While doing the readings on Luke as part of the Christmas tradition - I wanted to do a study on Jesus going "missing" when He was 12 years old. Some people may be quick to point that Jesus was not as sinless as the Bible would want him to look like. Some even say it may possibly be erroneous (which I believe it isn't) as this would be part of Dr. Luke's penmanship. The passage can be found in Luke 2:41-52 which talks about Jesus at 12 years old in the Passover. We don't know what happened in-between the time His mother and foster father fled to Egypt and this time. Jesus' silent years would kick in again after this incident. This was a pretty interesting story.
I remembered John F. MacArthur's book "The Jesus You Can't Ignore: What You Must Learn From the Bold Confrontations of Christ". MacArthur managed to try and explain Jesus' "disappearance" in the chapter "Two Passovers". It would be interesting to see the following facts about why Jesus suddenly "disappeared" and why all the confusion happened:
- There were many pilgrims in Jerusalem. Inns would be jammed and large groups would travel together. A band that large would most likely stretch over a mile's distance. Women generally traveled in a group or several small groups together rather than being spread out among the men.
- Mary and Joseph would have probably made the mistake of assuming the child Jesus was with each other. Since Jesus was the perfect child then neither the legal father nor the mother would've thought of investigating His whereabouts.
- They began to search in Jerusalem with some thought that Jesus was also searching for them. Three days later - they found Him in the Jewish Temple.
I was thinking about Jesus in the Jewish Temple discussing and learning from the Jewish elders. What was really going on? Mary and Joseph finally saw Him and were exasperated. I was thinking about it that perhaps Mary and Joseph probably had short-term amnesia. Mary to whom the angel Gabriel said that she will be the chosen vessel for the Son of God probably was too tired to even think about it. Mary was a fallible human so any mistake she committed here is understandable. Mary would soon blurt out in Luke 2:48 calling Joseph as "your father" mentioning they sought Jesus anxiously.
What was Jesus' reply? Was it a reply with insolence? Instead, Jesus' reply was to address the fact that Joseph and Mary may have forgotten who His Father really was. Luke 2:49 has Jesus asking why do they seek Him and that He must be at His Father's business. Joseph was legally Jesus' father in what would be the statistics. However, Jesus' real Father is God and He has been the eternal Son of God before Mary and Joseph. I wonder if Joseph and Mary forgot that Jesus appeared in human form in the Old Testament to Abraham in Mamre or to Joshua as the Captain of the LORD's host. Jesus had told them that He was doing the will of the Father - to learn.
I want to assume that probably Joseph and Mary got caught in the excitement of Passover. They probably forgot that they were accompanying the Son of God in human form. I think it's possible that they forgot that Jesus would need to be in His real Father's house after the Passover. The way Jesus replied was probably a reminder that He was to do what His real Father, God the Father, wanted Him to do. Jesus probably reminded Joseph and Mary that they should've known better where to look for Him. Jesus didn't sin at all because He was in full compliance with God the Father's will to be where He should be. They didn't understand it at first. Later, Mary would ponder the things in her heart like any godly mother would. The two probably even forgot that Jesus had a mission, that He was supposed to be in His Father's house, He probably even told them but they were too caught in the festivities that they forgot about it. They even failed to understand Jesus' words that He must be at His Father's house due to the stress of looking for Him. Jesus never forgot His Father's work because He is the eternal Son of God who will always fulfill it.