We all know that Jesus was completely human and also completely divine. But I never realized just how human he was until I reflected on this passage:
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”*
These are the last words we hear from Jesus until 18 years later in the 4th chapter of Luke, while being tempted by the devil in the desert, Jesus says:
Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”
Now, I don’t know about your children when they were teenagers, but I could barely get a word out of their mouths for years. They were just too cool to speak to their parents. Kind of like the old joke about the son who didn’t speak for 12 years until one night at dinner he said, “Soup’s cold”. Parents were amazed and asked why he hadn’t spoken until then. He responded that, “up until now, everything was going pretty good”.
So Jesus was likely the typical boy who didn’t have much to say until he was in the dessert with Satan. He was also typical in that he didn’t feel the need to let His parents know when he needed to wander off exploring. I remember when I was very young and went food shopping with my Mom and my Aunt. I loved hanging out in the cereal aisle looking to see which cereals had the best prizes then bugging my Mom to buy that one. Well, as I made my way to this area of the store, my Mom and Aunt made their way to another section unbeknown to them that I was not with them. As an indicator of how much of a “challenging” child I was, when the PA announcement was made that they found a lost child, my Aunt suggested to my Mom that they leave me there until they finished shopping.
I got a taste of what it is like to lose a child about 30 years ago. My wife and I had set up a petting zoo at the local park as part of a summer celebration put on by the park district. My wife had to leave to make her way to a veterinary conference and left me watching my eldest daughter AND working the petting zoo. Well I turned to check in with Danielle after a few seconds, and she was gone!! Nowhere to be found. I frantically searched for her for what seemed like an eternity, but was actually only about 3 minutes. The PA announcer for the park declared that they had found a lost child and called me to the stage. Running, stumbling and out of breath I reached the stage grabbing my daughter like I had never held her before or since. And this was after just 3 minutes being lost. I could not imagine Mary and Joseph searching for Jesus for 3 DAYS!!
But, in a way, we all have our stories of searching for Jesus, don’t we? I recently watched a video of a young Vietnamese girl, living in the Ukraine with her parents, and having been raised Buddhist. She made her way to the United States and found a job selling a weight loss program. She became very successful, being featured on stage by the company executives as an example of how to do business. She should have been very happy by many popular standards. But she wasn’t. She had a hole in her heart that she could not fill. She tried a variety of ways to fill that void. She explored a variety of religions, crystals, rachis, etc. Her future husband joined her weight loss Facebook page and he sent her a Bible. This started her journey to bringing Jesus, and her husband, into her life. She found her way to joining background actors in “The Chosen” participating in the Sermon on the Mount scene. That hole in her heart was filled with the love of Christ.
Popular Chicago radio personality, Kevin Matthews, was not what could be described as a dedicated Christian. He bounced from radio station to radio station trying to find a direction. His main claim to fame was developing his alter ego character, Jim Shorts, who he carried on conversations with during his radio shows. His life had no real direction and in 2008 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Three years later he was walking past a dumpster and found a statue of Mary broken at the waist. Something caused him to stop and pick it up. He got a sense of her being abandoned and heard a voice asking if he would deny Him and deny His Mother. He took the statue home and learned to pray the rosary. He had the statue blessed and this began his journey to God. He now travels around the Midwest telling his story…the story of Mary…and the story of the miracles that began as a result.
Jordan grew up an atheist and would ridicule her Christian friends for their beliefs. She then began to question where the idea of morality, of a sense of right and wrong, came from if not from God? She got accepted to Harvard and found that her identity of being the smartest person disappeared since all her acquittances were smarter than she. She felt lost in trying to rediscover who she was and where her worth really came from. She entered a class at Harvard and as part of the class she read the works of CS Lewis and this raised her curiosity as to whether it was God that was the actual source of morality. She re-read the Bible but not in a way of critiquing the bible but rather to explore its meaning. She read of Jesus’ crucifixion and then related it to Lewis’ Narnia stories and the character of the Lion, Aslan. She recognized that Aslan’s life and death represented Christ and she saw the cynical character of Edmund as herself. She realized that Jesus’ death was the ultimate expression of love and the true source of goodness. She is now pursuing a PhD in theology but she states her biggest accomplishment is her awareness that she is worthy and loved just because of who she is as a child of God.
David was living a good life until, at age nine, his parents divorced and forced him to decide who to live with. His anger fomented and his rebellion led to multiple bouts with the law as well as delving into drugs and then addiction to help hide his pain. He lost it all when arrested by undercover narcotics agents. After release from prison he continued his exploration with drugs to the point of overdosing and kidney failure. The night before he was due to begin dialysis he asked God for help, even though he did not know Him. The next day he was found to be completely healed. Several months later, still fighting his demons, he watched the Gospel of John on TV early one morning when he could not sleep. He realized that Jesus had died for him and he asked Him for forgiveness leading to reconciliation for himself and for his family. They worship and celebrate together as a family and now works for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Most of us don’t have these drastic periods of loss. We lose our way at times for years, or months, or weeks, or days or maybe just for a few hours. But Jesus is always waiting for us and asking, “didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house”. And as long as we just keep looking, we will find Him there every time. Find him in the Scriptures. Find Him in the Sacraments. And find Him in each other.
