So you think Jesus was so much better than you? In the sense that he saved the world, yes, he is better than you. But his family was no better than yours probably, and definitely not his lineage! Look at his geneology.... Rahab the prostitute, David the adultrous murderer, Ruth the gentile, and then his mother Mary who got pregnant during her betrothal. Many of us have a family tree that would make a nun blush, but those are often the most glorifying trees.
I am preparing for the Spring Holy Days coming up, starting with Passover April 6th. In my study time yesterday, I was reading in Luke 2:41-52, the account of Jesus' first Passover with the pilgrims in Jerusalem. He was 12 years old. Follow along with me and see if any of this sounds like your family.
Jesus goes with his family as this was a pilgrimage feast to Jerusalem (one of 3 pilgrimages throughout the year), although he may have been there before. This time however, "the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey...."
Ok, so Jesus stays in Jerusalem. Why? Did he get lost or separated from the crowd? Did he make a new friend and spend too long playing kickball? Did he get distracted like 12 year old boys do and go back to the rally point at the temple where they had all been and expect that they would come looking for him where they last saw him? Perhaps he pulled out the "God card" and instantly knew how to get to the temple without being told. Maybe he never left the temple. Do you know a 12 year old boy? This would be a seventh grader in middle school bound for Oxford. Of course, all of these speculations are just that, but it does make you wonder what was going through Jesus' mind about staying in Jerusalem.
I think about Shawn Hornbeck who was in the national news when he was abducted at 11 years old and found 4 years later. He must have said to himself at some point, "I'm lost, but I'm right here. Nobody knows where I am except me. Will my parents come for me? Will they know where to find me?" When a child is lost, the search teams go to the most obvious places, the places the child is most likely to go to. What does the child like? Do they know how to get to so-and-so's place? Predators use things kids like to lure them in like puppies and kittens and candy. Everyone racks their brain for the child's interests, motives, and capabilities.
But look what happens when Jesus' parents find him. Remember, the caravan went ONE day's journey when they realized he was missing, but they took THREE days to find him. Ok, raise your hand if you've ever lost your child? (Mine is raised.) Not long ago, my husband and I lost our 2 year old son in Sam's Club. After 10 minutes of panic with an all-out Code Adam in search of Josiah, I collapsed in an aisle. The oxygen had left my muscles and traveled to my brain and I could not stand on my own two feet. It was so utterly terrifying! I knew Josiah was not playing a game after missing for that long. My first reaction was to look under the skids of product for his tiny feet because I knew he liked to hide and chase. When I exhausted Josiah's favorite spots, it was anybody's guess where he might be.
So Mary and Joseph were looking for their son for three days and they finally found him in the temple. Look at Mary's first words to her son in verse 48, "'Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.'" First, they blamed him for their misery and their inconvenience with no regard to how their son might have felt being left alone for 3-4 days. It was all about them. "How could you do this to your dear sweet mother? Your father and I were worried sick about you!" I'm sure they truly were worried sick about him, but did they ever stop to think about what their son liked, or consider where his heart might take him or where he would go being lost in Jerusalem where they'd just spent the week at the feast? Did they ever stop to reflect on the night the angel visited to say Mary had conceived the Son of God? Did the thought cross their minds about the awesome power and provision of the mighty God they just worshiped for a solid week, and think that this same God might bring this miraculously conceived child into His house (the temple) for protection? NO!
Jesus asked these same things, "'Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?'" Does his parents' response sounds like something you've experienced with your own? Jesus' very own parents, the two people who are supposed to know him better than anyone else in his life, had no clue what their son was asking. They were still thinking about their own hurt. I think Jesus was saying, "Mom, Dad, if you knew my heart, you would have thought to look here FIRST. If you really understood me and cared about the things I care about then you would have found me right away. You don't understand me or why I'm here or what my life is all about. You have no clue! Me, your son...."
Talk about rejection. Ouch! This 12 year old boy was so smart and amazing and all the adults learned from him in the temple those days he was "missing." Then his parents find him and they don't even see him for who he really is. They don't even care or ask about him. They only ask why he made them feel so awful while he was gone. I can imagine that Jesus just hanged his head and mumbled, "You don't know me. You just don't know me like I desperately want to be known." The cry of many a middle school boy's heart.
Twenty some years later, Mary and Joseph's boy would be back in Jerusalem for the Passover, unrecognizable as the glass shards ripped through his flesh like the cutting words of his own parents. This time, Jesus would not be leaving with the caravan and he would still feel the sting from those who didn't understand him, who never really knew him.
One last thing to see. Verse 50: Jesus' parents didn't understand his question. Verse 51a: "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he continued in subjection to them." After experiencing his first Passover in Jerusalem, missing the bus home, being left in the temple for 3-4 days without his parents, learning from the most respected scholars and priests, then having his heart broken by the scorn of those he loved and who were supposed to know him best, Jesus remained obedient to his parents (keeping with his sinless self), and "continued in subjection to them."
Don't expect perfection like this from your own children, but what if you practiced it as a child of God? How much selflessness would it take to be sinless? Are you a grown person still struggling with being nice to your parents? You have every right to be scornful towards them like Jesus whose parents scorned him. They didn't welcome him with an embrace of love and joy. He had every right to feel and act hurt. But he didn't! Could you act as mature as this 12 year old boy did?
Look at the result of Jesus' choice to not act on his hurt? "...And his mother treasured all these things in her heart" (v.51b). So she didn't understand what he meant at the temple or even what it meant that he was the Son of God. But she did speak the universal language of love that he showed her by stepping back in line and choosing forgiveness. Look ahead 20 years to the cross where this boy is now a man all bloodied and crucified by the ones who misunderstood him. He never waivered as a boy or a man as his dying words were, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and by his death he spoke the universal language of love and forgiveness. Mothers for two millenia now have "treasured all these things in her heart."
A beautiful parallel was being painted between Jesus' first Passover and his last Passover. This friction between Jesus and his parents was a picture of the friction between God and His children. How much do we NOT understand God's love? Do you feel misunderstood by your parents? What choices have you made as a result of that hurt or desperate desire to be known? Is your focus on the cross or is it on yourself?
