The Christmas season is now with us! The reading for the first Sunday in the Christmas season (Christmas 1) is Luke 2.41–52—though it is arguable that we should actually start our reading at verse 40, since it forms an ‘inclusio’ (bracket) with the final verse of the reading.
This is a very carefully crafted passage, and we can see evidence of Luke’s compositional intentions. But it also fits very clearly within the historical realities of the situation, both in terms of Jesus’ age and in depicting the family as pious observant Jews. What do we learn here about Jesus’ awareness, identity, and self-understanding, and what clues does it give us about his future ministry?
Come and join Ian and James as they explore these questions!
This is a fascinating passage … it always strikes me that the day when Mary found her son (v46) was, paradoxically, the day when she started to lose him (vv49-50) as his priorities shifted from his mother to his Father.
That is a great way to put it.
Luke tells us that Jesus leaves and is ‘obedient’ to his parents having just spent time with His father? – where he grows in wisdom and divine favour (v. 52). This is a pointer towards a greater call in His life. One that will interrupt their family life where they are being asked to let go of Jesus.
Jesus is 12 years old. The bar mitzvah celebrations were not in place in Jesus’ lifetime. This ceremony for boys takes place on 13th birthday and that marks the transition into adulthood. The mention of Jesus’ age is an indication of His maturity. It signifies that He is now becoming responsible for living according to Jewish law and deciding how He practices Judaism.
Jesus’ reply to his parents is surprisingly mature: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” This is not a child asking the forgiveness of his parents or even reassuring them after their fright. Here is a young man who knows who He is and who expects His parents to know as well.
Jesus will be lost for three days before being found ….
This three-day timeline matters to Luke’s narrative because it is the day on which God creates new life and activates his covenant with humanity. This is evident in the Hebrew Scriptures. The pattern of resurrection on the third day begins in the creation story in Genesis 1 where new life appears on day 3 and God is revealed at Mount Sinai on the third day. It continues in Jonah 1:17 (Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days); in Hosea (6:1-2) where God’s resurrecting work for Israel is occurring on the third day. There is then a pointing forward to the obvious New Testament example of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day.
[Catholics hear this readings on the Feast of the Holy Family celebrated on the Sunday between Christmas Day and January 1st. It is used alongside: Sirach 3:2–6, 12-14, Psalm 128:1–5 and Colossians 3:12–21].
The teachers in the Temple, likely would be in Solomon’s Portico’s.
So now, ‘someone greater than Solomon’, is here! (Luke 11:31) God’s ultimate Wisdom/Teacher personified, made flesh, yet here in his humanity, it is ‘initiated’ demonstrated.
Thanks for that fascinating look into Jesus’ childhood…
Am I right that from Numbers you had to be 20 before being conscripted and 30 before you could work in the Tent of Meeting?
Luke tells us Jesus was about 30 when he was baptised and started his ministry. Is that why Jesus didn’t start his ministry sooner?
For a closing of brackets in Luke, to link this passage to the self-awareness of Jesus, how about Luke 24:27, which would necessarily include wisdom/teacher literature, a self-identity which now becomes even more expansive to include the whole of the old covenant scriptures.?