Nisan 22 – They began looking For Him…

Nisan 22, 5785; from sunset April 19, 2025, to sunset April 20, 2025

(The twenty-second day of the first month)

This is the name “Yeshua” (יֵשׁוּעַ – Jesus) as seen on the James Ossuary. Yeshua comes from the verb “yasha” meaning “to save or deliver.” Yeshua means “Salvation.”

After the Passover festival was over, Joseph, Mary, and their family packed up and started for home. They probably travelled with a large group from Nazareth including other family members…aunts, uncles, cousins (a boatload of people). Thinking that Jesus was in the caravan, hanging out with other boys his age, they took off and travelled for a whole day. At the end of the day, they went to round up the kids – but couldn’t find Him. What an alarming feeling that must have been for them. Anyone who’s lost track of a child in the grocery store has a small indication of what Joseph and Mary must have gone through.

This makes me think of a situation in my family…the same but different. It was my confirmation day (and in the month of April, no less). We had the ceremony at church and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins were there (a boatload of people). My family had driven two cars to the church…both cars left… each thinking that I was in the other. Mom had to run home as fast as possible to get dinner on the table and had a million things on her mind.

So, I was at church, the crowd was thinning out, and I couldn’t find any of my family. I don’t think they had even noticed I was not with them at this point. Luckily, one of my good friend’s mother noticed me wandering around the social hall and offered me a ride home.

Of course, I have never let my family forget the day they left me at church on MY confirmation day! And neither has my friend’s mother. Whenever I visit Mom and we go to church…the same church I grew up in…I see my friend’s mother and we have this “knowing grin” on our face and have a good laugh. I wonder what stories went on in Jesus’ family? Obviously, something similar was told year after year because it made it into the Bible. I can just hear Luke asking Mary questions while he was compiling his gospel, “Mary, do you have any good stories about Jesus from when He was little?” And Mary replies, “Well, Luke, let me tell you about the year we left Jerusalem without Him…”

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.

After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. – Luke 2:41-44 (NIV)

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