The Boy Jesus

July 12, 2020 Background Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1 – 15; Luke 2:39 – 52 Lesson Passage: Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7b; Luke 2:39 –52 Luke was the historian among the four writers of the Gospel accounts. Today’s lesson is an example of why that is important. Luke, more so than the other three writers, humanized Jesus for us. He provides more details about his family life and social interactions. In the lesson text, we have the only recorded glimpse of Jesus as a pre-teen boy. The text opens and closes by emphasizing Jesus’ growth in wisdom and God’s favor throughout his childhood. The body of the text helps us to understand this. God entrusted Jesus’ upbringing to godly parents, Joseph and Mary. Although they were poor, they did what the Law required of them every year. They did not send Jesus on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem; they carried him there. They demonstrated respect and adherence to the Law of God as an example Jesus and his younger siblings could follow. The family traveled with a larger family group for the pilgrimage. This reinforced the principle of the Jewish tribal alliances—or better known today as “the village”. A trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem would have required several days of travel. This was very likely a fun trip for the young people in the extended family. This would have very tightly interwoven the family’s tradition with the family’s religious faith. This is one of the reasons it is very difficult to separate some families’ heritage from their religious faith. Jesus was obviously raised in such an environment since the family made this journey every year. By the age of twelve, although Jesus was reared in Nazareth, Jesus is comfortable enough moving around in Jerusalem that he doesn’t feel the need to be within sight of his parents. That’s remarkable seeing that we are talking about a twelve-year-old child. Even more remarkable is that this twelve-year-old boy is comfortable being inside of the temple without his parents being present. And it gets better. At the age of twelve, Jesus placed himself amid the teachers and was asking them questions as he listened to them. Apparently, what they taught from the word of God and the oral traditions of the Jewish people piqued his interest. The questions Jesus asked would have indicated his level of understanding of what was being taught. But the teachers were also astonished at his answers. I don’t know if he did this for three days but that is how long it took his parents to locate him. They had looked for him among the extended family after traveling a day’s journey from Jerusalem. Again, this indicates their level of comfort within their extended family that they could go a day without seeing their twelve-year-old boy without worrying. This also suggests that he was the type of twelve-year-old boy that they did not have to worry about. They missed him after one day and then sought him for two days. Jesus went three days without seeing his parents and survived it without panicking. He was not found on the trail leading back to Nazareth but rather in the temple in Jerusalem. He did not ask them why they had left him. He wanted to know why they were looking for him. He thought it would be obvious to them that he would be in the temple learning about his Father. Jesus submitted himself to his parents and returned to Nazareth with them. Thanks to Luke, now we know about the boy Jesus! Robert C. Hudson June 22, 2020