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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 2:41

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Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

41 52. The Passover Visit to the Temple

41. his parents ] The great Rabbi Hillel had recommended women to attend the Passover. It was not enjoined by the Law, but the Jews admired it as a pious practice. ( Mechilta, f. 17. 2 in Schttgen.)

at the feast of the passover ] Exo 23:15-17; Deu 16:1-16. The custom of going up three times a year seems long to have fallen into abeyance with most Jews. 1Sa 1:21, “the yearly sacrifice.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Luk 2:41-42

And when He was twelve years old.

Making a Jewish boy a son of the Law

The following description refers to ceremonies now practised:–A few days ago I attended a very interesting service in a Jewish synagogue. A boy just twelve years old was brought by his father to be admitted as a member of the synagogue; there were present the parents of the boy, his brothers and sisters, his friends, and some few strangers. After several ceremonies had been performed, the priests read a portion of the law in Hebrew; the boy then stepped forward to the desk or platform, near the centre of the building, and read from a roll of parchment, in a clear distinct voice, a short psalm. A pause ensued, and then the old man addressed the boy in a few brief sentences, telling him that he had attained to years of discretion, and knew the difference between right and wrong, great responsibility rested on him; that it was his duty to follow the good and shun the evil; that it became him to show that the instruction he had received had not been given in vain; that he must diligently practise that which he knew to be right; be obedient to his parents, kind and affectionate to his brothers and sisters, charitable to those who needed his help, and faithful to the religion he had been instructed in. Then, placing his hand on the boys head, he prayed earnestly that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, would bless the lad, would preserve him from danger and from sin, and make him a wise and good man, if he should be spared to enjoy length of days; or, if his life should be short, that he might be admitted to the presence of God in heaven. (Biblical Things not Generally Known.)

The Holy Family on pilgrimage

Every year they went up to Jerusalem. Very pleasant must their journey have been. Very different was it from the journeys we make in this Western isle. No wide road led from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The eighty miles of ground that stretched between the village and the city was only crossed by narrow paths. The journey had to be made on foot. Here and there would be a mule carrying some one too feeble to walk the whole distance. Each village on the route would furnish its little cluster of pilgrims, and as the new-comers mingled with those who were already in the pilgrim band, pleasant would be the greetings passing from one to another. We can picture them to ourselves as they wind through the valleys and at times cross the brow of a projecting hill. We can hear their voices raised in song, raised so that the hills resound, and the awakened echoes bid you think that the mountains are clapping their hands for joy. You perhaps have noticed in the Psalms as they are given in the Bible, here and there, the heading, Song of Degrees. They are the psalms which the pilgrims sang at they stepped along–processional hymns we might call them. Turn to two of them (Psa 122:1-9.) and see how wonderfully fitting are their words for that exulting singing which the pilgrims would encourage one another to give utterance to. We can well imagine Psa 122:1-9, being sung by the pilgrims when first the walls and palaces of the Holy City appeared in sight. The Gospel tells that when Jesus was twelve years old He was for the first time taken by His parents on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You may be sure that He would take a boys delight in the journey. It was one which would enable Him to open His eyes upon His Fathers beautiful world, and to see beyond the blue mountains which always seemed so mysterious in the distance as He looked upon them from the vale of Nazareth. We may be sure that He would be on the look-out with all a boys eagerness, for the first view of the distant towers of the Holy City. He would enjoy, too, the companionship of the other pilgrim-boys. There were, as the story itself tells us, many of His kinsfolk among the pilgrim band, and He would pass from one group to another, and be welcomed by all whom He approached. When the solemn days at Jerusalem were ended, the company of pilgrims started back for their homes. The Child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. You all know how Joseph and Mary sought Him. I will not now ask you to contemplate the scene in the Temple portico, where He was at length discovered. It is a scene of great beauty, and one on which the thoughts of Christian teachers and Christian artists have reverently pondered ever since it has been described on the Gospel page. But the story of our Lords pilgrimage is one on which our thoughts may well rest, one which we may well take to our homes and ponder over. We have in it an example set which we should never lose sight of. When twelve years old, children were considered old enough to go with their parents to the great worship of the whole year at Jerusalem. The way of the pilgrimage was made glad with songs such as would stir the young heart. In our Christian services, too, we ought to think of children just as did the dwellers in the Holy Land, in their Jewish Services. Again, all life long we should be conscious that we are but sojourners and pilgrims upon earth. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (H. N. Grimley, M. A.)

Important things wrought silently and secretly

You have, perhaps, seen a beautiful rose, soon after it has unfolded its blossom. You looked at it yesterday, as you passed it in the garden, or watered it in the window, and it was only a rosebud, a little knot of fragrant petals, wrapped up together and clinging to one another. You visit it to-day, and you find that during the night a change has taken place. The knot has untied itself, the petals have separated from one another, and now form, not a knot, but a little cup, in which are some drops of the morning dew, a cup more delicately tinted than the finest porcelain, and breathing forth delicious odours. The rose has just opened its breast to the sun. But how long a time has it taken to bring about this result! First, there was the planting the root, which lay under the soil all the winter, and showed no sign of life. But though it showed no sign of life, it was not dead. Nursed for a time by the warmth and moisture of the earth, it was bursting underground; and in the spring it pushed up a little green sprout, which very gradually became a stem, and the stem grew taller every day, and at length a bud formed as the crown of it. And the bud swelled and swelled day by day, and at length one morning you found it with its breast open as I have described. And all this was done quite secretly, without any noise to call attention to it. Now, in the Song of Solomon, our Lord, speaking of Himself by the mouth of the prophet, calls Himself the Rose of Sharon. And in Isaiah it is foretold of Christ, He shall grow up before Him (i.e., before God)

as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. And this opening of the rose is something like the opening of our Lords human soul, when He reached the age of twelve. Up to that period the Gospel history is quite silent as to anything thought, or said, or done by Him. No doubt much was going on in His human mind; no doubt He had many thoughts and feelings, all of them holy, pure, and beautiful, the exact model of what a childs thoughts and feelings ought to be; but God has screened them from us, and not been pleased to tell us what they were. At twelve years old, however, the bud unfolds itself; our blessed Lord becomes fully conscious who He is; and we hear Him speaking and calling God His Father, and are allowed a glimpse into His mind and thoughts. And what beautiful fragrant thoughts they are! Do not estimate the importance of events, then, by the noise they make in the world. The events which startle us most are not always those of greatest consequence. Men often stare and gaze at that which is the least worthy of attention. What is it, think you, which interests the holy angels most? a great battle? a great triumph? the fall of a great city or a great empire? Rather it is the growth and progress of Gods kingdom in the hearts of single persons–the battle against sin which this man is fighting in Christs strength, the triumph over sin which that man is winning by Christs grace; in a word, the inner life of men, the life of the immortal spirit–not that life which is acted in history, and related by historians. And the better and holier we become, the more shall we be interested in what interests God and holy angels. (Dean Goulburn.)

On the way to Jerusalem

The herdsmen of Nazareth were ignorant and poor; still they complied with the law, and at ]east once every year went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. In the procession on one such occasion there was a family, the head of which was a plain, serious-looking middle-aged man, with whom the world has since become acquainted as Joseph. His wife, Mary, was then about twenty-seven years of age, gentle, modest, sweet-spoken, of fair complexion, with eyes of violetblue, and hair half brown, half gold. She rode a donkey. James, Joses, Simon, and Jude, full-grown sons of Joseph, walked with their father. A child of Mary, twelve years old, walked near her. It is not at all likely that the group attracted Special attention from their fellow-travellers. The peace of the Lord be with you! they would say in salute, and have return in kind. More than eighteen hundred years have passed since that obscure family made that pious pilgrimage. Could they come back and make it now, the singing, shouting, and worship that would go with them would be without end; not Solomon, in all his glory, nor Caesar, nor any, or all of the modern kings, would have such attendance. Let us single out the Boy, that we may try to see Him as He was–afoot like His brethren, small, growing, and therefore slender. His attire was simple: on His head a white handkerchief, held in place by a cord, one corner turned under at the forehead, the other corners loose. A tunic, also white, covered Him from neck to knees, girt at the waist. His arms and legs were bare; on his feet were sandals of the most primitive kind, being soles of ox-hide attached to the ankles by leathern straps. He carried a stick that was much taller than Himself. The old painters, called upon to render this childish figure on canvas, would have insisted upon distinguishing it with a nimbus at least; some of them would have filled the air over its head with cherubs; some would have had the tunic plunged into a pot of madder: the very courtierly amongst them would have blocked the way of both mother and son with monks and cardinals. The Boys face comes to me very clearly. I imagine Him by the roadside on a rock which He has climbed, the better to see the procession winding picturesquely through the broken country. His head is raised in an effort at far sight. The light of an intensely brilliant sun is upon His countenance, which in general cast is oval and delicate. Under the folds of the handkerchief I see the forehead, covered by a mass of projecting sunburned blond hair, which the wind has taken liberties with and tossed into tufts. The eyes are in shade, leaving a doubt whether they are in brown, or violet like His mothers; yet they are large and healthfully clear, and still retain the parallelism of arch between brow and upper lid, usually the characteristic of children and beautiful women. The nose is of regular inward curve, joined prettily to a short upper lip by nostrils just full enough to give definition to transparent shadows in the corners. The mouth is small, and open slightly, so that through the scarlet freshness of its lines I catch a glimpse of two white teeth. The cheeks are ruddy and round, and only a certain squareness of chin tells of years this side the day the Magi laid their treasures at His feet. Putting face and figure together, and mindful of the attitude of interest in what is passing before Him, the Lad as I see Him on the rock is handsome and attractive. When the journey shall have ended, and His mother made Him ready for the court of the Temple, He may justify a more worshipful description; we may then see in Him the promise of the Saviour of men in the comeliness of budding youth, His sad destiny yet far in the future. (Author of Ben Hur.)

The silence of Scripture instructive

There is inspiration in the silence of Scripture. The Holy Spirit records only this one incident in the life of Jesus from His infancy to the beginning of His ministry. He thus teaches that quietness and modesty are the best ornaments of youth. And by the special character of this one incident which He has chosen to record, He teaches that the first duty of children is to resort to God, in His House, and in His appointed means of religious instruction and grace; and the second, to be subject to parents and others who are over them in the Lord. (Bishop Chris. Wordsworth.)

Religious training

As soon as the Child Jesus was old enough to join in public worship, His parents took Him with them to the Temple. It was not enough to set Him a good example. They proposed to train Him in the right way. Whatever a child ought to do, his parents ought to see that he does do. If he likes to do it, so much the better. If he does not like to do it, so much the more need is there that his parents should make him do it. 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. If the children fail in these things, the parents cannot count themselves free of responsibility of blame. (H. C. Trumbull.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 41. His parents went – every year] This was their constant custom, because positively enjoined by the law, Ex 23:17. But it does not appear that infants were obliged to be present; and yet all the men-children are positively ordered to make their appearance at Jerusalem thrice in the year, Ex 34:23. And our Lord, being now twelve years old, Lu 2:42, accompanies his parents to the feast. Probably this was the very age at which the male children were obliged to appear before the Lord at the three public festivals – the feast of unleavened bread, of weeks, and of tabernacles. According to the Jewish canons, it was the age at which they were obliged to begin to learn a trade.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The law of God enjoined all the males of the Israelites to appear at Jerusalem before him three times each year, of which the feast of unleavened bread was one; but the women seem not to have been all under the same obligation, but many of them went, of which Mary was one, but we read not of Christs going till he was twelve years old. Some think that the women used to go once in a year, we read that Elkanahs wife went, 1Sa 1:5-7, but whether they generally did so or not the Scripture saith not. One thing is observable: the Pharisees, and scribes, and priests had in those days much corrupted the worship of God by their traditions, yet they retained the substance of Gods institutions; we find both our Saviour and his disciples, and other people of God, not wholly forsaking the Jewish church because of its corruptions, yet we cannot think they joined with them in any thing of their will worship; from whence we may learn a tenderness as to a total separation from a church, and the lawfulness of attending divine ministrations, though attended with usages which we approve not of, provided there be no idolatry in the service.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year,…. Joseph was obliged to go three times a year, as were all the males in Israel, at the feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles,

De 16:16. The first of these is expressed here, at the feast of the passover; but the women were not obliged to go up: for so it is said by the Jews p, , “the passover of women is voluntary”, or in their own power; they might go up to the feast, or not, as they pleased. It is indeed said of Hillell, who was now alive, that he obliged the women to the first, but not to a second passover: to which the Karaites object; the account they give is as follows q;

“truly the women were obliged, by the school of Hillell, to the offering of the passover; but if they were hindered from the first passover, the second was in their power; that is, the thing depended upon their will and pleasure, whether they would offer or not, which may be justly wondered at; for why should they be obliged to the, first, and not the second? for behold, as to the obligation of the passover, there is no difference between the first passover, and the second, The sum of the matter is, our wise men, on whom be peace, have determined and say, that there is no obligation but to males, who are arrived to maturity.”

So that this was a voluntary thing in Mary; which discovers her piety and religion, and her great regard to the ordinances and appointments of God.

p T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 61. 3. q Eliahu Adderet, p. 39. apud Trigland. de Sect. Karaeorum, p. 28.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Christ Sitting with the Doctors.

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. 43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? 50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

We have here the only passage of story recorded concerning our blessed Saviour, from his infancy to the day of his showing to Israel at twenty-nine years old, and therefore we are concerned to make much of this, for it is in vain to wish we had more. Here is,

I. Christ’s going up with his parents to Jerusalem, at the feast of the passover, Luk 2:41; Luk 2:42. 1. It was their constant practice to attend there, according to the law, though it was a long journey, and they were poor, and perhaps not well able, without straitening themselves, to bear the expenses of it. Note, Public ordinances must be frequented, and we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. Worldly business must give way to spiritual concerns. Joseph and Mary had a son in the house with them, that was able to teach them better than all the rabbin at Jerusalem; yet they went up thither, after the custom of the feast. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and so should we. We have reason to suppose that Joseph went up likewise at the feasts of pentecost and tabernacles; for all the males were to appear there thrice a year, but Mary only at the passover, which was the greatest of the three feasts, and had most gospel in it. 2. The child Jesus, at twelve years old, went up with them. The Jewish doctors say that at twelve years old children must begin to fast from time to time, that they may learn to fast on the day of atonement; and that at thirteen years old a child begins to be a son of the commandment, that is, obliged to the duties of adult church-membership, having been from his infancy, by virtue of his circumcision, a son of the covenant. It is not said that this was the first time that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast: probably he had done it for some years before, having spirit and wisdom above his years; and all should attend on public worship that can hear with understanding, Neh. viii. 2. Those children that are forward in other things should be put forward in religion. It is for the honour of Christ that children should attend on public worship, and he is pleased with their hosannas; and those children that were in their infancy dedicated to God should be called upon, when they are grown up, to come to the gospel passover, to the Lord’s supper, that they make it their own act and deed to join themselves to the Lord.

II. Christ’s tarrying behind his parents at Jerusalem, unknown to them, in which he designed to give an early specimen of what he was reserved for.

1. His parents did not return till they had fulfilled the days; they had staid there all the seven days at the feast, though it was not absolutely necessary that they should stay longer than the two first days, after which many went home. Note, It is good to stay to the conclusion of an ordinance, as becomes those who say, It is good to be here, and not to hasten away, as if we were like Doeg, detained before the Lord.

2. The child tarried behind in Jerusalem, not because he was loth to go home, or shy of his parents’ company, but because he had business to do there, and would let his parents know that he had a Father in heaven, whom he was to be observant of more than of them; and respect to him must not be construed disrespect to them. Some conjecture that he tarried behind in the temple, for it was the custom of the pious Jews, on the morning that they were to go home, to go first to the temple, to worship God; there he staid behind, and found entertainment there till they found him again. Or, perhaps, he staid at the house where they lodged, or some other friend’s house (and such a child as he was could not but be the darling of all that knew him, and every one would court his company), and went up to the temple only at church-time; but so it was that he staid behind. It is good to see young people willing to dwell in the house of the Lord; they are then like Christ.

3. His parents went the first day’s journey without any suspicion that he was left behind, for they supposed him to have been in the company, v. 44. On these occasions, the crowd was very great, especially the first day’s journey, and the roads full of people; and they concluded that he came along with some of their neighbours, and they sought him among their kindred and acquaintance, that were upon the road, going down. Pray did you see our Son? or, Did you see him? Like the spouses’s inquiry, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? This was a jewel worth seeking after. They knew that every one would be desirous of his company, and that he would be willing to do good among his kinsfolk and acquaintance, but among them they found him not, v. 45. There are many, too many, who are our kinsfolk and acquaintance, that we cannot avoid conversing with, among whom we find little or nothing of Christ. When they could not hear of him in this and the other company upon the road, yet they hoped they should meet with him at the place where they lodged that night; but there they could learn no tidings of him. Compare this with Job 23:8; Job 23:9.

4. When they found him not at their quarters at night, they turned back again, next morning, to Jerusalem, seeking him. Note, Those that would find Christ must seek till they find; for he will at length be found of those that seek him, and will be found their bountiful rewarder. Those that have lost their comforts in Christ, and the evidences of their interest in him, must bethink themselves where, and when, and how, they lost them, and must turn back again to the place where they last had them; must remember whence they are fallen, and repent, and do their first works, and return to their first love,Rev 2:4; Rev 2:5. Those that would recover their lost acquaintance with Christ must go to Jerusalem, the city of our solemnities, the place which he has chosen to put his name there; must attend upon him in his ordinances, in the gospel-passover, there they may hope to meet him.

5. The third day they found him in the temple, in some of the apartments belonging to the temple, where the doctors of the law kept, not their courts, but their conferences rather, or their schools for disputation; and there they found him sitting in the midst of them (v. 46), not standing as a catechumen to be examined or instructed by them, for he had discovered such measures of knowledge and wisdom that they admitted him to sit among them as a fellow or member of their society. This is an instance, not only that he was filled with wisdom (v. 40), but that he had both a desire to increase it and a readiness to communicate it; and herein he is an example to children and young people, who should learn of Christ to delight in the company of those they may get good by, and choose to sit in the midst of the doctors rather than in the midst of the players. Let them begin at twelve years old, and sooner, to enquire after knowledge, and to associate with those that are able to instruct them; it is a hopeful and promising presage in youth to be desirous of instruction. Many a youth at Christ’s age now would have been playing with the children in the temple, but he was sitting with the doctors in the temple. (1.) He heard them. Those that would learn must be swift to hear. (2.) He asked them questions; whether, as a teacher (he had authority so to ask) or as a learner (he had humility so to ask) I know not, or whether as an associate, or joint-searcher after truth, which must be found out by mutual amicable disquisitions. (3.) He returned answers to them, which were very surprising and satisfactory, v. 47. And his wisdom and understanding appeared as much in the questions he asked as in the answers he gave, so that all who heard him were astonished: they never heard one so young, no indeed any of their greatest doctors, talk sense at the rate that he did; like David, he had more understanding than all his teachers, yea, than the ancients,Psa 119:99; Psa 119:100. Now Christ showed forth some rays of his glory, which were presently drawn in again. He gave them a taste (says Calvin) of his divine wisdom and knowledge. Methinks this public appearance of Christ in the temple, as a teacher, was like Moses’s early attempt to deliver Israel, which Stephen put this construction upon, that he supposed his brethren would have understood, by that, how God by his hand would deliver them,Act 7:24; Act 7:25. They might have taken the hint, and been delivered then, but they understood not; so they here might have had Christ (for aught I know) to enter upon his work now, but they were only astonished, and understood not the indication; and therefore, like Moses, he retires into obscurity again, and they hear no more of him for many years after.

6. His mother talked with him privately about it. When the company broke up, she took him aside, and examined him about it with a deal of tenderness and affection, v. 48. Joseph and Mary were both amazed to find him there, and to find that he had so much respect showed him as to be admitted to sit among the doctors, and to be taken notice of. His father knew he had only the name of a father, and therefore said nothing. But, (1.) His mother told him how ill they took it: “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Why didst thou put us into such a fright?” They were ready to say, as Jacob of Joseph, “A wild beast has devoured him; or, He is fallen into the hands of some more cruel enemy, who has at length found out that he was the young child whose life Herod had sought some years ago.” A thousand imaginations, we may suppose, they had concerning him, each more frightful than another. “Now, why hast thou given us occasion for these fears? Thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing; not only troubled that we lost thee, but vexed at ourselves that we did not take more care of thee, to bring thee along with us.” Note, Those may have leave to complain of their losses that think they have lost Christ. But their weeping did not hinder sowing; they did not sorrow and sit down in despair, but sorrowed and sought. Note, If we would find Christ, we must seek him sorrowing, sorrowing that we have lost him, that we have provoked him to withdraw, and that we have sought him no sooner. They that thus seek him in sorrow shall find him, at length, with so much the greater joy. (2.) He gently reproved their inordinate solicitude about him (v. 49): “How is it that you sought me? You might have depended upon it, I would have followed you home when I had done the business I had to do here. I could not be lost in Jerusalem. Wist ye not that I ought to be, en tois tou patros mou;–in my Father’s house?” so some read it; “where else should the Son be, who abideth in the house for ever? I ought to be,” [1.] “Under my Father’s care and protection; and therefore you should have cast the care of me upon him, and not have burdened yourselves with it.” Christ is a shaft hid in his Father’s quiver, Isa. xlix. 2. He takes care of his church likewise, and therefore let us never despair of its safety. [2.] “At my Father’s work” (so we take it): “I must be about my Father’s business, and therefore could not go home as soon as you might. Wist ye not? Have you not already perceived that concerning me, that I have devoted myself to the service of religion, and therefore must employ myself in the affairs of it?” Herein he hath left us an example; for it becomes the children of God, in conformity to Christ, to attend their heavenly Father’s business, and to make all other business give way to it. This word of Christ we now think we understand very well, for he hath explained it in what he hath done and said. It was his errand into the world, and his meat and drink in the world, to do his Father’s will, and finish his work: and yet at that time his parents understood not this saying, v. 50. They did not understand what business he had to do then in the temple for his Father. They believed him to be the Messiah, that should have the throne of his father David; but they thought that should rather bring him to the royal palace than to the temple. They understood not his prophetical office; and he was to do much of his work in that.

Lastly, Here is their return to Nazareth. This glimpse of his glory was to be short. It was now over, and he did not urge his parents either to come and settle at Jerusalem or to settle him there (though that was the place of improvement and preferment, and where he might have the best opportunities of showing his wisdom), but very willingly retired into his obscurity at Nazareth, where for many years he was, as it were, buried alive. Doubtless, he came up to Jerusalem, to worship at the feast, three times a year, but whether he ever went again into the temple, to dispute with the doctors there, we are not told; it is not improbable but he might. But here we are told,

1. That he was subject to his parents. Though once, to show that he was more than a man, he withdrew himself from his parents, to attend his heavenly Father’s business, yet he did not, as yet, make that his constant practice, nor for many years after, but was subject to them, observed their order, and went and came as they directed, and, as it should seem, worked with his father at the trade of a carpenter. Herein he hath given an example to children to be dutiful and obedient to their parents in the Lord. Being made of a woman, he was made under the law of the fifth commandment, to teach the seed of the faithful thus to approve themselves to him a faithful seed. Though his parents were poor and mean, though his father was only his supposed father, yet he was subject to them; though he was strong in spirit, and filled with wisdom nay though he was the Son of God, yet he was subject to his parents; how then will they answer it who, though foolish and weak, yet are disobedient to their parents?

2. That his mother, though she did not perfectly understand her son’s sayings, yet kept them in her heart, expecting that hereafter they would be explained to her, and she should fully understand them, and know how to make use of them. However we may neglect men’s sayings because they are obscure (Si non vis intelligi debes negligi–If it be not intelligible, it is not valuable), yet we must not think so of God’s sayings. That which at first is dark, so that we know not what to make of it, may afterwards become plain and easy; we should therefore lay it up for hereafter. See John ii. 22. We may find use for that another time which now we see not how to make useful to us. A scholar keeps those grammar rules in memory which at present he understands not the use of, because he is told that they will hereafter be of use to him; so we must do by Christ’s sayings.

3. That he improved, and came on, to admiration (v. 52): He increased in wisdom and stature. In the perfections of his divine nature there could be no increase; but this is meant of his human nature, his body increased in stature and bulk, he grew in the growing age; and his soul increased in wisdom, and in all the endowments of a human soul. Though the Eternal Word was united to the human soul from his conception, yet the divinity that dwelt in him manifested itself to his humanity by degrees, ad modum recipientis–in proportion to his capacity; as the faculties of his human soul grew more and more capable, the gifts it received from the divine nature were more and more communicated. And he increased in favour with God and man, that is, in all those graces that rendered him acceptable to God and man. Herein Christ accommodated himself to his estate of humiliation, that, as he condescended to be an infant, a child, a youth, so the image of God shone brighter in him, when he grew up to be a youth, than it did, or could, while he was an infant and a child. Note, Young people, as they grow in stature, should grow in wisdom, and then, as they grow in wisdom, they will grow in favour with God and man.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Every year (‘ ). This idiom only here in the N.T., a common Greek construction. Every male was originally expected to appear at the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles (Exod 23:14-17; Exod 34:23; Deut 16:16). But the Dispersion rendered that impossible. But pious Palestinian Jews made a point of going at least to the passover. Mary went with Joseph as a pious habit, though not required by law to go.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

His parents. Though women were not bound to present themselves in person.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

JESUS, LOST FROM PARENTS IN JERUSALEM V. 41-52

1) “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year,’ (kai eporeuonto hoi goneis autou kai’ etos eis lerousalem) “And his parents went into Jerusalem year by year,” as pious parents, every succeeding year, as a custom, from Nazareth in Galilee, Luk 2:39; Mat 2:23.

2) “At the feast of the passover.” (te heorte tou pascha) “At the time of the feast of the Passover,” according to the law, as required of every male Jew above twelve years of age, three times each year, Exo 23:15; Exo 23:17; Lev 23:4-5; Num 28:16; Deu 12:18-19; Deu 16:1-17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

41. And his parents went every year to Jerusalem It is mentioned in commendation of the piety of Mary and Joseph, that they gave diligent attendance to the outward worship of God. It was not of their own accord, but by a divine command, that they undertook this annual journey. The law enjoins the, males “only to, appear before the Lord,” (Exo 23:17.) This arrangement does not entirely exclude females, but spares them by an exercise of kindness. This mark distinguishes the true religion from vain and wicked superstitions. The former confines itself within the limits of obedience to God, and of compliance with the enactments of his law. The latter wander, at their own pleasure, beyond the limits of God’s word, without any fixed rule. The worship of the temple was, no doubt, infected with many corruptions, the priesthood was sold for money, and doctrine was involved in many errors. Yet, as legal ceremonies were still in force, and the outward rite of sacrifice was observed as it is laid down in the law, believers were bound to perform such exercises in testimony of their faith. The name father is here given to Joseph, not with strict accuracy, but according to the opinion generally entertained respecting him.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE CHILD AND THE CHURCH

THE theme, The Child and the Church, is too important to be passed over with brief consideration. I have selected for our text this evening Luk 2:41-52.

Psychologically, the place to begin a revival is in the home; and the first converts of the same should be the children. The wisest of evangelists recognize that fact and the most far-seeing pastors will carefully regard it. We do not care to conceal our purpose in presenting this sermon. It is to arouse parents, Sunday School teachers and all others to a proper conception of the importance of the childs conversion. In that connection what more appropriate Scripture could I select than this which relates itself to the greatest religious event in the life of the childJesus. The Biblical story clearly suggests three things: The Childs Attendance, The Childs Interest, and The Childs Development.

THE CHILDS ATTENDANCE

He had parents whose custom was church attendance. That was a boon bigger than seems to this superficial century. At a prayer-meeting one woman referred to her upbringing by Scotch parents and said that the Sabbath never went by without seeing them in the sanctuary. It is on that very account that many of us are thankful for the strain of Scotch blood running in our veins. When we re-member the number of fathers and mothers in America who seldom set foot in Gods house, we have a partial explanation of prodigal sons and daughters. Dr. A. J. Gordon once addressed a student volunteer company in which over sixty names were pledged to work on foreign fields, almost the entire delegation from Princeton University enrolling. Writing home regarding the matter, he declared it his conviction that these young men and women were willing to go into the ministry and give themselves to missions because their godly and self-denying parents had set before them a religious example. Once in a long while the child of the infidel is converted and makes a good church-member; once in an age, the child of the man who seldom attends church gives himself assiduously to the same. These are the marked exceptions that prove the rule. Christ seldom receives recruits to His army from houses other than those in which parents are church attendants.

Christs parents believed in taking the child to church. When they went to the temple he was with them. No finer sight ever greets the eyes of priest or pastor than the vision of an entire family entering Gods house together and occupying one seat. No excuse made by father or mother for failure in this respect is sufficient. Its a poor plea to say, We cant get ready in time. The excuse is only another name for indolence! For time immemorial, mothers who have had no help, singlehanded and alone, have corralled the last child, equipping for decent church attendance. Verily I say unto you, Such mothers have their reward. Better to rise early to make the little one ready for church than sit up late and listen for the footsteps of the large one whose coming is always an occasion of anxiety. Better to take them to Gods House even if their dress is not immaculate, if the last possible touch of beauty has not been given, than to have to face them in later years in ragged conduct and confessedly stained character.

A widely-known minister once taught that the man who couldnt win his child to Christ and hold him to the church was unworthy a place in the church itself. When I read that in one of his volumes, I looked immediately to see in what year it was published and discovered that at the time he couldnt have had a child that was past his infancy. It is easier for young men to talk in terms of theory than it is for men advanced in years to face the fruits of their own endeavor. The argument, however, by which that minister led up to that conclusion is an argument that ought to be in the ears of father and mother alike. He had referred to one of his parishioners who had two beautiful children concerning whom he had said, Pastor, I havent seen my bairns awake for several months. When asked what he meant, he replied, Well, dont you see, I have been so fearfully busy, and business is going at such a rate, that I am up and off in the morning before they are awake. I do not get home at night until they are in bed, and on Sunday I am down at the church all day, and so I hardly see them at all. To this the preacher justly replied, My dear brother, for Gods sake, and for your childrens sake drop something in your business, and if you cannot do that, drop something at the church; look after your bairns. It is an infinitely better investment to give your time to them, and to keep your hand on them, than anything else you can do. Joseph and Mary were illustrations of that contention. Christ was their sufficient reward.

The parents of Christ put trust in their child. When they went to church, He was with them. When they left the sanctuary, they looked not to see if He was along, a revelation of their confidence. Doubtless His conduct had always been such as to justify that confidence; doubtless this piece of conduct was a sore disappointment to them both. It seemed out of all keeping with what they had hitherto seen and confidently expected. It is well for parents to remember the complexity of child-life, and not to demand that it forever fit itself into rules mechanically made. Handel was a great disappointment to his father-physician. He did his best to discourage the boys fondness for music, and when he found that he had secured an old spinet and practiced on it secretly in the hayloft, his confidence in the lad was greatly shaken. If he were alive now, he would rejoice in being the father of the famous composer. Michael Angelo was forever covering the walls of the house with sketches. His parents were so tried with him that they declared that he was no son of theirs. He put in whole nights copying-drawings that he dared not bring home, and yet the lad understood better than even the parents did, the immortal power which God had imparted to him. We are told that Benjamin Wests parents, thinking their boy was wasting his time in painting, hid the brushes, whereupon the lad caught the old family cat, and pulled the hair out of her, and made a brush for himself. The disgust of father and mother alike went on while he was exercising his divinely-given talent. The Reynolds paintings face you in old world galleries almost oftener than any other. His father once rebuked him for doing such business out of pure idleness, saying that he was seeking to escape the more serious tasks of life.

Increasingly am I convinced that we ought to live in such touch with our lads and lassies as to discover their thoughts, the reason for their conduct. That being done, our confidence will increase and control will become correspondingly easy. I seriously doubt if Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst could have said a wiser thing than when he declared: The office of school commissioner and school committee is to help the teacher to carry out the intentions of nature rather than to compel him to embarrass and controvert those intentions. If that be true, why is not that also an obligation of parents? To have suspected the child Christ would have been an infidelity equal to that of suspecting the crucified Christ. To have forced Him against His will and against His conviction of what the Fathers will was, would have been a crucifixion for childhood equal to that which He suffered on Calvary.

THE CHILDS INTEREST

Turning again to our text, we discover two or three things:

This childs interest exceeded parental expectation. For three full days they sought for him, but they looked elsewhere than in the Temple. They doubtless visited the homes of parents and friends. It was a fruitless search. No childs pastime could have so engaged His interest as to so beget neglect of father and mother. He was but twelve years of age, but the great absorbing passion of His soul was to know the truth. He believed that truth ought to be discovered in the Temple, where Gods name was called, where Gods Book was read, where Gods teachers stood forth to speak. Not a few of the children of this generation have been led to think that the truth cannot be discovered in the Temple; but they must go to a secular school to understand what is true and what is false; must ask an unprejudiced and possibly even an irreligious teacher whether there be a God? Whether the Bible is inspired? Whether Adam was created by the divine will and work, or whether He came as Darwin explains? The result is, that a child, before he has reached years of discretion is steeped in skepticism. One who knows not God has declared that He does not exist; the apostles of Darwin deride Genesis, scoff at Jonah, call Daniel a vain dreamer, and name Christ the bastard son of Joseph. Oftentimes all this is done before parents realize that the children are old enough to understand the so-called deep things of religion.

How is it that we do not learn from history? The whole course and testimony of the Church of Christ looks in another direction. From the day when Christ lifted children to His knee, put His hands upon them and blessed them, until now, children have not only been the type of the true subjects of the Kingdom, but have themselves become the same. Thousands and tens of thousands of them, properly instructed, have been received into the churches, have grown into beautiful womanhood and glorious manhood, and have made up the great strength of the army of God. If church history could be written in full, it would be found that children have acquired not only the largest but the most glorious faith. Not one virtue that ever characterized manhood or womanhood is found wanting in their conduct. The interest of the child is often so deep as to make him a willing martyr for the Master in whom he believes. You have heard of the cruel treatment of William Maldon who insisted upon attending church and mingling with the little knot of listeners, being utterly fascinated with the story of the Gospel. His fathers wrath increased when he learned that the boy, clubbing his scanty funds with those of another youth, equally interested, had bought a New Testament, and that the Book was hid under a bed of straw. Dragging him from his secret reading place by the hair of the head, he beat him unmercifully. The little lad, however, endured it all, believing that he was suffering for Christs sake and shed not a tear. His father put a rope about his neck and threatened to hang him if he did not cease from Scripture study, but he was loyal to his Lord, declaring he would give up his life rather than yield.

Whenever martyrdom has been the price of privileges in Christ Jesus, children have been almost as ready to pay the same as full-grown men and women.

Christs interest took on intelligent expression. They found Him in the Temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. All that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. If one undertakes to explain this interest from the human side, he has not undertaken an impossibility! The child whose parents are church-attendants and who, from infancy, is taken by them to where the Word of God is preached, would commonly be intelligent. In recent years we have had a great revelation of Biblical ignorance. College and University students have been put to the test of a few simple questions on the Scriptures and their answers have been grotesque and in the last degree ridiculous. In some instances they have been even unthinkable. We marvel that full-grown men and women in later years of university life show such lamentable ignorance of the most important Book the world has ever seen. And yet the reason is not far to seek. In many instances they have not been accustomed to church attendance at all, and training in the Scriptures has been utterly neglected. In other instances, where they have attended church, the preacher has had no system of Biblical instruction!

These are the young men and women who are brought easily to the view of Moderns, to whom Darwins word is far more significant than that of Daniel, or any of the prophets of God. In the years of student life, and to those might be added the years of ministerial observation, I have not known one single person who was well equipped in a knowledge of the Word of God to come to skeptical conclusions. Upon recalling the fact that youth is the time when we acquire information most easily, we realize the importance of Biblical instruction for children. Would that our Sunday School teachers understood the seriousness of this, and that our parents took note of the same. Again and again, I find boys and girls in Christian homes who cannot answer the simplest questions concerning Christ; who do not know His mothers name; who do not know that He was not begotten by Joseph; who do not remember who baptized Him; at times, they cannot even tell the manner of His death; seldom do they know the significance of His resurrection. These are the simplest and surface things in the life of Christ. They are, nevertheless, either overlooked or so poorly impressed on the minds of the students that they straightway forget what was said regarding them. The Board of Deacons, when it comes to its examination is not surprised merely but astounded at the lack of understanding, and the inadequate answers. It is time that we ceased from our sermonizing and discharged our duty to impress the actual text of Scripture upon the minds of the boys and girls who make up our student classes.

Christs answer revealed His conscious relation to God. When His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou dealt thus with us? Behold Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing; He said unto them, Wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? The word Father is here introduced as a new note in religion. The employing of it by Jesus Christ at the age of twelve indicates that He then understood His Sonship, and possibly all that it involved of equality with God Himself and of eternal existence.

I read with ever-increasing interest, and ever-increasing surprise also, the output of critical professors. One who is not among ultra-critics recently published a volume entitled, The Man of Nazareth in which he makes this remark: When Jesus was ten or twelve years of age, and a remarkably bright boy for his age, etc. There is the modern conceptiona remarkably bright boy for his age. The language sounds like an endeavor to extricate Him from the indictment of Deity. This, however, fails to account for the answer: I must be about My Fathers business.

Some time ago, a woman in the West was telling about a certain chap who lived in Minneapolis. His parents used to leave him and his little brothers, on special occasions, in the charge of some one or another. One day they noticed the parents leave and there seemed to be nobody in charge. This little three-year-old lad was playing in the back yard, and a neighbor called out to him and asked him, Who is taking care of you?, to which he eagerly replied, The Heavenly Father is taking care of me. Mark you, he said, The Heavenly Father, not My Father. When, in all history, did another child claim God as his father after this manner? If Jesus didnt know that He was divine even when He was yet a boy, what is the explanation of this speech?

John Watson, in The Mind of the Master, tells us that the Jewish prophets assigned to Jehovah the noblest emotions known to men. That was to carve the white marble, indeed. But Christ went farther and brought Him nigh by saying, My Father! From that moment until now, one thing that has made God real and imminent is the employment of that possessive pronoun. And yet, that conception was in the Old Testament. David says, The Lord is my Shepherd. Christ is bringing God nigh by the expression My Father. While it is a declaration of His own Deity, it is also a definition of the proper relation for every soul. The fact that this Child, at twelve years of age, could think of God as His father, makes possible the employment of that possessive for every Christian child on the face of the earth. We cannot but believe that this period of time was selected on purpose by the prophetic writer. The twelfth year is a critical year. It comes more nearly being the time of passing from boyhood toward manhood, from girlhood toward womanhood than any other. Great thoughts possess one, great desires fill the soul; great resolves come into the will. It is the ideal time to win to Christ.

THE CHILDS DEVELOPMENT

And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Obedience belongs in any proper development of a boy. The disobedient boy is not developing! His very growth is a degradation! One of the things prophesied for the last days is disobedience to parents. God knows it is prevalent enough! The immorality of the age is easily accounted for when one notes how far filial reverence is failing. The children whose fathers and mothers die while they are yet in their infancy are the only ones who appreciate to the full, the meaning of the words, mother, father. Schwarzerd was born to a great mother and a godly father. After ten years neither of them were left to him. However, so long as he lived, he used to say to his students to whom he was lecturing in the great university, That I learned from my mother, or, my father taught me so and so. When he lay dying, half a century later, he repeated to his children the very words with which he had been blessed by his own dying father. We know, of course, that Edward Judson was not privileged to see much of his parents. They were on a foreign field, and he must needs be sent home for an education. When a convention was on in the city of Boston speaking of his great father, he said: The picture of my father is in my study. He has always been an inspiration to me. We folks need human guides to lead us in the steps of the great Pathfinder. Separation begets affection. Love has two elements, disposition to enjoy and possess, and the passion to serve. I believe my fathers influence was stronger than if I had been brought up under his care. Doubtless, separation begets affection. It need not be so with the child who wishes to be obedient to father, subservient to the wishes of mother.

There are some things that we learn by experience. The meaning and significance of obedience to parents is among them.

The Bible tells us very little about Jesus as a boy, but in this solitary glimpse there is one great word outstanding that will be forever a word of counsel to every lad in the land, viz., obedience to father and mother.

He grew in wisdom and stature. We know not what schools He attended, if any; but we do know that wisdom was with Him. He attained such fullness in it as that men always stood amazed when His mouth opened and He spake in the words of the same. This was in His boyhood. If one comes to His manhood without it, the schools of the earth would hardly correct the deficiency. I have seen children who did not grow in stature. The sight is pathetic in the last degree! At sight of them we cannot escape a deep sorrow. But it were better to be stunted in body, than to be crippled in intellect; better to fail in stature than in wisdom. Some of the worlds little men have been its largest; its largest men, its smallest. It is a good thing to be an athlete; but it is even a better thing to be a scholar, and the best to be a saint.

Now we come to the last point of this contention in the interest of the children, namely,

Favor with God was most marked. After all, the greatest of all attainments is to know God. Campbell Morgan, speaking a while since, said, We are living in an age, when even in the Christian church, the ideals that we have for our children are very low. Too often the aim for our boys is that they may be educated, get honor in the world; too often for our girls we have the idea that they should be refined and accomplished, and to use a phrase, which if I could I would cancel absolutely from the thinking of Christian parents, get settled. These, as ideals, are anti-Christian and pagan. I am not undervaluing education. It is the duty of every man to give his children the best education possible. I am not undervaluing position. Let every lad be ambitious to be the best carpenter, doctor, or lawyer in the whole district. Let our girls in very truth, be educated, cultured and refined. But if these constitute the ultimate, then in what are we removed from the pagan?

What then, should be our ideal? We should realize Jesus estimate of greatness. Man is great if his character is what it ought to be. In the manifesto of the King, not a single blessing is pronounced upon having or upon doing; all the blessings are upon being. The true ideal toward which we are to move in the training of our children must be the realization of the character upon which Jesus Christ has set the seven-fold chapter of His benediction. That the boy may be a godly man, and the girl may be one of the Kings daughters is the supreme matter. To neglect that as the ultimate, to lose sight of that as the goal, is to ruin our children by a false life.

I know of no better way, therefore, to conclude this discourse, than to say to the boys this morning, and to the young women present, what was said awhile ago by the late Admiral Sampson telling of the day the Spanish fleet was sunk. It was Sunday morning, and we always have prayers on the Admirals ship Sunday morning. The little reading desk, with the cross carved on the top of it, was still standing on deck. We had gone into battle so hastily that no one had had time to put the desk away. It was a little thing, easily moved about.

So we sailed along and there was death and destruction on the face of the waters. And the battle was won. But among the dead things and the burning things that floated on the water, we saw a man swimming. He was a Spanish sailor, one of our enemies. He was making a struggle for his life but there was nothing near enough for him to cling to, and the shore was a long way off. According to the rules of war, we had no time to save his life; besides, he was our enemy. Some of us on that side of the ship watched the man curiously, wondering how long he would hold out. Then all of a sudden one of our sailors picked up that little reading desk and pitched it over the side of the ship into the sea. Here, friend, he cried, cling to that! Cling to the cross and it will take you safe to shore!

Of course the Spaniard could not understand the English words, but the action was unmistakable, and the last we saw of the poor fellow he was clinging to the cross and making toward the shore.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

Appleburys Comments

Scripture

Luk. 2:41-52 And his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast; 43 and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not; 44 but supposing him to be in the company, they went a days journey; and they sought for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance: 45 and when they found him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. 46 And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions: 47 and all that heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when they saw him, they were astonished; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. 49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? knew ye not that I must be in my Fathers house? 50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them: and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Comments

the feast of the passover.This is the sacrifice of the Lords passover when He passed over the firstborn in the houses of the people of Israel and did not slay them when all the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. See Exo. 12:27. The law required the men of Israel to appear before the Lord three times a year; one of those times was at the passover. Exo. 34:22-24. The parents of Jesus observed this custom and every year went to Jerusalem for the passover feast.

God promised the people of Israel that their lands would be protected during these feasts when the men were away from home (Exo. 34:24). But it was at the passover time that the Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and killed thousands of those who had gone there to worship according to that ancient custom. That awful retribution came upon them because they had forfeited their right to claim Gods protection; they had crucified His Son, and the Son had warned them in these words: Behold your house is left unto you desolate (Mat. 23:38).

supposing him to be in the company.Joseph had always exercised watchful care over Mary and the Child Jesus. There is no indication that he was negligent at this time. It was perfectly normal to suppose that Jesus was with the relatives and friends as the group made their way homeward. Mary seems to blame herself, for she said to Jesus, Your father and I sought for you, sorrowing. This is not a case of delinquent parents who never care for their children. Both Mary and Joseph knew that they could trust Jesus, for he was now twelve years old and had always been obedient to them.

The incident shows a brief glimpse of Him as the Son of God who was concerned about the things of His Father.

all that heard him were amazed.Not just a precocious twelve year old boy! We know that when He was mature all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hidden in Him (Col. 2:3). We are inclined to look upon Him even at the age of twelve as the One who revealed the wisdom of God (1Co. 1:30). It must be admitted, however, that this reference alone would not necessarily indicate supernatural wisdom.

he was subject to them.The parents were obedient to the law of Moses and to the instruction of the Lord in caring for this Child who had been entrusted to them. Jesus was obedient to loving parents who had demonstrated before Him what it meant to obey.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth (Eph. 6:1-3).

And Jesus advanced.His development was normal for He grew intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially.

Summary

With boldness born of complete confidence that what he was about to write was the truth, Luke told about the birth of Jesus.
The decree of Caesar had gone out and it had affected even the people who were living in the land where once David had reigned as king. Joseph was required to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem, the city of David, to enroll himself with Mary his wife, And while they were there, Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, for there was no room for them in the inn.
Shepherds were watching their flocks by night, when suddenly a brilliant light shone about them and they were greatly frightened. The angel of the Lord was standing by them, and he said, Be not afraid; I bring you good news of great joy for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Then the choir of angels sang of glory to God in the highest and of peace on earth among men of good will.
Mary and Joseph, as the law of Moses required, presented the Child to the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem. There Simeon blessed God for permitting his eyes to see the One who is the salvation of all people, and Anna the prophetess spoke about Him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke had made careful investigation into all the reports and records of the things about Jesus and must have known about the flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth by way of Judea as Matthew reports it. But he was hurrying with his story and merely said that Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth, for he wanted to tell Theo-philus about another journey, the one that Jesus made with His parents to Jerusalem when He was twelve years old.
Jewish families must have made a great thing out of such occasions, especially those who would be on the road several days each way. Friends and relatives had gone with Mary and Joseph to the passover feast. When it was over, they all started home, but Jesus remained in Jerusalem. Sorrowing parents sought Him supposing He was with the group. But when they didnt find Him, they returned to Jerusalem. There they found Him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and the teachers were amazed at His understanding and His answers. To Marys gentle rebukeor was she blaming herself for what had happened?Jesus said, Why did you seek me? Didnt you know that I must be about my Fathers business? But Mary and Joseph didnt understand Him.
We do not know what rejoicing was theirs when they joined the group and journeyed on to their home. We do not know what resolutions they may have made to guard the trust the Lord had committed to them more carefully. Luke simply says that Jesus went with them to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and that Mary kept all these things in her heart. How precious were His mothers memories! In all probability, she is the one who shared them with Luke, and he with Theophilus, and we are blessed by the record that has been preserved for us.

Questions

Why did Joseph take Mary and go to Bethlehem?

What had Micah prophesied about the birthplace of Messiah?

What is known about the power of Rome at the time of Micah?

From the Christian point of view, what are the two most important events in the reign of Augustus?

What do the Scriptures say about the children of Mary and Joseph who were born after Jesus?

Why is He called Marys firstborn Son?

What can be said about the fact that there was no room for them in the inn?

How does the story of the angels and the shepherds add to the evidence that proves that Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man?

What good news did the angel of the Lord bring?

10.

What, in all probability, did the people understand the word Lord to mean when applied to Jesus?

11.

What is meant by peace on earth?

12.

What is meant by men in whom he is well pleased?

13.

What do Matthew and Luke say about the time of the visit of the shepherds and the wise men to Bethlehem?

14.

What does Luke say about the things that Mary kept in her heart?

15.

Why did the parents observe the law of circumcision and presentation of the Child to the Lord?

16.

What does the fact that they brought an offering of turtledoves or pigeons suggest?

17.

What is meant by the consolation of Israel?

18.

Who was Simeon?

19.

What had the Holy Spirit revealed to him?

20.

What did the Holy Spirit reveal about the Child in the words spoken by Simeon?

21.

In what way was He set for the falling and rising of many?

22.

What is the sign that is spoken against?

23.

What is the sword that pierced Marys heart?

24.

Who was Anna?

25.

What did she say about Jesus?

26.

For what possible reason did Luke omit the account of the journey to Egypt?

27.

What was the passover?

28.

What was the custom of observing it in the days of Joseph?

29.

What had the Lord promised the men of Israel who left their homes unguarded on these feast days?

30.

Why, then, did the destruction of Jerusalem occur during their feast?

31.

Why would Mary and Joseph suppose that Jesus was with the group when they started home?

32.

Did they blame Jesus or themselves?

33.

How explain Jesus questions and answers before the teachers?

34.

What lesson is there for parents in the experience of Mary and Joseph when Jesus was twelve years old?

35.

What lesson for children?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(41) His parents went to Jerusalem.The law of Moses required the attendance of all males at the three feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Exo. 23:17; Deu. 16:16). The dispersion of the Jews had, of course, relaxed the obligation for those who lived at a distance; but it was still more or less generally recognised by those who dwelt in Palestine, and the school of Hillel held the Passover to be binding upon women as well as men. The yearly journey to Jerusalem may therefore be taken as an indication of devout obedience, not without its bearing on the thoughts of the child who, during those visits, remained behind in the home at Nazareth.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

41. To Jerusalem every year Thrice a year was the requirement to go to Jerusalem (Exo 34:23😉 though it is little likely that the same person often fulfilled the three journeys. But these parents every year, once at least, performed the journey to attend the great national feast of the Passover, when the slain lamb foretold the sacrifice of the lamb of God, and the symbols of emancipation from Egypt shadowed forth the far higher redemption. (See notes on Mat 26:1; Mat 26:20-26.)

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover.’

Year by year Jesus’ parents went up to the Passover. This does not mean that they only went up at Passover time, for this is rather an introduction to a particular Passover visit. We in fact know from elsewhere that the family also went up at other times (Joh 7:2-10). Originally all male Jews were called on to go to the Sanctuary three times a year for the three great feasts, but those who now lived further away were excused from this duty. They were, however, still expected to make an effort to attend in Jerusalem at least once a year, and their being accompanied by their womenfolk had become the norm.

Thus we continue to learn that Jesus’ parents were faithful to their belief, and regularly attended the Passover. No wonder then that He grew up increased in wisdom and in favour with God and man (Luk 2:52).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus Goes Up to the Temple and Receives Understanding in the Things of God in His Father’s Presence (2:41-51).

We are now given an example of how He has developed through the years, for He meets up as a twelve year old boy with the great teachers of Jerusalem, and they are amazed by His questions and responses, and by His understanding. We are also made to see that He is like no other and claims a special relationship with ‘His Father’.

We may analyse this passage as follows:

a And His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover (Luk 2:41).

b And when He was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast, and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not (Luk 2:42-43).

c But supposing Him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey, and they sought for Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance (Luk 2:44).

d And when they found Him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for Him, and it came about, after three days, that they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions (Luk 2:45-46).

e And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers (Luk 2:47).

d And when they saw Him, they were astonished, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you thus dealt with us? Behold, your father and I sought you sorrowing” (Luk 2:48).

c And He said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” And they did not understood the saying which He spoke to them.

b And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart (Luk 2:51).

a And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men (Luk 2:52).

In ‘a’ Jesus’ parents reveal their piety in their faithful attendance at the Passover, and in the parallel the result of their piety is that Jesus grows up in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man. In ‘b’ they go up to Jerusalem but are careless about keeping a check on Him, and in the parallel they go back down to Nazareth but the mother is now more thoughtful. In ‘c’ they sought for Jesus in the company and in the parallel He asks why they sought Him when they should have known where He was. In ‘d’ they found Him in the Temple listening to the great teachers, and in the parallel they were astonished to find Him so and rebuked Him. And in ‘e’ central to the passage is the fact that all who heard His questions and replies were astonished at them. His growing wisdom and understanding is revealed.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Witness of His Dialogue with the Priests Luk 2:41-52 contains a prophecy of Jesus while yet a child regarding His future ministry of redemption, which took place while He was having a dialogue with the priests in the Temple at the age of twelve.. This event serves as a prophecy of His future public ministry, testifying also to the divinity of Jesus Christ. This passage concludes with Jesus awaiting His manifestation to Israel while being subject to Joseph and Mary.

Luk 2:51-52, “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

His Childhood Years Are Not Recorded in Scripture Because They were not Necessary for Our Redemption – We know very little about Jesus’ childhood until He was called into the ministry and baptized by John the Baptist. Although a few passages in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels record some events about Jesus’ birth and infancy, Luk 2:41-52 is the only passage in the Gospels that records the childhood of Jesus Christ until His calling into the ministry.

In his book Heaven: Close Encounters of the God Kind Jesse Duplantis was asking Paul the apostle some questions about his personal life. Paul then explained that not much in known about his personal life outside of his ministry because it would not help anybody. Paul explained that in the same way, very little is known about Jesus’ personal life before His ministry. What ever happened is not relevant to our lives or it would have been written down. He said that it is His work that we need to know about. Even others who have given their lives to the Lord have very little written about their personal lives. This is because it is no longer they that live, but Christ that lives within them. The events recorded in the Scriptures are there because of their redemptive importance to the Christian life. [164]

[164] Jesse Duplantis, Heaven Close Encounters of the God Kind (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1996), 158-9.

How God the Father Prepared Jesus Christ for His Public Ministry – Billy Brim was teaching on the early childhood of Jesus Christ as a guest on the Kenneth Copeland Ministries television broadcast Believer’s Voice of Victory. [165] She said that a woman by the name of Clara Grace, who was a prophetess, received a vision from the Lord. In this vision, she saw the Lord Jesus Christ as a young man building his last piece of furniture before entering into the ministry. As He finished His work that day and turned to put up His tools, He looked at Clara Grace. She was then brought within Jesus Christ’s body and spirit and received insight into the eighteen silent years of Jesus’ life from the age of twelve until He was baptized by John in the river Jordan. In this vision, Jesus Christ told her that He never laid his head to rest without first meditating about who He was and what He was in God’s divine plan. Billye Brim refers to Deu 6:7 where it tells us to speak and meditate on God’s Word when we lay down and when we awake as an example of how Jesus did the same.

[165] Billye Brim, interviewed by Gloria Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 22 May 2003.

Deu 6:7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down , and when thou risest up.”

Billy Brim makes the point that the statement made by Jesus Christ in Joh 8:28 includes the teachings that the Father taught Him before He entered into the ministry as well as what the Father taught Him during His three-year ministry.

Joh 8:28, “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things .”

She gives other Scriptures that refer to the fact that the Father taught Jesus how to walk daily and to prepare for the ministry. She says that the passage in Psa 119:97-102 is Messianic because He is the only one who ever refrained His feet from every evil way (verse 101). In this passage, the Psalmist says, “For thou hast taught me.”

Psa 119:97-102, “MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me .”

The Lord would wake Jesus day by day and reveal to Him His plan for that day and season. This revelation would give Jesus Christ the tongue of the learned to speak a word to him who was weary.

Isa 50:4-5, “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned . The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.”

This plan required obedience to His Heavenly Father, even when it included persecutions and death on the Cross.

Isa 50:6-7, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”

To this plan the Lord was not rebellious (Isa 50:5). So, this is how Jesus Christ learned to wait on the Heavenly Father and hear from Him. Jesus laid down to sleep meditating on the Word of God and how He fit into God’s plan. Jesus awoke with God speaking to Him about His plan for Him that day.

We find an additional testimony of Jesus’ insight about God’s divine plan for Him within the Holy Scriptures. On the road to Emmaus Jesus expounded to two of His disciples all of the Scriptures concerning His personal spiritual journey. These must have been Scriptures that the heavenly Father revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit from His childhood up to Calvary.

Luk 24:27, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Luk 2:41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

Luk 2:41 “every year at the feast of the passover” Comments – John Nolland notes that the phrase “every year” ( ) allows the narrative material to move in time quickly bringing the reader from Jesus’ infancy to childhood. [166]

[166] John Nolland, Luke 1-9:20, in Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 35A (Dallas, Texas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on Luke 2:41.

Luk 2:41 Comments – Luk 2:41 establishes the context and setting of the story which is about to be told by the author by referring to the Jewish custom of an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. The rest of this passage (Luk 2:41-52) reveals that both Jesus’ parents, relatives, and most of the Palestinian Jews took part in this pilgrimage. Act 2:9-11 reveals that many Jews of the Diaspora also journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast. It was such an important part of Jewish custom that even Paul the apostle made every effort to travel to Jerusalem during the Passover (Act 18:21; Act 20:16). This annual pilgrimage served as an outward testimony of a Jew’s testimony of his personal devotion to God.

Act 2:9-11, “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”

Act 18:21, “But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.”

Act 20:16, “For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.”

The Mosaic Law commanded the Jews to appear before the Lord three times a year, at the feasts of Passover, of Weeks (or Pentecost), and of Tabernacles (Deu 16:16, see also Exo 23:15, Deu 16:1). John Gill tells us Jewish customs taught that women were allowed the freedom of choice in attending these feasts. We see an example in Scripture of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, making this pilgrimage regularly with her husband in 1Sa 1:1 to 1Sa 2:20.

Exo 23:15, “Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)”

Deu 16:1, “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.”

Deu 16:16, “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:”

Luk 2:42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

Luk 2:42 “And when he was twelve years old” – Comments – The significance of the age of twelve in a young Jewish boy’s life is believed to be a time of transition from childhood towards adulthood. Anyone who has raised children understands how a child begins his adolescent years at this age, with rapid growth of the body, and a laying aside of childish passions. Nolland quotes a number of Jewish rabbis and sources to support the increase of duties at this time saying this was “the age at which vows became binding, parental punishment could become more severe, and fasting could be expected to be sustained for a whole day.” [167] John Gill lists similar duties implemented at this age. [168]

[167] John Nolland, Luke 1:1-9:20 , in Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 35A (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), S. 129.

[168] John Gill, Luke, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Luke 2:42.

Luk 2:24 “they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast” Comments – Each Jewish festival had its unique customs. The Jews were accustomed to travelling to Jerusalem during the Passover because of the requirement in the Mosaic Law (Deu 16:16).

Luk 2:43 “and Joseph and his mother knew not of it” Comments – Luke consistently avoids referring to Joseph as Jesus’ biological father throughout his Gospel.

Luk 2:45 Comments – By the time Jesus’ parents returned back to Jerusalem, they were upset, as they explained to their Son how they sought him sorrowing (Luk 2:48).

Luk 2:46 “both hearing them, and asking them questions” – Comments – This characterizes the naturally inquisitive spirit of many youth, as they learn about the world around them.

Luk 2:47 Comments The rabbis were amazed at Jesus’ answers because they could not understand how a young boy had such wisdom.

Luk 2:48 Comments – This is the only place in the Gospel of Luke where Joseph is called the father of Jesus. However, in the next verse Jesus correctly calls God His Father.

Luk 2:49 “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business” Comments – Luk 2:49 reveals that Jesus had much spiritual understanding of His coming ministry in earth at an early age. Jesus only uses the word “Father” to refer to His heavenly Father. Here is the example of how a 12-year old child should be. A child does not have to be full of foolishness (Pro 22:15; Pro 24:9), but he can be seeking God, the Father in his youth.

Pro 22:15, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

Pro 24:9, “The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.”

Any child’s business should be the affairs of our Heavenly Father.

Luk 2:49 Comments – Jesus replied to His parents with a prophetic utterance regarding His future public ministry. He responded to His parent’s question with a question. He used this similar approach in His ministry. When His mother said to Him, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing,” Jesus kindly corrected her by referring to God as His Father.

Jesus experienced several times of testing, when God the Father tested Him to demonstrate His love and devotion to God. The most obvious time was Jesus’ forty days of temptation in the wilderness preceding His public ministry (Luk 4:1-13). However, Jesus’ decision to stay in Jerusalem and dialogue with the priests was perhaps His first tests (Luk 2:49), when He chose to pursue His love for God’s Word instead of following His parent’s home to Nazareth. The next time when Jesus faced a difficult decision was when His set His face towards Jerusalem, where Calvary awaited (Luk 9:51). Another time of testing came in the Garden of Gethsemane when His prayed, “Not my will, but thine.” (Luk 22:41-42) Reflecting upon these four periods of testing, we see how they each preceded Jesus’ move from one phase of ministry into a higher phase, leading Him from justification, indoctrination, divine service, perseverance, to glorification with the Father. For example, His decision to stay with the teachers of the Law in the temple as the age of twelve indicated that He was moving from a time of justification as a child to indoctrination and training in God’s Word. His forty days of tempting in the wilderness preceded His phase of divine service. His decision to set His face towards Jerusalem preceded a period of perseverance, and His decision in the Garden to go to the Cross preceded His glorification with the Father. We, too, will face similar seasons of testing, where our Heavenly Father wants us to demonstrate our love and devotion to Him.

Luk 2:50 Comments – Although His parents did not understand what Jesus mean, Mary would hide these things in her heart, realizing that His words were prophetic.

Luk 2:51 “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them” – Comments – Even Jesus Christ, as a child, understood authority and was willing to submit himself to the authority of His earthly parents, thus fulfilling the Law of Moses as a child.

Luk 2:51 “but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart” Comments – The statement “his mother kept all these sayings in her heart” suggests that Mary did not publicly discuss her thoughts and feelings about this incident to others; rather, she quietly reflected upon these events, particularly in light of the events surrounding His divine birth. Mary knew He was sent from God for a divine assignment; for in this same Temple Simeon and Anna had prophesied of His future, but she did not know what His future held. Therefore, she did not see Jesus’ actions as disobedience, but rather a divine event that further confirmed Jesus’ divinity.

Luk 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Luk 2:52 Comments – Luk 2:52 tells us how Jesus grew in every area of His life: he grew mentally (in wisdom), physically (in stature), spiritually (in favor with God) and socially (in favor with man).

“And Jesus increased in wisdom” Luk 2:52 reveals to us that Jesus Christ divested Himself of some of His eternal attributes, such as His omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. According to Luk 2:52 Jesus had to grow in the knowledge of God and in the knowledge of the Scriptures. (Note how well Jesus used the Scriptures in the Temple at the age of twelve, or in Matthew 22 to convict the scribes and Pharisees.) Kenneth Hagin says that Jesus Christ laid aside certain privileges and restricted Himself to certain human limitations. He then uses several Scriptures to explain these limitations. First, Jesus Christ was not omniscient because He “grew” in wisdom according to Luk 2:52. Secondly, He did not operate in His omnipotence because He could of His own self do nothing (Joh 5:19; Joh 5:30). Thirdly, He was confined to the human body so that He could not be omnipresent. Thus, we see in Luk 2:52 how Jesus Christ had to grow “in stature” like anyone else. Hagin says that Jesus Christ never ceased being deity, but that He chose to live under these limitations in order to redeem mankind. [169]

[169] Kenneth Hagin, He Gave Gifts Unto Men: A Biblical Perspective of Apostles, Prophets, and Pastors (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1992, 1993), 10-1.

Joh 5:19, “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”

Joh 5:30, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

“and stature” Jesus would be thirty years old before making His public appearance as the Messiah and King of the Jews, most likely because the Jewish culture accepted a man as a full adult at this age.

“and in favour with God and man” – Jesus walked in mercy and truth. We know this because according to Pro 3:3-4 a person who walks in mercy and truth finds favor and good understanding with God and man. Note:

Pro 3:3-4, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”

This phrase also indicates that Jesus did not live an isolated life in Nazareth, but was well known in his society because of his godly behaviour.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Christ-Child in the Temple. Luk 2:41-52

The trip to Jerusalem:

v. 41 Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.

v. 42. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

v. 43. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother knew not of it.

v. 44. But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

v. 45. And when they found Him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him.

We have here the one authentic story from the life of Christ in the interval between the flight into Egypt and the beginning of His ministry. In this narrative He is standing on the threshold between childhood and youth, He is just about to enter upon the critical age of life. Luke’s reference to the regular attendance of both the mother and the foster-father of Jesus at the festival of the Passover throws an interesting light upon their habits. The Law required that the men appear before the Lord three times in the year, Easter being one of the festivals when such attendance was demanded, Exo 23:17; Deu 16:16. The women were not included in the command of the Lord, but Mary did not lack companions of her own sex, many of them taking advantage of the festival period to accompany their husbands and older sons to the capital city. Note: The regularity of the attendance is emphasized by the evangelist; a fine example for many parents in our days. When the boy Jesus was twelve years old, the parents followed the rule laid down by the elders that the sons must be trained in the observance of all religious duties and must take part in the festivals with their elders. It was the age at which the Jewish boys entered the secondary school, the Beth-ha-Midrash, the foremost of which was located at Jerusalem and usually conducted in one of the Temple-halls. This was known as ha gadol. The journey to Jerusalem upon the occasion of the great festivals was in itself a festival, especially for the younger members of the family. The people of the more remote parts of Palestine formed large parties for traveling together, most of them going afoot. From time to time some of the older members would begin to chant some of the Psalms of Degrees, Psa 120:1-7; Psa 121:1-8; Psa 122:1-9; Psa 123:1-4; Psa 124:1-8; Psa 125:1-5; Psa 126:1-6; Psa 127:1-5; Psa 128:1-6; Psa 129:1-8; Psa 130:1-8; Psa 131:1-3; Psa 132:1-18; Psa 133:1-3; Psa 134:1-3, or some other hymns. As they came nearer to the city, and the festival spirit took hold of them, they would pluck flowers and branches from trees and wave them in unison’ with the cadence of their song. In this case, Jesus had been in the company of relatives and acquaintances from Nazareth and the surrounding country, and had spent the week of the festival as an interested participant. But when the festival closed and all the pilgrims returned home, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem without the knowledge of His parents. They believed Him to be with some of the members of their party and spent one whole day in leisurely inquiring for Him in the caravan. But when there was no trace of Him, the heart of the mother was filled with grave forebodings. They hurried back to Jerusalem. They searched the city for three days.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Luk 2:41 f. ] Dative of time . Comp. Winer, p. 195, 193 [E. T. 273, 269]. The three great festivals (Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles) were according to the Mosaic law to be celebrated, although with the gradual dispersion of the people this could not strictly be adhered to, by every male Israelite at the national sanctuary, an excellent means of maintaining and elevating the common theocratic spirit; Exo 23:14 ff; Exo 34:23 ; Deu 16:16 . See Ewald, Alterth. p. 406 ff.; Saalschtz, M. R. p. 421 ff. The annual passover-journey was shared also by Mary, doubtless independently of Hillel’s precept to that effect ( Tanchuma , f. 33, 4), and in virtue of her piety (comp. 1Sa 1:7 ; Mechilta , f. 17, 2). As to the Passover , see on Mat 26:2 .

] At this age in the case of the boy, who now was called , began the instruction in the law, the accustoming to worship, fasting, and the like, see Lightfoot, p. 739; Wetstein.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

C. The Twelfth Year; or, the Growth in Wisdom and Favor. Luk 2:41-52

41Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passoLuke Luk 2:42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem, after the custom of the feast. 43And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother [parents, ]30 knew not of it [knew it not]. 44But they, supposing Him to have been [that He was] in the company, went a days journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.45And when they found Him31 not, they turned back again [they returned] to Jerusalem, seeking him.

46And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors [teachers], both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47, And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 48And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. 49And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not [Did ye not know] that I must be about my Fathers business [ ]?32 50And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them.

51And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature [age],33 and in favour with God and man.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk 2:41. At the feast of the Passover.See Langes remarks on the Passover, Mat 26:2 [vol. i. p. 459]. The celebration lasted seven days, from the 15th of Nisan, and was appointed for all time to come. Every Israelite was bound to be present, except such as were unable to perform the necessary journey, viz., the sick, the aged, and boys under the age of twelve, who, as well as the blind, the deaf, and the lunatic, were permitted to remain at home. At the beginning of the month of Nisan, messengers were despatched to all parts, to remind the people of the approaching festival, that none might have ignorance to plead as an excuse for absence. A detailed description of the rite is not necessary for the elucidation of Lukes narrative; we need only here remark, that every Jewish child of twelve years old was permitted, as a son of the law, to take part in the celebration of the sacred festival. According to Jewish custom at a later time, a child was, in his fifth year, instructed in the law; in his tenth, in the Mishna; and in his thirteenth, was fully subjected to the obedience of the law. There existed, also, no longer any reason that Jesus should absent Himself from Judea, as Archelaus, whom Joseph had reason to fear, was already banished by Augustus, after a reign of ten years. Women were by no means obliged to go up to the feast (see Schttgen, Hor in Luc. ii. 41); yet the fact of Marys accompanying her son on the occasion of his first celebration, needs neither defence nor explanation.

Luk 2:43. The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem.Luke neither tells us that Jesus remained behind at Jerusalem intentionally, nor that Joseph and Mary lost sight of Him through want of necessary care. A circumstance must here have been omitted; and we may safely suppose, that Joseph and Mary joined their elder fellow-travellers in the persuasion that Jesus, who knew of the time and place of departure, was among the younger ones. The more Mary was accustomed to trust to His obedience and wisdom, the less necessary would it be always to watch Him. An involuntary mistake, of whatever kind it might be, separated the child from the parents. Perhaps, too, they might have become uneasy on His account earlier in the day; but the multitude of the caravans at a time when, as Josephus tells us, Galilee contained more than four million inhabitants, would render an instantaneous search impracticable;34 and a days journey being generally not very long, inquiry was delayed till the end of the day. It must not, besides, be forgotten, that in the East even an ordinary child of twelve would be equal to one of fourteen or fifteen among us; and that they could not, therefore, be extremely uneasy, especially about such a child as He was.See Tholucks apologetic treatment of this subject in his Glaubwrdigkeit der evangelischen Geschichte, p. 210, etc.

Luk 2:46. After three days.If we understand, with de Wette and others, that these three days were spent in seeking for the child in Jerusalem, it is almost inexplicable that it should only so late have come into their thoughts to go to the temple. It seems more probable that we must allow one day for their departure, Luk 2:44; one for their return, Luk 2:45; and the third, Luk 2:46, for their search; and that they found Him in the sanctuary at the close of the latter. (See Grotius and Paulus in loc.)

In the temple.Probably in one of the porches of the Court of the Women, where the schools of the Rabbis were held, and the law regularly expounded. The Evang. infant. Arab. Luke 5053, gives a lengthy apocryphal account of the conversation of Jesus with the Jewish Rabbis in the temple.

Sitting in the midst of the teachers.It has been often said, that it was the custom of the times for scholars to receive the instructions of the Rabbis standing, as a mark of reverence. This has been, however, well disproved by Vitringa (de Synagog. Vet. i. p. 167). We have to understand it in the same sense as St. Paul speaks of his sitting at the feet of Gamaliel (Act 22:3). De Wette insists, notwithstanding, that the child Jesus appears here in a consessus of discussing Rabbis, entering into the argument as a member of it would do. Surely he has not sufficiently considered the following words, , which plainly show, that the idea of receiving is here made far more prominent than that of communicating. Olshausen far more suitably remarks, that a lecturing, demonstrating child would have been an anomaly, which the God of order would never have exhibited. The astonishment of His hearers at the intelligence manifested in His answers, need not surprise us, if these answers were even as excellent as that which He gave to Marys somewhat hasty demand.

Luk 2:48. Thy father and I.Not merely the only possible manner in which Mary could publicly speak to her son of Joseph, but also an indisputable proof of the wisdom with which she brought up the child; a wisdom, which taught her to say nothing yet to Him of the mystery of His birth, and which had faith enough to wait, till His own consciousness should be fully and clearly awakened to the fact of His being the Son of God. The more surprising, therefore, must His answer have seemed to His mother, as containing a hint, intelligible to her alone, that He already knew who His Father was.

Luk 2:49. How is it that ye sought Me?The quiet repose of this answer, contrasted with Marys natural agitation, produces an impression quite peculiar. He is apparently astonished that He should have been sought, or even thought of, anywhere else, than in the only place which He felt to be properly His home.Perhaps this was the moment in which His immediate intuition of His destination was aroused. Thus the magnet, if it could speak, would express its astonishment, if it were assigned another than a northward direction, or the sunflower, if it was supposed not to be always turned toward the sun. [Alford:This is no reproachful question. It is asked in all the simplicity and boldness of holy childhood.P. S.]

About My Fathers business.The rendering of some, in My Fathers house unnecessarily narrows the fulness of the expression. He stays in the temple as such only, inasmuch as it is there that to are for the present concentrated, according to His view. Better: in the things or affairs of my Father, in that what belongs to His honor and glory. A beautiful exposition of this inexhaustible text may be found in Stiers Words of the Lord Jesus, vol. I. [I must be, .It signifies a moral necessity which is identical with perfect freedom.P. S.]

Luk 2:50. And they understood not the saying.If Meyer and others are right, in concluding that the meaning of these words was totally incomprehensible to His parents, this inexplicable ignorance might perhaps be adduced, as evidence against the truth of the history of the Nativity and its miracles. We do not, however, see any reason why we should not attribute their astonishment to the fact, that he should, sponte sua, so plainly express what He had learned neither from them nor from the doctors Besides, twelve years of quiet oblivion had elapsed, between His birth and this moment; and even the faith of a Mary would not be always equally clear and strong.

Luk 2:51. And was subject unto them.It seems almost as if Luke were trying to oppose the notion, that the child, whose faculties were developing in so heavenly a manner, had even for an instant spoken in an unchildlike manner to His mother and foster-father. If His heart drew Him to the temple, the voice of duty called Him back to Galilee; and, perfect even in childhood, He yielded implicit obedience to this voice. The blossom of His inner life, which had opened and spread abroad its first fragrance in the temple, was to continue expanding in the obscurity of Nazareth; and Mary was to wait eighteen years, keeping all these sayings in her heart, before anything else unprecedented should occur.

Luk 2:52. In wisdom and age.Age (margin) would seem the preferable rendering of , for, though increase in age is as inevitable a consequence as increase of stature, yet the former expression is important to Luke, who, having spoken of His twelfth year, and being about to mention His thirtieth (Luk 3:23), characterizes, by this concluding formula, the whole of these eighteen years as a period of development.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. We may compare the appearance of Jesus on earth to the course of the sun. The first light appeared above the horizon on the night of the Nativity at Bethlehem; when His public ministry began, this light had gained its meridian height; but as the suns journey from east to south is often performed amidst darkening clouds, so is the history of these thirty years for the most part veiled in obscurity. Only once, in this long morning, is the veil of clouds drawn aside, and we get a glimpse of the increasing glories of this Sun of Righteousness; and this moment of brightness is the epoch of this Passover feast.
2. Perhaps there are few passages in Lukes history of the birth and childhood of Jesus, which bear such incontestable marks of truth and reality as this. A comparison with the apocryphal Gospels is even unnecessary, as the whole narrative breathes throughout a truth and simplicity, with which nothing else can be compared. What writer of a fiction would ever have imagined an occurrence, from which the miraculous is so entirely banished, in which no angel is introduced to assist in the discovery of the lost child, but his parents are represented as finding Him again in an ordinary manner, and one in which even an appearance of disobedience to Mary is cast upon Jesus! To be unable to imagine so precocious a development, is to place the Lord behind many children, of whom remarkable traits of early maturity are related. Nor should we forget here the remark of a Christian apologist, that in Christianity, and in its sacred records, the motto of cold intellectual culture, nil mirari, is less applicable than the principle of the most sublime of its predecessors: . Osiander.

[Of the boyhood of Jesus, we know only one fact, recorded by Luke; but it is in perfect keeping with the peculiar charm of His childhood, and foreshadows, at the same time, the glory of His public life, as one uninterrupted service of His heavenly Father. When twelve years old, we find Him in the temple, in the midst of the Jewish doctors, not teaching and offending them, as in the apocryphal Gospels, by any immodesty or forwardness, but hearing and asking questions, thus actually learning from them, and yet filling them with astonishment at His understanding and answers. There is nothing premature, forced or unbecoming His age, and yet a degree of wisdom and an intensity of interest in religion, which rises far above a purely human youth. He increased, we are told, in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. He was subject to His parents, and practised all the virtues of an obedient son; and yet He filled them with a sacred awe as they saw Him absorbed in the things of His Father, and heard Him utter words, which they were unable to understand at the time, but which Mary treasured up in her heart as a holy secret, convinced that they must have some deep meaning, answering to the mystery of His supernatural conception and birth. Such an idea of a harmless and faultless heavenly childhood, of a growing, learning, and yet surprisingly wise boyhood, as it meets us in living reality at the portal of the Gospel history, never entered the imagination of a biographer, poet, or philosopher before. On the contrary, as has been justly observed by Dr. H. Bushnell (on the Character of Jesus, p. 19), in all the higher ranges of character, the excellence portrayed is never the simple unfolding of a harmonious and perfect beauty contained in the germ of childhood, but is a character formed by a process of rectification, in which many follies are mended and distempers removed, in which confidence is checked by defeat, passion moderated by reason, smartness sobered by experience. Commonly a certain pleasure is taken in showing how the many wayward sallies of the boy are, at length, reduced by discipline to the character of wisdom, justice, and public heroism, so much admired. Besides, if any writer, of almost any age, will undertake to describe not merely a spotless, but a superhuman or celestial childhood, not having the reality before him, he must be somewhat more than human himself, if he do not pile together a mass of clumsy exaggerations, and draw and overdraw, till neither heaven nor earth can find any verisimilitude in the picture.This unnatural exaggeration, into which the mythical fancy of man, in its endeavor to produce a superhuman childhood and boyhood, will inevitably fall, is strikingly exhibited in the myth of Hercules, who, while yet a suckling in the cradle, squeezed two monster serpents to death with his tender hands, and still more in the accounts of the apocryphal Gospels, on the wonderful performances of the infant Saviour. These apocryphal Gospels are related to the canonical Gospels as the counterfeit to the genuine coin, or as a revolting caricature to the inimitable original; but, by the very contrast, they tend, negatively, to corroborate the truth of the evangelical history. The strange contrast has been frequently urged, especially in the Strauss controversy, and used as an argument against the mythical theory. While the evangelists expressly reserve the performance of miracles to the age of maturity and public life, and observe a significant silence concerning the parents of Jesus, the pseudo-evangelists fill the infancy and early years of the Saviour and His mother with the strangest prodigies, and make the active intercession of Mary very prominent throughout. According to their representation, even dumb idols, irrational beasts, and senseless trees, bow in adoration before the infant Jesus, on his journey to Egypt; and after His return, when yet a boy of five or seven years, He changes balls of clay into flying birds, for the idle amusement of His playmates; strikes terror round about Him, dries up a stream of water by a mere word, transforms His companions into goats, raises the dead to life, and performs all sorts of miraculous cures, through a magical influence which proceeds from the very water in which he was washed, the towels which he used, and the bed on which he slept. Here we have the falsehood and absurdity of unnatural fiction, while the New Testament presents to us the truth and beauty of a supernatural, yet most real history, which shines out only in brighter colors by the contrast of the mythical shadows. (From Schaffs Person of Christ, the Miracle of History. Boston, 1865, p. 28 ff.)P. S.]

3. The first words which drop from the lips of the Word made flesh, are especially important in a doctrinal point of view. They are the childlike and nave expression of direct and infallible self-consciousness, now gradually developing into higher knowledge. This is the moment in which the long-closed and slowly-growing bud first breaks through its outer covering. The child Jesus excites astonishment, but shows none, except at the fact that they knew not where to find Him. But the deep mysteries of His nature are still covered with a garment of the purest innocence. The temple is to Him, in the fullest sense, the dwelling-place of His Father, of whom He will soon declare, that God is a Spirit. His ear, desirous of instruction, is seeking answers to important and vital questions from those Rabbis, against whose perversions of Scripture He will soon denounce a terrible woe. His foot, which an irresistible yet inexplicable attraction draws toward the temple, soon submissively follows the track which the will of His parents points out. We feel that the child Jesus must have acted thus, and could not have acted otherwise.

4. But this passage of Christs early history is of extreme importance for other reasons. It is important in its influence on the present. Hitherto pious Jews and lowly shepherds, waiting for the salvation of Israel, have borne testimony to the infant Messiah: He now bears testimony to Himself; and the whole occurrence, which would surely be impressed on the mind of certain doctors of Jerusalem, was a fresh hint to the whole Jewish nation, to give a becoming reception to Him who would shortly appear among them. It is also important in its relation to the past. A seal is now set to the word of the angel, He shall be called the Son of the Highest (Luk 1:32). The consciousness of Jesus is aroused to this unique relationship, and a ray now gilds the obscurity of Nazareth, which must recall to Marys mind the miracles of Bethlehem, and direct her hopes to a future full of blessings. Finally, it is important as a sign of the future: if ever the saying of a child was prophetic, it was the saying of Jesus in the temple. It is the programme, the key-note, of the whole future earthly and heavenly life of our Lord. His consciousness of divinity, His obedience, His self-denial, His speech, as never man spake, all are here present in nuce, soon to be manifested in luce. Luk 2:49 is the germ of Joh 4:34; Joh 8:29; Joh 9:4; and even His farewell to life, Joh 17:4, naturally refers to this beginning.

5. The outer life of Jesus, during the next eighteen years, is covered with a veil of obscurity, which not even the writers of the apocryphal Gospels have ventured to lift. His days seem to have been quietly passed in the privacy of the domestic circle. Even Nathanael, who lived at Cana, only three leagues off from Nazareth, Joh 1:46-47, had never yet heard anything of the son of Joseph. The death of His foster-father probably happened during this interval. Miracles would have been without purpose in the retirement of home; and Joh 2:3 cannot be understood to denote that any had yet been performed by him. Mar 6:3 (according to the true reading, ) shows decidedly that He had worked at His fathers trade; a fact supported also by tradition. See Justinus M., Dialog. cum Tryph. Luke 88. Compare the account of a remarkable statement of Julian the Apostate, in Theodoret, H. E. iii. 23, and Sozomen, vi. 2. The family of Nazareth seems not to have lived in a state of extreme poverty, but still less in the possession of any temporal superfluity.

6. The increase of Jesus in wisdom during this period was,(1) real. Jesus had to learn from the words of others what as yet He knew not; and that was entirely unknown to Him as a child, which He had a glimpse of as a boy, conjectured as a youth, and first clearly perceived as a man.(2) Unchecked. In attributing to the Lord Jesus the relative imperfection of childhood, we must carefully avoid imputing to Him the failings of childhood. His life showed no trace of childish faults, to be hereafter conquered. The words of John, Mat 3:14, show, on the contrary, what impression was made by His moral purity when thirty years of age; and the voice from heaven, Luk 2:17, sets the seal of the divine approval on the now completed development of the Son of Man, a seal which the Holy One of Israel would only have affixed to absolute perfection.(3) It was effected by means. We may exclude from the means whereby this development was effected, (a) a learned education by Jewish doctors (Joh 7:15); (b) an Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, or Alexandrian training, which was formerly thought of; (c) an instruction in the principles of the various Jewish sects, viz., the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. On the other hand, we may ascribe more or less influence to(a) His training by the pious Mary, and the godly Joseph, in the ways of a quiet domestic life; (b) to the natural beauties of the neighborhood of Nazareth;35 (c) to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which He undoubtedly read, understood, and delighted in, more than any other child; (d) to the annual journeys to Jerusalem, which must certainly have opened His eyes to the corruption of His nation and its leaders; and (e) above all to prayerful communion with His heavenly Father. But, allowing for all these, we are forced to recur (f) to that essential singularity in the personality of the Lord, whereby, with such comparatively weak and disproportioned means, he could become actu, what He had been from His birth potenti.Lastly, [4] the development of the God-Man was normal, inasmuch as it holds up to His people an example of what they must more and more approach unto, in fellowship with Himself, growing by the faithful use of every means of grace, from little children to young men, and from young men to fathers in Christ: 2Co 3:18; 2Pe 3:18.On the whole subject of the human development of the Son of Man, compare Athanasius, Orat. III. contra Arian, Luke 51 (tom. i., p. 475), and Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 43 in laud. Basilii, Luke 38. See also the excellent remarks of Ullmann, Sinlessness of Jesus (p. 104 f. of the 5th German edition), and those of Martensen in his Dogmatik ii., p. 315. The latter well observes, that we see in this narrative, not only that the consciousness of His peculiar relation to His Father is dawning within Him; but that in His sitting in the midst of the teachers of His nation, not merely listening, but astonishing them by His questions and answers, we may also perceive the earliest revelation of His productive relation to those around Him (discendo docuit).

[P. Schaff (The Person of Christ, etc., 1865, p. 34 ff.): Jesus grew up among a people seldom and only contemptuously named by the ancient classics, and subjected at the time to the yoke of a foreign oppressor; in a remote and conquered province of the Roman empire; in the darkest district of Palestine; in a little country-town of proverbial insignificance; in poverty and manual labor; in the obscurity of a carpenters shop; far away from universities, academies, libraries, and literary or polished society; without any help, as far as we know, except the parental care, the daily wonders of nature, the Old Testament Scriptures, the weekly Sabbath services of the synagogue at Nazareth (Luk 4:16), the annual festivals in the temple of Jerusalem (Luk 2:42), and the secret intercourse of His soul with God, His heavenly Father. These are, indeed, the great educators of the mind and heart; the book of nature and the book of revelation are filled with richer and more important lessons, than all the works of human art and learning. But they were accessible alike to every Jew, and gave no advantage to Jesus over His humblest neighbor. Hence the question of Nathaniel, What good can come out of Nazareth? Hence the natural surprise of the Jews, who knew all His human relations and antecedents. How knoweth this man letters? they asked, when they heard Jesus teach, having never learned? (Joh 7:15.) And on another occasion, when He taught in the synagogue, Whence has this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenters son? is not His mother Mary and His brethren (brothers) James and Joses and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence, then, hath this man all these things? These questions are unavoidable and unanswerable, if Christ be regarded as a mere man. For each effect presupposes a corresponding cause. .. Jesus can be ranked neither with the school-trained nor with the self-trained or self-made men, if by the latter we understand, as we must, those who without the regular aid of living teachers, yet with the same educational means, such as books, the observation of men and things, and the intense application of their mental faculties, attained to vigor of intellect and wealth of scholarship, like Shakspeare, Jacob Boehm, Benjamin Franklin, and others. All the attempts to bring Him into contact with Egyptian wisdom, or the Essenic Theosophy, or other sources of learning, are without a shadow of proof, and explain nothing after all. He never quotes from books except the Old Testament, He never refers to secular history, poetry, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, foreign languages, natural sciences, or any of those branches of knowledge which make up human learning and literature. He confined himself strictly to religion. But from that centre He shed light over the whole world of man and nature. In this department, unlike all other great men, even the prophets and the apostles, He was absolutely original and independent. He taught the world as one who had learned nothing from it and was under no obligation to it. He speaks from divine intuition as one who not only knows the truth, but who is the truth, and with an authority, which commands absolute submission, or provokes rebellion, but can never be passed by with contempt or indifference. His character and life were originated and sustained in spite of circumstances with which no earthly force could have contended, and therefore must have had their real foundation in a force which was preternatural and divine.P. S.]

7. We may be thankful that St. Luke, compared with the other Evangelists, has communicated to us so much of the early history of our Lord; nor less so, that he has told us so little; as this very reticence furnishes a proof of his fides historica, checks vain curiosity, and shows us how infinitely more important for our faith is the history of His ministry, passion, death, and glorification, than that of His youth and childhood.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The first Passover of Jesus: 1. The history; 2. the significance of this journey for Jesus, for His parents, for Israel, for the world.The first appearance of the Messiah in the sanctuary.The glory of the second house greater than that of the first, Hag 2:10.The first Passover of Jesus: 1. Visited with desire; 2. celebrated worthily; 3. left obediently.The parents and the child united before the Lord.The Son of Man once a lost son.Seeking for Jesus: 1. The anxiety of deprivation; 2. the joy of finding.The interchange of joy and sorrow during our earthly pilgrimage.Jesus lost in the hurry and bustle of the world, but found again in the temple.Jesus sitting in the midst of the teachers whom He was afterwards to oppose.The school of Rabbis at Jerusalem, a model for parents and children.Marys astonishment excited by Jesus, comp. Luk 2:18; Luk 2:33.The over-hasty zeal of Mary, and the heavenly tranquillity of Jesus.God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, in a sense applicable to Him alone.The Son of Man aroused to the consciousness of His being the God-Man.To be about His Fathers business, the vocation, 1. of Christ; 2. of the Christian.Even the first recorded saying of the Lord too deep to be entirely understood, the explanation of all His deeds, and the key to His whole life.Christs first Passover journey: 1. A glimpse into the history of His youth; 2. a turning-point in the history of His development; 3. a turning-point in the history of salvation.The return from Jerusalem to Nazareth, a specimen of the voluntary self-denial and obedience of Christ.Jesus, even at Nazareth, about His Fathers business.The contemplative faith of Mary, 1. in its secret conflict, 2. in its final triumph.The growth in secret, both in wisdom and stature, from the imperfect child to the perfect man, of Him who was the Most High and Most Glorious.The increase in grace.He who finds favor with God, finds favor also with man.The season of waiting.Faithfulness in little things.The fifth commandment not destroyed but fulfilled by Jesus.The fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom.Increase in wisdom and age, the work of grace; favor, the crown put upon wisdom and age.That which is most precious, though ripening in the world, 1. was then, 2. is now, 3. will be ever, hidden from the eye of the world.

Starke:The care parents should have for their children.To public worship must be added domestic worship.Quesnel:Jesus is more often lost in time of prosperity than in times of misfortune and persecution.Hedinger:We often, from erroneous judgment, seek Christ among our kinsfolk and acquaintance, where He

is not to be found.We often have to seek long for Jesus; and this is our best employment, even if we have to spend more than one spiritual days journey upon it.Sorrow for the loss of Jesus, a reasonable sorrow.He who would be a teacher of others, must first be a learner.Cramer:Christ has hallowed instruction by question and answer.The more spiritual gifts any one has received, the more careful will he be to avoid boasting.Nova Bibl. Tub.:Jesus more learned than His teachers (Isa 50:4): let us hear Him.Parents transgress when they reprove and punish their children unseasonably or unreasonably, Pro 20:1-6; Pro 22:6.Majus:Children may instruct their parents, if they do it respectfully and modestly, 1Sa 19:4.We must not despise what we do not understand.Osiander:Christ has, by His obedience, made satisfaction for the disobedience of children; while, by His example, He teaches children to obey their parents.Faith keeps in her heart even what she does not understand.There is little hope of children who increase in age and stature only, and decrease in wisdom and favor.

Heubner:The care of man is not sufficient for children, if God does not add to it the care of His angels.Even good children may innocently cause grief.As Jesus grew and ripened in retirement, so the ministers of the gospel often have long to wait before God calls them into full work.Jesus commanding respect even as a boy.The family of Jesus a model for Christian families.The charms of the history of Jesus for the young.

Stier:The holy child Jesus and our children (a continuous contrast).Arndt:1. The tokens; 2. the excitements; 3. the fruits of early piety, visible in the holy child Jesus.The early history of Jesus: 1. Jesus in Nazareth; 2. Jesus of Nazareth.A des Amorie v. d. Hoeven (preacher in Utrecht, died 1849): 1. Behold the child Jesus! 2. Behold in the child the man Jesus! 3. Become children in Christ, that you may become men!Gerdessen:The appearance of Christ in the sanctuary: Ought He not to be, 1. about His Fathers business; 2. in the midst of the teachers; 3. according to the usage of the feast; 4. sought for sorrowing; and 5. manifesting a childlike disposition?M. G. Albrecht (died 1835): The child Jesus is often lost in our days, after a spiritual manner.Gaupp:The Mediator between God and man discernible in Jesus, even in His twelfth year: 1. In the holy privacy of His life in God; 2. in the consciousness of His relation to the Father; 3. in the unintermitted occupation of His spirit with the work which the Father had given Him to do.Rautenberg:Our children our judges: 1. What this means; 2. how this happens; 3. to what this leads.Finally, an excellent sermon by Adolphe Monod (died 1856): Jsus enfant, modle des enfants, Paris, 1857.

Footnotes:

[30]Luk 2:43.It is more probable that the original reading , His parents, which is sustained by Codd. Sinait., Vatic., Vulg. (parentes ejus), etc., recommended by Griesbach, and adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Tregelles (also by van Oosterzee in his Version), was changed for dogmatic reasons into the text. rec.: , than vice versa. Comp. Crit. Note 1 on Luk 2:33. Meyer, however, defends the lect. rec., and regards as an addition from Luk 2:41.

[31]Luk 2:45., after is wanting in the best authorities, and a superfluous insertion a seriore manu.

[32]Luk 2:49.Literally: in the things of My Father; in rebus Patris Mei; in dem, was Meines Vaters ist. Comp. 1Ti 4:15, . So Maldonatus, Wolf, Valckenaer, Rosenmller, de Wette, Ewald, van Oosterzee, Alford (who, however, strangely translates: among My Fathers matters), and all the older English Versions. But the fathers and the majority of modern commentators, including Meyer, also the revised N. T. of the Am. B. U., give the phrase a local reference: in My Fathers house, i.e., in the temple. This is grammatically equally correct, but it improperly limits and weakens the rich meaning, since Christ could only occasionally be in the temple. The preposition denotes the life-element in which Christ moved during His whole life, whether in the temple or out of it. See also the authors Exeg. Note, p. 49, in which I entirely concur.

[33]Luk 2:52.The primary meaning of (from , of age, in the prime of life) is age, the flower or prime of life, manhood, and is so correctly understood here by the Vulgate (tate), Erasmus, Luther, Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, the Rheims N. T., Kuinl, de Wette, Alford, Whiting, van Oosterzee, and many others, comp. Joh 9:21; Joh 9:23; Heb 11:11; also Luk 12:25 and Mat 6:27 (see Langes note, vol. i. p. 134). The Genevan and the Authorized E. V., Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Ewald, Meyer, Robinson (Diction.), the revised N. T. of the Am. B. U., etc., translate: stature, growth, as in Luk 19:3 ( ). But the only reason urged by Meyer against the former version, applies rather to the latter; for growth in age is more comprehensive than growth in stature. The meaning of the passage is that Jesus grew in wisdom as well as in age.P. S.]

[34][At the time of David the whole population of Palestine furnished one million three hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms (2Sa 24:9), which would give us only a total population of nearly five millions. But at the time of Christ, Galilee, owing to the great fertility of its soil, was very densely populated, and Josephus states that the smallest of its four hundred and four towns and villages, numbered over fifteen thousand inhabitants (De bello Judges 1.i. c. 3, 2; Vit. 25). As to the city of Jerusalem, the ordinary number of inhabitants, according to Hecatus, was one hundred and twenty thousand; and at the time of the passover, the population, according to Josephus, De bello Jud. iv. 9, 3, exceeded the number of two million seven hundred thousand male individuals, including, of course, all foreigners from Syria, Egypt, etc.; the number of paschal lambs slaughtered amounting once to one hundred and thirty-six thousand five hundred. In such a crowd it was easy to be lost. Perhaps Marys homeward-bound steps were quickened by motherly anxiety for other and younger children left behind in Nazareth.P. S.]

[35][Renan, in the second chapter of his Vie de Jsus, gives, from personal observation, the following graphic description of the beauty of nature around Nazareth: Nazareth was a little town, situated in a fold of land broadly open at the summit of the group of mountains which closes on the north the plain of Esdralon. The population is now from three to four thousand, and it cannot have varied very much. The environs are charming, and no place in the world was so well adapted to dreams of absolute happiness. Even in our days, Nazareth is a delightful sojourn, the only place perhaps in Palestine where the soul feels a little relieved of the burden which weighs upon it in the midst of this unequalled desolation. The people are friendly and good-natured; the gardens are fresh and green. The beauty of the women who gather there at night, this beauty which was already remarked in the sixth century, and in which was seen the gift of the Virgin Mary (by Antonius Martyr, Itiner. 5), has been surprisingly well preserved. It is the Syrian type in all its languishing grace.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

(41) Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. (42) And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem, after the custom of the feast. (43) And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. (44) But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. (45) And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. (46) And it came to pass, that after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. (47) And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. (48) And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. (49) And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? (50) And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

As in the preceding verses we were introduced into an acquaintance with Christ’s abased state, so here we are brought into a short, but blessed view of his exaltation and glory. The men of Israel were obliged to go up three times in a year before the Lord at Jerusalem, at the great feasts; but the women were not enjoined to this service. Deu 16:16 . However, we find Mary, on this occasion, accompanying her husband at the Passover. Nazareth was distant from Jerusalem about three days journey. It is refreshing to behold, how holy men of old delighted in attending the feasts at Jerusalem. And as they were figurative of Gospel mercies, especially the Pass over, there can be no doubt but that the Holy Ghost accompanied those services with a sweet savor of Christ. And the Lord Jesus, at twelve years of age, accompanying his mother and Joseph, becomes a blessed recommendation to the children of believing parents to have an early relish for divine things. Neither doth the conduct of Joseph and Mary, seeking for Jesus among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, bring with it a subject of less profitable instruction. Where should we seek Jesus, but among his people? Son 1:7-8 .

But the most interesting part in what is here said, is the engagement in which Joseph and Mary found Jesus, after a three days’ search in the midst of the doctors, and the answer the Lord made to Mary’s question. How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And though they understood not the saying, yet, Reader! You and I, under divine teaching, may. What business could the Lord Jesus then be upon, but the very business which brought him first from heaven, in the redemption of his Church and People? Here then was the opening of it. Here a breaking forth for the moment appeared of that zeal which for his Father’s house had eaten him up. Psa 69:9 . and which afterwards appeared in full glory. Joh 2:12 . to the end. A more decided proof could never be desired, in testimony of Christ’s mission, than in such an instance. Jesus gently reproved both his mother and Joseph by his answer, in that, after all that had been told them, and especially his mother, they should not instantly have concluded where he was, and how engaged. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? As if Jesus had said, in the temple, my Father’s house, I enter upon that business for which I became incarnate; to fulfil the whole law; to satisfy divine justice; to bring in an everlasting righteousness; and by conquering sin, Satan, death, hell, and the grave; to save my people from their sins!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

Ver. 41. Now his parents went, &c. ] Every male was to appear thrice a year before the Lord. In the females it was a freewill offering, and well accepted.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

41 52. ] VISIT TO THE TEMPLE AT THE PASSOVER. The history of this incident serves for an example of the wisdom wherewith the Child was filled. Bleek. “The Evang. next shews that what he has said is true.” Cyril. ib.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

41. ] See Exo 23:14-17 . Women , according to the maxims of the school of Hillel, were bound to go up once in the year to the Passover.

] at , or in the feast; not ‘ to the feast;’ nor, ‘ on account of the feast.’

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 2:41-52 . When twelve years old . Lk. here relates one solitary, significant incident from the early years of Jesus, as if to say: from this, learn all. The one story shows the wish to collect anecdotes of those silent years. There would have been more had the evangelist had more to tell. The paucity of information favours the historicity of the tradition.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luk 2:41 . : law-observing people, piously observant of the annual feasts, especially that of the passover.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 2:41-51

41Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; 43and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, 44but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. 46Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 48When 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.” 49And 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?” 50But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. 51And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Luk 2:41 “went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover” Jewish males over 21 years of age were required to attend all three major annual feasts (cf. Exo 23:14-17; Exo 34:23; Deu 16:16). In the first century this was reduced to one feast because of the number of Jews living outside of Palestine. This is another evidence of Jesus’ parents’ dedication to the law of Moses. Mary was not required by law to attend, but she wanted to.

Luk 2:42 “when He became twelve” Jesus was coming very close to His Bar Mitzvah, which made a Jewish boy a “son of the Law.” This occurred at age thirteen. It is possible that Luke recorded His age as twelve to show how fully developed He was in the Scriptures even at this age. Jesus obviously, by this time, recognized who He was (cf. Luk 2:49).

Luk 2:43 “spending the full number of days” These bands of pilgrims came in groups for safety reasons and usually stayed either two or seven days (cf. Exo 12:15-16; Lev 23:6-8; Deu 16:3).

“Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it” Usually in these caravans of pilgrims the men and women traveled separately and often times the children would play together. Probably each parent thought that Jesus was in the care of the other.

Luk 2:44 “went a day’s journey, and they began looking for Him” Usually these caravans left Jerusalem and stopped at Beereoth, about eight to ten miles from Jerusalem, for the night. The normal distance of a day’s journey was over twenty miles.

Luk 2:46 “after three days” This includes their one day travel away from Jerusalem, the one-day journey back, and one day to search for Jesus.

“in the temple” On the Sabbath and on feast days the rabbis lectured in the covered porches of the Court of the Women (outermost courtyard of the shrine).

“both listening to them and asking them questions” This is a helpful model for all of us. We all have teachers who have influenced us and we thank God for them. It is good to have a receptive spirit. However, there must come a time of mature reflective thought when we ask questions about what we have been told, even of those we trust. Maturity both listens and questions. The truth that was shared by others must become our truth.

Luk 2:47 “And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” This is an imperfect middle indicative, which suggests a repeated experience. This was Jesus’ only known chance to hear the great rabbis in Jerusalem and discuss the Law with them. These would be the same type of leadership that would not listen to Him as an adult.

This verse addresses the exceptional nature of Jesus, while Luk 2:52 stresses the normalcy of Jesus. Both are true. Jesus knew very early who He was and why He came! Yet, He was truly human!

Luk 2:48 “were astonished” This literally is “struck with a blow” (cf. Luk 2:48; Luk 4:32; Luk 9:43; Act 13:12).

“Your father and I” Notice the contrast between Mary’s use of the pronoun “your father” and Jesus’ use of the pronoun “My Father” in Luk 2:49. Luk 2:50 clearly states that Mary and Joseph did not clearly make the distinction, but young Jesus did!

“have been anxiously looking for You” This is an imperfect. They had been looking for three days (cf. Luk 2:46) and were extremely anxious about Jesus’ welfare.

Luk 2:49 “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house” These are the first recorded words of Jesus. This shows that Jesus knew something of His origin and purpose, even at this early age. This also may be Luke’s attempt to refute the heresy of “Adoptionism.”

For an interesting discussion of “adoptionism” and how early scribes modified their texts so as to reject this heretical Christology, see Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, pp. 47-118. For a brief definition see my glossary in the appendices.

Luk 2:50 There are three places in Luke’s Gospel where it is specifically stated that Jesus hearers did not understand.

1. his parents Luk 2:50

2. the crowd Luk 9:45

3. the Twelve Luk 18:34 (about Jesus’ death)

The Twelve were privileged to much of Jesus’ private instruction (cf. Luk 10:21-24), but still they were unable to receive the information about His suffering and death in Jerusalem (cf. Mar 9:32; Joh 2:22; Joh 12:16; Joh 14:26) until after the resurrection (cf. Luk 24:45).

In John’s Gospel this disconnect is part of the vertical dualism (i.e., Jesus is from above but humans are from below).

Luk 2:51 “He went down with them and came to Nazareth” This is the last mention of Joseph. Apparently he died at an early age, but the couple had several other children first (cf. Mat 12:46; Mat 13:55; Mar 6:3; Joh 2:12; Joh 7:3; Joh 7:5; Joh 7:10; Act 1:14; 1Co 9:5; Gal 1:19).

“continued in subjection to them” This is a periphrastic imperfect passive, “He was continually subject to them.” The law was very strict on this (cf. Deu 21:18-21). Jesus grew up in a normal Jewish household, obeying and following the normal Jewish rules for children.

“and His mother treasured all these things in her heart” Mary remembered these early events (cf. Luk 2:19), but did not understand them (cf. Luk 2:50) until after the resurrection. Luke apparently interviewed Mary and she is one of the sources of his Gospel. Possibly this interview took place during Paul’s two-year imprisonment at Caesarea by the Sea.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

passover. See App-94.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

41-52.] VISIT TO THE TEMPLE AT THE PASSOVER. The history of this incident serves for an example of the wisdom wherewith the Child was filled. Bleek. The Evang. next shews that what he has said is true. Cyril. ib.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 2:41. , year by year) Without fear of Archelaus. [Inasmuch as that prince had been removed after a nine years government, and had been driven into exile, the Saviour was able in safety to go to Jerusalem.-Harm., p. 58.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Luk 2:41-52

7. THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS HIS VISIT

TO JERUSALEM AT AGE OF TWELVE

Luk 2:41-52

41 And his parents went every year-The law required all males above the age of twelve to attend three annual feasts; these feasts were held first where the tabernacle was pitched, and next in Jerusalem when the temple was built. The attendance of females was not forbidden; they were left free to attend if they wished. (1Sa 1:7; 1Sa 1:22; 1Sa 1:24.) The school of Hillel made it obligatory upon women to attend the Passover. It is not to be inferred here that Joseph and Mary went up to no other yearly feasts than the Passover, but that upon this feast they were in constant attendance. It seems that the fear of the child being harmed had passed; that the Roman authorities had either forgotten about the incident of the newborn king, or had not given much attention to it, possibly thinking that it was a superstition of the Jews.

the feast of the Passover.-The Passover was held on the fourteenth day of month Nisan, which came some time in our month of March. It commemorated the death angel passing over the Israelites in Egypt and sparing the first born of the Israelites, but destroying the firstborn males of the Egyptians. It was held annually, and was eaten with the lamb, called the paschal lamb. (Exo 12:1-18.) It had to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; those who ate it had to be ceremonially clean.

42-45 And when he was twelve years old,-At the age of twelve a boy was regarded as “a son of the law,” and came under obligation to observe the ordinances of the law personally. It seems clear that this was the first time that Jesus accompanied Joseph and Mary to the Feast of the Passover. How little did the multitudes which filled Jerusalem on that occasion think that the real Lamb, who was to be offered for the redemption of the world, the antitype of the lamb slain at the paschal feast, was present there! Joseph and Mary “went up after the custom of the feast” which required its celebration at Jerusalem. Before the erection of the temple the feast was kept at he place where the tabernacle was raised.

and when they had fulfilled the days,-The Passover required but one day, but the feast of unleavened bread, which immediately followed the Passover, continued for seven days. Since the Passover was the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, the names have been used interchangeably, the Passover being applied to the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of unleavened bread to the Passover. (Exo 12:15; Exo 12:17; Exo 23:15; Lev 23:4-8.) At the expiration of these days Joseph and Mary with their kinspeople began their journey homeward, not aware that Jesus was tarrying behind, but supposing that he was with the company made up of their neighbors and friends. These incidental circumstances show the method of travel from remote localities to the great city to attend the great feasts.

supposing him to be in the company,-This explains why they thought that Jesus was along with them; there was a great crowd of neighbors and kinspeople, and as they were traveling along engaged in religious exercises, they supposed that Jesus was along with them. Either they had committed him to some friend or relative, or they thought that he was old enough to take care of himself as they journeyed along, hence no attention was given to him until they arrived where they would spend the night. We are not to infer that Joseph and Mary were negligent with respect to Jesus. “They went a day’s journey” before they discovered that the boy Jesus was not in the company. The length of “a day’s journey” depended somewhat upon the distance they had to go in order to encamp where there was a supply of good water. From twenty to thirty miles is probably a fair estimate of an average day’s journey with baggage, animals, and women and children. “A day’s journey” (Num 11:31; 1Ki 19:4; Joh 3:4) was far different to a “sabbath day’s journey,” which was about three-fourths of a mile. The company started early on their journey and usually made it a point to stop for the night before it was dark in order to prepare their evening meal and be ready for an early start on the morrow.

and when they found him not, they returned-They turned back on the following morning; as they had made a day’s journey from Jerusalem, it would require another day to return to Jerusalem. It seems that they sought for him all their way back to the city; they supposed that he had started with the company, hence they diligently searched for him along the way. Not finding Jesus during the entire day, nor at the place of rest for the night, they returned to the city anxiously seeking him.

46, 47 And it came to pass, after three days-Some have counted the three days from the time that they arrived in Jerusalem; others think that it was three days from their separation, two days being spent in travel from and back to Jerusalem, and one day spent in searching for him in the city. It is a little difficult to determine the exact length of time, as the Jews were not accurate in counting time as we are today. It seems that one day was spent in their journey, another in returning to the city, and the third day he was found in the temple. He was “in the temple,” in one of the apartments of the main building, where the Jewish doctors of the law held their schools. He was “sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions.” It was the custom for students to sit on the floor at the feet of their teachers, who sat on raised benches of a semicircular form; Jesus was sitting in the company of the others. The “teachers” were the “doctors” of the law; these were the Jewish rabbis, a class of men who, after the captivity, expounded the law in the temple and synagogues; they were consulted on doubtful points of the law and held public lectures and discussions wherever they could find auditors.

and all that heard him were amazed-Jesus was “both hearing them, and asking them questions.” He was not “disputing” with them, but sat in their presence and asked questions of them, and answered their questions. We must think of Jesus even at the age of twelve as being humble and respectful; his questions were not those of a pert and spoiled child, but of a youthful mind, a modestly searching after truth, and seeking from the lips of age and wisdom a solution of difficulties, which he had already met in meditating upon the law of God. It was the custom in the Jewish schools for the scholars to ask questions of their teachers, and much of the books of the rabbis consisted of the answers of the rabbis to such questions. All the doctors and others who were present were “amazed at his understanding and his answers.” He manifested more intelligence in asking questions and in answering their questions than the ordinary scholar; his degree of intelligence was such that all were astonished at his understanding of the law. It will be noticed here that Jesus at the age of twelve is not occupying the place of a teacher, but is sitting in the circle among the doctors and their hearers.

48-50 And when they saw him, they were astonished;- When Joseph and Mary saw Jesus engaged in this study or conversation with the rabbis, “they were astonished”; the original Greek uses a very strong verb here, which means “to strike out or drive away from”; hence the meaning is “to drive out of one’s senses” “amazed” is to throw into a “maze” or labyrinth, and is closely akin to the Greek word used here. It seems that Mary should have paused before she spake to him in the manner of reproof that she used; she should not have been so “astonished” when she remembered all the supernatural events connected with his conception, birth, and divine protection. She said: “Son, why bast thou thus dealt with us?” “Son” here means “child,” as the original means a word which implies passive or dependent relation. There is a rebuke in Mary’s language. She adds that “thy father and I sought thee sorrowing.” Joseph was not his father, but this shows that he had been taught to regard Joseph as his real father. Up to this time Joseph had been called by Jesus “father,” but from this time on never does he speak of Joseph as his father, neither does Mary, henceforth, speak of Joseph as the father of Jesus. The original means that they had “sought” or “were seeking with sorrow.” Mary seems to be going over in mind the process of the long search that they had made for him.

And he said unto them,-With mental anguish which amounted to distress of body, hour after hour Joseph and Mary had searched without success for the missing child; hence the rebuke that Mary gave to Jesus. However, Jesus replied: “How is that ye sought me?” This is the first recorded saying that we have of Jesus; they are spoken to his mother. He means why have you been searching for me; the words of Jesus do not imply a rebuke, as some have affirmed, but are words of anxious solicitude for his mother’s anxiety. His reply has reference to the state of mental distress with which they sought him as is shown from his next words. He said: “Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house?” The word “must” here means “it is necessary” or “it behooves.” Jesus often used this word concerning his own appointed work, and expressed both the inevitable fulfillment of the divine counsels and the absolute constraint of the principal duty upon himself. (Mat 16:21; Mat 26:54; Mar 8:31; Luk 4:43; Luk 9:22; Luk 13:33; Luk 24:7; Luk 24:26; Luk 24:46; Joh 3:14; Joh 4:4; Joh 12:34.) “In my Father’s house” means that he must be doing those things of God. Mary’s question was not as to what her son had been doing, hut as to where he had been; Jesus answers her by asking: Where is the child to be found but in his Father’s house?

And they understood not the saying-It seems to us strange that after the revelations that had been made to Mary and Joseph (Mat 1:20; Luk 1:32; Luk 1:35) that they should have been at a loss to understand Jesus’ reply; but the years of his infancy and childhood passing away without any striking incident, it may be that they lost sight in part of the wondrous circumstances attending his birth. They may never have understood fully the depth of meaning, which, in the light of the New Testament, we find no difficulty in attaching to these declarations. It is certain that this consciousness of Jesus as to his divine nature threw Joseph and Mary into the profoundest reflection as to the full meaning of the words that he uttered.

51 And he went down with them,-The geographical direction from Jerusalem to Nazareth is “down,” hence Jesus went with Joseph and Mary down to Nazareth. We do not hear any more of Jesus until the time for his baptism; eighteen years of silence is spent at Nazareth, as he was about thirty years old at his baptism. We are told that “he was subject unto them.” The original in the Greek denotes “habitual, continuous” subjection. He had been subject to them even before this, and this is mentioned here when it might seem that he could by this time have exempted himself from obedience to any human authority. It was a great honor to the home of Mary to have Jesus sojourn as her son in it; no such honor has been bestowed upon angels. We learn that Joseph was a carpenter. (Mat 13:55; Mar 6:3.) It is a very clear inference that Jesus also learned and followed that trade. As no further mention is made of Joseph, it is thought by many that he died soon after the visit to Jerusalem. However it is not strange, when we consider his relation to Jesus as only his reputed father, that no further mention should be made of him by any inspired historian. “And his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”

52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature,-This verse covers the eighteen years of silence in the life of Jesus; these years intervened between his first visit to Jerusalem and the beginning of his public ministry. During this time his mental powers were constantly enlarging and strengthening; his physical growth was uninterrupted by sickness or disease. Some understand the word “stature” as to mean advanced in wisdom as he advanced in age; however, this is not justified by the original. “In favor with God and men” means that he grew in divine favor, that every step of his development was pleasing to God. Some have raised the question that if Jesus was always pure and sinless, how could he increase in holiness, which is implied in his advancement in the divine favor.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The Boy Christ Among The Doctors — Luk 2:41-52

Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the Child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother knew not of it. But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a days journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found Him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man – Luk 2:41-52.

It has not pleased God to give us very much information in regard to the early life of His beloved Son, as Man here on earth. Uninspired writers have tried to fill the gap by producing imaginary stories of the Childhood, and Youth, and Manhood of Jesus. There are weird myths stating that He went off to India as a young man and there sat at the feet of Hindu yogis, and learned the art of healing, and such like rubbish. We may be sure none of these things is true. Our Lord Jesus lived a normal life as a boy, growing up in a beautiful Jewish home where the Word of God was adored and loved.

As a young man He worked at the carpenters bench with His foster-father, Joseph, and inasmuch as Joseph disappears from the picture in a little time and never seems to appear again, we are forced to the conclusion that he must have died while our Lord was quite a young man. That would bring Him to the place where He would be the head of the family, and caring for His mother and His younger brothers and sisters, for the Scriptures speak of His brothers and sisters. God never seeks to gratify mere curiosity.

We would like to know more of those hidden years at Nazareth. We would like to know more of the early days of our blessed Lord. We just have enough to let us know that He was a subject Child, and that His heart was always open to the voice of God, His Father. Here we get a little light on the habits of the family that help us to understand just what kind of a group it was. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover. Long years before, God had commanded in the law that His people should go up to the place where He set His name from year to year, to keep the Passover feast, and it was His thought that every Passover might be a lesson to the children.

You remember that when the children asked, What mean ye by these things? they were told how their fathers had been slaves in the land of Egypt, and how God had delivered them and brought them out of the house of bondage. The parents were to explain the meaning of the Passover lamb, and though, perhaps, they realized it not, it was a picture of redemption.

One can think of our blessed Lord as a mere child taking the place of a little Jewish boy in that home, looking up into the eyes of His dear mother and saying, What mean ye by these things? Then as Joseph went on to explain, He would know far better than Joseph the real meaning of the Passover rites. He knew that He was the true Passover Lamb. He had come from heaven in order to give His life a ransom for many. He knew that the blood of the Passover lamb typified His own precious blood soon to be shed for the worlds redemption, and yet, perhaps all this knowledge did not come to Him as a child immediately, for we are told that Jesus increased in wisdom as He increased in stature and in favor with God and man. The mystery of His incarnation is beyond our keenest comprehension. As the Eternal Son of God we hear Him saying to the Father, Lo, I came to do Thy will, O My God. Yea, Thy law is within My heart. Voluntarily He left the throne of glory for the manger of Bethlehem. As God, of course, He knew all things, and yet as Man He chose to grow in wisdom as He grew in stature. It is a mystery. We cannot understand how He, who was the Eternal Wisdom, could yet learn from the Word of God. When we turn back to the prophet Isaiah we hear Him say, He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. Our Lord Jesus, as a little child, grew and studied the Word of God. Later He fed on the Word of God. It was His constant delight and joy. All these different circumstances must have spoken to His heart as He knew He was the One who had come to fulfil every one of the types and shadows of the Law.

It is wonderful to contemplate that lovely family on its way to Jerusalem year after year, and that little Child Jesus toddling along beside, or His mother cuddling Him in her arms as she rode upon an ass.

Then, when He was twelve years old, the visit to Jerusalem had special significance for Him. When He was twelve they came up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. It was the rule in Israel, when a child reached the age of twelve, to bring him to the temple, and there he went through certain ceremonies something like that of confirmation in some of our churches. From that time on he was recognized as the son of the Law. A child was not supposed to be on his own responsibility until he reached the age of twelve. His parents were responsible for him until that time, but when he became twelve years of age he accepted his own responsibility, and it was now put up to him that he was to obey God and keep His Law and seek His favor. So our Lord Jesus at twelve years of age took His place as the son of the Law. He was a true Israelite and He came to fulfil everything in the Law of Moses according to the will of God.

On this occasion something occurred that may have a very serious lesson for us. When the Passover feast was ended and the people were leaving the city and wending their way back to their various homes, the family to which our blessed Lord belonged and many of their friends and relatives passed through the gates of the city and took the road to the north. Joseph and His mother did not inquire whether the young lad Jesus was with them. They took that for granted. No word was told Him that they were going, and He was not under responsibility to leave with them. There was something else upon His heart and mind that God the Father had revealed definitely to Him. They took the northern route, and went on a whole days journey supposing Him to be in the company. Then, when they undertook to camp for the night, they sought Him everywhere and He wasnt there.

Our friend, Gipsy Smith, has often preached a very great sermon on the subject, The Lost Christ, and pointed out how possible it is to take it for granted that Jesus is in the company, and yet to be without Him. It is never true that the Lord Jesus Christ leaves those whom He has saved by His grace. It is never true that, having taken anyone up in His loving-kindness, He later forsakes them, but it is sadly true that Christians may go on taking it for granted that they are in fellowship with Him when actually they have drifted away from Him in heart. They are not enjoying His presence, and they hardly realize their loss. I wonder if there are not some of us here today who have had that experience. It is so easy to go on in an outward form of religiousness and not really enjoy the presence of Christ. It is possible to sit at the table of the Lord and to be conducting services for the Lord, and yet not have the presence of the Lord with us, and it is possible to go on, day by day, thinking everything is all right when in reality things are very, very wrong because we are out of touch with Him. We are not enjoying communion with Him. So it was with this group, awakened at last to realize that in some way or other they had missed Him. They took the long road back to Jerusalem, no doubt inquiring of friends if they had seen Him. When they got to the city three days went by before, at last, they found Him in the Temple. One would have thought they would have gone there first. That was His Fathers house. There He had professed His allegiance to the Lord God, because the One in whose name it was dedicated was so precious to His youthful heart.

When the parents came they found Him sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. Now notice this: There is no evidence of undue precocity and He is not an impertinent child. He is not sitting in the midst of the doctors teaching them, nor leaving His place as a child to try to instruct these older people. He has all the marks of a humble child. He is listening to them, hearing what the elders have to say, and asking them questions. They too, evidently, ask Him questions. When they did He answered modestly and so wonderfully that they were amazed.

We read, And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. They did not know that this Child was over all, God blessed for ever, who had taken our humanity in order that He might fulfil all that was written of Him in the Law. They did not realize that the Messiah for whom they had long waited was there in their midst. They said, We have never seen a child like this before. He seems to know God so intimately. He knows the Scriptures so well-not merely the letter of the Law, but the spiritual meaning of it. So they looked one upon the other in amazement as they heard His questions and listened to His answers.

In this as in all else the Lord Jesus has left young people an example that they should follow. He left us an example of a Man who went around doing good. Consequently when He was reviled He reviled not again, and when He suffered He threatened not. We have an example as a Child, that children who have been brought to know their God and Father may follow in His steps. Young folk, let me impress upon you the importance of familiarizing yourselves with Gods blessed Word. What you learn of this blessed Book in childhood will abide with you through the years. Some of us have proven that. We took it as the man of our counsel in our early days when we read it over and over again, and how much it has meant to us throughout the years. In the desire to get an education and to become familiar with the events of the day do not so give yourselves to other books that you neglect the Word of God. Feed upon His Word. See that you get some of it every day for your own soul. Dont be content to read a chapter at a time, but meditate when you read, and ask God to open it up to you by the Holy Spirit, and as you thus feast upon the Word you, too, will increase in wisdom, and in stature and in favor with God and man. You will be able, some day, to astonish those who do not know the secrets of the Lord, by your calmness, your restfulness of spirit in the midst of all the strife of earth, as you depend upon the living Word of God.

Mary and Joseph came to the temple and there they found Jesus, the Boy Jesus, sitting in the midst of the doctors, interested as they discussed together the things of the Scriptures, and when they saw Him they were amazed, and His mother said unto him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. You cannot blame her for the seeming reproach in her words. She had never known Him to be disobedient. He was perfect in all His ways. This was the first time perhaps that anything had occurred that had perplexed her in the bringing up of this Child, this Holy One. Mary speaks of Joseph as His father because he took a fathers place, but actually God was His only Father. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? Did I ever say anything that would warrant your losing faith in Me? Could you not trust Me? Could you not count upon My doing the thing that was right? I wonder if that was not to remind her of that great mystery of twelve years back, when she, a virgin, had become the mother of a Child who had no human father. She knew that He was the Son of God. She knew that His first allegiance was to God the Father. Why did she not understand? There is just a gentle reprimand here that might seem unkind if we did not understand who He was. It was He who was both God and Man in one glorious Person. We read in verse Luk 2:50, And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. It was something utterly beyond their comprehension.

Then, we have the next part of His life, up to the time of the beginning of His public ministry, brought before us in just two verses. These two verses are all that God has been pleased to tell us of the hidden years before He came forth to proclaim His Messiahship. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. There again, what an example He sets to Christian young people of all ages. Oh, how much insubjection there is today. Gods Word has said, Children, obey your parents, for this is right. It is the first commandment with a promise. Children are to honor their parents although sometimes the parents are not very deserving of honor, but the children at least should try to cover the failures of their parents and to give them what honor they can, but oh, how children today dishonor their parents! How much disrespect there is! How much disobedience there is! In the old days it was Children, obey your parents. Now it is largely, Parents, obey your children. I was in a home not long ago and the folks were getting ready to go out on a little trip. The mother was downstairs in the car, and the daughter was calling upstairs to the father. I think she felt she ought to apologize to me, and she said, I hope you wont misunderstand, but, you know, I have the most awful time training father to do as he is told. That is just a picture of the times. Instead of children doing as they are told, they are seeking to force the parents to obey the children. But how different the example set here by our blessed Lord, this holy Youth growing up there in Nazareth. He was subject unto His parents. We are told His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. She was pondering day by day as she noticed the development of this wonderful Child, as she thought of the angels message of the miraculous birth and of some things that had transpired since. She was trying to peer into the future, wondering what was to be the destiny of this marvelous Being, of this One who was to be in her care.

The last verse gives us the end of what the Scriptures reveal concerning His early years: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. In all this He is an example to us. If we would grow in grace as we grow in years we need to feed on the Word of God and to spend much time in communion with our Heavenly Father by prayer and meditation. In Heb 5:11-14 the inspired writer bewails the sad fact that so many of Gods children make such slow progress in the spiritual life. After years of Christian profession they are still as babes in Christ, unable to appropriate and to digest the deeper spiritual truths of the Scriptures, but are such as need to be fed upon the milk of the Word. Paul speaks in a similar way to the Corinthian believers (1Co 3:1-2). One evidence of spiritual babyhood is the tendency to quarrel over trivial questions, and to follow after human leaders instead of being subject to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Babies are inclined to be quarrelsome and self-willed. Some Christians manifest the same childish characteristics. Those who go on with the Lord and grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ become increasingly like their Master. In this, as in all else that pertains to life and godliness, our blessed Lord as Man on earth was our example. While Jesus was the Incarnate Son, yet as a youth in the home at Nazareth He increased in wisdom as He grew in stature, and men marveled at the grace that was seen in His holy ways.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Chapter 17

Lessons From The Masters Boyhood

What was life like for our Saviour, as he grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary? What occupied his time? How did he and his family live day by day? Those might be interesting questions; but they are questions for which no answers are given in the Word of God.

All that we know about our Masters boyhood, youth and early manhood we have given to us in these twelve, short verses of inspired history. We know absolutely nothing else about the earthly life of our Saviour from his infancy until he was thirty years old, except that which is written in these twelve verses.

That is as it should be. God the Holy Spirit has given us everything that is needful and profitable for our souls. We would be wise to recognize this fact. It is both the depth of folly and the height of arrogance for men to speculate about things God has chosen not to reveal. It is an act of wisdom, faith and humility to simply believe and heed that which is revealed. Here, the Holy Spirit gives us the history of our Masters boyhood. May he graciously teach us the lessons it is intended to convey.

Our Only Hope

As the believers only hope of life before God is the death of Christ, our only rule of life is the example of Christ. Do you understand these two things? Our hope of salvation, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins and everlasting acceptance with the holy Lord God is the expiatory sacrifice and sin-atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live by his death. Christs payment cancelled our debt. His obedience was our obedience. His judgment was our judgment. His death was our death. All the obedience he performed, all the agony he suffered, all the hell he endured, all the debt he paid was as our Surety! Our life is in his blood!

We are justified by his blood (Rom 5:9). We have forgiveness through his blood (Eph 1:7). We are reconciled to God by the blood of his cross (Col 1:20). We drink his blood for the quenching of our souls thirst (Joh 6:55). It is his blood that purges our consciences from dead works and satisfies the demands of the conscience (Heb 9:14). It is his blood by which we are brought nigh (Eph 2:13), who were by nature far off from God. It is his blood that gives us peace (Col 1:20). His blood gives us free access to the holiest and emboldens us to come to God upon the blood sprinkled mercy-seat (Heb 10:19-22). We are sanctified by his blood (Heb 13:12). His blood is the purchase money and ransom price paid for the redemption of our souls (Act 20:28). His blood is the seal of the everlasting covenant (Heb 13:20). His blood cleanses us from all sin (1Jn 1:7; 1Jn 1:9). His blood speaks for us in heaven (Heb 12:24). His blood will give us the victory at last (Rev 12:11).

Dear, dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power

Till all the ransomed church of God

Be saved to sin no more.

Eer since by faith I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme

And shall be till I die.

When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue

Lies silent in the grave,

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,

Ill sing Thy power to save!

William Cowper

Our obedience has nothing to do with our salvation. We are saved by Christs obedience unto death as our Substitute. If you would be saved, you must look away from yourself to Christ. You must trust Christ alone. Oh, may God give you grace to trust him now!

Our Only Rule

Our only hope of life is Christ. That is the first thing, and the most difficult thing to be learned. The second thing is this: The believers rule of life, the pattern by which we must mould our lives in all things is the example of Christ. Our blessed Saviour was much, much more than an example for us to follow; but he was and is the example by which our lives must be moulded. Is this not what he taught us (Joh 13:13-15; 1Pe 2:21)? In the passage before us God the Holy Spirit gives us a very brief, but very instructive picture of the family life of our blessed Saviour when he was a boy.

Marriage

The first thing that strikes me in this passage is that it gives us a lesson about marriage (Luk 2:41-43).

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

Husbands and wives ought to help one another in the worship and service of Christ. Joseph and Mary worshipped God together. Every year, at the appointed time, they went together to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Passover. It was their custom to observe all the ordinances of divine worship, in the appointed place, at the appointed time, in the appointed way. Joseph and Mary honoured God, and honoured him together.

The trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem was long, dangerous, difficult and costly. They did not have much; but all that they had in Nazareth, they left for at least two weeks, three times a year, to go up to Jerusalem to worship God.

Some would say this was a matter of great irresponsibility on their part. How could they, especially such a poor couple, be so irresponsible as to neglect their property for two weeks at a time? It was not irresponsibility at all, but faith. They believed the God they worshipped. He has promised to prevent us from suffering any loss by devotion to him. Has he not?

Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year (Exo 34:23-24).

They knew Gods will; and they obeyed it. They knew that the worship of God was the one thing they had to do and had to have. And they worshipped their God together. Side by side, they walked into the house of God. Side by side, they prayed. Side by side, they sang Jehovahs praise. Side by side, they heard his Word.

Let every married man and woman observe and learn from this couple. Let every man and woman contemplating marriage lay these things to heart. You will never make a decision so important as the decision you make about who you marry. Nothing will have a greater effect upon your soul for good or evil. The person you marry will either help you upward or drag you downward. Your marriage partner will either lead you to heaven or to hell.

Will you hear the counsel of Gods Word? Let me say what I have to say about this briefly, but with great plainness of speech. Seek your life long companion by divine guidance. Marriage is forever. Marry only in the Lord. Worship God as a family. I have never known anyone who gave heed to the counsel of these few sentences who regretted doing so. I know many who ignored this counsel who daily lament their rebellion.

Nothing is as important to you and your family as the public worship of our God and Saviour. These days, men and women treat church attendance as a matter of convenience. I warn you, you do so only to the ruin of your own soul, and to the ruin of your family (Heb 10:23-25).

Presumption

In Luk 2:44 we see a second lesson. They, supposing him to have been in the company[6]. We should never presume upon the goodness of God, or presume the Lords presence with us in our most solemn services or our most diligent labours. I know the Lords promises (Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20), and rejoice in them. But I know this too, if we would have the Lords presence with us in his house, we must want it and seek it. If we would have his power and blessing upon our labours, we must need it and depend upon it. And if we would have Christ in our company, we must stay in his company.

[6] It was customary with the Jews, when traveling to the appointed feasts, for the men to walk together in one group and the women in another, in large caravans. It is, therefore, perfectly understandable that Joseph presumed that the child was with Mary and the women, and that Mary presumed he was with Joseph and the men.

Obedience

Third, in the example of our blessed Saviour, we are given a lesson about obedience (Luk 2:45-47).

And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

Parents ought to see to it that their children obey them. Unruly, disobedient, ill-mannered children are produced by self-centred, selfish, irresponsible parents. And children will be wise to learn obedience. The surest path to happiness and well-being in this world is for children to honour and obey their parents (Eph 6:1-3). Our Saviour left us an example to follow, even as a child. He subjected himself to his parents (Luk 2:51). And that reverent subjection to his parents formed a part of the obedience he performed as our Surety, gaining him favour with God as a man (Luk 2:52).

Christianity

Fourth, in Luk 2:49, we are given a lesson about Christianity. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? What a solemn question! Let every child of God apply it to himself personally. It is our business in life to be about our Fathers business. Christianity is living for God. May God the Holy Spirit give us grace to do so.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

am 4012, ad 8

went: Exo 23:14-17, Exo 34:23, Deu 12:5-7, Deu 12:11, Deu 12:18, Deu 16:1-8, Deu 16:16, 1Sa 1:3, 1Sa 1:21

the: Exo 12:14, Lev 23:5, Num 28:16, Joh 2:13, Joh 6:4, Joh 11:55, Joh 13:1

Reciprocal: 1Sa 1:22 – then Luk 2:27 – the parents

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The law required all the males of the Jews (others might if they wished) to appear at Jerusalem at the three yearly feasts (Exo 23:14-17; Deu 16:16).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

THESE verses should always be deeply interesting to a reader of the Bible. They record the only fact which we know about our Lord Jesus Christ during the first thirty years of His life on earth, after His infancy. How many things a Christian would like to know about the events of those thirty years, and the daily history of the house at Nazareth! But we need not doubt that there is wisdom in the silence of Scripture on the subject. If it had been good for us to know more, more would have been revealed.

Let us first, draw from the passage a lesson for all married people. We have it in the conduct of Joseph and Mary, here described. We are told that “they went to Jerusalem every year, at the feast of the passover.” They regularly honored God’s appointed ordinances, and they honored them together. The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem was great. The journey, to poor people without any means of conveyance, was, doubtless, troublesome and fatiguing. To leave house and home for ten days or a fortnight was no slight expense. But God had given Israel a command, and Joseph and Mary strictly obeyed it. God had appointed an ordinance for their spiritual good, and they regularly kept it. And all that they did concerning the passover they did together. When they went up to the feast, they always went up side by side.

So ought it to be with all Christian husbands and wives. They ought to help one another in spiritual things, and to encourage one another in the service of God. Marriage, unquestionably, is not a sacrament, as the Romish Church vainly asserts. But marriage is a state of life which has the greatest effect on the souls of those who enter into it. It helps them upwards or downwards. It leads them nearer to heaven or nearer to hell. We all depend much on the company we keep. Our characters are insensibly molded by those with whom we pass our time. To none does this apply so much as to married people. Husbands and wives are continually doing either good or harm to one another’s souls.

Let all who are married, or think of being married, ponder these things well. Let them take example from the conduct of Joseph and Mary, and resolve to do likewise. Let them pray together, and read the Bible together, and go to the house of God together, and talk to one another about spiritual matters. Above all, let them beware of throwing obstacles and discouragements in one another’s way about means of grace. Blessed are those husbands who say to their wives as Elkanah did to Hannah, “Do all that is in thy heart.” Happy are those wives who say to their husbands as Leah and Rachel did to Jacob, “Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.” (1Sa 1:23; Gen 31:16.)

Let us, secondly, draw from the passage, an example for all young persons. We have it in the conduct of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was left by Himself in Jerusalem at the age of twelve years. For four days He was out of sight of Mary and Joseph. For three days they “sought him sorrowing,” not knowing what had befallen Him. Who can imagine the anxiety of such a mother at losing such a child?-And where did they find Him at last? Not idling His time away, or getting into mischief, as many boys of twelve years old do. Not in vain and unprofitable company. “They found him in the temple of God,-sitting in the midst” of the Jewish teachers, “hearing” what they had to say, and “asking questions” about things He wished to be explained.

So ought it to be with the younger members of Christian families. They ought to be steady and trustworthy behind the backs of their parents, as well as before their faces. They ought to seek the company of the wise and prudent, and to use every opportunity of getting spiritual knowledge, before the cares of life come on them, and while their memories are fresh and strong.

Let Christian boys and girls ponder these things well, and take example from the conduct of Jesus at the age of only twelve years. Let them remember, that if they are old enough to do wrong, they are also old enough to do right; and that if able to read story-books and to talk, they are also able to read their Bibles and pray. Let them remember, that they are accountable to God, even while they are yet young, and that it is written that God “heard the voice of a lad.” (Gen 21:17.) Happy indeed are those families in which the children “seek the Lord early,” and cost their parents no tears. Happy are those parents who can say of their boys and girls, when absent from them, “I can trust my children that they will not wilfully run into sin.”

Let us, in the last place, draw from this passage, an example for all true Christians. We have it in the solemn words which our Lord addressed to His mother Mary, when she said to Him, “Son, why hast thou dealt with us thus?”-“Wist ye not,” was the reply, “that I must be about my father’s business?” A mild reproof was evidently implied in that reply. It was meant to remind His mother that He was no common person, and had come into the world to do no common work. It was a hint that she was insensibly forgetting that He had come into the world in no ordinary way, and that she could not expect Him to be ever dwelling quietly at Nazareth. It was a solemn remembrancer that, as God, He had a Father in heaven, and that this heavenly Father’s work demanded His first attention.

The expression is one that ought to sink down deeply into the hearts of all Christ’s people. It should supply them with a mark at which they should aim in daily life, and a test by which they should try their habits and conversation. It should quicken them when they begin to be slothful. It should check them when they feel inclined to go back to the world.-“Are we about our Father’s business? Are we walking in the steps of Jesus Christ?”-Such questions will often prove very humbling, and make us ashamed of ourselves. But such questions are eminently useful to our souls. Never is a Church in so healthy a condition as when its believing members aim high, and strive in all things to be like Christ.

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Notes-

v42.-[Twelve years old.] This age appears to have been regarded by the Jews as a kind of turning point out of the state of childhood. Lightfoot quotes a saying from one of the Rabbinical writers: “Let a man deal gently with his son, till he comes to be twelve years old; but from that time let him descend with him into his way of living,-that is, let him diligently keep him close to that way, rule, and act, by which he may get his living.”

v44.-[Company.] The word so translated is only used in this place. It specially means a company of persons on a journey.

[Supposing…went a day’s journey.] An explanation of this is given by Bede, in a passage quoted by Corderius. He says it was the custom in going to and returning from Jewish feasts, for the men to walk by themselves, and the women by themselves. In this way Joseph might easily “suppose” that Jesus was with Mary, and Mary suppose” that He was with Joseph.

v46.-[After three days.] Bishop Hall remarks, “Where wert thou, O blessed Jesus, for the space of these three days? Where didst thou bestow thyself, or who tended thee, while thou wert thus alone in Jerusalem?-Whether it pleased thee to exercise thyself thus early with the difficulties of a stranger, or to provide miraculously for thyself, I inquire not, since thou revealest not. Only this I know, that hereby thou intendest to teach thy parents that thou couldst live without them, and that not out of any indigency, but out of a gracious dispensation, thou wouldest ordinarily depend upon their care.”

[Sitting in…midst of…doctors, &c.] The common expression, “Christ disputing with the doctors,” is utterly destitute of foundation in this passage. It conveys an improper and incorrect idea, and ought to be discouraged among Christians. There is not the slightest trace in the account before us of any “dispute” at all.

v48.-[Why hast thou dealt with us thus.] There is evidence of infirmity in this language of Mary to our Lord. She seems here, as on other occasions, to have shown herself to be like other holy women,-a being who needed a Saviour herself, and therefore unable to save others.

v49.-[About my Father’s business.] These words so translated would admit of being rendered, “in my Father’s house,” and many commentators are strongly in favour of that sense being given to them. But, on the whole, our own English translation seems the best and most comprehensive. The proposed translation cramps and limits our Lord’s words, by confining their application to one thing, “my father’s house.” The translation “my father’s business” embraces a far wider range of thought, and is more in keeping with the general depth and fulness of our Lord’s sayings.

v51.-[was subject.] The words imply a continual habit during His residence at Nazareth, and not a single isolated act.

v52.-[Increased in wisdom and stature.] A sentence from Poole’s Annotations on this subject, is worth reading: “If any ask how He who was the eternal wisdom of the Father, who is the only one God, increased in wisdom, they must know that all things in Scripture which are spoken of Christ, are not spoken with respect to His entire Person, but with respect to the one or other nature united in that Person. He increased in wisdom, as He did in age or stature, with respect to His human, not His divine nature. And as God daily magnified His grace and favour towards Him, so He gained Him favour with the unrighteous and people of Galilee.”

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Luk 2:41. Went, were accustomed to go.

At the feast of the Passover. On the Passover, see Mat 26:2. The male Israelites were required to appear at the three yearly feasts (Exo 23:14-17). Women, according to the teachings of a prominent Rabbi (Hillel), were bound to attend the Passover feast Mary probably went from pious motives, rather than Rabbinical rules.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, the persons making this yearly journey to Jerusalem; our Saviour’s parents and himself.

1. Joseph, who is called Christ’s father, not that he was his natural father, for Christ had no father upon earth: but Joseph was his reputed and supposed father, his nursing father, who by the appointment of God took a fatherly care of him.

2. Mary, the mother of Christ, went up to Jerusalem, with her husband and her son: God commanded only the males to go up to Jerusalem, the weaker sex were excused; but the Holy Virgin, well knowing the spiritual profit of that long journey, would not stay at home. Such as will go no farther than they are dragged in religious exercises, are strangers to the Virgin’s piety and devotion.

But, 3. The child Jesus in his minority goes up with his parents to this holy solemnity, thereby no doubt intending our instruction, when we are young to give God an early possession of our souls, to consecrate the virgin operations of our minds to him, and in our youth to keep close to the worship and service of God, when we are so importunately courted by the world.

Observe farther, this holy family came not to look at the feast and be gone, but they duly staid out all the appointed time. Joseph’s calling, and the Virgin’s household business, could neither keep them at home, nor hasten them home before the public duties in the temple were despatched and ended.

All worldly business must give place to divine offices, and we must attend God’s services to the end, except we will depart unblest.

Observe, lastly, the constant returns of their devotion: They went up to Jerusalem every year. No difficulties, no discouragements, could hinder their attendance. Though it is no certain evidence of the truth of grace to frequent the public assemblies, yet it is an infallible sign of the want of grace customarily to neglect them.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 2:41-47. Now his parents went to Jerusalem at the passover As it was usual for those families to do that were remarkably religious, though only the adult males were, by the law, obliged to appear before the Lord on that occasion. And when he was twelve years old And so, according to the Jewish maxims, came under the yoke of the law; they went up to Jerusalem, &c. And thought it proper to take him with them, to celebrate that glorious deliverance which God had so many ages before wrought for his people, when he brought them out of Egypt; the memory of which was carefully to be transmitted to every succeeding generation. And when they had fulfilled the days Eight days in all, one the passover, and seven the days of unleavened bread: as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind Being engaged with the sacred ordinances of the festival, and the religious conversation attending it. And Joseph and his mother knew not of it It appears, they supposed that he had set out with some of his relations, or acquaintance, and was in the company , a word that properly means, a company of travellers. As at the three great festivals, not only all the men that were able, but many women likewise, usually attended the celebration at Jerusalem, they were wont, for their greater security against the attacks of robbers on the road, to travel in large companies. All who came, not only from the same city, but from the same canton or district, made one company. They carried necessaries along with them, and tents for their lodging at night. Sometimes in hot weather, they travelled all night and rested in the day. This is nearly the manner of travelling in the East to this hour. Such companies they now call caravans; and in several places have got houses fitted up for their reception, called caravanseries. This account of their manner of travelling furnishes a ready answer to the question, How could Joseph and Mary make a days journey without discovering, before night, that Jesus was not in the company? In the daytime, we may reasonably presume, that the travellers would, as occasion, business, or inclination led them, mingle with different parties of their friends and acquaintance; but that in the evening, when they were about to encamp, every one would join the family to which he belonged. As Jesus did not appear when it was growing late, his parents first sought him where they supposed he would most probably be, among his relations and acquaintances, and, not finding him, returned to Jerusalem; in the utmost anxiety, to try if they could learn what was become of him. After three days That is, on the morrow after their arrival, which was the third day from their leaving the city, they found him, to their great joy, in one of the chambers of the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors Who, at certain seasons, and particularly in time of the great festivals, taught there publicly. It appears there were no less than three assemblies of the doctors, who had apartments in the temple. In these it was customary to propose doubts concerning the meaning of the precepts of the law, and the traditions of the elders, which was generally done by way of question. It is certainly a great injury to the character of our blessed Redeemer to represent this story, whether in pictures or words, as if Christ went up into the seats of the doctors, and there disputed with them. Nothing is said by the evangelist of his disputing, but only of his asking some questions and answering others; which was a very usual thing in these assemblies, and indeed the very end of them; for they were principally designed for catechetical examination and instruction of young people; always conducted, no doubt, with the utmost modesty and decorum. And if Jesus were, with others, at the feet of these teachers, (where learners generally sat,) he might be said to be in the midst of them, as they sat on benches of a semi-circular form raised above their hearers and disciples. See Lightfoot, Drusius, and Doddridge. And all that heard him were astonished The word , here rendered were astonished, and , in the next verse, are much more forcible expressions than the words whereby we translate them. They import, that they were in a transport of astonishment, and struck with admiration. As our Lord himself hath told us that, on this occasion, he was employed on his Fathers business, it is probable that, in these his answers and objections, he modestly insinuated corrections of the errors wherewith the Jewish teachers had now greatly disfigured religion. If we recollect that the school learning of the Jews was at this time at its highest pitch, and that our Lord, at the age of twelve years, was superior to the greatest doctors which the Jews could boast of, there will appear very just grounds for the admiration here mentioned.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Seventh Narrative: The Child Jesus at Jerusalem, Luk 2:41-52.

The following incident, the only one which the historian relates about the youth of Jesus, is an instance of that wisdom which marked His development. Almost all great men have some story told about their childhood, in which their future destiny is foreshadowed. Here we have the first glimpse of the spiritual greatness Jesus exhibited in His ministry.

Three facts: 1. The separation (Luk 2:41-45); 2. The reunion (Luk 2:46-50); 3. The residence at Nazareth (Luk 2:51-52).

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

JESUS TWELVE YEARS OLD

This inspired omission of our Lords biography the first thirty years of His life, with the single exception of His visit to Jerusalem when twelve years old, has been a puzzle to thousands. It is certainly very plausible, as we are not interested in that period of His life in any essential or saving sense, from the fact that, pursuant to the Mosaic law, He patiently waited the arrival of Jewish majority before He entered upon His official Messiahship. If this had been written, it would make the New Testament too voluminous for the mind to grasp and the memory to retain. Hence the omission of non-essentials is a great blessing. So we proceed now to investigate the only item in His history during the first thirty years intervening between His birth and His baptism.

Luk 2:41-52. We have here the statement that when they journeyed from Nazareth to Jerusalem, one hundred miles, on foot, in order to attend the great annual Passover, when Jesus was twelve years old, having spent the time (eight days; i.e., beginning on the Sabbath, running through the week, and dosing on the Sabbath), and with their company band of relatives and friends traveling together for mutual security and companionship and stopping at nightfall, they first miss the Child, as so many are going along together, they at first suppose that He is with some of the relatives and friends. (I passed by the village of Beeroth, twelve miles north of Jerusalem, where it is certified that the parents first missed the Child.) Getting ready, and starting perhaps about noon, and traveling on foot leisurely, on account of the women and children, they would journey about a dozen miles by the time to stop and fix up for the night encampment, as was their custom, and is yet, in that warm country. When they miss Him, search thoroughly, and settle the matter that He is not in the crowd, they return to Jerusalem. After three days spent ransacking the city, they find Him, sitting in one of the temple buildings, of which there were very many on the Holy Campus, in the midst of the teachers, hearing them and asking them questions. All hearing Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers. And seeing Him, they were overwhelmed with surprise and delight, and His mother said to Him, Child, why did you do so to us? Behold, both Thy father and I continued to seek You sorrowing. And He said to them, Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that it behooveth Me to be in the affairs of My Father? In the Jewish economy, a priest was said to become the son of the law at the age of twelve, being then old enough to understand the commandments and keep them. So here, Jesus seems to accept that situation in the attitude of a faithful Priest in His dispensation. Hitherto in the home, lovingly obedient to His earthly father and mother, we do not know that He had given them any direct information relative to His Divinity and His Messiahship. Now we see that He puts all scruple and inquiry on their part to a quietus by a positive announcement of His Divine Sonship, and His mission on earth, not to do the will of earthly parents (which of course He did, subserviently to the law), but to execute the will and purpose of His Heavenly Father, who had sent Him into the world to perform the stupendous work of redemption.

They understood not the word which He spoke to them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And His mother kept all these things in her heart. Of course, from the first announcement of the archangel Gabriel, Mary had diligently and enthusiastically remembered everything which seemed to shadow forth the Divinity of her child. Yet doubtless His daily presence with them, thus becoming so familiar and common, as an incessant inmate of the home, they did not apprehend and realize the Divine majesty which so far was hidden in the humanity.

Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men. During the thirty years of His minority, before His reception of the Holy Ghost, immediately after His baptism, His beautiful, amiable, and irreproachable life, brightened with all the loving graces of an innocent and holy disposition, overflowing with kindness and love to everybody as a normal consequence, popular favor and kindly estimation and appreciation turned on Him from all the people. Doubtless all were delighted with Him as an active and prominent member of the synagogue. But you see, so soon as He returned home from the baptism of John and the induement of the Holy Ghost, they all fell out with Him and tried to kill Him. Hitherto He has been an irreproachable member of the Church; now, He is a fire- baptized, Spirit-filled Preacher of the gospel. Therefore His words hew Adam the First all to pieces; then He well says, The world hateth Me.

So His favor with men evanesced.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

2:41 {7} Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

(7) The scribes and Pharisees are aroused to hear the wisdom of Christ in his time by an extraordinary deed.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

6. Jesus’ visit to the temple as a boy 2:41-50

This is the only inspired incident that God has given us of Jesus’ experiences during His boyhood. Luke stressed Jesus’ wisdom and His conscious awareness that He was the Son of God so his readers would have confidence in Jesus’ deity. There is a strong contrast between Jesus’ earthly parents and His heavenly Father. Stories of the precocious condition of a great person in his or her youth were and are common. They demonstrate the uniqueness of the individual and his or her superiority over others. Yet Jesus was far more than precocious.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Again Luke pointed out the godly characters of Mary and Joseph. Jewish males were to go to Jerusalem three times a year, at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. In Jesus’ day, women usually attended with their husbands or fathers. [Note: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "pascha," by J. Jeremiah , 5:896-904.] Those who could not attend all three festivals tried to attend Passover at least. Customarily Jewish parents took their young sons with them for a year or two before the boy became a "son of the covenant" usually at age 13. [Note: Edersheim, 1:235-36.] Luke called Jesus a "boy" (Gr. pais, also used of servants) here rather than a "child" (Gr. paidion), the term he used of Jesus in Luk 2:40.

"Jewish boys became responsible for their actions at thirteen (m[ishnah]. Niddah 5.6; m[ishnah]. Megillah 4.6). At the age of twelve the instruction of boys became more intensive in preparation of the recognition of adulthood (m[ishnah]. ’Abot 5.21). The Bar Mitzvah of modern times, however, postdates the time of Jesus by five hundred years. . ." [Note: Bock, Luke, p. 99, n. 1. Cf. Fitzmyer, p. 440.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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