Lost and Found in Jerusalem

“Have you seen our son? About this tall. Twelve years old.” A mother pushes through the crowd, her heart pounding. A father checks every face. One day gone. Two days. Three.

Every year, Mary and Joseph made the long journey from Nazareth up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. It was the great spring festival, when God's people remembered how he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. When Jesus was twelve, they went up as usual, and he went with them. Picture the roads filling up with families from every village, singing as they walk, children running between the donkeys. And then Jerusalem itself: packed streets, the smell of roasting lamb, and the temple shining on its hill.

When the festival is over, the families of Nazareth set off for home together. Mary and Joseph assume Jesus is somewhere in the group, perhaps walking with cousins or friends. It is a big company. So they travel a whole day without a second thought. That evening, as the group stops for the night, they start looking for him among their relatives and friends. They go from fire to fire. Nobody has seen him. Jesus is not there.

Imagine the walk back. A full day's journey, retracing every step, wondering. Then searching the crowded city. The markets. The streets where they stayed. The places they had eaten. Luke says it was after three days that they found him. And where was he? Not lost at all. He was in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers of the law, listening to them and asking them questions. And everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. A boy from a small village, holding his own with Jerusalem's scholars.

His parents are astonished too, but relief comes out the way relief so often does. Mary says, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching for you, worried sick.” Jesus answers with a question of his own. “Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?” Some translations say, about my Father's business. Either way, the point lands. He calls God his Father. And Luke admits that Mary and Joseph did not understand what he meant.

But the story does not end with Jesus staying in the temple. He goes down with them to Nazareth, and Luke says he was obedient to them. The same boy who amazed the teachers goes home and helps his mother and father. And Mary, Luke tells us, treasured all these things in her heart. Then Luke sums up the years that followed in one sentence. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and with people.

How could parents travel a whole day without noticing their son was missing? The law of Moses called the people to go up to God's sanctuary for three great festivals each year, and Passover was one. Pilgrims usually travelled in large groups of relatives and neighbours, for company and for safety on the road. Luke himself says Mary and Joseph supposed Jesus was in the company. Children would naturally drift between families, so a boy of twelve out of sight for a day was not unusual at all.

Lost and found in Jerusalem. You'll find it in Luke chapter two, verses forty-one to fifty-two. It is the only story the Gospels tell about Jesus between his infancy and adulthood, and it shows him hungry to learn about his Father, and humble enough to go home and obey his parents. So here is a question for you. What questions about God would you love to ask, and who could you ask this week?