“Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
Like good Jews, Jesus’ family went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. When he was 12 years old, Jesus got lost. Or at least that’s what his parents thought. They prepared to return home, and realized they didn’t have little Jesus with them. I’ve seen some thoughts that millions of people from around the scattered Jewish people returned to Jerusalem for this great festival; it was a time to reconnect to their religious and historical roots.
I’m not a huge fan of huge crowds. Too many people pressing in, and it’s hard to even see where you are in the sea of people. I can imagine Joseph and Mary panicking as they realize they don’t have Jesus with them. I could get a little heart-racy just thinking about their anxiety. Anyone who’s temporarily lost a child can. They figure Jesus is with another familial group of travelers returning to Nazareth, over 90 miles from Jerusalem, so they head out on a day’s journey without Jesus with the massive migration back to their homes. They didn’t find him, so they returned back to Jerusalem, going against the sea of people exiting the town. This is now two days without Jesus, the precocious 12 year old. They search all over and I’m assuming the massive crowds have thinned. We hear that after three days, they find him, calmly sitting with the teachers.
After this anxious-filled multiple day hunt, the account tells us Mary says, “Child why have you treated us like this?” Whatever translation, I don’t believe it gives justice to what any mother might have said or thought.
This morning, I’m struck by the second sentence. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you”. After the whole being-visited-by-the-Holy-Spirit-to-conceive-a-son incident, I’m quite sure Mary knew that Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ “real father”. She could have said, “Joseph and I”, or “My husband and I”, but Mary acknowledges in this very anxious time that Joseph is Jesus father.
As someone with both a step-child and adopted child, I relate and love this. I’ve raised two children who, like Joseph and Jesus, were not biologically related. But that doesn’t matter to me or to the children – except when they’re really mad at me.
Joseph, while not biologically Jesus’ dad, was his father in all ways that matter. He worried and panicked when Jesus was lost. He taught him his trade as a carpenter. He loved and provided for Jesus and Mary. He took them out of Israel to Egypt when Herod was after the newborn Jesus.
While Joseph didn’t have quite as dramatic a role in Jesus’ life as Mary, I love that the church calendar provides a day to think about Joseph and his role. As our morning prayer commemoration says, “Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands”. Today, I pray to have that grace, to take the lesser-known roles in carrying out God’s command.
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