Lost and Found

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, December 29th, 2024:
Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

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Luke
2.41-52

​Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.

When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.

Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in favour with God and human beings.

​Pause. Pray. Reflect.

When I hear the word “lost,” my visceral reaction is panic, fear, and helplessness. I can understand the creation of devices such as Tracker Tags and Sound Identifiers, as we so desperately desire to locate that which is lost and needs to be found. Suitcases, car keys, wallets, and cellphones are frustrating to have in the land of the missing. Yet that is nothing compared to when that which is missing is someone who is loved.

Mary and Joseph lost Jesus on the journey home from the Feast of Passover. I can only imagine the panic, fear, and helplessness they felt upon the realization of that fact. Not only was Jesus their son, He was also the Promised Messiah who would become the ultimate Passover sacrifice, and now He was missing! And so, they travelled the day’s journey back to Jerusalem and began what was ultimately a three-day search before finding Jesus in the temple in earnest conversation with the teachers, both asking and answering questions – the “Word” discussing the Word.

I’d like to pause for a moment for us to consider: “Have we ever lost Jesus?” On the one hand, the answer is absolutely not, because God has promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus’ final words recorded in Matthew 28:19b prior to His ascension are “And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I believe that truth with all my heart. Yet on our part there may be times when our eyes, time, energy, focus, and love have not been fixed on Jesus. We have lost our first love. The risk and reality of this started even with the beginning of the Christian Church. The early Church in Ephesus was busy doing many things for God, but Jesus told them “Yet, I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love” (Revelations 2:4). Jesus went on to call the Church, to call us, to recognize and repent.

Like Mary and Joseph, we may not initially recognize the “loss” of Jesus. Thankfully, as believers, we have the gift of Holy Spirit within us, convicting, encouraging, and pointing to Jesus. Upon the realization, may we be like Jesus’ earthly parents and quickly seek Him, desiring to walk in intimacy with our Saviour and our Friend. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29: 13, 14a). 

Jesus is in the “lost and found” business. In fact, He Himself came because of His great love to find that which was lost, namely us, and restore us unto Himself.




Lisa Wing

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