Rotation.org Writing Team

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE

BIBLE BACKGROUND

Passage

Luke 2:41-52

Key Verse

Luke 2:52: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor." (NRSV)

Goals and Objectives

After completing this Rotation, participants will be able to:

• Locate the story in the Bible;
  
• Identify the book of Luke as a New Testament Gospel;
  
• Tell the story of Jesus in the temple as a young boy;
  
• Explore the ways this story shows us that Jesus is human as well as divine;
  
• Identify Jesus' priority to learn in the house of God and relate our need to do likewise;
  
• Realize that participation in a community of faith helps us to learn our identity as a child of God;
  
• Compare Mary and Joseph's search for Jesus to our own search for God's presence in our lives.
  

Bible Background Notes

This story of Jesus' childhood is only found in the book of Luke. It serves as a transition story from Jesus' dedication in the Temple to his ministry. It is also the first time we hear Jesus speak.

It was a requirement that all Jewish males living within 15 miles of Jerusalem were to attend the Passover Festival.* (See definition below). Women were not required to attend. Joseph and Mary attended every year, which showed their piety. Jerusalem was about 80 miles away, so to travel every year was quite strenuous. Traveling at the rate of 15 miles per day, it would have taken four or five days to reach Jerusalem. (The distance estimated is assuming they traveled around Samaria, rather than through it.)

According to Jewish tradition, a Jewish boy became responsible to observe the law when he was 13. Though not specifically stated this to be his first trip to Jerusalem for the Festival, we can safely assume that it was. The identification of his age as 12 probably suggests his parents are taking steps to prepare him for his covenantal responsibility.

The story of Jesus in the Temple also is revelatory. It reveals the truth about Jesus, the true Son of God. Luke's purpose for writing the Gospel was "so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed" (1:4).

Verse 43: "After the festival is over, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn't know it." One might wonder how this was possible - did Jesus get so caught up in the teaching he wasn't aware it was time to leave? Did Mary assume he was with Joseph? How could they not know he wasn't with them? Usually women in a caravan traveled more slowly, so they would leave before the men. When they met up at the end of the day, they realized Jesus was not there.

Mary and Joseph left immediately to return to Jerusalem. The passage states that after three days they found him, but it is not clear if it took three days to return, or it was three days of searching in Jerusalem before they found him in the Temple.

Verse 48b: "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, " Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" This is a particularly revealing moment for them. Joseph's authority as his father has now been transferred to his heavenly Father. Though we never hear from Joseph, one wonders if he understood the message Jesus was giving them? We hear again and again that Mary "pondered these things in her heart," but what was Joseph "pondering"?

This story is about identity and mission. Like us, Jesus comes into a greater understanding of who he is separate from his parents. So, this is a story of Jesus' humanity, how he is like us. It is also a story of his divinity - Jesus' identity is that he is the Son of God. That identity is found through community. When we study God's Word together, we learn not only who we are as children of God, but also who God calls us to be as a community of believers.

So we see a fully human Jesus - an adolescent, or at least a boy-man. He is fully God, but as a human child he has grown and developed. His knowledge, his understandings of his world and of himself have had to grow as any human child.

Whatever he knew intellectually, he had a relationship unbroken, unseparated, with his heavenly Father. This made the baby Jesus, the child Jesus, the teen Jesus the Son God, just as much as the post-baptism Jesus.

Now in this story, at the dawn of his maturity he must claim an identity of his own. Was this a growing realization, or a bolt of lightening in the temple? We don't know. Luke must think (and by the way, was Mary his source?) that his conversations with the teachers as well as the celebration and worship that were part of the Passover had something to do with it. He is not being disobedient in the right and wrong sense; he is acting as the adult. His trip to Jerusalem may be part of the rite of passage to adulthood.

But his parents expect Jesus to continue to behave as their child. They were like most of us as parents. We raise our children to be independent grown ups, and then are surprised when they claim their own identity, making decisions for themselves. And so Jesus chides them, gently, "did you not know?" Of course they knew this day would come. But did it have to be this day? They weren't ready for it.

Points to Ponder

Jesus seeks out the community of teachers and engages with them in studying the Word of God in the place of worship.

Jesus is the Son of God, but he must grow each day like we do, in stature and wisdom and in favor with God and with people.

How do we grow into our identity as children of God?

How do we learn our mission?

Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: Passover was the Jewish festival commemorating the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. The angel of death spared the firstborn sons of the Hebrews, "passing over" those households that sacrificed a lamb and placed its blood on the doorframes (Exodus 12). It was celebrated on the 15th of Nissan (March/April), the first month in the Jewish calendar. Lambs were sacrificed in the temple on the afternoon of Nissan 14 and were roasted and eaten with unleavened bread that evening (Nissan 15 began after sunset). Family or larger units celebrated Passover together. Unleavened bread was then eaten for the next seven days - the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The term "Passover" was sometimes used for both festivals. Extensive traditions and liturgy eventually became attached to Passover, though how much of this was practiced in Jesus' day is unknown.

Sources

Barclay, William. The Daily Bible Series - The Gospel of Luke. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1975, pages 29-30.

Strauss, Mark. Zondervan's Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Volume 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002, pages 348-350.

New Interpreter's Bible, Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, pages 75-77.

CONTRIBUTOR: Julie Burton - With thanks to Lynn Wood