January 4, 2023: Luke 2:46-47 - After Three Days, they Found Jesus

“Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers.” - Luke 2:46-47

Twelve year old Jesus had been missing from Joseph and His mother for three days. After attending the Feast of the Passover, Joseph and Mary and their family and acquaintances had started their journey from Jerusalem back to their homes when on the first day of traveling, Joseph and Mary had discovered that Jesus was not with them. They then traveled back to Jerusalem, and after three days, they had found Jesus in a place they did not expect.

I believe this is a foreshadowing of what was to come when Jesus would give up His life and die on a cross, having been crucified by the Romans at the insistence of the Jewish religious leaders, who felt their power and authority was threatened by Jesus and that He had blasphemed God.

After Jesus died, He was laid in a tomb, and three days later, when Mary Magdalene, another Mary, and other women came to anoint His body with spices, they did not find Him where they expected Him to be. Instead, they were told by an angel of the Lord, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” “So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, ‘Rejoice!’ So they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.’” (Matthew 28:1-10) Jesus would next reveal His resurrected self to His other disciples, walk the earth for 40 more days, performing many miracles, and then He would ascend to God the Father.

Joseph and Mary had sought Jesus in the traveling caravan, in the place they thought He should be, and they did not find Him. They supposed He had been with them. After three days and having gone back to Jerusalem, they found Him in a place they did not expect to find Him, in His Father’s house, the Jewish temple. They did not find Him in the sanctuary, where people went to pray, but in the part of the temple where the teachers were. Here was Jesus, only twelves year old, sitting with Jewish teachers, highly educated in the word of God, not only listening to them but asking them questions. These were not just any questions a twelve year old boy would ask, for He astonished them with “His understanding and His answers.”How could this be? Years later, during Jesus’ time of ministry, He had met a Jewish Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. “This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ (John 3:1-2) Clearly, the Jewish teachers saw something different in twelve year old Jesus, something they had never seen before, just as Nicodemus had seen in Him years later.

Are you seeking Jesus with your whole heart? Have you found Him? The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near, “ and in Jeremiah 29:13, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jesus told His disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; see, and you will find; knock, and it will opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) Billions of people, and likely including many of the Jewish teachers that Jesus had spoken to those days in the temple when He was twelve years old, have not sought Jesus, and when they died, that door remained closed. The door for them to seek Jesus was never opened, for they did not seek Him. I pray you don’t wait until it’s too late to seek Him. ✝️