseph thought that Jesus, there son of twelve, was with others in their group. He wasn’t. Of all places, He was in the temple, listening to the teachers, asking questions, and giving answers. 

Jesus’ parents were looking for Jesus.  And only on the third day did they find Him.  They finally found Him, but they first had looked in places He wasn’t.  Jesus was their Son, but they did not know Him fully.  They had not yet understood who He truly was and what He was about.  Though Joseph took care of Him as a father does a son, Joseph was not His real Father.  His real Father was not of flesh and blood as you and me.  Jesus was not conceived in the natural way. 

By the Holy Spirit did the Virgin Mary conceive, as Scripture testifies and as is our confession.  Jesus was born of a woman, but His true Father was God the Father in Heaven.  Before Christ’s birth, an angel had told Joseph in a dream that the child in Mary’s womb was of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20).  That was St. Matthew’s account.  In St. Luke’s account, the angel Gabriel had visited Mary saying, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:30). 

It was those two, Mary and Joseph, the two-given charge over Jesus’ well-being, that would have known firsthand who Jesus’ real Father was.  And it was not Joseph! 

Though Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was not Joseph’s natural son, Jesus was still twelve and they still cared for Him as their son.  Other than the words of the angel, the visitation by the shepherds and the Magi, and the words of Simeon and Anna in the temple, the boy Jesus looked just like that, a boy.  He was born. He ate. He slept.

Jesus was in appearance like any other boy at that time. But the Word of God alone is always enough.  Angels do not speak except if they have something to say.  Shepherds do not come to see a baby boy wrapped and lying in a manger unless given to do so.  Magi do not come from distant lands lest there be a purpose for making their journey.  Men and women don’t prophesy except they have been given the very words of God to speak concerning a child who has no extraordinary physical characteristics about Him (i.e. Simeon, Luke 2:25ff, Anna, Luke 2:36ff).

God directed all these things concerning Jesus, our Savior, the One promised of old and who would save His people from their sins.  For this reason, He came.  His appearance is not significant.  What matters is the Word spoken about Him, the Words He speaks, the Works He does.  He speaks what His Father gives Him to speak and He is about the things of His Father, not only then in the temple, but dying on the cross for you and for me. 

It is there, in His suffering and dying that the Lord Christ said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do and Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit” (Luke 23:34, 46).  It is there that the obedient Son finished the work that His heavenly Father had given Him to do, not for Himself, but for you, that the Father in Heaven receive you into His kingdom through Christ His Son.

Not only then, but even now, the Lord Jesus is in His temple, speaking, listening, and giving answer.  He hears the confession of your sin. He absolves and forgives.  He hears your prayers and answers in His good time and according to His will.  He is here, right where He promises to be, giving life and salvation.

Here is where you go to find him for you, not in some far-off place or on some pilgrimage to the Holy land or somewhere else of your choosing.  Jesus is to be found in His Word and Sacrament, not for Himself, but for you, doing the will of His Heavenly Father, saving you from your sin, strengthening your faith, and feeding your soul.

Church is not a place you go to feel better about ourselves.  It is the place where you find Christ, speaking His Word and forgiving your sin.  He is here, serving you with heavenly food and refreshing your souls.  In Christ, you have God’s favor. Here is where you receive it.

Many look for A savior, but do not find him, because they look in the wrong place.  A savior or just any savior will not do.  It is not like so many would have you believe—that all roads lead to heaven.  They do not, because God says they do not. This is how you know—because God says it in His Word.  This is what you have to go on.  This is enough.

Jesus says, “I am the Way,” and “No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).  He also says, “Whoever hears me hears Him who sent Me” (Luke 10:16; John 12:44, 45).  Jesus is the only way to the Father, eternal life, and peace. All other ways lead elsewhere and not to life.

It was not the Lord who did not know where He was in our text.  Jesus was right where He was to be, in His Father’s house.  Though Joseph and Mary did not find the Lord until the third day, it was they who were looking initially in the places He wasn’t.

You too look for Jesus.  Jesus is your one and only Savior. There is no other.  The Bible tells us that there is only One Savior, One and only One.  This Savior saves you from all that separates you from God and brings not only temporal death, but eternal death, something called sin, something that we are all born with and can’t do anything of ourselves about. Because of sin, we are all lost and can’t find what we  are looking for.

Jesus came for this very reason, not that you go to Him, but that He come to you, that He Himself bear your sin and put it to death, that it reign no more.  This Savior is God’s Son, the one born of a woman and born under the law to redeem those who were under the law (Galatians 4:4-5). 

It is this Jesus who saves you from your sin through His death on the cross.  By no merit of your own, Jesus laid down His life for yours, so that you would belong to Him.  Before He died, this One too aged from infancy to adulthood.  And He was found in the temple at the age of twelve, already about the things of His Father.

It was through that first-born male child of the virgin that God manifested Himself as Savior to the World.  Though only twelve, He was still about the things of His Father.  His Words even then demonstrated that He spoke not of Himself but what His Father gave Him to speak, for He says to His parents, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Though Mary and Joseph should have known what Jesus was talking about, they did not.  If we look at what Jesus said from the perspective of Joseph and Mary, or from the perspective of the people around Him, we would also hear the words of Jesus as astonishingly unbelievable, if only for the reason that the temple was not Joseph’s house, but God’s.  If what Jesus was saying was true, and it is, then Jesus was not Joseph’s son, but God’s.  If Jesus was, and is, God’s Son, and He most certainly was and is, then He was and is also the One who would deliver and does deliver His people from sin and death.

The people of Jesus’ day did not grasp these truths, nor the Savior, standing in their midst.  Neither did the parents of our Lord comprehend the true significance of what Jesus was saying.

They found Him in the temple, listening, questioning, understanding, and answering.  Though amazed and astonished, the Word that they heard was not mixed with faith (Hebrews 4:12).  It had not sunk in that that Jesus, the Son of Mary, the boy of Nazareth, was the One of which it was said, “He will be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23).

But we know more fully, by God’s rich grace and revelation.  The Lord makes known to us through His Word where to find the Holy One, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  We need not look for Him long. Where His Word is, there is He.  He is in His Father’s House, even where two or three are gathered in His Name, speaking, teaching, listening, and answering. 

This is where we go to find Jesus—where His Word is preached and where His body and blood are given in bread and wine. Here He reveals Himself and strengthens your most holy faith, made holy by Him who is Holy.  It is not by sight that you know this, but by the Word of the Lord that you know this.

In the waters of Holy Baptism, God washed you of your sin and declared you to be His.  It is in Holy Baptism that God births you anew to be His people, not by anything you did or by anything you do, but by everything He did and by everything He does.  It was and is not you who come to Him, but He that brought you and brings you to Himself, that He forgive you your sins, cleanse you from all your unrighteousness, and give you the certainty of having been found by Him.

The prophet Isaiah writes, “Seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).  The Lord is to be found where the things of His Father are, in His Holy Word and giving life through the elements of water, bread, and wine.  Look for Him in the person of Christ Jesus, in God’s temple, the house of God, the sanctuary of His Holy Word.  Here He gives you treasure to store in your heart to eternity. 

The God of your salvation is He who came down from heaven and dwelt among us, the Word made flesh, who dwells among us still.  He gives you good gifts of joy and peace through His blessed Word and Sacrament.  This is the God we seek.  This is He who here makes Himself known.  Amen.