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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you know that I am not a big fan of Country Music, so you might be surprised, as I was surprised, that a Country Music song got stuck in my head as I prepared to preach this morning on today’s Gospel Reading. After other artists reportedly passed on the song, it eventually was recorded by Johnny Lee and released in June 19‑80, as part of the soundtrack for the film “Urban Cowboy”. Critics panned the song, with one calling it “watered‑down cowboy music”, but nevertheless Billboard magazine for three weeks ranked it number one on the Hot Country Singles chart, and it also rose as high as number five on Billboard’s Hot 100, which must be why I know it, since I never saw the movie and did not listen to Country Music. (Wikipedia) What is the song? “Lookin’ For Love”. And in the song, that title phrase is usually followed by the phrase “in all the wrong places”. (Google Play lyrics) If you have not already realized, I think that song got stuck in my head because, in the Gospel Reading, after St. Luke has told how Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus in “all the wrong places”, Jesus asks His mother and adoptive father “why” they were “looking for” Him, suggesting that they should have known essentially where He would be. This morning we reflect on the Gospel Reading under the theme “Looking for Jesus” (and if you want to add “in all the right places, that is fine with me).
Were you ever separated and lost from either your parents or your own children? I do not remember ever being or even thinking I was lost, at least not for very long, nor do I recall anyone I was looking after ever being lost. Still, we all probably can somewhat relate to what Mary and Joseph were going through in today’s Gospel Reading. As we heard, the Child Jesus had grown and become strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon Him. When He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, according to their custom (Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16). And having fulfilled the Feast’s eight days (Exodus 12:15, 18), the boy Jesus somehow stayed behind in Jerusalem, but Mary and Joseph did not know and ended up going a day’s journey towards home before beginning to search for Him. They searched among their relatives and friends, and then they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him. The original Greek is clear that they made a thorough and prolonged search. We might say that they searched for Him the way authorities might search for criminals or a fugitive slave (BAGD, 53), but they were looking “in all the wrong places”. After three days, they found Him in the Temple Courts and were astonished. Mary asked Jesus “why” He treated them that way, more or less accusing Him of making them search for Him in great distress. And, in His first recorded words in St. Luke’s Gospel account, Jesus asked her and Joseph “why” they were looking for Him, suggesting that they should have known essentially where He would be, and so perhaps suggesting that in that sense they should not have been searching for Him at all.
As we consider this Gospel Reading on this Second Sunday after Christmas, still in the Christmas season, we can ask ourselves whether or not we are looking for Jesus, and, if we are looking for Him, we can ask ourselves where we are looking for Him, whether we are looking for Him in the wrong places or the right places. That we all are here this morning may well mean that in some sense we all are looking for Jesus, though there could be other reasons why someone is here, just as no doubt there are reasons why people who are also looking for Jesus are not here. And, that we all are here this morning may well mean that to some extent we expect to find Jesus here, just as Mary and Joseph eventually found Him in the Temple Courts. Yet, the “why” questions might persist. We might be looking for Jesus to ask Him “why” He has treated us a certain way, maybe “why” He has not blessed us as we might have expected Him to bless us, or “why” He has permitted us to suffer in some way. Like Mary’s question, such questions can be sinful, flowing from our sinful nature and showing just how little we know, in contrast to how much God even humbled in the flesh of a twelve-year-old human boy knows. Mary and Joseph did not know Jesus stayed behind, wrongly supposed that He was in the group with which they were traveling, and did not understand what He said to them. Meanwhile, Jesus was filled with wisdom, amazed those who heard His understanding and answers, and increased in wisdom.
To be sure, today’s Gospel Reading emphasizes Jesus’s wisdom, as wisdom is also a theme in today’s Psalm that we sang (Psalm 119:97-104) and in the Old Testament Reading (1 Kings 3:4-15) and Epistle Reading (Ephesians 1:13-14) that we heard. We appropriately ponder the seemingly‑contradictory mystery of the Incarnation, that the 12‑year‑old Jesus as true God was filled with wisdom, and yet as a true human being He increased in wisdom, never studying formally as did other Jewish teachers (John 7:15), but letting more and more of His divine knowledge show through His human flesh. The crowd’s amazement at Jesus’s wisdom, displayed over His life both in His authoritative teaching (Luke 4:32) and in His miracles (Mark 6:2), ultimately led the Jewish leaders to try to destroy Him (Mark 11:18). And Jesus, Who as a true human being submitted and was perfectly obedient to Mary and Joseph, also, as true God, submitted and was perfectly obedient to God the Father, obedient even to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).
On the cross, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins. On the cross, Jesus died for our failures to submit and be perfectly obedient, Jesus died for our not looking for Him, Jesus died for our looking for Him “in all the wrong places”, Jesus died for our wrongly accusing Him, and Jesus died for all our other sin, whatever it might be. Although on the cross He died as the true Passover Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36), after three days He was found alive again. And even now, by His Holy Spirit, He draws us to Himself, enabling us to repent of our sin and believe that God forgives our sin for His sake. Jesus’s favor of God and favor with God are ours, as we look for Him in all the right places: in His read and preached Word, in His Word combined with water in Holy Baptism, in His Words of individual Holy Absolution, and in His Word combined with bread and wine in Holy Communion, giving us His true Body and His true Blood and so also forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Jesus is no longer lying in the manger or sitting among the teachers in the Jerusalem Temple, but Jesus is right here, in His Father’s house, among His Father’s holy things, especially present on this Altar and at this Rail, distributed by me and received by you, to your benefit as you receive Him with repentance and faith.
In the song recorded by Johnny Lee, as I discovered when I looked at all its words beyond the phrase I remembered, the lifetime of searching is finally ended with God’s blessing. As God draws us to look for and find Jesus, our search also comes to a Divinely‑blessed end, as our souls rest in Him. From womb to tomb—through Divine Service, Sunday School, Adult Bible Class, and Midweek Bible Study—God increases our knowledge and understanding of Him. And, He likewise uses our afflictions to increase our knowledge and understanding, even as He used Mary and Joseph’s distress to teach them (confer Luther, for example as cited by Plass, #1422 on p.480). All these things, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 1:3-14), are to the praise of God’s glory.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +