“The Missing Years of Jesus”


BIBLE READING: Matthew 2; Luke 2. 39-52
DISCUSSION                                                   
                When it comes to the childhood years of Jesus I have so many questions:  was he ever spanked as child? Did he ever catch a cold or have a fever? When was it that He understood that He was the Creator of the Universe? However, in God’s infinite wisdom, He chose to not include anything from His childhood years.   Instead, we have a gap in the story from his birth until he was twelve years old.  Luke’s account of Jesus, at twelve, in the Temple may offer us a little insight as to when Jesus understood He was not your typical twelve-year-old boy.  As Mary and Joseph begin the journey back home from Passover, they notice that Jesus has gone missing.  Parents imagine how they must have felt, God had entrusted them with the Savior of the world and now they had lost him.  As they frantically look for him, they retrace their steps back to the Temple.   It is there they find this young man sitting among the scholars, listening and answering their questions.  What they were discussing with Jesus is also omitted from the story, but by describing the teachers, using words like being amazed and astonished at Jesus’ intellect, reveals to us that He is becoming aware of his purpose.   That is further evidenced as His mother scolds him for running off and not telling them where He was, as he replies “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House?”  Although they did not understand, yet, Mary kept that response in her heart.  Although we don’t have anything that describes what the childhood of Jesus might have been like, what we do have within this story gives us insight that He was fully aware of His purpose here on the earth.  Although His purpose was divine, ours should be summed up in a similar way; should we not also be about the Father’s work?
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