Jesus Left Behind At The Temple

Today we have a unique story, in that it’s the only story of Jesus growing up. Only Matthew and Luke give us the nativity, and only Luke tells this ONE story that fills the huge gap between the wise men, and Jesus turning 30 and his Baptism in the Jordan River.

I think our imaginations always run thinking of what life would be like for Jesus growing up. Imagining his poor brothers, who are always hearing their parents complain, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus!” Hard standard to live up to. My brother and sisters had it much easier.

A century after Luke wrote his Gospel, a non-Christian group called the Gnostics wrote a fraudulent account of his childhood. It’s obvious to tell it’s a fake without knowing it was written 100 years later when the 5-year-old Jesus goes around Nazareth killing all the other boys for tattling on him for making pigeons on the Sabbath or bumping into him. Not real!

Real! Luke lets us know that Jesus was 12 on this trip to Jerusalem, a trip Mary and Joseph made every year. This means that Jesus had begun his preparation to become what was known as a Son of the Covenant, because even back then, we’re told Bar Mitzvahs took place at 13.

If you don’t know what a Bar Mitzvah is, it is very similar to our service of confirmation, where you publicly claim the covenant responsibilities that may have been made for you by god/parents in youth. So, this would have been a special trip, where Joseph likely would have spent extra time showing Jesus around the temple and explaining things.

Although the Passover lasted for seven days, travelers to Jerusalem would usually only stay for the first two days for the Seder meal.

The passage also tells us that they traveled up to Jerusalem and back down to Galilee with a large enough caravan that Mary and Joseph each assumed that Jesus was with the other when they were going back. To make that a little more understandable, back then, the women and children would travel in the front of the caravan to talk amongst themselves, and the men would travel in the back of the caravan to talk, and they would only meet back together as a family at the end of the day’s travels.

Jesus being 12, and spending time preparing for the Bar Mitzvah, Mary would have assumed Jesus would have stayed with Joseph and the men, while Joseph would have assumed Jesus was with Mary and the children. Pretty easy to understand. And here is also when you can hear a bunch of funny pastor stories about leaving their kids behind at church if you listen to other pastors like I did this week preparing for this message. I never left my kids behind at church actually until I got to St. John’s, and then it really didn’t even matter.

Then Mary and Joseph got back together at the end of the night.

“I thought he was with you!” “I thought he was with you!”

They rushed back to Jerusalem, and here is the truly heart wrenching thing, don’t miss this parents. They searched around the city for THREE days. I know what it’s like in my house when a 15-year-old can’t be found for an hour, so I can’t even imagine what they were like after three days.

The last place they expected to find him was the temple. While most people left the feast to go home after the first 2 days, usually the rabbis, scholars, and theologians from all over the land would stay in Jerusalem the full 7 days of the feast to discuss theology, to talk shop.

The rabbis and teachers were all in the room buzzing back and forth, talking about their insights over the year, and to Mary and Joseph’s amazement, they find Jesus sitting in the midst of these doctors, participating in the dialogue. He’s only 12, but he’s participating. And none of the elders seems to be saying, “Go away son, you’re bothering me,” but excitedly involving him, like some child prodigy.

To be clear, Luke doesn’t say he was teaching a seminar, but listening and asking questions, and amazing everyone with his answers.

Mary calls him aside and asks Him to explain why he had caused them so much anxiety over where he could have been, and Jesus’ response tells us he was beginning to understand the calling of His Heavenly Father on His life, when he responds “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

I’ll emphasize for now that Jesus' question reflects genuine surprise and not trying to correct her. You see that in that he went obediently with them and didn’t try to pit his obligation to God and against his parents.