California Penal Code Section 273a Series

JUST JESUS: CHAPTER BY CHAPTER THRU LUKE

California Penal Code Section 273a

LUKE 2:41-52

#JustJesus

INTRODUCTION… www.finder.com/child-in-car-laws

Apparently, Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke, or PVH, is a thing.

Between the years of 1998 and 2020, an average of 38 children a year die by being left alone in hot cars. The state with the most deaths per year is always Texas which since 1998 has seen 132 deaths due to PVH. Most deaths occur in July which has the highest average temperatures in any month across America. Believe it or not, a car can heat up 20 degrees in 10 minutes and in the time it takes to run into a pharmacy, a car can get to 115 degrees. The inside of a car can also reach as high as 133 degrees on a 90-degree day in one hour.

#1 Consider this a PSA and be careful and mindful of kids in cars

#2 Keep in mind Indiana has no PVH laws on the books but does have Good Samaritan laws in place if you feel the need to rescue a child in a hot car so you are not liable for any damages

#3 If there were laws on the books like these or like California Penal Code Section 273a when Jesus of Nazareth was a young man, Joseph and Mary might have been in some legal trouble for something that happened when Jesus was a boy.

TRANSITION

The passage of Scripture that we are going to look at today is the only passage in the Bible that describes Jesus’ growing up years. We do not have any stories about Jesus growing up other than this one. Nothing really on toddler Jesus or teenage Jesus or even 20-something Jesus, but just one story when He was 12.

Let’s read that passage this morning from Luke 2:41-52.

READ LUKE 2:41-52 (ESV)

Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the Boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing Him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for Him. 46 After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 48 And when His parents saw Him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us so? Behold, Your father and I have been searching for You in great distress.” 49 And He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. 51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

TRIP TO J-TOWN (verses 41-46)

The passage opens with us getting a look at a little bit of the life of Joseph, Mary, and also Jesus. We find that verses 41-42 tell us that Jesus’ family had a tradition to go to Jerusalem each year for the Feast of Passover. Passover was and is a big deal in the life of a Jewish person.

What is Passover?

Passover is one of the feasts appointed by God in the Old Testament; specifically, in Exodus 12, that is a remembrance that when the Israelites were struggling to leave Egypt, that God spared them and was gracious. God sent plagues into Egypt, but spared the Israelites who had marked their doorposts with the blood sacrifices of lambs. The blood marked those who were saved.

READ EXODUS 12:27 (ESV)

“you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.”

Later in Deuteronomy, God commands the people to remember Him and worship Him in the place where God sets His Name. That place is eventually Jerusalem.

READ DEUTERONOMY 16:6 (ESV)

“but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His Name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.”

So, Joseph and Mary each year packed up Jesus and all their other various children and extended family and friends and headed to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. Joseph and Mary followed the commands of God like those that entered the Promised Land in Joshua 5 and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30) and Josiah (2 Chronicles 35) and like the exiles when they returned home in Ezra 6. They made Passover a priority.