2nd Sunday after Christmas “Still Searching?”
January 5, 2025 Luke 2:40-52
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

The Gospel lesson from Luke this morning fits well with the first Sunday of the new year.
It begins with the infant Jesus being taken home from the temple after meeting old Simeon & Anna. In the years that followed, baby Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”(v 40) We learn that His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. Back in Exodus 12, when God instituted the Passover,
He tells Moses, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” (Ex 12:2). And so, the Passover was ancient Israel’s celebration of the New Year. Happy new year!
Now, of course, this celebration was not like mom & dad getting away from the kids for a couple of days; taking an annual trip to ‘Times Square’ to see the ‘ball’ drop, & listen to Ryan Seacrest yammer on about what a great heathen rock & roll celebration is going on! (is that too harsh?) This trip of about 65 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem on foot was a concerted effort of the serious believer to be faithful to God’s directive to remember their rescue from the deathtrap of Egypt in Moses’ day. Mary & Joseph had life now because of God’s deliverance back then.
Redeemed life from God was the best reason to mark & celebrate their new year; & the Passover was truly a family activity. And so Jesus, throughout His childhood, celebrated this yearly festival with His family. Whether in His day, or in our day, there is no better way to begin a new year than to be here, to learn God’s Word of forgiveness & guidance; and to receive again the promises of salvation & redemption that come to us from the blood of the real Passover Lamb.
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Celebrating the beginning of the New Year is good; it’s good to pause & mark our life
in earthly time, year after year. There is something therapeutic about flipping the calendar to a new year, & leaving the old year behind. It’s beneficial – because it resembles God’s design for us in repentance & forgiveness of the past, & a new start to do better in the future. And so, for their own motivation, many people make ‘resolutions.’
Like this one: ‘this year, I resolve to be less condescending toward others. You know, condescending means you have to explain everything to all the numbskulls around you.’(that was a joke) How about this one: This year I will, once & for all, learn to spell the word -‘charcuterie’, …& maybe I’ll win at scrabble.

Do you make resolutions? I think a person should take the opportunity to consider the year past, and plan to do things better. If your old pattern has not born much good fruit, try a new pattern. This idea of making ‘new year resolutions’ is like a renewed effort to search out new answers to past problems; to hunt for a lost meaning to some part of your life; to seek a new way of avoiding what is uncomfortable or distressful, and to search & find what is better & more satisfying. St.Paul tells Timothy to search for satisfaction in life. He says, ‘godliness with contentment is great gain.’ (1Tim.6) Maybe that’s your new years resolution: to put away a bad habit, and so to be more godly & content.
Because God created this life with time, and because sin brought failure & death into our time, so our life now has this urge to seek improvement, and to search for a better purpose each year, before our years run out. Sometimes people assume that for the Christian, once you’ve found Christ as the answer for sin, that all life’s problems fade away. Well, that’s not true, even tho the root of many anxieties & distress are resolved in Christ.
We do come to worship God with grateful hearts, because we hear again that Jesus is the one who died for our sin & rose again. It is because of Jesus that we have a deep peace that our future is set, and that our Risen Savior will bring us thru death & into heavenly life. He certainly makes that huge difference for us in this life; but still, like everyone in this fallen world, we are tempted & buffeted by sin, so we still search for resolutions to our daily troubles.
Can you imagine being one of those people who search for new & better things for a new year, and yet God’s Savior is missing from their lives? If Jesus is missing, you can search all year long & never find resolution, only increasing worry as your years are running out. That would be like Mary & Joseph, who were increasing in worry when they were searching, but couldn’t find the Son of God.
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Our text said: “When the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group…”(v 43). It is perfectly reasonable that Jesus would be among those of His own age as they made the long walk back from Jerusalem to Nazareth; just as He had likely done on the way there.
But when they did not find Him after a day’s journey, ‘they began and continued to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances.’ The more Mary & Joseph did not find Jesus, the more stress & anguish they felt. For every parent whose child has wandered off, only finding Jesus would resolve their aching distress. But they could not find resolution among family & friends.
Many people do look for life-solutions among family & friends. There can be a certain comfort talking with them about what weighs us down; they are a listening ear, with empathy. But family & friends do not have the same kind of answers for our distress as does the Son of God. If Jesus is not in the conversation, then all you have is a sinner seeking answers from fellow sinners; Jesus refers to that as ‘the blind leading the blind.’ (Matt.15) Without the presence of this life’s Redeemer & Lord, life’s troubles cannot be truly resolved. Unless the family & friends you have can give you Jesus, the distress will continue; you’ll have to keep searching.
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When Mary & Joseph did not find Jesus, they went on back to Jerusalem and continued their diligent search for Him. Have you ever thought that the answers you’re searching for must be in a special place? But for Mary & Joseph, after 3-days of searching, they come up empty again.

Searching for remedies to our problems in special places is also a common practice. Some take a hike in the woods to clear their mind; they think ‘mother nature’ will talk to them. Some like to sit in a fish house, or in a boat in the middle of a lake, and hope the problem is gone when they get back. Others go out shopping; that can lower anxiety, right? Of course, God is our Creator & provider; He made the woods & lakes, and He gives us food & drink, clothing & shoes, & all that we need for this body & life.
But what about when the storm comes & the trees fall, and the wind & waves cause us more troubles? A new wardrobe cannot change our life; better clothing can’t cover up our troubles or guilts. The places of our life are not bad in & of themselves, but is that where our Savior is found? Our real troubles have a sin-root; so is the solution for that out in nature, or in a shopping mall? Unless in that special place you find Jesus, you will not find resolution there. Sometimes we might wonder if our search will ever end. But let’s hear the message of Scripture: Just because you can’t find Jesus, doesn’t mean He’s lost; it means you’re not looking in the right place. ++++++++++++++++++++
Searching ends when one looks for Jesus where He has promised to be. Our text said, “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.” (vv 46–47) This can be our new years resolution this year: to repent from looking high & low & everywhere for answers to our distresses; and resolve to listen to God’s Holy Spirit. We will find Jesus where He has promised to be, so that our anxious searching be over.
Mary said to Him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this; we have been frantically searching high & low & everywhere for you.’ And Jesus responds, ‘Mom, I don’t understand. Why would you search for me anywhere except here in My Father’s house?’ ‘I must be in my father’s house.’ Interesting words; definitive words. Every single person’s searching ends when they find Jesus in the place where He said He ‘must be.’
He is where His Spirit-filled Word is; where He has connected His Word to water, bread & wine; where He promised to be when two or three gather in His name; where His gospel is proclaimed, where His absolution is spoken to contrite hearts. Where His life-teachings are taught, and where you are called to follow Him. It’s a sad kind of funny that people search in so many different places to find relief from their sin & guilt, to find a purpose for their lives, to find hope for the future, to find strength & peace in their troubles. They search frantically, as if Jesus is lost; and yet He has always been exactly where He said He ‘must be.’ He’s not lost; He’s right here in church.
With the Greek words here, what Jesus says can also be translated a little differently, without the word ‘house.’ You may have heard this verse like this: ‘did you not know that I must be about my father’s business.’ Or, it could even be like this: ‘did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in the things of my Father?’
It is necessary for Jesus to be in the things of His Father; those things are God’s promises to address our sin & death & lostness from Him. So it is necessary for you & me to be in these things: His means of grace. And when we are, our searching is over, and He addresses our distresses & troubles. If we make our new years resolution to be found where Jesus is, then we can be confident that in the coming year, we will not get lost, no matter where in this world we are, and no matter what in this world we must face.

I’ve never been very good at making new years resolutions; even tho I think it can be a good thing. I think a person should take the opportunity to consider the year past, and plan to do things better. Because, if the old ways have not born much good fruit, a person should search for a new way.
Your Lord & Savior has many good teachings to guide your new years resolutions for 2025. And you know where you can find Jesus; He must be here, in His Father’s things.
Amen