Introduction
Hello there. My name is Joseph. We met a few weeks ago, before Christmas, when you wondered about what it must have been like to be me – the man whose genes God did not need. Well I am here again to tell you a bit more about that reading you just heard – when Mary, Jesus and I made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
We were travelling to Jerusalem from Nazareth in order to celebrate the Passover. It was quite a journey – getting on for 70 miles and in those days we had to walk or, if we were lucky, ride a donkey. It was a journey which took several days. We didn’t mind because we were going to see Jerusalem – the city at the centre of our faith. In Jerusalem stood the Temple, the third Temple to exist, build by Herod.
This was the largest of the Temples, there were different courts for people to worship, one for men, one for women, one even for gentiles. Then, in the middle, is the tall building you can see which contained the Holy of Holies – this was God’s business address on earth! Here, on one day of the year, the High Priest was allowed to enter and offer worship on behalf of the Jewish people. There was a veil which hung in the Holy of Holies showing the utter separation of God and humanity.
Anyway, we were going off to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover together. This meal celebrates the liberation of my people from being slaves in Egypt. You have shades of this meal every week when you celebrate communion. And I am told you celebrate a Passover Meal together in Holy Week each year. But this year was special. We were going also to celebrate Jesus’s Bar Mitzvah.
In the Jewish faith boys become adults at their Bar Mitzvah around the age of 13. The words mean “son of the Law” and from this age on Jesus would be considered, in the eyes of the Law, to be an adult. The ceremony was quite simple and meant he had to read some verses from the Bible in front of everyone else. Even today it is still a tradition for Jewish boys to make their Bar Mitzvah near the last remaining part of Herod’s Temple, the Western Wall in Jerusalem as you can see in this picture.
Getting There
As I have said the trip was long and we got tired easily. Travelling together as a group, however, made it more fun and we spent time catching up with friends and family without having to worry, for once, about the concerns of work and keeping home. We were excited about seeing the Temple where we would be especially close to God and, at last, Mary and I thought that things were going right for us. The strange happenings around Jesus’s birth were long behind us and he was growing up to be a good kid. I thought he would learn to be a carpenter and work with me, making a good living. Angels and wise men had long since disappeared – though the gold and the frankincense they brought had been welcome. We were never sure what to make of the myrrh.
Losing Jesus
The bar mitzvah went well, the Passover celebrations were fun – though I never could get used to drinking all that wine. And soon it was time to get ready for the journey home. Jesus had enjoyed playing with his friends and cousins and we all looked out for each other. It wasn’t until we were well underway that I realised that everyone had thought that Jesus was with someone else and, worse, that Jesus wasn’t with us.
We panicked. All the fears of parents came to hearts. We did not know where he had gone. We searched for him frantically. You must know what it is like to search for something, the nagging pain, the grinding despair, the desperate hope.
Searching
In fact I have seen you searching for the things you have lost. You seem to search for things in odd places though, alcohol, drink, drugs and sex all seem to dull the pain you feel for what you have lost. You must understand, then what we felt, the gnawing fear that he had gone forever.
Relief
We ran back to Jerusalem and looked everywhere. We got to the end of our tethers and Mary suggested we go to the Temple and pray to God that we would find him. She felt sure that God would look after us, I wasn’t so sure. But we had looked everywhere else so we went back to the Temple. I started to wonder how we would begin to rebuild our lives without Jesus, how Mary would cope. As I was thinking these things I heard Mary gasp and point. I looked up and saw Jesus sitting amongst the priests and the teachers of the Law discussing the Faith with them. Relief flooded my body and I wept. Mary is always better in a crisis than me and she marched straight up to Jesus and began to scold him, telling him off for worrying us so much. But he gently scolded her asking if she did not realise that this would be where he was to be found.
And You
When I see you searching for something to dull the pain in your lives, when I see you search for anything that will make you feel better, I know that you, like us, are looking in all the wrong places.
* Sometimes you think that a good relationship will make everything all right – and good relationships are marvellous things but they won’t satisfy your deepest longings.
* Sometimes you think that a lot of alcohol will make the pain go away, but whilst alcohol in moderation is good thing, if drunk to excess it can make you angry or violent or paranoid or all three.
* Sometimes you think that drugs will wipe away all your cares and concerns, but it seems to me that your problems get worse with them not better.
The only place where you will find rest for your restlessness is in a relationship with my son, with my stepson I should say. My stepson who had such a strange birth, such a wonderful childhood and such an eventful adult life. This is one in whom all your desires will be fulfilled. If you have already found him you know this – though sometimes you need to remind yourselves. If you haven’t found him then you need to, before you finally run out of things to dull your pain, and if you know others who are frantically searching for him, just as we once did, then you need to introduce them to Him.
Prayer
Loving
God,
Help our restless souls to find our rest in you,
Help us to find you when we look for you,
Help us to introduce others to you.
Amen.
Have you found him. Do you know others who are searching?
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.