Both Protestants who follow a lectionary and Catholics read this gospel passage on this first Sunday after Christmas. Catholics have a slight advantage in that their liturgical name for this Sunday is “Holy Family,” which gives a focus to the text before actually reading it. But regardless of which strand of Christianity we belong to, this reading invites us to celebrate the example God gives us for our own family lives.

            This text is especially important in that regard because the gospels tell us very little about the life of Jesus’ family after his birth. Matthew tells us about the visitation of the magi, the flight into Egypt and the return to Nazareth, and Luke tells us this story of Jesus at age 12. But that’s it regarding Jesus’ childhood years.

Where’s Jesus?

            Brief as this story is from Luke, it’s about the sort of incident that strikes at the worst fears of every parent.

            This God-fearing family travels to Jerusalem for the Passover feast every year. They travel with friends and family from their hometown and walk the three-day journey down and back together. It sounds as if the men travel with the men, the women travel with the women, and the children — perhaps the children walked some with their fathers, some with their mothers and many more simply walked together on their own, looking after each other. According to Mark 6:3, Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. How many of them had been born by the time Jesus was 12 we don’t know, but most likely some of them had, and there were no doubt offspring from the other families Mary and Joseph traveled with as well. So there are a bunch of kids in the caravan.

            And when it’s time to go home, both Joseph and Mary probably assume that the other parent knows where Jesus is. But at the end of the day, Jesus is not with either parent. None of the others have seen him

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