When Mary and Joseph found Jesus in Jerusalem, He was in the temple asking questions of the teachers. This daily devotional looks at why Jesus was where God wanted Him to be and why He went back to Nazareth with His family.
Nuggets
- While Mary and Joseph were on the way home to Nazareth, Jesus was in the Bible school at the temple.
- Jesus was exactly where God wanted Him to be.
- Jesus went back to Nazareth and submitted Himself to obeying Mary and Joseph.
Devotions in the Passover Trip to Jerusalem series
Finding Jesus
Why in the world would Jesus stay in Jerusalem when He knew that Mary and Joseph were leaving? Well, He had his reasonings. Let’s look.
Let's Put It into Context
“After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it” (Lk. 2: 43 CSB)
Mary and Joseph had gone to the Passover Festival and taken the 12-year-old Jesus. Everything went smoothly until the trip home.
The caravan left without Jesus. They went up to 20 miles without missing Him.
Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem to look for Jesus.
Reunited with Jesus
“After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers” (Lk 2: 46-47 CSB)
While Mary and Joseph were on the way home to Nazareth, Jesus was in the Bible school at the temple.
I am sure Mary and Joseph were looking in perfectly acceptable places. They probably started with the place they stayed. They would have gone to other friends and family members’ homes.
It is easy to armchair coach and say, “Well, why didn’t You start there?” I doubt I would have started at the temple.
However, it is logical that Jesus would have been at the temple. He would have been home there. We don’t know how much He remembered of Heaven, but He did know He was God’s Son. If nothing else, Mary would have told Him that.
But look at what Jesus was doing. He wasn’t praying. He wasn’t singing and worshiping.
Jesus was at the Bible school. He was there to learn.
What?! The Son of God having to learn????
Trumbull addressed that. He wrote, “Although He was the Son of God, He felt the need of Bible study; and, feeling that need, He went into the Bible school, where the need could be met. If there is a man nowadays who thinks that he doesn’t need Bible study, or that it is beneath his dignity to be in the Bible school, he either seems to suppose that he knows more than Jesus knew, or he seems to count it hardly safe to be on the same plane with the Son of God.”
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In a way it amazes me that the teachers would have put up with three days of questions from Someone Who was not their student. Wouldn’t they have questioned any child being there for three days? I am sure it wasn’t a common occurrence — someone wanting to go to school that wasn’t supposed to be there.
It probably went on for such an extended time because Jesus fascinated them. “And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers” (Lk 2: 41-47 CSB). I bet this was especially true if this was the first time Jesus would have been considered old enough to attend Passover.
It makes us wonder if the teachers were questioning how Someone so knowledgeable could have come out of Nazareth. I mean, they were the teachers in THE temple. How would other teachers know more than they did?
But they were teachers. We are instructed to grow. “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ …” (II Pet. 3: 18 NLT).
Even Jesus was expected to grow. We do know from our recent study of Isaiah that it was prophesied that the Christ Child would grow.
- “Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit” (Isa. 11: 1 CSB).
- “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53: 2 ESV) .
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Growing takes place inside and outside of our homes. Outside growth means we are also to make sure they are engaged in corporate worship. Trumbull wrote, “Prayer and praise and reverence and devotion, and obedience and right being and right doing in all things at home, and worship and attentive hearing in the House of God, are duties which parents ought to see that their children attend to.”
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Trumbull’s brief words give us a good snapshot of Jesus’ character. He does have a holy disposition. William of Auvergne wrote, “A holy disposition is the source and fountain of all goodness: the soft wax out of which is moulded the image of love, purity, obedience (James 3:17).”
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I know. How can Jesus Who is also God grow to know Himself better? I think the obvious answer is that He had to be the example for us. We had to show us how we are to grow.
I think the other part is that things were not as they were. Jesus is no longer in Heaven with God.
Jesus still wanted to communicate with God. He could no longer do it “face to face” — whatever that entailed.
That brings up a great point. How do we grow closer to God when we don’t feel as close to God?
We do what Trumbull said.
- Prayer
- Praise
- Reverence
- Devotion
- Obedience
- Right being and right doing in all things at home
- Worship and attentive hearing in the House of God
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We will always learn something. One of my Ladies explained it perfectly once. She said that, yes, we may be reading the same words for the umpteenth time. But we are different people this time. They mean something different to us.
Clark brought up a good point. Jesus was showing humility, allowing the recognized teachers of this world to teach Him.
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I am sure, though, that it was a two-way street. He was teaching them in His answers.
Why Was It Necessary for Jesus to be in His Father’s House?
“When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’ ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked them. ‘Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them” (Lk 2: 48-50 CSB)
Jesus was exactly where God wanted Him to be.
I don’t know what I would say to Adam if he had been missing three days when he was 12. It might have been some version of “How could you do this to us?”
Longwill reminded us that just because our kids may be mini me’s, it doesn’t mean they don’t have different interests. They are their own persons.
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Some of us might question why this whole incident wasn’t considered a sin. The fifth commandment says, “Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Ex. 20: 12 CSB).
I think this falls under the two greatest commandments. “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (Mt. 22: 36-40 ESV).
In Elaine speak, what this is telling us is that, whenever we come across a dilemma, we should resolve it by loving God and doing His Will. That does not give us a license to sin, but neither does that allow us to not do what He is telling us.
It is easy to start biting on Mary. Shouldn’t she have remembered that Jesus was just on loan to her from Sovereign God?
Brooks thought Mary’s response was typical of someone who had been entrusted a great responsibility. The response is especially expected when the person is as conscientious as Mary appeared.
Some of us get lost in the jobs we are supposed to do, don’t we? We can’t separate ourselves from it.
Brooks explained it this way. He wrote, “Such people are people who have realized responsibility more than they have realized God.” Ouch.
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We put more emphasis on our actions and our abilities than for Whom we are performing the tasks. Simply, we take our focus off God.
We can get where Mary was coming from at that point. Yes, Jesus was right where He should be in His Father’s house. No, He shouldn’t have stayed without telling them.
All Mary saw was it wasn’t Jesus’ time – yet. He was only 12. Ministry started when you were 30. He had 18 to continue to grow — under her tutelage.
We have to realize God is Sovereign Lord of the kids, too. He doesn’t ignore them until they are 30 and ministry age. He can — and will — use them if it furthers His kingdom.
I think we had to have been there to see if Jesus was talking back to Mary or trying to ease her mind. “‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked them. ‘Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?’” (Lk. 2: 49 CSB).
This just popped into my head. I wonder if, up until this time, Jesus was basically being a normal kid. He wasn’t focused on His future.
But on this trip, by seeing and being in the temple, Jesus really committed to completing the Plan of Salvation. Everything He did from here on out was preparation for His ministry.
I wonder if that is why this is included in the Scriptures. Jesus had a choice. Was He going to complete the Plan of Salvation or not?
God wanted us to see where Jesus chose His plan. Yeah, starting His ministry at 30 was the act of starting His ministry.
But God wanted us to see that, right before Jesus reached adulthood, He chose to be the Suffering Savior.
Still, Jesus Went Back Home
“Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them …” (Lk 2: 51 CSB)
Jesus went back to Nazareth. He submitted Himself to obeying Mary and Joseph.
It seems a little strange that in one verse Jesus is saying He is right where He is supposed to be and the next verse He goes back to where He was.
I think this is where obey Your parents comes into play. I think Jesus also realized He needed to finish growing.
Probably, what is meant here is much deeper than the simple words. Jesus was going home to learn more about what human domestic life was all about.
Let’s face it. When we are kids in single digits, we don’t look around us and evaluate what is happening except how it impacts us.
We have to grow up to see how the home runs. We can then start really looking at family relationships. Then we start learning about relationships outside of the family structure.
I love what Brooke said. He wrote, “He gives no sanction to the error of those who think that in separation from all domestic and social ties they can live more purely and worship God with a more entire devotion; that a systematic contempt for all the bonds which bind mother to son, and wife to husband, is a proof of the highest spirituality; whose spiritual religion consists in a denial of the natural piety of the heart, and whose efforts for a reformation of human nature are founded on a denial of human nature.”
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We can’t separate ourselves totally from the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world. That means we are to grow to have the human nature that God has given us while giving up the human nature Satan wants us to have.
Wordsworth brought up a good point. He wrote, “The only acts recorded of Christ’s childhood are acts of obedience — to God His heavenly Father, also to His earthly parents.”
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That is what Jesus’ life was all about. He submitted to His parents and fulfilled the laws and commandments.
Jesus submitted to His Father and saved us from being separated from God.
Making the Connections
Trumbull said it best. He wrote, “Jesus won the favour of man by seeking the favour of God.”
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Jesus couldn’t have been the Messiah aligned with the religious machine of the day. He was here to right what was wrong.
All His life, Jesus showed how God wants us to be. We are to be obedient and submissive — always to God, sometimes to others.
How Do We Apply This?
It is easy to lose Jesus. When we start focusing on this world, we let Him slip away.
We find Jesus by searching for Him and seeking Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
We always know where we are going to find Jesus — in the temple. We find Him by repenting.
Loving Father. Forgive us when we take our eyes off of You. Forgive us when we value this world over our relationships with Jesus. Lead us back to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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