Where Jesus is Found

Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany

Luke 2:41-52

January 11th, 2026

“And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’”

The Passover Festival at Jerusalem was celebrated once a year. Originally every male was expected to make the trip to Jerusalem for three different feasts including the Passover, but since many Jews had been scattered great distances away from Jerusalem, it made it difficult to travel the great distance on foot three times a year. So faithful Jews made it a priority to at least make the journey once a year to attend the Passover, which is the biggest festival.

The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem was about 80 miles. At around 20 miles a day the journey would take four days. Not an easy journey. Rough terrain along with roads exploited by robbers made it a difficult and dangerous journey. One in which you wouldn’t want to travel alone. So families, friends and neighbors would form groups and travel together. In this way they could care for and watch over each other as they journey.

On this particular trip as they traveled back home to Nazareth, Mary and Joseph must have just taken it for granted that Jesus was with the group of family and friends they were traveling with. They didn’t give it a second thought. They trusted each other. Certainly Jesus would be found in the group and they would meet up at the end of the day. But at some point near the end of that first day, they suddenly realize that Jesus is nowhere to be found in the group. They search and cannot find Him. How do you lose Jesus? So, they return to Jerusalem to search and after three days they find Him in the temple.

Jesus must be in His Father’s House. Shouldn’t Mary and Joseph have known this? They knew this Son was special, but they didn’t yet understand who He really was and that His purpose and desire was to do His Heavenly Father’s will above all things.

Jesus didn’t come to earth in our flesh and blood to fulfill their expectations or our expectations, but rather the expectations and will of the Heavenly Father. Jesus would tell His disciples several years later: “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me (John 5:30.” The will of the Father that would ultimately manifest itself in His death on the Cross for the sins of the world. No one understood this yet.

Mary and Joseph should have known where to find Jesus. But they took Him for granted and didn’t look in the places in which Jesus desired to be found fulfilling the Father’s will for them and for us.

This event in the life of Jesus as a twelve year old has much to say about who Jesus is and where He desires to be found for us today as He continues the work of the Father in the world to save sinners. How easily to do we lose sight of Jesus in this world? There are many competing forces that are working to blind our eyes and distract us from His presence in our midst.

So how do we lose Jesus today? It’s quite easy. Simply forget that Jesus is found where He has promised to put Himself for us. In the Word of God spoken which is the words of the Law that accuses and kills the sinful flesh and the words of the Gospel that heal, forgive and restore us to our Heavenly Father. In the waters of Holy Baptism that take us into Jesus and fill us with the Holy Spirit, forgiven and saved. In the Words of Absolution that is God’s forgiveness even though spoken through a sinful man. In His risen body and blood put into us that joins us to Him.

And that eating and drinking of His body and blood is not just a spiritual activity. It is a bodily activity. It joins us body and soul to the One who took up our flesh and blood, in His Body and Soul for us. We are made one with Him in the eating and drinking. Being made one with Him we become His bride as He continues to wash, cleanse and nourish us in Himself. This finding Jesus in the eating and drinking is vital for our life in this world as Christians as we journey together.¹

We lose Jesus when we depart from these Means of Grace given in God’s Word and the Sacraments that continue to deliver the Fruit of the Cross to us. And these Means of Grace, which are Jesus, are not found just anywhere. Certainly not just any Christian church. Many and even most Christian Churches do not deliver the fullness of Jesus in pure doctrine and rightly administered Sacraments.

In the Book of Concord, our Lutheran Confessions, in the Augsburg Confession, Article VII on The Church - We confess: ¹ Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints [Psalm 149:1] in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered.²

That is our confession in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I promised at my ordination to preach and teach this to you. The true Christian Church is found at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Iowa.

Not every church that claims to be a Christian church has the Word of God taught in its truth and purity and the Sacraments correctly administered. Therefore not every church that claims to be a Christian church is the true Christian church on earth. You might find Christians there, and the Word of God might be taught and preached, but it’s not the true Christian church on earth if the Word of God is not taught in its full truth and purity and the Sacraments are not correctly administered as Christ gave them to us.

Where Justification through faith in Christ alone is not taught, where baptism is rejected as God’s saving work done to us, and where the true body and blood of Christ are only empty symbols representing the body and blood of Jesus and not actually Jesus body and blood given and shed for your forgiveness, in those churches you will not find Jesus as He desires to be found for you in His Word and Sacraments.

This is a simple message but so important for our lives as we journey to the eternal Promised Land together. In this journey through life, the terrain is rough; the road is filled with evil that wants to steal your soul and rob your faith. Satan is prowling around seeking to devour your faith. He disguises Himself as an angel of light, he is evil itself and he will use every means possible to pull you off the right path and out of the light of God’s Word and assault you in the darkness with the intent to kill your faith in Christ alone.

You know where Jesus is found in the gathering together around the Word of God taught in its purity and the Sacraments rightly administered. And you know in those places there are family and friends, brothers and sisters to watch out for you. To pick you up when fall or get sick or when death approaches. They will make sure you will be safe along the journey and make it home. Along the way they will point you to where Jesus is found in His Word and His Sacraments for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

We have found Jesus again today as we gather together in the Divine Service. He is with us in the pure doctrine preached and taught and in the Sacraments given as He instituted. Jesus feeds and nourishes your faith today. Today you find heavenly comfort that lifts you from your brokenness and sin and sickness and dying and places you in the loving arms of your Heavenly Father. In those arms He nurtures and cherishes you with His Son. There is nothing sweeter, nothing more powerful anywhere on this earth. And it is all yours. You will endure and you will conquer in the end, because it is God in Christ Jesus working for you and in you all things for your eternal good.

Lastly, a note to parents. Always remember where Jesus is found for your children. They are growing up quickly. Do the work today to establish the heavenly rhythm of making the weekly journey to where Jesus is found in the Divine Service to nurture, feed, and strengthen their faith. Soon they will leave your nest no longer under your protective wing. What you establish today will follow them when they leave your home to find work and school; husbands and wives, to raise families, have babies, make homes of their own and make you grandmas and grandpas. Do the work now before it’s too late.

The first step out of the nest for most will be to a college or full time work someplace, most likely away from Williamsburg and St. Paul Lutheran Church. When that day nears, help them search for colleges and jobs where they will find Jesus in His fullness in the weekly gathering together around His Word and Sacraments. Help them find good, solid, traditional, liturgical Lutheran Churches. I will help you with that when the day comes.

Look for churches like we have at the University of Iowa and St. Paul’s Lutheran Chapel where Pastor Mons serves as the faithful shepherd who will care for the souls of your children by bringing them gifts of Jesus every week. Or like College Hill Lutheran Church at the University of Northern Iowa where Pastor Wagner stands as the faithful shepherd and steward of the mysteries of Christ.

https://stpaulic.com/

https://college-hill.org/

These are faithful, confessional men, shepherds who will care for the souls of your children with the fullness of Jesus. They will protect them with pure doctrine and rightly administered Sacraments that will guard and strengthen them against attacks from the evil foe that will be seeking to devour their faith in those college and first years away from you.

Don’t let them go to colleges or take jobs where there are not solid, confessional Lutheran churches with faithful ministers like Pastor Mons or Pastor Wagner.

The typical American evangelical churches found on college campus will not bring them Jesus in His fullness. Those churches will keep the true body and blood of Jesus away from your children. Those churches will work hard to rip them away from the right confession of faith found in our Lutheran Churches. In those churches they will not find pure doctrine and the body and blood of Jesus.

The souls and eternal salvation of your children is so much more important than a job or an education. Those things are fleeting and will not carry them into eternity. May God give you guidance, discernment, strength, and conviction in this task to find Jesus for your children.

Jesus doesn’t hide Himself from us. Go where Jesus is found. Pure doctrine. Water with the Word that saves. Absolution that is God’s. Bread and wine that is the medicine of immortality that joins you to Jesus. In those places you will find Jesus. And in finding Jesus you will find the strength to endure and conquer in faith until the End. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.