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.
and had completed the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and his parents knew not [of it];
Luke tells us almost nothing about Jesus' childhood, and this scene at twelve years old is the exception. Three small facts carry the verse: the feast was over, the boy stayed behind on purpose, and the two adults responsible for Him did not notice.
The Gospel notes that Jesus was twelve, and Jewish custom shows why that mattered.
Jewish records suggest that twelve was the age when a Jewish youth became old enough to take up his own responsibilities before God. A boy who had reached this age was called "son of the law," and only then did he come under legal obligations. Whatever the case, we are told that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem when He was twelve. The account points His age out on purpose, and that must mean something. What happened at the feast is not recorded. Instead our attention goes to Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem when Joseph and Mary set off home.
The Greek verb for "stayed behind" is the root of a well-known New Testament word.
The Authorized Version usually translates this word as "patience." J. N. Darby's New Translation has "endurance." The Greek word originally meant "remaining behind." It comes from the verb "I remain behind," and that is how Luke 2:43 renders it.
Set Him beside the other boys His age in the city, and see how He spent the days.
There is no more morally attractive sight anywhere, even in God's Word. At just that age a boy usually has neither the simplicity of a child nor the tested good sense of a man. Yet here we find Jesus busy like this. Others of the same age were no doubt set on their play, or on satisfying their curiosity in such a city. They were wasting the most valuable time of all, time that never returns. Soon the rush of human life begins, with the great struggle in which so many lose themselves. But Jesus was found lowly and at the same time filled with wisdom. He used the golden opportunity. He sat among the teachers and listened to them, which proves His humility, and He asked them questions, which proves His interest in the Scriptures.
How do two parents lose a twelve-year-old for a whole day? The answer is in what they assumed.
It may seem strange that Joseph and Mary had not made sure a twelve-year-old child was with them. They did not miss Him until they had gone a day's journey. Clearly they took His presence for granted. He had proved dependable to them in every respect, so they supposed He would be in the company. But they were certainly not enjoying His company. He is so faithful. So let us not simply take His presence with us for granted, but cultivate the fellowship of His company. Their neglect cost them two days of travel as well as three days of searching for Him. We too will find that a lack of closeness with the Lord costs us something.
Their distress was real. It was also no accident.
Failing to find Him among their relatives and friends, they turned back to Jerusalem to look for Him. For three days they searched, anxious and distressed in heart. God surely arranged this. Until the "child Jesus" had done His Father's will, nothing could interrupt Him.
Did staying behind mean He had slipped out from under His parents' authority?
He was not yet anointed by the Holy Spirit. Yet He was perfect man and true God, the child of Mary, and subject not only to her but to her husband — in law, His father. The incident shows His perfection as a child feeding on the word of God. It shows just as clearly His awareness that He was the Son of God, far beyond anything Joseph or Mary thought. And with that it shows His subjection to them, "His parents," in that human place He had come down to from divine glory, in a love no less divine.
- Stayed — the Greek verb for "stayed behind" is the root of the word for patience. His staying was purpose, not accident.
- Chose — at twelve a Jewish boy became a "son of the law." Jesus spent that freedom hearing the teachers and asking questions, while boys His age wasted the hours.
- Missed — Joseph and Mary assumed He was with them, because He had never let them down. They lost His company for a day before they noticed.
- Sought — God arranged the three anxious days of searching. Nothing was to interrupt Him until His Father's will was done.
- Cost — taking His presence for granted cost them five days. Losing touch with the Lord costs us too.
but, supposing him to be in the company that journeyed together, they went a day's journey, and sought him among their relations and acquaintances
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and not having found him they returned to Jerusalem seeking him.
Joseph and Mary had travelled a whole day before they missed Jesus, and now they must go back over that same road. The verse raises a question bigger than the story: how do people who love Christ end up travelling without Him, and what does it cost to find Him again?
The journey to the feast was not a family trip. It was a mass movement of people. That is how a missing child could go unnoticed for a day:
The numbers going up to worship must have been at times very large. This is plain from Luke 2:44… The many little companies meeting each other would greatly increase the whole crowd as they came near the city of the feasts.
The failure was not carelessness about a difficult child. It was the opposite — He had never given them a reason to check. That is exactly where the warning lies:
It may seem strange that Joseph and Mary had not made sure that a twelve-year-old child was with them. They did not miss Him until they had gone a day's journey. Clearly they had taken His presence for granted. He had proved dependable to them in every way, so they supposed He would be in the company. But they were certainly not enjoying His company. He is so faithful. So let us not just take His presence for granted, but build up real fellowship with Him. Their neglect cost them two days of travel besides three days of searching for Him. We too will find that lack of communion with the Lord will cost us something.
Notice the order. They first searched among relatives and friends. Only when that circle came up empty did they turn back. Their search then lasted three days, and one writer sees God's hand in the delay:
It was only natural that they supposed He was in the company. So they made a day's journey without worry. But then they failed to find Him among their relatives and acquaintances, and they turned back to Jerusalem to seek Him. For three days they searched with anxiety and distress of heart. God surely arranged this. The "child Jesus" could not be interrupted until He had done His Father's will.
When the search ends, He is in the temple. They had looked among their own people first and the temple last. Where He was found says something about how they searched:
What was the reason they had sought Him? If God's will had been their concern, they would have been led straight to Him. Did they not realize that He would be occupied with His Father's interests? … Did they expect Him to want only the company of other children at such a time, with no interest in the temple, the very center of Israel's interests? … This should have been the first place they looked for Him.
Even in the temple He is found as a learner, not as the Master claiming His rights:
If He had acted on His rights, He was the Lord of that temple… But no. He, the Master, is found there as a disciple of the Word of God. He does not set that Word aside for Himself. Instead He seeks the good of that Word, which was on the lips of these teachers.
What was lost in a day took three days to recover. One writer finds the same timing in the Christian's own walk with Christ:
The enjoyment of the presence of Christ may be lost in a moment; it may, and often does, take days to recover it. Forgiveness, on confession of sin, is immediate; but the restoration of communion can only be gradual, and a work of time.
- Assumed. They supposed He was in the group and travelled a whole day on that guess. Presence taken for granted is not presence enjoyed.
- Missed. The crowd going up to the feast was huge, so a missing child went unnoticed. Ordinary circumstances hid a real loss.
- Sought. Relatives and friends could not give what only He gives. So they widened the search and turned back down the road.
- Costly. Two days of travel and three days of searching. Writers see God's ordering in the delay, not chance: nothing could interrupt Him until He had done His Father's will.
- Found. He was where His Father's interests were, learning God's Word. Hearts set on God's will would have looked there first.
And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions.
Jesus is twelve. His parents leave Jerusalem without Him, and it takes them three days to find Him. The details are few, so every word counts: where He was, what He was doing, and why His parents had not thought to look there.
Twelve is an awkward age. What Jesus did with it is the point.
A more attractive sight morally there is nowhere even in God's Word. At this age a boy usually has neither the simplicity of a child nor the tested good sense of a man. Yet this is how we find Jesus. Others of the same age were no doubt set on their play, or on feeding their curiosity in such a city. They were wasting the most valuable time, which never comes back. But Jesus was lowly and filled with wisdom at once, and He used the golden opportunity. He sat among the teachers and heard them — a proof of His humility. He asked them questions — a proof of His interest in the Scriptures.
Older Bible versions call these men "doctors."
Literally teachers; also called doctors, or teachers of the law. They were men who gave themselves to the study and teaching of the Jewish law.
He had every right to speak in that building as its Master. He did not.
Had He acted on His rights, He was the Lord of that temple. He might have taken up the word of Malachi, which testified of His coming there in power and glory. He might have claimed, as Jehovah, to "suddenly come to His temple." "But who can endure the day of His coming?" … But no. He, the Master, is found there as the disciple of the Word of God. He did not set that Word aside for Himself. Instead He would gain from that Word which was on the lips of these teachers. It was, after all, His Father's Word: so He hears them and asks them questions… His questions led to the showing of divine truth.
He was there to receive as well as to ask. A writer compares what He took in to butter and honey.
He was making no display of His knowledge. He took the place that suited a twelve-year-old, gladly listening to the explanations of the teachers and asking them questions… Butter stands for the Word of God made good to the soul through exercise. It is the Word itself. Honey stands for the ministry of the Word. The worker bees gather and digest it, then give it for the good of the whole hive. It is what believers gather to share with others. What the learned teachers gave of the law that was really from God was honey, and the Lord received it. But the butter came first — God's own Word made good to the soul in personal exercise. If the blessed Son of Man needed this, how deeply we need both the Word itself and the ministry of the Word, so that we may tell good from evil and choose the good.
The three days were not an accident.
They could not find Him among their relatives and friends, so they turned back to Jerusalem to look for Him. For three days their search filled them with worry and distress of heart. God surely arranged this. Nothing could interrupt the "child Jesus" until He had done His Father's will.
Their three days of searching say something about them, not about Him.
Why did they have to look for Him at all? If their hearts had been set on the will of God, it would have led them straight to Him… Most children of that age would have little interest in the temple and in the learning of the teachers of the law. But did they not expect Him to care deeply about it? This should have been the first place they looked for Him. It was His first chance to ask the learned men about matters of the highest importance.
He sat there as a learner, and He was the Son of God at the same time. Neither truth weakened the other.
Though He was the Son of God and fully conscious of it, He was also the obedient man, perfect and sinless in His very being and always so. He was an obedient child, whatever sense He also had of another relationship — one that in itself had nothing to do with being subject to human parents. Consciousness of the one did not injure His perfection in the other. His being the Son of God secured His perfection as a man and a child on the earth.
- Found — Luke shows Him in the temple at an age when others were at play, using time that never returns.
- Sitting — He took the learner's seat in a house He owned; the Master of the temple came as a disciple of His Father's Word.
- Hearing — He received both the Word itself and the true teaching of it from others — the pattern for anyone who wants to know good from evil.
- Sought — God arranged those three days. Nothing interrupted the Father's will.
- Missed — They looked everywhere but the temple. Hearts set on God's will would have led them straight to Him.