THE BOY JESUS

Following the description of Jesus’ birth, the Bible fast forwards to his public ministry and very little information is provided about the years in between. Luke does provide an insight into his life as a twelve-year-old boy when he accompanied his parents to the temple at Jerusalem for the yearly Passover Feast. However during the return journey, he was found missing.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.(Luke 2:46,47)

The insight and curiosity of Jesus as a boy was remarkable. He already had figured out the scriptures enough to be able to verbally spar with the teachers who would have taken years of formal training and study to get there. Curiosity is at the heart of learning and helps take a learner from what is obvious to what is hidden. This is true for any field of study and it is that process of understanding which makes a learner mature. This process involves focusing on one subject, thinking about it, critiquing it and comprehending it. Once that is done and all that one can know about a subject is learnt, it becomes possible to advance that subject. This is quite different from today’s era where man just has too much of information, mostly superficial, at times false and preferentially gossipy about too many subjects. Swimming in the abundance of information, man is left unable to focus and get deep into one subject, often settling down to a life of superficiality and mediocrity.

Luke continues the story,

When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”(Luke 2:48,49)

This conversation between Mary and Jesus reveals an ownership mentality of Mary that Jesus did not subscribe to. While Joseph is wisely silent, Mary reveals a tendency here and later in the gospels to try to steer Jesus’ life a direction she thought appropriate. Jesus from an early age, however knew that God was indeed his Father and that he was destined to chart out a unique course to his life- one of being the Savior of this world, a fact that was hidden from all else including his parents. Yet, while knowing his purpose, he submitted to his parents and embraced the role of a child and of a carpenter, following in Joseph’s footsteps.

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.(Luke 2:51,52)

And as he spent the rest of his childhood and youth, he was quiet, submissive and made quite an impression on everyone he came into contact with. However, this was meant to be a silent phase of his life and he perhaps didn’t talk about it much to his disciples and hence the silence of the gospels about this phase. Rather than linger in the memories of what had been, Jesus knew he had to move forward to accomplish what he came down to earth for- and that was to be the Savior of this world.

• ← MARY’S SONG
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