Lost And Found - Mary On The Road From Jerusalem

Luke 2:41-51

A big family is traveling together. There are so many people traveling that it’s not noticed when one child isn’t with the group when it gets going. The child, while left behind, is capable of taking care of himself. No, this isn’t the plot of Home Alone. It’s a Bible story.

The boy is twelve-year-old Jesus. He had traveled with his family from Nazareth to Jerusalem for Passover. In those days, extended families traveled together. There could have been dozens of relatives and friends in the caravan. When the group started for home, Mary and Joseph assumed that Jesus was somewhere with them. After a day or so, they realized he wasn’t, so they returned to Jerusalem.

It took them three days to find Jesus. Imagine their panic while they were searching. When they finally found him, he was sitting in the Temple courts, learning from the teachers and asking questions.

Mary and Joseph were aware their son was the Son of God, even if they didn’t fully understand what that meant. When the angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to have a child, he said her son would be given the throne of David, with a Kingdom that would never end. So finding him in the Temple shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Mary still scolded her son. “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (Luke 2:48, NIV).

Considering all she knew about Jesus, wasn’t Mary overreacting a little bit? (Any parent reading this right now is saying, “Absolutely not!”) Mary was acting very human. Even though she knew God had specific plans for her son, she worried. When she couldn’t find her son, she might have thought God’s plans had been ruined—all because of her own lapse in parenting!

Do you ever worry that God’s plans for you have been ruined—and maybe because of something you’ve done? Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s only human to have worries, but as Mary probably learned over and over throughout Jesus’ life (and his resurrection), if God wants his plans carried out, nothing, not even our worrying, will get in his way.

“But why did you need to search?” [Jesus] asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Luke 2:49