Encore Post: Passover is the highest holy day in Judaism. The Old Testament required all of God’s people to celebrate Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles in Jerusalem, (Exodus 23:14-17) but many could not afford to be there more than once a year. Since whole communities would make the trip, they tended to travel in caravans, making the trip a joyful, almost continuous picnic.
A boy’s twelfth year is a year of joyful study. In the time when Jesus grew up, twelve year old boys studied God’s word so that they could become a Bar Mitzvah — a son of God’s Covenant. When they were ready, they would read a passage from the Bible in Hebrew during a service in the synagogue Sabbath service on a Saturday. To do that, he had to learn to recite almost the whole Bible by heart. Once he completed the reading, everyone considered him a spiritual adult.
Since most of the Jewish people were in Jerusalem at the Passover, it was the custom of the faith’s leading Rabbis to gather in Solomon’s porch — the courtyard Herod the Great had built around the temple proper — to teach. Jesus stayed behind in the temple to listen to them. The disciples of theses teachers asked them questions. The teacher, in turn, would ask the disciple a question. Once the student replied, the teacher would comment on the answer. Often these discussions were written down and studied as a part of the oral law — the Talmud.
The Rabbis were very impressed with Jesus’ answers. They didn’t know how a young man from far away Galilee could know so much about the Torah. In the meantime, Mary, Joseph and their families began the trip home to Nazareth. They assumed Jesus was with his cousins. When they couldn’t find him, they went looking for him. They found him in the Temple.
When Jesus replied to Mary’s scolding, he revealed much about himself. First is he knew that God was his Father. Second, that teaching was the family business that he would take up. Finally, that in perfect obedience, he followed her instructions perfectly. In this one incident, we learn something important about Jesus’ nature. He is God and Man at the same time.
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