Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
2024 is only three days old, yet already significant things have happened in our world, and perhaps in your life or family! Is it too early to ask if early 2024 has already met your expectations or disappointed you?
Yesterday I left you with Joseph and Mary and their family settling into life back in Israel, after living as refugees in Egypt, while they hid from King Herod who was determined to kill young Jesus. I’ve often wondered how long it took for Joseph and Mary to achieve some sense of Nazareth being ‘home’ for their family and if there was ever a good relationship with Mary’s parents and perhaps other extended family in the area?
The Bible only gives us one glimpse of what life was like for them during the growing up years of Jesus. It’s found in Luke chapter 2 and is an event which happened when Jesus was 12 years old. It begins with this statement: “The Child grew and became strong and He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. Every year His parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When He was 12 years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while His parents were returning home to Nazareth, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him.” (Luke 2:40-45)
We’ve all taken trips with family and friends. We’ve all been to large gatherings with many people we know, so it should not be difficult for us to imagine Dr. Luke’s description. Passover was of course the great, annual celebration of their uniqueness as Israelites, the only people in the world called by God “My chosen people, My treasured possession.” (Ex. 19:3-6) Their ancestors had been delivered by God from bondage through great plagues and the sacrifice of a lamb with blood on the doorframes of their homes, which declared their faith in God, as the angel of death passed through Egypt, centuries before. (Exodus 12) Jews came to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire for this weeklong celebration.
I can see a large caravan of friends and extended family of Joseph and Mary walking from Nazareth to Jerusalem each year. That would have been a journey of about 75 miles by wandering gravel road, which connected many towns along the way. We can imagine the traveling group, which started from Nazareth, would have been joined in every town along the way by other groups from those towns heading to Jerusalem for Passover. Thus if you watched the approaching crowds from atop the Jerusalem walls, this road coming from the north would have appeared to be an endless river of people, animals, and carts filled with belongings, stretching as far your eyes could see. Can you imagine it?
Once arriving near Jerusalem, because Joseph and his family would be staying for several days, of course lodging and food would have been important. If they had friends in or near Jerusalem, hospitality was a high priority for all Jews, and arrangements would have been made. If not, the hillsides all around Jerusalem filled with makeshift shelters accommodating thousands of travelers, from all over Israel, all in Jerusalem for the same festive celebration, Passover. The great Temple in Jerusalem would have been the focus of everyone, every day.
I’ve often wondered if the Holy Spirit of God was stirring in young Jesus, especially this Passover when He was age 12, giving Jesus some awareness of what would take place here in this Temple area, with some of these very same people, about 18 years later when Jesus would come to Jerusalem at Passover time, with His disciples, and be crucified, giving His life as the atonement sacrifice for all humanity?
Clearly the Holy Spirit was doing something significant in young Jesus for as His family left Jerusalem after Passover, returning home to Nazareth He remained behind. Why? We find the answer in the next verses as Joseph and Mary search for Jesus in Jerusalem: “After three days Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers. When Joseph and Mary found 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? Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what Jesus was saying to them.” (Luke 2: 46-50)
How often did it happen? How often did Jesus, as an adolescent boy, stand outside looking up at the stars at night, talking to God, thinking about WHO He is, God the Son, and what His incarnation really meant for Him and for our world? By Mary’s use of the phrase “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You” she was not in any way discounting the truth that Joseph was NOT the biological father of Jesus, but rather she was affirming the fact that Joseph had taken seriously the role God had entrusted to him, to parent Jesus, and all of his children, in a God honoring and responsible manner.
The response of Jesus was not disrespectful but rather insightful, for Jesus was declaring that He was no longer a child, but now as a young man He was beginning to take seriously His deeper understanding and fulfillment of His God given Identity and Role, His Mission here on earth.
This was the first time Jesus used the phrase “My Father” to describe Almighty God as His Father. Of course, as an adult Jesus used that phrase many, many times in describing His relationship with God and that He was God sent and had a God given mission to live and fulfill. This is especially seen in John’s Gospel account of the life and ministry of Jesus.
When Jesus referred to the Temple as “My Father’s house”, He was not suggesting God Almighty was restricted to this Temple as His earthly residence, but rather Jesus was pointing back to King Solomon’s dedication of the first Temple he had constructed, when God declared “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple for sacrifices…Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this Temple so that My Name may be there forever…” (2 Chronicles 7:12,15,16)
No place on earth was more valuable or sacred to the Israelites than the Temple in Jerusalem, from the time it was first constructed in about 965bc to the time of it destruction in 586bc, and then again from the time of the second Temple’s dedication on that very same site in 515b to the time of its destruction in 70ad, 40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. These annual pilgrimages for Passover and the gathering of thousands of Jews from around the known world is beyond our comprehension in significance.
I’ve often wondered if some of those religious leaders who were discussing theology with young Jesus that day, when Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the Temple, were among those religious leaders who debated with adult Jesus and His disciples years later in this very same Temple, and then called for His crucifixion? Luke concludes this scene with these important words: “Then Jesus went to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with people.” (Luke 2:51,52)
It’s a powerful statement, isn’t it? God the Son, Jesus Christ, humbled Himself to live in submissive obedience to the human parenting of Joseph and Mary in His young years. And God honored that by growing Jesus in wisdom and stature, and Jesus earned the favor and respect of the people of Nazareth who watched Him grow up!
Go ahead, stand for a while in Joseph’s carpenter shop, watching young Jesus learn the carpentry trade from Joseph. Watch Jesus at the dinner table with a large family. Watch Jesus learning from the Nazareth Rabbi with the other Nazareth boys in the Synagogue.
The Christmas miracle of “Immanuel” was becoming the man Jesus the Messiah! As we ponder that, here’s a worship song to help us consider who each of us is becoming as we mature and grow in wisdom?
Today’s Scripture is Luke 2:40-52.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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