Christmas I
Again, morph speed… Time machine twelve years fast forward… Engage!
Just last night I was talking about “how slow” the church sometimes moves, and at other times, we don’t even have time to stop and catch our breaths.
Another case in point…
Apparently we have no time to waste. The sweet little baby lying in a manger bed – is long since forgotten and gone…
We went through the crawling stage. We went through the toddler stage. And somehow we zoomed right up to early adolescence and puberty. The babe is becoming a man…peach fuzz and all.
We are talking bar mitzvah time! It happens so quickly. One day just a tyke and the next day, shaving and walking down the aisle…or at very least pulling away from the curb – driver’s license in hand.
Where does the time go? Does double digits mean – double the trouble?
This story is really about “seeking Jesus.” I wish more people would seek him out. You know, look for him. Look to him. Get into some kind of a meaningful relationship with him.
Seeking him is good.
It is interesting because we just spent four weeks anticipating his coming. We waited, we watched, we were alert. We prepared. We lit candles and counted down… And then he came, and everybody stopped looking for him.
They stopped seeking him out.
We need to realize that Luke’s Gospel is full of “the drama of traveling. It also has something to say, to those “seeking Jesus.” You know like the wise men?

The emphasis is very strong – that Jesus is being raised in an extremely Jewish kosher household.

It is important that we know that Mary and Joseph are good practicing Jewish parents and they do for Jesus what is according to the law.

Therefore, he is brought to the Temple for circumcision and naming.

Mary is present at the Temple, so that she may once more be readmitted into the court of the women.

The law required purification following giving birth of a son and making the proper sacrifice…which she does.

The family will go up to Jerusalem for the festival days…again, according to the Law of Moses.

Luke makes sure that we know this and are kept in “that loop.” But “this story” is surprising and unexpected…

Remember, it is still about “seeking Jesus.”

So the family goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover, the crush of the crowds in the city and then the leaving of the kid at the nearest rest area … or the local gas station … or leaving/losing your kid at the mall scenario. At any rate, he gets forgotten.

Jesus is the one “left behind.” He is forgotten about. Overlooked.

One can easily identify with the panic that Joseph and Mary feel searching and not finding him – until they go all the way back to Jerusalem to the Temple.

At the temple we, the reader or the listener come upon “teenage-double digits Jesus,” as we tag along with Mary and Joseph, and see him “learning.”

What’s wrong with this picture?
What’s up with this kid? OMG he’s a nerd. Learning, studying, listening and asking questions. I don’t know of another place in the Early Christian Writings where Jesus is studying and learning.

All of a sudden: Jesus’ parents step out of the shadows and make a scene—which “no teenager on the cusp” ever wants their parents to do, especially at the Temple in front of all the cool and important Rabbis and teachers of the law.

“Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”

And Jesus responds with a typical pre-teenage kind of contemptuous jab, “Where in the heck did you think I would be? I am at my father’s house.”

He is respectful and dutiful, kind of…he walks a very thin line. He does as his parents wish.

But you have to note, you have to understand, that there is this lack of understanding – even on the part of good parents. They don’t always get it. They do not always understand. They do not see things through their children’s eyes.

Mary and Joseph end up seeking out Jesus. Wise men will seek him. King Herod’s men will seek him out. Old Simeon and Anna are seeking him out…

Many will later search for him and seek him out.

But the question is – what about you?