Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Luke 2:41-52
I find it comforting that Luke should have chosen this one incident from Jesus' childhood to illustrate the special quality Jesus had, even as a boy (Biblical Authorities place his age at about 12). I suspect, however, that Luke has glossed over what REALLY happened. Mary and Joseph were probably furious as well as "astonished." In my house, he might have been grounded for his response alone: “Why did you have to look for me?” (translation "How could you have been so stupid?") Yes, Jesus was as human as a 12-year-old, a 12-year-old who was just beginning to define himself as an individual separate from his family. It's there in the Bible! Teenagers are teenagers across the ages!
This story helps me as I raise my children, to see in each of them a person IN THE PROCESS of becoming what God intends. It is my duty to nurture and guide them, but they belong to God and His will for them may not be mine. An itinerant rabbi is probably not what Jesus' parents would have chosen for him. God had other plans.
Charlotte Fischer (1990)
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