Sermon for The First Sunday after The Epiphany, 2025

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The sermon is printed below.

Readings:

• Old Testament: 1 Kings 8:6-13

• Epistle: Romans 12:1-5

• Holy Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

• Sermon manuscript: download

Sermon:

Sermon based on Luke 2:41-52 *

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Dearly beloved by the Lord: 

Today, Jesus is lost. He’s gone. He’s hidden. He cannot be found. It’s a terrifying day for Mary and Joseph, who sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances after traveling a day’s journey, yet they couldn’t find Him anywhere. And the more they looked, the more troubled they became. So, they returned to Jerusalem and searched for Him there. For three days, they sought Him: anxiously, some translations put it, in great distress, is how another one does. Still, neither of these fully captures the extent of Mary and Joseph’s frantic searching; their search was full of mental and spiritual anguish, sorrow, and woe. 1

Of course, it was. Along with the fear and panic that any parent searching for their missing child would experience, more than that, Joseph and Mary knew just who it was that was missing. An angel had told them both, albeit on separate occasions, that He was the Son of God. 2 And they had lost Him! As terror gripped her heart, Mary may well have thought back to Simeon’s prophecy of a sword piercing through her soul, 3 for indeed, as she searched, she suffered such anguish, if only a foretaste of it. And Joseph, we call him the guardian of the Lord because, as we know, he was not Jesus’ father; we call him that because, as the head of the household, it was Joseph’s responsibility to guard and protect Jesus, and yet he failed! He had lost Immanuel—God with us, she, the eternal Word made flesh; 4 they didn’t know where He was. O sorrow of sorrows, He was gone. 

After three days, they found Him. After three horrifying days of searching, days full of anguish and sorrow of heart and soul and with distress beyond measure, they found Him. Finally, they found Him. 

There’s some indication here, in this Gospel, that this was, of course, His doing, not theirs. Because He lingered behind in Jerusalem, He stayed there. He initiated this; He started it. He did it, not they. Moreover, when they found Him, He made it clear that the reason they couldn’t find Him was because He was about His Father’s business. “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” He worked it out this way. Yes, indeed, He is the Son of God. He is in charge of all things; He governs all things. And so, He governed this; it happened at His direction and according to His will. 

Why in the world? “Why, Son, why have You done this to us? {Behold}, Your father and I have sought You anxiously—in anguish and sorrow. 5 Why have you done this to us? Why did You put us through this?” she asks. Yet the answer is clear: it was [His] Father’s business. To be about His Father’s business was not merely to linger in the temple, sitting [among] the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. It was not just His business—or His Father’s business—to [astonish] all who heard Him [with] His understanding and answers; it was also His Father’s business to put Mary and Joseph through this. It was in the cards, so to speak, this horrible sorrow of three days’ time; this had to be. Reminding us, of course, of that greater sorrow of three days’ time, the time when Jesus died until He arose on Easter Sunday. Imagine that horror, that anguish of mind and spirit, that sorrow and woe, that darkness, which was even worse because, there, they knew why He was gone: He had died; He was crucified, dead, and buried. For those three bitter and seemingly hopeless days, they were beside themselves, His disciples, just as Mary and Joseph were here, only worse. Yet, even—and especially—then, He was about His Father’s business. 

Perhaps the practical application of this Gospel has already crossed your mind, Beloved, the truly astonishing part of His Father’s business. For it was not only the Father’s business for His only-begotten Son to come down from heaven and be incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and be made man; 6 nor was it only the Father’s business that Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, suffer under Pontius Pilate, be crucified, die and be buried, 7 all to redeem us lost and condemned people, purchase and win us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, 8 to make us His own and grant us life and everlasting salvation. It’s also His Father’s business that we who believe in Jesus and trust in who He is and what He has done for us are likewise put through such anguish and great, unspeakable sorrow of heart, mind, and soul sometimes. Times when He puts us to the deepest of tests; this—as we learn from this Gospel—is also part of His Father’s business. 

So, you find yourself in trouble, anguishing, and sorrowing in various and many ways. Maybe you’re faced with some challenge that has you at wits’ end, or perhaps you or a family member is sick or in great distress, and you don’t know what to do. Maybe the stark reality of your losing a loved one is setting in, or perhaps you’ve already lost them; they’ve died. Who knows what great sorrow has descended upon you, or will, for that matter? And Jesus disappears; He’s gone. Mary, Joseph, Jesus’ Disciples: they endured such anguish, distress, and sorrow for three days. Who knows how long you must endure it? Where is Jesus; “Where are You?” you cry out. Yet, He doesn’t seem to answer. 

Remember, then, this Gospel. “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” That doesn’t mean He had something else to do or was uncaring about what they had gone through; on the contrary, He was concerned with them in this trial. After all, He had sent this trial, had ordered it, and made it happen. Of course, He was aware. Consider how He corrects His mother here when she says, “Behold, Your father and I have sought You.” He corrects her, saying, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” asking this of her as to remind her of who His Father really is. You know, these are Jesus’ first recorded words—the first words we have a record of Him speaking. From here, at the age of twelve, from here on out, we know that He knows who His Father is, who He is, and what He has come to do: He must be about His Father’s business. He knew this from the start, of course, before this incident; indeed, He knew it from the foundation of the world: it’s the reason He took on flesh and came to dwell among us. Just so, He also knows today that His Father’s business, sadly, sometimes requires us to go through the wringer, as it were. Nevertheless, and here’s the key—or epiphany, 9 if you will—of this Gospel: even during their trial of anguish and distress, even while they were sorrowing, they sought Him. 

Beloved, that is what we must also do. When we’re in anguish or great distress, when we’re sorrowing, and it seems as if He’s disappeared, we must also seek Him. And behold, just like Mary and Joseph, so will you find Jesus in [His] Father’s house, 10 about His Father’s business. Here He is; here—in His Word and Blessed Sacrament—He is: to comfort you amidst your troubles, to bolster you during your trials, and to assure you that whatever it is you must endure or however long you must endure it, you are His dearly beloved. What He ordains is always good, even if now or for however long you must sorrow, remember to seek Him. Never forget this, Beloved; seek Him, always, especially in times of distress or anguish. And your weeping and sorrow, which endures for a night, three days, or even longer, will be replaced with joy. 11 It will; it must, for you will find Him, or rather, more accurately, He will reveal Himself to you at the appropriate time and, inasmuch, say to you, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

✠ Soli Deo Gloria ✠

Footnotes:

1. The Greek word Mary uses in verse 48, ὀδυνώμενοι /ah.dy.na.me.noy/, which the NKJV renders as anxiously, means “to experience mental and spiritual pain.” A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. Arndt. William, Frederick W. Danker, Wilbur Gingrich, and Walter Bauer eds. Chicago: Chicago Press, 2000. p. 692; entry: ὀδυνάω, sense: 2. Such pain, or anguish, is undoubtedly chock-full of sorrow and woe.

2. The angel announces this to Mary in Luke 1:35 and reveals it to Joseph, by a dream, in Matthew 1:20-23.

3. Luke 2:35b

4. See Matthew 1:23d-f and John 1:14a.

5. {KJV}

6. “Nicene Creed.” Lutheran Service Book: The Small Catechism. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006. p. 191.

7. “Apostles’ Creed.” Ibid. p. 192.

8. “The Creed: Explanation of the Second Article.” Ibid. p. 322.

9. Usually, when the Church uses the word epiphany, it’s regarding the manifestation—or revealing—of who Christ Jesus is. However, its use here is with its ancillary meaning in mind: “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2024. Accessed through: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epiphany, sense 3a (3).

10. ESV. While not capitalized in the English Standard Version, the pronoun “His” refers to God, specifically, Christ Jesus; therefore, Reverential capitalization is employed here. Reverential capitalization is the practice of capitalizing words, particularly pronouns that refer to God, in cases where they would not otherwise have been capitalized. 

11. See Psalm 30:5.

Nota Bene: Unless otherwise indicated, the Scripture contained within this sermon is from the New King James Version.