And his parents went yearly to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover.
Luke passes over the first twelve years of Jesus' life in near silence. The one habit he records is a journey: this family from Nazareth went up to Jerusalem for the Passover, year after year.
Luke records only two things from those years: how the child grew, and this yearly journey. One writer asks why that second fact was worth recording at all.
This is another testimony to the devotion of Mary and her husband, and it may be that this is why the fact is noted. It does not even say whether Mary took the child Jesus with her on these occasions. Scripture adds not a word to satisfy human curiosity. It gives only what serves the object the Spirit of God has in view. All of it is divinely perfect, because every word of Scripture expresses divine wisdom. Indeed, the fact stated in verse 41 is only the introduction to the incident that follows.
The word "every" carries weight only when you know what the trip cost them.
Verse 41 notes that Joseph and Mary made a practice of going to Jerusalem every year for the Passover Feast. Their poor circumstances did not hinder this important occasion. Nor was it a short, easy journey, but about a three or four day trip each way on foot or donkey. What a reproof to Christians who make many excuses for not attending gatherings and conferences of the people of God!
Luke says that both parents went. One writer contrasts that generation with earlier times, when Israel had let the Passover slip.
In the days of our blessed Lord it was the opposite. We find the people keeping all the set feasts, as the law required (Ex. 23:17). The men went up three times a year to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem, and a great many of the women and children went as well (Luke 2:41). Scribes and teachers of the law were everywhere, and there was hardly a town without its synagogue.
The same writer adds a caution. All this correctness looked good only to human eyes. The One who judges by truth, not by appearance, saw a nation turning away from God underneath it.
Luke calls the two of them "his parents." One writer follows that word to the end of the chapter, where the boy goes home and lives under both of them.
He goes back to Nazareth and is subject to His parents. Scripture uses that word of Joseph as well as Mary, recognising the place of responsibility he held. There was absorption in His Father's business and subjection to those in the place of earthly responsibility.
Another writer asks how such obedience worked in a Son who answered to His Father first.
Jesus is subject to Joseph as His father, though His own ground of conduct lay altogether beyond that claim. But it was never a matter of feeling when the claim was in exercise for His service, as One sent and come into the world in grace.
Matthew places the visit of the wise men at Bethlehem. Luke says the family lived at Nazareth. So how did they come to be in Bethlehem?
It is this, their yearly visit to Jerusalem, that accounts for their being at Bethlehem when the Magi came up from the East. The wise men certainly did not arrive right after the Babe was born. It can hardly be doubted that it was on one of their later regular visits. They not only went up to Jerusalem; as we can understand, they also turned aside to Bethlehem. That town now had more than ever the deepest interest in their eyes, as the birthplace of the Child given to them — the Messiah.
He reads Herod's order the same way. Herod killed the boys of two years old and under, which fits a birth at least a year earlier.
- Habit — Luke covers twelve years with one fact: every year, this family went up for the Passover.
- Cost — they were poor, and the walk took three or four days each way. They still went. That is a reproof to our easy excuses.
- Reach — the law required only the men to go up, yet women and children went too, in a generation that kept the feasts after long neglect.
- Order — Scripture calls Joseph a parent because he held that place of responsibility, and the boy Jesus was subject to him.
- Result — the same yearly habit explains why they were near Bethlehem when the wise men came, and it leads straight into the story of the boy in the temple.
And when he was twelve years old, and they went up [to Jerusalem] according to the custom of the feast
Luke's Gospel skips almost all of Jesus' childhood and opens one window: a boy of twelve going up to Jerusalem with His family for the Passover, as the custom required. That single journey shows what those silent years were like, and why the Spirit of God kept this moment and no other.
Getting to the feast took real effort, and the family made the trip every year.
Verse 41 notes that Joseph and Mary made a practice of going to Jerusalem every year for the Passover Feast. Their poor circumstances did not hinder this important occasion. Nor was it a short, easy journey, but about a three or four day trip each way on foot or donkey. What a reproof to Christians who will make many excuses for not attending gatherings and conferences of the people of God!
The age matters. At twelve a Jewish boy came under the obligations of the law himself.
The Lord would now be a "son of the Law" after "confirmation." He would begin to wear fringes and tassels. He was also now required to attend the festivals at Jerusalem (Ex. 23:14 ff., Deut. 16:16).
Twelve was also the age when the schools of Israel's leading teachers first opened to Him.
This was the age at which a Jewish child began to come up to Jerusalem for the festivals. Here, no doubt, the schools of the greater Rabbis were open to Him for the first time. How strongly the teaching and the discussions of Israel's spiritual leaders must have drawn Him — the very men He would stand toward so differently later on!
Luke's wording stays ordinary — parents, a law, a custom. Older translations read "the custom of the feast" here, where the ESV has "according to custom."
We are still walking with Christ inside Jewish hopes; that is, as a Man the grace or favour of God was upon Him... He is a Man, and Scripture speaks of Him as such. Those around Him keep within the limits of His manhood, and so treat Him as a Jew, according to their place. It says: "His parents," and "according to the law," and "the custom of the feast."
Twelve is an awkward age. One writer compares how other boys spent their time in that city with how Jesus spent His.
This is just the age when a boy usually has neither the simplicity of a child nor the tested good sense of a man. Yet here we find Jesus so occupied. Boys of the same age were no doubt set on their games, or on feeding their curiosity in such a city, wasting the most valuable time of all — time that never comes back... But Jesus was lowly and filled with wisdom at the same time. He used the golden opportunity. He sat among the teachers, listening to them (a proof of His humility) and asking them questions (a proof of His interest in the Scriptures).
Almost nothing survives of the first thirty years. That silence is itself deliberate.
Twelve years passed by, and Scripture mentions only two things about this whole period... One of them is that His parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. This is another testimony to the godliness of Mary and her husband, and that may be why the fact is noted. Scripture does not even say whether Mary took the child Jesus with her on these occasions. Not a word is added to satisfy human curiosity. We are given only what the purpose of the Spirit of God requires. All is perfect, because every word of Scripture expresses the wisdom of God.
Later books known as the "infancy gospels" try to fill this gap. They are worthless: "they are all legendary and unreliable," writes Arno Clemens Gaebelein.
The boy at the feast is not a rehearsal for something better later. Writers insist the quality of His life never varied.
All that time He was under the law, growing up like a pure sheaf of grain, the only pure sheaf of human fruit... One unbroken delight rested on Him from the manger to the cross — perfect delight in the mind of God. That delight might change its character, but never its measure. There was not a single flaw in it from first to last... He was just as perfect growing up in subjection to His parents as He was when the temple veil was torn.
- Custom. Every year the family kept the Passover. Poverty and a three or four day journey each way did not stop them — a rebuke to our excuses for missing the gatherings of God's people.
- Age. At twelve a Jewish boy became a "son of the law." He had to attend the festivals at Jerusalem, and Israel's teachers were open to him for the first time.
- Manhood. "His parents," "the law," "the custom of the feast" — every phrase keeps Him inside the real limits of human and Jewish life.
- Opportunity. Other boys wasted those days. Jesus spent them listening and asking questions — humble and hungry for Scripture at once.
- Perfection. God's delight in Him was as complete in a boy subject to Joseph and Mary as it was at the cross; not one flaw from first to last.