The passage before us is the only account we have of Jesus’ life between His circumcision and His baptism. We might like to know more about what Jesus was like as an infant, but we’re not told anything, though we can know that “nor crying he makes” is surely wrong (from the Christmas carol “Away in a Manger”). We might like to know more about Jesus as a toddler, or as a young boy, or as a teenager, or as a young adult. As intriguing as we might find the subject, we simply are not told about any of this, the single passage before us excluded. “Christ among the doctors,” or “Christ disputing with the doctors,” the doctors of theology, is how this passage often has been referred to. Mary and Joseph found Jesus,

sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. (Lk 2:46b-47)

The scene frequently has been depicted by artists, most notably three etchings by Rembrandt (1606–1669), a 1506 painting by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), and a fresco by Giotto (1266/7–1337), from the 1310’s. The question arises, how did Jesus, as a 12-year-old, come to know what He knew? How was He capable, at His age, of dialogue with the temple theologians? How was He capable, not only of keeping pace with them, but amazing all who heard Him with His “understanding and His answers”? At the same time, why had Mary and Joseph not anticipated Jesus’ interest; why were they so “astonished” at His actions? The hints as to how are in the text itself, as Luke describes the “holy family,” as they have been called, and the young Jesus Himself. Jesus was One who from an early age was busy about His Father’s “business” (v 49, KJV).

Devout family

And His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. (Lk 2:41)

We begin by observing again that Jesus was the product of a devout home: of a mother who responds to the call of God saying, “be it done to me according to Your word” (1:38), who does “everything according to the Law of the Lord” (2:39; cf. 2:22,24,27,41,42). From Luke, “We have heard repeated testimony,” Green remarks, “validating the exemplary piety of Joseph and Mary,” even “certifying that Jesus would be reared in a household that sided with the purpose of God.”[1]

Three times a year all Jewish males were required to attend ceremonies at the temple: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Ex 23:14-17). Women were exempt from these obligations but many attended anyway. Luke tells us it was the custom of Mary and Joseph to attend the annual Passover celebration, which alone of the three was strictly observed. “Every year” they went.

And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; (Lk 2:42)

When Jesus was 12 years of age Mary and Joseph took Him with them. This may have been a means of preparing Him for His bar mitzvah at the age of 13, when he would become a “son of the law,” that is, a full member of the synagogue, with adult responsibilities.[2]

Maintaining this commitment could not have been easy for them. Nazareth was about 60 miles from Jerusalem. Travel would have been difficult, if not dangerous, wearying (on foot or on the back of an animal), and expensive. The feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread together occupied a total of seven days (the latter following immediately upon the former; Ex 12:15; Lev 28:8; Deut 16:3). Pilgrims were required to stay at least two days. All told, participation required a 10-day to 2-week commitment. Yet they were committed to going. “God had appointed an ordinance for their spiritual good, and they regularly kept it,” J. C. Ryle notes.[3] Is it not clear that Luke is underscoring the piety of the “holy family”? Because they love God, they endeavor to do what He commands. Because they want to grow in grace, they are careful to observe the ordinances given by God by which His people were to grow.

How did Jesus know what He knew? Because He grew up in a home devoted to knowing and pleasing God. We can argue from the greater (and more difficult) commitment (Passover in Jerusalem), to the lesser (weekly Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth), to the least (daily prayers, morning and evening in the home, as evident from Pss 5, 141; Dan 6:10). What Scripture they had available at home, or had committed to memory and might recite, or what psalms they could sing by heart, we can’t be sure. What we do know was that the home and the local assembly (synagogue) were the nurseries of His faith. There He learned the Scriptures, there He learned to pray, there He learned to sing psalms, and there He learned to partake of the sacraments of Israel annually.

This has everything to say to us about how we rear our children today. There were no camps or retreats to which to send children then. There was no Sunday School or Christian school. We are grateful for all of the above, and eager for the contribution they make to rearing our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4). However, they can only supplement and not replace the God-ordained and sufficient role of the home and church, the family altar and the family pew. The equivalent today would be a family’s commitment to attend public worship, particularly the Christian Passover, the Lord’s Supper, and daily devotions in the home. It was important that Jesus grow up in a devout household. This is why God assigned His rearing to Mary and Joseph. If this were important for Jesus, how much more for us and for our children.

Devout child

and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. (Lk 2:43,44)

Jesus’ parents travel back to Nazareth, and only after a day do they notice that He is missing. How could that be? Here’s the scene. It is likely that a large “caravan” of pilgrims from Nazareth was returning, with the women and smaller children traveling ahead, and the faster moving men and older boys following later. The two groups would reunite at the time of the evening encampment, about 20-25 miles down the road (“a day’s journey”). Each parent may have thought that the boy Jesus was with the other, or with relatives or friends. One Sunday evening I arrived home and was greeted by the question, “Where’s Abby?” (our toddler). No more needed to be said. I spun on my heels and headed back to the church. Any parent can testify that this is easy enough to do.

Jesus was not to be found anywhere in the caravan, not with relatives or acquaintances. So Mary and Joseph began the hike back to Jerusalem.

And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for Him. And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. (Lk 2:45,46)

“After 3 days” probably means 3 days including the day’s journey out of Jerusalem, the day’s journey back, and a day searching Jerusalem itself.[4] What did they find Jesus doing? They discovered Him “in the temple,” doing what? “Sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.” They didn’t find Him playing, or getting into mischief. They didn’t find Him kicking a ball in the street or playing tag. Jesus leapt at the opportunity to discuss the things of God with the theologians of Israel. That Jesus was listening and asking questions indicates “a thirst for knowledge,” as Morris observes.[5] In addition, Morris continues, “There would have been few good teachers in Nazareth, and Jesus was making the most of the opportunity of learning while in the capitol city.”[6]

It also means that Jesus made the most of the instruction that He received at home and in the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus would have heard the Scripture read in the weekly public service, along with accompanying exhortation (see Acts 13:14-16, 27; 15:21; Mt 13:54; Lk 4:16-19). This, as we’ve seen, would have been supplemented by whatever prayers and discussions took place at home. Aside from these two sources, there were no others from which Jesus would have gained knowledge. He made the most of them, and was hungry for more. He had pondered, meditated upon, deeply contemplated the Scripture He had heard in His 12 years, and had grown so wise as to astonish all who heard Him.

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

If we are urged to “follow in His steps” (1 Pet 2:21), and have the “attitude which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5), then Jesus’ example is a challenge for our young people, as well as the rest of us. Jesus was thirsting to know and serve God even as a 12-year-old boy. He wanted to grow in knowledge even at His tender age. He wasn’t content to wait for adulthood. He wasn’t daydreaming in church. He didn’t make the mistake of saying, “I’ll get serious about God when I get older.” He was pursuing God in His childhood and youth. Might that have set Him apart from His peers back in Nazareth? Yes, it might. They might have thought Him strange to be so “religious,” or so concerned with things of God. While they pursued fun, He pursued faith. While they pursued games, He pursued God. While they pursued play, He pursued piety. O that our children might follow Jesus’ example of early devotion.

Those who heard Him were “amazed at His understanding and His answers.” Wouldn’t we have loved to have been there to hear the discussion? Jesus gave intelligent answers and showed profound understanding of the law. How? Why? We must not undermine Jesus’ humanity by exaggerating a supernatural process of gaining knowledge. The point does not seem to be that the divine was informing the human. “He learned obedience” (Heb 5:8). Luke has already told us, and will tell us again, that Jesus grew in wisdom (2:40,52). So, again, why was He so wise, so insightful? Because He pursued God in His childhood and youth. He listened at home. He listened at church. He committed what He heard to memory. He meditated on what He knew. He pondered the meaning and application and implications of Scripture.

And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? (Lk 2:48a)

Mary and Joseph were “astonished.” At what, exactly, we’re not told. The whole scene, their missing Son, His indifference to their whereabouts, the teachers engaging Him, the questions and answers, must have seemed extraordinary to them. They find Him completely absorbed in dialogue with the “doctors.” The astonishment of Mary and Joseph may mean that nothing in His background up to this point would have led them to think He would do something like this. They don’t walk up and say, “There He is again talking to the rabbis.” They don’t listen for a moment and say, “You think that was good, you should hear what He said at home the other day!” Apparently Jesus had learned quietly and without distinction. There was nothing about Him in His early years that was exceptional, or beyond that, strange or weird. He wasn’t freakishly intelligent. He wasn’t sanctimonious or pompously pious. He was a normal boy, so normal, that the exceptional circumstances of His birth and the prophesies regarding His identity and calling seem to have receded in the consciousness of Mary and Joseph. They seem almost to have forgotten who He is. His God-given gifts and calling will lie hidden for years.

If I might indulge a little autobiography, when I was 14-years-old I won the local Optimist Club’s speech contest on the subject of “Youth, Full Partners in a Better Tomorrow.” The climax of my speech was a quote from Herbert Hoover about the nation’s bright future, just as the stock market was about to collapse and the nation plunge into the Great Depression. Be that as it may, rarely did I speak in public again for 7 to 8 years. Indeed, in college I was terrified to even open my mouth at fraternity chapter meetings, and when I did, I stumbled awkwardly over my words. I sensed a call to go to seminary during my junior year, but I explained to everyone this was just in order to get grounded in Bible, church history, and theology for whatever career I eventually settled upon . . . which would not be the pastorate because I couldn’t speak in public. I say this in order to encourage the young men who may think they don’t have the gifts for the ministry. Sometimes gifts lie dormant. Jesus will go home and His gifts will remain largely unexpressed for nearly 20 more years. He will continue to learn and grow through personal and family devotions and through the public services at the synagogue. He won’t draw attention to Himself. His gifts will lie so dormant that His townspeople will be shocked when His public ministry bursts on the scene. “Is this not Joseph’s son?” they will say (Lk 4:22).

Matthew’s account is more to the point:

And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at Him. (Mt 13:54-57a)

They are “astonished.” There was not a hint of His future ministry in His early life. “Where did this man get this wisdom” and these “powers”? “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” Nothing in Jesus’ first thirty years led them to anticipate His ministry. “Where then did this man get all these things?” They will be unable to match the powerful public ministry of Jesus with the man they knew who grew up in Joseph’s house.

Higher calling

Mary’s words are mild reproof:

“Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” (Lk 2:48:b)

For Mary, it seemed inconsiderate of Jesus. She and Joseph had been “anxiously looking” for Him. Jesus answers,

"Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" (Lk 2:49)

Jesus’ words are a rather terse reminder to His parents of who He is and what He has come to do. His identity and mission explain His three-day campout with the theologians of Jerusalem. Jesus was pursuing God because He was aware of His calling. His chief end was God not man, the eternal not the temporal, the spiritual not the material. “I had to be in My Father’s house” literally says, “In the things of My Father,” and so could be rendered either “business,” as in the KJV, and in the marginal notes of the modern translations, or “Father’s house,” as followed by most translations (e.g. NIV, ESV, NASV). Jesus absents Himself from Joseph’s house that He might be in His greater Father’s house. Ryle prefers “business” because it is more comprehensive, whereas “house” “cramps and limits our Lord’s words.” The former “embraces a far wider range of thought.”[7] Green concurs, saying “the issue is not simply a matter of location.”[8] The point is not where He is but what He is doing. N. T. Wright prefers “work,” as does Matthew Henry.[9] Regardless, Jesus’ answer shows both that He was conscious of a special relation to God (“My Father”) and of the priority of service to God (“My Father’s business”) over all other claims upon our attention. These are Jesus’ first recorded words (cf. Acts 5:29). “But the words of Jesus are difficult,” admits Marshall.[10] Should they as parents not look for a lost child? And should He have left His parents without telling them what He was going to do? What they indicate is Jesus’ awareness of a higher calling. Jesus said, “I had to be,” expressing necessity (dei), even the “divine compulsion” that will characterize His whole life.[11] He experienced tension between the requirements of His relation to His earthly parents and His relation to His Father in heaven. Yet we’re told,

And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. (Lk 2:50)

Then Jesus returned to Nazareth and to obscurity. For the next 18 years He will quietly pursue His Father’s business.

And 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. (Lk 2:51)

Marshall calls the episode “a momentary glimpse through a curtain into a private room.”[12] Jesus returned to His parents’ home and “continued in subjection to them.” This is the last time Joseph is mentioned in Luke’s gospel. As for Mary, she might not understand. But she remembered. She “treasured all these things.” That “private room” to which Marshall refers is the Father’s business that Jesus came to do. He came not to do His own will, but the will of His Father (Jn 6:38). This will mean a three-year public teaching and healing ministry followed by His crucifixion. “It is necessary (dei),” He will tell His disciples, that He “preach the kingdom of God,” and “suffer many things” (Lk 4:43, 9:22, 24:7,26,46). This is His higher calling that takes precedence over the feelings of His mother or His parents desires. Jesus already knows what He has come to do. He is already aware of who He is and what His task is. He will grow into his role.

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Lk 2:52)

Jesus will grow in “wisdom.” He will grow in “stature,” indicating “maturity associated with increasing age,” notes Marshall.[13] We’ve seen development. Here Jesus is described as a “boy” (pais, v 43), whereas previously He was called a “baby” (brephos, v 16) and “little boy” paidion v 40). That development will continue.

None of us share Jesus’ high calling. Yet we can say that we too are called to be about our Father’s business. Ultimately all that we do in life should be defined in terms of furthering our Father’s business. Are we honoring God in the home, the workplace, the school, and the community? Are we exalting Christ? Is all that we do to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31)? Truly, we too, are to be about our Father’s business.