Scripture Notes: A Missing Boy (Luke 2)

Imagine how Mary and Joseph must have felt when they looked around their caravan for twelve-year-old Jesus and realized He was nowhere to be found. Mary herself described the feeling as one of pain and suffering and grief (what the Greek word used here actually means). She and Joseph were distressed and anxious, wondering what had become of their Son.

Three days later, when they finally found Jesus in the Temple, the relief must have washed over them like a wave, but at the same time, they wondered why. Why did Jesus do this? Mary even asked her Son that very question. Jesus response may seem odd to us: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”

The first thing we have to realize is that Jesus did not mean any disrespect with those words. He would be the last one, after all, to break the commandment about honoring His father and mother. His point lay elsewhere. Jesus already knew, even at age twelve and probably long before that, that He had a mission. He was on this earth to do something quite specific, and that mission was more important than anything else. He loved Mary and Joseph with a love we cannot even imagine, but His Father’s business would always come first. It had to.

So Jesus remained in the Temple, talking to the teachers, asking questions, listening, and responding. And those teachers were amazed. This foreshadows the amazement of Jesus’ audience years later during His public ministry when they exclaimed that He taught with authority. Jesus already would have taught with authority and deep insight even at twelve years old. While His human mind was still developing, His divine mind was perfect. He understood and expressed far more than many of the teachers in the Temple could or would grasp.

Yet when it was all said and done, Jesus returned to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them. The time was not right yet for Him to start His mission. And Mary “kept all these things in her heart,” pondering everything in faith, open to her Lord’s will in all things.