Church of Christ Studies

The Lost Christ

I bid you listen this noon to a reading from Luke 2: 40-52: "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."

 

The writers of the Bible have a way of saying much in the fewest possible words. This is a little story that gives an account of a mere incident, ordinarily considered; and yet I am certain within my own mind that it was not written just to tell us a little personal incident that occurred on one of their trips up to Jerusalem, but that in it there is both interest per se and also lessons possibly based upon that which may be of practical benefit and concern to those of us who now live and wheresoever the Bible shall be read.

 

There is suggested to us in this the idea of something lost. In its very announcement there is created that anxiety on the part of every person regarding individuals or articles that may be lost from view, which anxiety will ever be characteristic of humanity; and to the very limit will we ordinarily go in search of those things which we prize that get from under our relationship and away from us and become characterized by that state which we call "lost."

 

The Bible pictures our experiences in chapter 15 of this same boob. The Savior presents a man having one hundred sheep, and raised the question that if one of them be lost, will he not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go and search out and seek for that which is lost until he find it? Then he pictures a fine rejoicing that will be upon the return of the sheep thus lost, from which he passes to higher things and suggests that just so there is joy in heaven over the return of a human being that was lost and is now rescued. Then he said: "What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?" Then he relates her rejoicing over the same.

 

From that he passes into a more serious strain and gives us a picture of a lost boy who had wandered sway from the relationship of parentage out into the affairs of the earth, and, having squandered all that he had inherited, finally comes into the very lowest state of human existence, and then by and by finds himself. Upon his return there is great rejoicing.

 

Now, is it not strange that attention is called to the fact that our Lord himself, at the age of twelve years, was lost — and that, too, ladies and gentlemen, by the one least expected? And so I submit to you that human nature, human carelessness, and human conceptions have been largely the same throughout all the ages. We ought not to be surprised at the reading of this story. Jesus was lost by his mother— not because of the fact that she failed to love him or to appreciate him or to be interested in him as much as any other mother, perhaps, ever was in her boy; not because she was a bad woman; not due to the fact that anything uncomplimentary might be said respecting her; but such is characteristic of human disposition and ways. The record says, therefore, that when they had gone up to Jerusalem and had fulfilled the purpose of their going, they finally set out on their way back, and went a day's journey, and then found that their precious boy was not in their midst; and the record says that they knew it not until the close of the day.

 

Now, it was not because they could not have known about it. That good mother could have found out as they started early in the morning as to whether or not the Christ was in their midst; but, engaged in other things and interested in associations and topics possibly other than that, she simply went an entire day's journey; and as the evening shadows began to lengthen, then, as a mother's disposition is, she began to look round about to find her boy.

 

Now, I suggest that the very fact that she knew not regarding him was another matter of carelessness and of indifference, or rather traits of our doing and of our action along the pathway of life; and all the worries subsequent to her having found out at the close of the day that the boy was not there were due to the fact that she had not investigated early in the morning and made certain that all the members of the family were in her company. Many, many times have we experienced long hours of anxiety, labor, pain, and regrets of various sorts over a failure to do a thing earlier in life that would have prevented some calamity, unpleasantness, or sadness from coming upon us.

 

But the record says, and I think it speaks that which is characteristic of all of us, that the mother of Jesus supposed that he was in the company; and in that, I think, is a suggestion that has its duplicate many, many times along the pathway of life.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, with all due respect to our intelligence and our ability, I want to say to you this morning that I really believe, religiously speaking, most of the human family are walking along the pathway from this to the eternal shore on the ground of supposition. We never stop, amid the varied affairs of life, to investigate, to make certain, and to find out beyond the possibility of a doubt, but just take it for granted, and, on the general ground of supposition, presume that Christ is in our crowd, one of our company, and not very far away, and that, in case of a calamity, he is right there to comfort us, to bear us up, and finally to conduct us home to glory.

 

Now, that is one of the great and fatal mistakes characterizing human conduct and human affairs in matters that are purely religious. Do you know that we go not on the ground of supposition regarding other matters of less moment? In any kind of a business deal in which you gentlemen here in Nashville might engage, when money is to be paid out and your future financial success is at stake, you do not carelessly pass along and just suppose that the thing is all right; but you are more interested than that. If it be the buying of a piece of real estate, you don't simply write your check or count out the money and suppose that the fellow will Ax the deed all right, and just take that for granted; and yet you do not mean to insinuate that he is dishonest. But here is a matter in which I am interested. it vitally affects me with reference to temporal affairs. There is some money involved in it; and hence what is my attitude regarding it? Instead of doing as did the mother of the Savior, supposing that all is well, I go and personally investigate that thing; and if I be not able to comprehend the magnitude thereof, I will go and secure an expert—a man trained and tutored in that particular line of business— and I say: "Sir, I want you to go with me to investigate and see if this thing is all right and in good shape, because I am deeply interested in it and my welfare is at stake."

 

Why, many, many times have you gentlemen, perhaps, since you purchased your bonds, your stamps, your certificates and securities, and your pieces of real estate, gone through these papers and investigated again to just see if there is anything lacking. This is no reflection upon the persons who made you the deed or signed the papers, but it is just a matter of self-satisfaction and of real interest. You want to know about it.

 

Therein lay the trouble with the parents of the Savior. They supposed that he was in their care. Religiously speaking, do you think there is a denomination on earth today but that supposes the same thing? On what ground of reliance are they marching on to the shores of eternity? Why, supposing that Christ is with them. Have you ever stopped really to investigate? Have you ever made a personal canvass of the crowd in which you are traveling to find out for certain that the Lord was even acquainted with that crowd?

 

It would pay us, if we are really interested and are conscious that our soul is at stake, to stop and to begin to find out if the Lord is in this crowd of ours. Indeed, is he with this company, or is he with that one? Physically, of course he could not be in two different ones at the same time; and I think mentally and spiritually that it would be a reflection upon our Lord to imagine that he is with any two bodies that are different in origin, doctrine, and practice. I cannot conceive of a Christ who would walk on both lines and in contradictory ways.

 

My friends, there is too much at stake in this matter of religious relationship for us to go on the ground of supposition.

 

When the mother of Jesus found out that her supposition was wrong, just like numbers and numbers of us might be led to find out, she got wonderfully busy, and she acted quite naturally. Where did she go? After having found that he wasn't in her company, she said: "Surely he is among my kinfolks. I know he is not with me, but he is with Uncle Sam or Aunt Susan, one or the other. There is no doubt about that." So she began her investigation for her lost boy by searching first among her own crowd. Disappointed in that, she turned and went to her kinspeople and her acquaintances, believing surely that he was in that company. But what was the result? She didn't find him there.

 

Now, this story wasn't written just to let us know that little personal incident. But today suppose that I were to do just such a thing as to stand a member of a human denomination and actually upon investigation find out that Christ never even heard of my crowd, much less was with them. Then to whom would I go? I would say, "Well, assuredly he is among my sister denominations and acquaintances;" and I spend a whole lot of time, but my experience at the last would be exactly like that of his own mother—she found him not there. Why, he wasn't in her company and he wasn't with her kinsfolk nor her acquaintances. And then what? The fact dawned upon her: "Let me forsake my company, let me forsake my kinfolks, and go back to Jerusalem." Backward she turned her steps for three days. Mark you, the neglect and the carelessness of just a moment caused her an anxiety, and a mother's anxiety at that, of three days' duration. But when she cut loose from her company and cut loose from her kinsfolk and from her acquaintances and went back to Jerusalem, there she found him. I wonder where? Just a lad, of course; but he wasn't in the pool room. 0, no! He wasn't in the dance hall. She didn't find him around the card table. She didn't And him in any place of vice or that is disreputable in any respect; but she found him in the temple, talking with the doctors, answering questions, astonishing them by the profoundness of his mind and the ability with which he discussed the matters presented; and as she found him in the temple, she expressed her thought. "Why," she said, "son, why hast thou dealt thus with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee in sorrow."

 

What had the Lord done? Which one did the departing from the other? The Lord had not left them; they left him. That is the sad state characteristic of so many of his disciples. I remember that John (6:37) once said that from a certain time many of the Lord's disciples went back and walked no more with him. God will not forsake us. The Lord will not, unless, first of all, we forsake him; and if we deliberately do that, then he will forsake us and cast us out forever. So was the declaration in 2 Chron. 15:2.

 

Now, friends, to make the second thought of it, as time suggests a closing, let me submit to you that the religious world today has lost Jesus, the Christ. I think it generally said, especially by those on the outside, and with too much truth in it, that our services do not partake very much of the Christ idea. We have become cold, formal, and ritualistic; and the worship of God today is a kind of religio- operatic performance, when genuine old-time Christianity and spiritually have been eliminated, until some of the very best men and women on the earth to-day, because of fashion's dictates and of style's decree, are absolutely shut out and driven away and cannot walk into many of the meetinghouses of this land and country and feel at home and there breathe out a genuine spirituality of worship to the God of their being. Before I can go to meeting at many places I have to be tutored and drilled and trained just to know exactly how to act. I must correspond to fashion's demand and act according to modern social requirements and various decrees, or else be denominated an old "mossback"— out of date and behind the times. Now, isn't that a shame? That is a thing, ladies and gentlemen, that is robbing this world of the Christ and the spirit characteristic thereof.

 

Now, what is to be done? When Christ has been driven out, so to speak, we have gone on into worldliness, into formality, and into cold-blooded ritualism. We have left the Christ. What has happened? Preachers and all others are hunting about trying to find him, and, first, they search in their own ranks and then in that of their religious kinsfolk and acquaintances.

 

Why, about the beginning of the sixteenth century the world began to recognize that Christ wasn't reigning in the religious institution then prominent, and they undertook to find him; but, be it said to their detriment and as characteristic of their failure, they went to the wrong place. Martin Luther thought he could dig him out of Catholicism, but he wasn't there. Likewise, Henry VIII., John Calvin, and others. And after the sad experience of all of these men, in which they but formed other parties, then what? The time ultimately came when men rose up above the clouds of Catholicism and denominationalism and said: "Jesus Christ is not in Catholicism; Jesus Christ is not in denominationalism. Let's cut loose and do just like the mother did; let's forsake all of this and go back to Jerusalem." That is where they went. "Let's go back where we left him, in the temple of Jerusalem, and go back with him there and walk along the subsequent path of life in daily company and association with him."

 

Friends, if you and I get to heaven, let me tell you one thing. it will not be by virtue of the fact that we catered to the world, it will not be because we have our garments cut according to certain fashion plates, it will not be because of the fact that we are drilled and tutored in all manner of conduct and social demands; but it will be because of the fact that we love the Lord Jesus Christ to that extent that we are interested enough and are nonpartisan enough and unbiased and unprejudiced enough to cut loose from all things characteristic of humanity's doings and just simply fall down humbly at the feet of the Savior and say, "Lord, speak; let me hear; command, I will obey;" and we must put our hand in the palm of his, and, regardless of what the world says, with the Bible as our guide and Christ as our leader, we must commence to practice and live the principles of old-time religion. If we will do that and be faithful unto death, God Almighty will touch us gently at last and call us into joys supreme and mansions sublime in fairer fields and brighter climes. That is the hope of the world today. Let us cut loose from and get rid of all of our cold formalities, our search for Christ out in worldly affairs, catering to the demands of those things that appeal to the flesh and to pride and to worldly show. Let us leave all that out in our religious relations and, as humble disciples of the Lord, worship him "as it is written" and as the God of heaven requires.

 

But are there any in this company now who have it in their hearts to really find the Christ? If so, I bid you cut loose from all things human, simply start back to God's word, the old record and the old deed, to the calls that are found therein, and once more run again those lines first started by the apostles. Believe the gospel, repent of your sins, publicly confess your faith in the Christ, be buried with him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That will make of you nothing on earth but a Christian, and right there stop your religious affiliation, and then, as a child of God, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, strengthened day by day by exercise and labor in his vineyard, and the time certainly will come when the reward will be yours to share.