diff --git a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/instance/model/api/IAnyResource.java b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/instance/model/api/IAnyResource.java
index d9e5f62f148..19852232d69 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/instance/model/api/IAnyResource.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/instance/model/api/IAnyResource.java
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ public interface IAnyResource extends IBaseResource {
 	@SearchParamDefinition(
 			name = SP_RES_LAST_UPDATED,
 			path = "Resource.meta.lastUpdated",
-			description = "The last updated date of the resource",
+			description = "Only return resources which were last updated as specified by the given range",
 			type = "date")
 
 	/**
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-docs/src/main/resources/ca/uhn/hapi/fhir/changelog/7_4_0/6208-fix-npe-on-date.yaml b/hapi-fhir-docs/src/main/resources/ca/uhn/hapi/fhir/changelog/7_4_0/6208-fix-npe-on-date.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c79677e3f47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hapi-fhir-docs/src/main/resources/ca/uhn/hapi/fhir/changelog/7_4_0/6208-fix-npe-on-date.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+type: fix
+issue: 6208
+title: "A regression was temporarily introduced which caused searches by `_lastUpdated` to fail with a NullPointerException when using Lucene as the backing search engine. This has been corrected"
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-test-r4/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/provider/r4/ResourceProviderR4Test.java b/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-test-r4/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/provider/r4/ResourceProviderR4Test.java
index c90a55b210c..b938a816124 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-test-r4/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/provider/r4/ResourceProviderR4Test.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-test-r4/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/provider/r4/ResourceProviderR4Test.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import ca.uhn.fhir.model.primitive.InstantDt;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.model.primitive.UriDt;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.parser.IParser;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.parser.StrictErrorHandler;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.api.CacheControlDirective;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.api.Constants;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.api.MethodOutcome;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.api.PreferReturnEnum;
@@ -1112,6 +1113,34 @@ public class ResourceProviderR4Test extends BaseResourceProviderR4Test {
 
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testSearchByUrl() {
+		// setup
+		DateType dt = new DateType(new Date());
+		String nowStr = dt.getValueAsString();
+
+		boolean storeResourceInHSearch = myStorageSettings.isStoreResourceInHSearchIndex();
+		boolean advancedHSearch = myStorageSettings.isAdvancedHSearchIndexing();
+
+		try {
+			// use full text search
+			myStorageSettings.setStoreResourceInHSearchIndex(true);
+			myStorageSettings.setAdvancedHSearchIndexing(true);
+
+			// test
+			Bundle b = myClient.search()
+				.byUrl("Patient?_lastUpdated=" + nowStr)
+				.returnBundle(Bundle.class)
+				.cacheControl(CacheControlDirective.noCache())
+				.execute();
+
+			assertNotNull(b);
+		} finally {
+			// reset back to previous
+			myStorageSettings.setAdvancedHSearchIndexing(advancedHSearch);
+			myStorageSettings.setStoreResourceInHSearchIndex(storeResourceInHSearch);
+		}
+	}
 	@Test
 	public void testCreateConditionalWithPreferRepresentation() {
 		Patient p = new Patient();
diff --git a/hapi-tinder-plugin/src/main/resources/vm/jpa_resource_provider.vm b/hapi-tinder-plugin/src/main/resources/vm/jpa_resource_provider.vm
index 421c2a663d9..85e6c165eb2 100644
--- a/hapi-tinder-plugin/src/main/resources/vm/jpa_resource_provider.vm
+++ b/hapi-tinder-plugin/src/main/resources/vm/jpa_resource_provider.vm
@@ -121,9 +121,12 @@ public class ${className}ResourceProvider extends
 			@RawParam
 			Map<String, List<String>> theAdditionalRawParams,
 
+	##DSTU2 is not an IAnyResource, yet supports LastUpdated, so we keep the magic SP in this case.
+	#if ( $version == 'dstu2' )
 			@Description(shortDefinition="Only return resources which were last updated as specified by the given range")
 			@OptionalParam(name="_lastUpdated")
-			DateRangeParam theLastUpdated, 
+			DateRangeParam the_lastUpdated,
+	#end
 
 			@IncludeParam
 			Set<Include> theIncludes,
@@ -161,12 +164,19 @@ public class ${className}ResourceProvider extends
 			paramMap.add(ca.uhn.fhir.rest.api.Constants.PARAM_LANGUAGE, theResourceLanguage);
 
 			paramMap.add("_has", theHas);
-#foreach ( $param in $searchParams ) 
-			paramMap.add("${param.name}", the${param.nameCapitalized});
+#foreach ( $param in $searchParams )
+			#if( ${param.name} == "_lastUpdated")
+				## Skip Last Updated since its handled by param defined below.
+			#else
+				paramMap.add("${param.name}", the${param.nameCapitalized});
+			#end
 #end
 #if ( $version != 'dstu' )
-			paramMap.setRevIncludes(theRevIncludes);
-			paramMap.setLastUpdated(theLastUpdated);
+paramMap.setRevIncludes(theRevIncludes);
+## Note that since we have added an SearchParamDefinition on IAnyResource for this, we had to remove
+## the magic _lastUpdated that was previously hardcoded as an OperationParam. However, we still need to populate
+## This special variable in the SP map.
+			paramMap.setLastUpdated(the_lastUpdated);
 #end
 			paramMap.setIncludes(theIncludes);
 			paramMap.setSort(theSort);