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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated.
I found Jesus. Oftentimes, you hear this from people who were in a deep low in their life. Something like maybe a near-death situation, loss of a lot of finances or material possessions, or maybe they even ended up in jail. In the lowness of their situation, they sought the comfort of a religious experience and seemingly found that comfort in Jesus. Now, I’m not one to discount those experiences or conversions, but generally, the theological argument goes, Jesus isn’t the one who was found because he was never lost. Ironically, it’s the person that found Jesus who really was the lost one and who was found. And this is true. People don’t really find Jesus. We’re the lost ones. We’re the lost ones that Jesus is looking for, that Jesus is seeking to find and save from being in our low, lost, sinful condition. That’s really why Jesus took on human flesh and was born into this world. That’s why we celebrate Christmas, that birth, and his coming into our world to do this.
In Luke chapter 19, Jesus said, “I have come to seek and save the lost.” Jesus isn’t the lost one. He was never lost. Well, except for once—kind of, sort of. In the Gospel reading, the 12-year-old Jesus was in Jerusalem with his parents for the Passover, like they’re supposed to be. And when it was done, Mary and Joseph head home. But Jesus stays in the city. I guess in a way, it can be said that he was lost, well, according to his parents anyway, but really he wasn’t lost. And Mary and Joseph found him in the temple, but they found him in his father’s house and doing his father’s will. He was amazing people with his teaching and his proclamation of good news. And it’s the same today. Jesus can be found, but not because he’s lost. He can be found in his Father’s house and doing his Father’s will. He can be found seeking the lost ones and proclaiming good news to the lost and seeking and saving them.
This gospel reading, this account, isn’t an account of Jesus being lost. Most likely, the title of this section in your Bible isn’t “Little Lost Jesus.” In fact, none of the 25 versions and translations of the Bible that I own have this section titled “Little Lost Jesus” or “Jesus Being Found.” Okay, well, one of them did, but it was a paraphrase, so that doesn’t count. Jesus’ parents didn’t find him at the temple lost and found. They didn’t hear an announcement: “‘Attention, temple attendees. We have a little lost boy here.'” More accurately, they could have said, “‘We have a little boy who has lost his parents here.'” No, he wasn’t lost. Jesus was exactly where he was supposed to be and doing what he was supposed to be doing.
Okay, he was in his father’s house doing his father’s will. His parents were looking for him, but really, he’s searching for them and for all people, doing his father’s will of teaching the good news of salvation for all lost people. This event isn’t about finding Jesus or Jesus being lost. This is an event about where Jesus is and where we’re supposed to find him, even though he’s really not lost. This reading, this event, is about where we can find Jesus today.
It’s interesting in the story—maybe you caught this—it says Mary and Joseph went to Nazareth, and Jesus stayed behind. He didn’t get left behind. He didn’t get misplaced. He didn’t get lost. He purposely stayed there, not out of disrespect to his mother and father, but out of the purpose of his heavenly father—to be in his father’s house and to seek and save the lost.
“Why are you searching for me?” Jesus asked his parents, as if to say to them, “I’m not lost. What’s up with that? You know, I’m right here where I’m supposed to be.” And that’s where we can still find Jesus today. We can find him in the place where he’s looking for us. And he always knows where we are. He knows that we’re lost—lost in this world of sin, lost in our own sins. And he’s still looking for us.
And I know that can be a little scary—a little scary to think that Jesus is looking for us. Sometimes we’d rather hide from him and not be found. We’d rather him not find us because he knows our sins. He even knows those ones that nobody else knows about—things like stealing or cheating somebody when no one else was looking, or taking credit for something that you really didn’t deserve, or not speaking up when someone else took the fall for you when you messed up. Even your impure thoughts and secretly said hurtful words fit into this category.
Maybe you’re feeling the effect of such things, and you’re feeling lost and separated from God. Maybe right now you’re in a deep, low time of life, and you’re seeking the comfort of a religious experience. Maybe you’re even looking for Jesus. You just don’t know where to find him. Well, fellow lost person, there’s good news. Jesus is looking for you, even though you are a sinner. In fact, that’s why he is looking for you—because you’re lost. He wants to save you. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas—Jesus coming to us in the flesh, in his birth, to seek and save lost people.
Isn’t that something? Whenever you’re lost, it’s comforting to realize that people are physically looking for you. Maybe you’ve had an experience like that before. You were lost somewhere, and you didn’t know what to do. And then you found out later on that there were a lot of people looking for you—maybe your mom and dad looking for you. And then, where have you been? They’re happy to find you, but then they also scold you. That’s much more comforting than just hearing about people that are thinking about you and hoping that you get found.
That’s how God responds with us. He doesn’t just sit in heaven thinking about us, “Well, I sure hope they get out of their sins okay.” No, he comes in a person, in flesh and blood—comes in Jesus and seeks you and wants to save you. He comes to us and wants to find him where he’s looking for us, where he’s looking for you. It’s just a matter of where is he? Where do we find him, even though he’s not lost?
But it’s no different than it was with Jesus at 12 years old. He can still be found in his father’s house today. No, there’s no temple anymore for God’s people to gather in, but he still gathers them together and can be found with them. Wherever his people gather together, that’s his house. That’s his temple. One of those places is right here—St. Paul Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas. That’s where Jesus can be found—seeking and saving the lost.
And God has given some special gifts where Jesus is promised to be found, even though he’s not lost, but as places where he can be found—saving his people and comforting them and forgiving them. These are the places where Jesus has promised to be and where he can be found and experienced for that comfort. One of those is the sacrament of baptism. When a person is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is found here. Maybe for some of you or your children, this was the place. This is where Jesus first found them, sought them, found them, forgave them, and brought them into his family.
And in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is found here. Jesus said, “And Jesus is found in the Word.” All of the Bible is about God seeking and saving us. It starts with Adam and Eve. As soon as they sin and they messed up and make themselves some nice Gucci leaf outfits, what do they do? They hide! They hide! And God comes looking for them. And the rest of the scripture is the same—God’s looking for us, seeking us to save us.
God’s word is the story of God seeking and saving us through Christ in his birth, his life, his suffering, his death, and his resurrection from the dead for you. It’s in the word where we still hear Jesus speaking, still teaching the good news of salvation for all lost people. It’s in God’s word that we hear Jesus seeking and saving the lost. Now, in God’s house, you hear that word from the pastor, but you also hear it out there. Whenever you sing and hear and read God’s word, and when you confess your sins and you hear the words of forgiveness, and when you share the peace of forgiveness with each other—when you do that, Jesus is found here.
And it goes beyond God’s house. When you share the word of God with other people—especially those that don’t know about Jesus, those who are lost, those who are in deep lows in their life, those who are suffering, those who need a religious experience, those who need Jesus—you find Jesus when you tell them about him. And when you invite them to God’s house to hear even more.
So, if you’re lost—lost in your sins and lost in the lows of life—Jesus is looking for you to save you, forgive you, to comfort you. He does that right here. He does that here, specifically at this altar. Forgiving your sins, saving you, and bringing you to him—bringing you out of lostness and into foundness. Amen.
Yeah, I realize I probably just made that word up: “foundness.” But it’s here where God comforts you with the good news of Christ’s death and his resurrection to bring you into foundness. In fact, it comes to me this way: Jesus brings you, because of Jesus’ fondness for you, out of foundness to him. Because of his fondness for you, you’re now in foundness—the word and sacraments. That’s where we can find Jesus. He’s promised to be there.
And it’s astounding the places where people think that they find Jesus. People oftentimes want to find Jesus in places where he really hasn’t promised to be, and some of them get to be a little strange. Check these out. I’m not making these up, okay? Jesus’ image has been found supposedly in cloud formations, in the grain pattern of a wooden fence, in a paint splotch on a wall, on a piece of sheet metal, on an x-ray of a woman’s spine, and on a grilled cheese sandwich. Somebody made a grilled cheese sandwich, and they turned it over, and it looked like it had the face of Jesus on it. So, they sold it on eBay.
Maybe you remember hearing about that one. I’m in the wrong business. But one of my favorites, though, the same thing happened with a tortilla. Some gal in New Mexico was making tortillas and turned it over; it looked like it had the face of Jesus on it. And it’s still there today. There’s a little shrine called the Shrine of the Holy Tortilla. You can go see it in New Mexico. Road trip! We should… St. Paul road trip. No! That’s not where we can find Jesus—on those things. He hasn’t promised to be there. He’s promised to be in his word, in his sacraments, in his Father’s house. That’s where we can find him because that’s where he’s doing his Father’s will—seeking and saving the lost—seeking and saving you.
And I hope that you’re found often this next year in the Father’s house. And I pray that you’re found here by Jesus and found in his fondness for you and then in his foundness of you. May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
