Why God Made Moms Series

As they did every year, verse 42 records that the year that Jesus was twelve Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem according to custom of the Feast. The trip from Nazareth was an arduous one of about eighty miles, lasting three or four days. They did not travel alone, but with a large company of people in a caravan (v. 44). The journey would be a three- or four-day affair, as the caravan would make around twenty miles a day (Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke Volume 1: 1:1–9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (264). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.).

To journey to Jerusalem in a group offered both the opportunity for fellowship and protection from the threat of highway robbers. Such caravans would also include children, since the rabbis taught that Passover should be a family celebration (cf. Ex. 12:26–27).

Motherhood is a family celebration for it has tremendous impact on a family. Elements of planning, care, compassion, and direction having a bearing upon and impact every member of the family.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus would have found the city teeming with hundreds of thousands of fellow pilgrims, who would have been trying to find lodging and a place to celebrate the Passover meal, along with purchasing their sacrificial animals. The city would have been filled with the noise of hundreds of thousands of sheep, which the priests would have been busy butchering. Beggars, no doubt decked out in their most ragged clothes, would have been out in force. Roman soldiers would have been on patrol, jostling with the crowds and trying to keep some semblance of order. Joseph would have taken the family’s lamb to be sacrificed, and one can only imagine what went through Jesus’ mind, knowing that He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The whole frenetic scene in Jerusalem must have made a profound impression on Him.

This particular Passover was especially significant for Jesus. Jewish boys became accountable to the law of God at thirteen, a transition later marked by the ceremony known as Bar Mitzvah (“son of the law” or “covenant”). The last couple of Passovers before a boy turned thirteen were particularly important in preparing him for his responsibility to the law.

In verse 43, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were returning to Nazareth. The seeming aside that Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem when the feast was ended/after spending the full number of days there is actually another affirmation of their devotion to the things of God. In contrast to most people, who stayed for only part of the eight-day celebration, Joseph and Mary stayed the entire time.

The same standard applies in godliness to moms. Is you objective to fulfill was seems to be the minimum requirement for you and your family, or do you seek to maximize your devotion?

Instead of returning with the others, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Nothing was said to His parents, who did not know/were unaware of it, [44] but supposing Him to be in the group/caravan. In a large ‘caravan’ (Rieu) parents might well not know where a child was. If the later practice was followed, the women and small children went ahead and the men followed with the bigger boys. Joseph and Mary may each have thought that Jesus was with the other (Morris, L. (1988). Vol. 3: Luke: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (108). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)