After the child Jesus has been presented to the Lord in the temple, the only information we are given about Him until He reaches the age of twelve is that He “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Lk. 2:40). Are we to take from this scant information that nothing much happened in those twelve years? Actually, upon closer examination, there are a few things we can derive from this short passage that tell us quite a bit about Jesus’ childhood.
Let’s begin by exploring the significance of Jesus’ age itself. Let’s recall, biblically-speaking, the number twelve symbolizes perfection (as in the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve disciples, etc.). By specifying Jesus’ age as twelve, the evangelist Luke is drawing the reader to view Jesus—and His astonishing behavior at the temple which confounds His own parents—as perfect.
Perhaps by presenting us with a scene in which Jesus is still a child, just shy of reaching Jewish “adulthood” (age thirteen), Scripture is showing us just how “strong” and “wise” Jesus has grown in His twelve years of earthly life. Any other twelve-year-old would have been terrified, having been lost and separated from His parents, His family, and His friends. Jesus was all alone in an enormous city, far from His tiny, quiet, happy, sheltered corner in Nazareth. There would have been soldiers and thieves and prostitutes and all sorts of menacing people walking around the busy streets of Jerusalem. But this little boy knew just where to go. He went home—to His “Father’s house” (Lk. 2:49).
Even at the age of twelve, Jesus would not have felt terrified at all. He would have retained His peace because the “favor” of His Father was “upon” Him. He would have looked at every tax collector, every prostitute, and every soldier with eyes of love and pity that said, “I am coming for you soon. You are mine.”
And so, to His Father’s house Jesus went, to “listen” and “ask” questions of the teachers that surely must have prompted them to think. These teachers would have been able to explain the law of Moses like the back of their hands, but Jesus would have been preparing their hearts to learn the law of mercy.
Next, Scripture tells us that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem “each year…according to festival custom” (Lk. 2:41-42). Joseph and Mary didn’t pack up their bags to make a three-day journey on foot because this was their vacation; it was a pilgrimage. And while it would have brought the family joy to worship God in this way, they’d also have been happy to worship in their own hometown, without having to set off on an arduous journey. The fact that Scripture tells us that the family went “according to festival custom,” emphasizes that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph chose to go out of obedience. Before even getting into the perplexing details of Jesus’ disappearance from His parents’ view, Scripture is telling us that the story we are about to hear has absolutely nothing to with the rebellious behavior of a willful preteen.
After three days of searching, Joseph and Mary finally find their “lost” son in the temple. Can we even imagine what must have been going through their minds? Actually, we don’t have to imagine, because Scripture tells us that they were “astonished.” Perhaps some of their astonishment was the same as that of the teachers who listened to Jesus speak incredible words of wisdom in the temple. But no doubt a great deal of their astonishment also had to do with what escapes next from Mary’s lips:
Son, why have you done this to us? (Lk. 2:48)
Although Mary would never have suspected her divine son of disobedience—she would have known that His pure heart was incapable of such an offense—she certainly does not understand His behavior now. Admittedly, Jesus’ actions are difficult to explain without factoring in the normal rebellious spirit that is often the case for any child on the cusp of adolescence. But if we look at the passage a little more closely, we see that no part of Jesus’ action was “rebellious,” because it was not He who left His parents. It was they who left Him:
As they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. THINKING that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him… (Lk. 2:44-45)
It is certain that Jesus, who would never have disobeyed His mother (even setting in motion His public ministry at her behest, though His “hour had not yet come” [Jn. 2:4]), would have joined His parents in the caravan for the journey back home…if He had been instructed to go. The fact is, when Mary and Joseph thought Jesus was in the caravan, it is because they had assumed that He was.
Mary was distracted as she caught up with friends and relatives whom she hadn’t seen since last year’s festival. Perhaps Jesus had been hanging around with friends and cousins His own age, and His parents thought to give Him a little space and independence on the journey back home. There are several different legitimate scenarios that could explain why it took a full day for Joseph and Mary to notice that Jesus was not with them. But whatever the reason, once they realize that their son is missing, their anguish overwhelms them.
When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” (Lk. 2:48)
Mary’s first reaction is to ask her son, “Why have you done this to us?” It is a question that is coming not from her usual peaceful, pondering heart, but from a place of “great anxiety.” Her anguish began from the moment she realized that Jesus was not in the caravan, but it would have escalated after three full days of searching. Our Blessed Mother, full of grace though she was, was still a mom. And Mary’s “great anxiety” over the loss of her son does not prove to us that she is of weak faith. It only proves that her maternal heart can understand and sympathize with our own.
They did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. (Lk. 2:50-51)
Of course, after this intensely stressful episode, Mary goes back to doing what she does best: she ponders. She reflects with the Lord in the silence of her heart, where peace is restored and clarity regained. What she “did not understand” before in her state of great anxiety she comes to understand now in her state of profound peace: her boy Jesus must be in His Father’s house, doing the will of His Father who sent Him.
Author’s Note: Adapted from: 26 Steps With the Mother of God: A Treatise on the Life of Mary: Holbrook, M.C.: 9798272524393: Amazon.com: Books.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
