42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem
according to the custom of the feast. 43 When they had
finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in
Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it;
Luke, in these verses, now informs us that after the birth
of Jesus in Bethlehem, His presentation to Simeon and Anna in the Temple, and a
short time in Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23), Jesus’ parents move Him back to their
hometown of Nazareth where He grows up. We need remember that Luke in his
Gospel is presenting Jesus to the world as the perfect “Son of Man” and
the emphases is on His humanity. John, in his Gospel present Jesus to the world
as the “Son of God” and his emphases is on His deity. The Scriptures teach us
that Jesus was totally God and at the same time He was totally human. We might
not understand this, but we must accept this great truth by faith because this
is the only way that Jesus could die in our place for our sins!
When you think about Luke presenting Jesus in His humanity,
it is no wonder that he gives us the details of His birth as a Baby,
then calls Him a Child as He grows up in Nazareth, and now calls Him “the
Boy Jesus”in verse 43 as he tells us the only story we have in
the Gospels of something that takes place in the life of Jesus between His birth
and His baptism at thirty years of age!
Luke now has another delightful story to tell. Jesus was
twelve, the age in Jewish culture when a boy begins to assume the
responsibilities of a man. He was ready for His first Passover. Scholars tell
us that by this time Jesus education had been thorough enough, first at His
mother's knee and then in the local rabbinical school. The weekly Sabbath
observance would have been His joy. The Scripture written on the doorposts
(Deut. 11:20) of the house had a word for Him every time He left home and
whenever He came home.
Jesus soon knew His Bible by heart, and, given His flawless
memory and His brilliant mind, He doubtless knew it in both Hebrew and Greek.
He came to know all of the people who crowd the Old Testament page, all of the
precepts of the ritual law, and all of the principles of such books as Proverbs
and Ecclesiastes. Jesus knew and understood the full significance of all of the
prophecies and promises that God had given to the Hebrew people.
From the age of five until He was ten, His only textbook
was the Bible. From ten to fifteen, He was exposed to the Mishna, the
traditions of the elders, what came to be known as "the oral law"
supposedly given to Moses at Sinai. His keen mind would soon sort out the good
from the bad in all of that. Not until He was fifteen would He enter an academy
and be taught the endless lectures of the rabbis.
So, with a full heart Jesus joined the pilgrims marching to
Zion to keep the feast. People traveled to the feasts in caravans, the women
and children leading the way and setting the pace, and the men and young men
following behind. Relatives and whole villages often traveled together and kept
an eye on each other's children. No doubt they were all singing "the songs
of degrees" or “songs of accents” found in Psalms 120-134.
As the Lord entered Jerusalem, His thoughts must have been
mixed indeed. Here was a city that Abraham had visited thousands of years
earlier, a city where David had reigned, a city that murdered the prophets and
that one day would crucify Him. And crowning Mount Moriah and dominating
everything was the temple. Tens of thousands of people could find room within
its courts. The Lord's eyes would constantly be drawn to it. He called it
"my Father's house," although it was, in fact, being built by Herod.
I trust this gives you a picture today of the humanity of
Jesus as a Baby, a Child, and a grown-up Boy, as He prepares to present Himself
to the world as the only Savior for our sins!
God bless!
