THE PASSOVER INCIDENT
LUKE 2:41-52
Did you ever stop to wonder what it would be like to be the parents of Jesus? To teach carpentry to the One who had fashioned the universe? To instruct in the Law the One who had written and who embodied the Law? How was He accepted by the other children of the village? Did the little girl who lived down the road have a crush on Him?
I do not know. The Bible tells us nothing of the life of Jesus from the time of His infancy to the beginning of His public ministry at the age of 30. There is only one exception. It comes from the pen of Luke. It took place at the time of the Passover.
A PASSOVER PILGRIMAGE
And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
And His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.
And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast (Luke 2:40-42).
At the age of 12 or 13, a Jewish boy would receive his "Bar Mitzvah" and so become a "Son of the Commandment." As such, he was now required to keep the Law of Moses as a legal and responsible adult. This included the responsibility of attending the Passover in Jerusalem.
This seems to have been the case with Jesus. Each year, He had stayed behind in Nazareth as His parents made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. For the first time, He was going with them to Jerusalem to keep the Passover.
On an appointed day, the little family packs some food and blankets and joins a caravan made up of other Galilean families. It is an 80-mile journey from the hill country of Galilee. Their route takes them down along the meandering bank of the Jordan River.
After several days, the arrive at the ancient city of Jericho. From here, they take the western road up into the hills of Judea. On this last leg of their journey, they begin to sing the "Songs of Ascents" — the ancient songs of worship found in Psalms 120-134.
Finally at the end of the day, they stand on the peak of the Mount of Olives and look down upon their final destination... Jerusalem and the Temple.
The flaming sun sinking into the west seems only to frame the magnificence of the Temple as it shines like a great gem dropped from the heavens. This is the house of the Lord. And His people have come to worship Him.
In the days that follow, the family prepares for the Feast of the Passover. A lamb is purchased and brought before the priest in the Temple. He examines it to make certain that it has no spot or blemish. It is then taken to the great altar that stands before the Temple and it is killed along with thousands of others like it, their blood flowing freely on the pavement of the Temple steps. The lifeless lamb is then taken and prepared for a meal. As evening falls in Jerusalem, the family sits and partakes of the Passover Meal.
All too soon, the day comes when it is time to leave. Joseph and Mary gather with their friends and relatives who are making the homeward trip back to Galilee. Farewells are given and returned. Finally, the travelers make their way out of crowded Jerusalem and set their path for home.
The day passes in happy memories. By nightfall, the caravan has reached Jericho. Each family gathers together for the evening meal. All but one.
A PANICKED LOSS
And as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. (Luke 2:43-44).
It is only now that Mary and Joseph discover that young Jesus is missing. Up to this point, they had assumed that He was in the caravan, accompanied by either friends or family. I can imagine their growing panic as they realize that He has been left behind. There is nothing more to be done but to turn their steps once more back to Jerusalem.
Left behind. It is bad enough for a child, but the sense of panic is much worse for the parent. There is a sense of self-recrimination. And to have lost a child in a major metropolis and in the midst of all of the traveling that was going on at this time of year made it all the worse.
A POSTPONED REUNION
And when they did not find Him, the returned to Jerusalem, looking for Him.
And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.
And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. (Luke 2:45-47).
Jesus has already been missing for a day when Mary and Joseph discover that He is not with their caravan. It takes a second day to return to Jerusalem. A third day is taken in searching through the city. Three days. The number seems to hold a special significance within the Scriptures.
For three days, the Christ Child is lost to Mary and Joseph. Certainly they fear the worst. Maybe He has been taken and sold into slavery. Or perhaps He has been beaten or killed. They look through the bazaars. They question the inn keepers. And finally, they return to the Temple.
As they enter the Court of the Gentiles, they notice a large crowd that has gathered among the colonnades. Making their way through the press, they push forward to inquire whether anyone has seen their Son.
And there, surrounded by the most notable scribes and rabbis of Israel, sits Jesus. He is not a teacher, but a learner. After all, His is only a young child. But as a learner, He is asking questions of these rabbis. And such grown-up questions! They reflect an understanding that is quite extraordinary. They are impressed by this young child prodigy who seems to have an amazing grasp of spiritual matters.
Mary and Joseph are astonished. Their son has been missing for three days and they have feared the worst. And now to find Him calmly sitting here in the temple, seemingly uncaring of the panic that He has caused. The emotions which rush through both of them are indicated in Mary’s question.
A PROVOKED OUTBURST
And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your Father and I have been anxiously looking for You." (Luke 2:48).
Can you hear the overflowing emotions of this outburst? There is such a rushing relief that it gives way to this sharp retort. Her words tell us that she has taken Jesus’ absence as a thoughtless action on His part. "How could you treat us this way?"
Her reaction is understandable. Any parent would have done the same. I can almost hear Joseph saying, "You’re grounded for the rest of your life, young man."
This brings up an interesting question. The words of Mary to Jesus clearly imply an assumption of His wrong-doing. They contain an obvious rebuke. Was Jesus wrong in His actions? Does this constitute a sinful action on His part? It would if He had been any other 12 year-old. But He was not. And because He was not, He had to be obedient to a higher authority.
In the heat of the moment, Mary and Joseph had made the mistake of forgetting just who Jesus really was. After all, He didn’t walk around with a halo on His head all the time. He seemed to them to be just an average boy. True, he was bright and exceptionally well-behaved. And they probably attributed that to their own good parenting skills (although I wonder if such thoughts may have been challenged by his younger brothers). They had forgotten His true heritage and now he gently reminds them.
A PARENTAL APPEAL
And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" (Luke 2:49).
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Scholars have wrestled with this narrative and have come up with a number of suggestions. The answer of Jesus teaches us that Jesus was right and deliberate in His actions because He was acting in obedience to His Heavenly Father. |
These are the first recorded words of Jesus. They are words which indicate His unique mission in life. There are two aspects that we should note from His statement.
Jesus had an awareness of his true heritage. This awareness did not come fully formed. When the shepherds came to see Him, He did not say, "Hello guys, I see that the angels gave you the announcement concerning my birth." He did not thank the magi for the gold, frankincense and myrrh. But as He grew and developed, there also grew within Him a gradual understanding of who He really was — the Son of God.
This is only the first of a long line of events in which Jesus will HAVE TO do certain things and go certain places.
"I MUST preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 4:43).
"Zaccheus... I MUST stay at your house" (Luke 19:5).
"And He HAD to pass through Samaria" (John 4:4).
"Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He MUST go to Jerusalem, and suffer..." (Matthew 16:21).
"The Son of Man MUST be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again" (Luke 24:7).
"He MUST rise again from the dead" (John 20:9).
Do you see the implications of this? The entire life of Jesus from His birth to His death and resurrection was foreordained.
He was born to die. The Child King was destined for a cross. He was the Son of God, but He came to be a Suffering Servant. The Lion of the tribe of Judah came to be the sacrificial lamb that was to be slain.
And even as He stood here in the Temple at the age of 12, He knew of this mission. It was why He had been born. It was His destiny.
A PASSIVE OBEDIENCE
And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them.
And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them. (Luke 2:50-51a).
Even though Jesus realized that He was the Son of God, He did not use this realization to circumvent the authority of His parents.
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This is the last time that Joseph is mentioned in Luke’s narrative. He seems to have disappeared from the scene by the time Jesus enters public ministry. We can only surmise that he had died at sometime during the interim. |
He continued in subjection to them. This obedience was NOT conditional. He did not say, "I’ll go back to Nazareth with you as soon as you come to understand the doctrine that I have been teaching." Instead, He responds in complete subjection to their authority.
Just think, the God of the universe became obedient. When His parents sent Him to bed, He did not argue. He took out the garbage without being told eighteen times. He had a bedtime and observed it accordingly. And one day, He would be obedient to the point of death - even the death of the cross.
The point that we must see here is that Jesus had been obedient, not only in returning with His parents to Nazareth, but in remaining behind in Jerusalem in the first place. He had been obedient to the calling and the direction and the business of His Heavenly Father.
We are called to the same kind of obedience. We are called to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For some this might mean parental authority. For wives this means the authority of a husband. For students this means the authority of a teacher. For employees this means the authority of an employer. For citizens this means the authority of their government. We are all under some type of authority.
But there also comes a time when we are called to obedience to a higher authority. The call of God supersedes all earthly authority. When earthly authority calls us to do something contrary to the Word of God, then we are to obey God rather than men IN THAT SPECIFIC AREA.
A PERCEIVED TREASURE
...and His mother treasured all these thing in her heart. (Luke 2:51b).
This is the second time that we have seen this formula. The same thing was told to us when the shepherds came from the fields with their story of and angelic host and an announcing sign of the birth of a Savior. The shepherds had demonstrated an immediate reaction. They had spread the news all throughout the country side of what they had heard and what they had seen. But Mary did not. In Luke 2:19, we read that she treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Twelve years have passed and now she is doing the same. She is not running about Nazareth bragging about her son. She is quietly treasuring up these truths and meditating upon them. And when the appropriate time comes, she will share them with a Greek physician by the name of Luke.
A PERSISTENT GROWTH
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God an men. (Luke 2:52).
We believe that Jesus was deity incarnate; God become flesh. And yet, He was born as a helpless baby and now had to learn and grow and develop. The Bible calls this a mystery. Theologians have tried to ponder its depths. Paul explains it in this way.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8).
What does it mean that He "emptied Himself"? On the one had, it cannot mean that He ceased to be God, for throughout His life He demonstrated the divine attributes. At the same time, He did things that God does not do.
It these things we can see that He emptied Himself of the glory that was His. He became obedient and He who was fully God also became fully man.
What does this mean for us? It means that we pray to One who experienced all of the things that we experience. Pimples. Jealous siblings. The schoolyard bully. Having to learn a difficult concept. Nosy neighbors. Being the subject of gossip or slander. Weariness of body and soul. Betrayal.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15).
The story is told of a man who applied for a job in a zoo. The manager said, "We don’t have any normal job openings, but our gorilla died recently and we haven’t been able to obtain another one. You can have a job if you are willing to wear a gorilla suit and stay in the gorilla cage."
The man realized that this wasn’t much of a job, but he had been out of work for a while and it did provide all the bananas he could eat and he decided to take it. Over the next few days, it got to be rather fun, climbing the tree that was in the cage, shaking the bars and roaring at the people who came to look at him.
One day, as he was climbing up the tree in his cage, the branch on which he was swinging broke. To his horror, he fell into the lion cage. As he scrambled to his feet, he saw the lion leap across the cage toward him. Terrified, he began clawing at the bars and screaming, "Let me out! Let me out!" As the lion loomed over him, it leaned over and whispered, "Be quiet or we’ll both be out of a job."
You need to know that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah has put on flesh and blood and entered into the cage of man. He experienced everything that we experience (minus the sin). And that means He understands and empathizes with you in whatever you are going through. Go to Him. He has been there and done that. And He is able to hear and to understand.
But that is not all. We also need to learn from His experience with growth that we share a similar growing experience. Just because you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and are a Christian does not mean that you are at the end of your growing journey. You are only at the beginning. The Christian life involves GROWTH. We are to grow as He grew — in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.