March 23: The Loss of Jesus for Three Days. Luke 2:41-51
41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of this. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Notice some things about this story:
First, Jesus’ family was affluent enough to go from Nazareth to Galilee each year for Passover. This would be at least a three-week event for them. They would need enough money for travel, lodging (although this might have been with relatives along the way), and food (especially paying for the great Passover meal and the roasted lamb that was its main entrée). Joseph would have to go three weeks without making money as a carpenter, so savings would need to be tapped. Jesus joins them, perhaps for the first time. Now age twelve, he is considered a “man” in the synagogue in some ways, no longer a child. Like Joseph, he would now be expected, even obligated to attend this great pilgrimage festival.
Second, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus travel in a caravan of “relatives and friends” from Nazareth. We can imagine a group of 100 people (or more) in this group even from a small village in Galilee. Information from a Jewish historian of this time tells us that Jerusalem’s population swelled greatly during Passover week. This little city of maybe 20,000 permanent residents grew to as many as a million for that feast, making it the third largest city in the Roman empire for a few days.
Third, arrangements for returning home must have been fuzzy. When the Nazareth group departs, Mary assumes Jesus is somewhere among them, perhaps with friends from another family. After a “day’s journey,” maybe twenty miles, they settle down for the night and Jesus is nowhere to be found. They find him three days later. This would have been one day to return to Jerusalem, one day of desperate but unfruitful searching, and a third day when their son was discovered in the temple.
Fourth, Jesus is found in the temple debating with the scholars. This would have included questions concerning the law of Moses and the traditions of the rabbis. Those who hear Jesus are “amazed” at the understandings of this precocious young man from afar.
This leads to the conclusion and resolution of the story. Mary is the lead parent in confronting her young son. She chastises Jesus for causing great panic and anxiety for his parents. But there is no rebuke for disobedience, in fact the story ends with an emphasis upon Jesus’ return to Nazareth and his obedience to his parents. But … rather than say “I’m sorry,” Jesus gives a reason for staying behind. “I must be in my Father’s house.” This posits the God of Israel, the Lord of the temple as his ultimate “Father,” the one to whom his life must be devoted.
Realization of this future begins to sink in for Mary. There is no disrespect in Jesus, but his calling is wrapped up in obedience to this Heavenly Father, a vocation far beyond a simple carpenter’s shop in a little village in Nazareth. He would be one who would astound and confound the great rabbis of Israel, the master teachers of Jerusalem. He would not be bound to live out his life in Nazareth near his mother. In some ways, Mary must let him go with her blessing.
And this is the third sorrow of Mary.
Journaling Questions
If you are a parent, have you ever had the panic of thinking you had lost one of your children. Conversely, when you were a child, did you even experience being lost and not knowing where your parents were?
Has your desire to serve the Lord ever come into conflict with submission to your parents?
If you are a parent, think of the time when you had to “let go” of your child and allow them to make their own way in the world. How did you handle this? Did you entrust them to God?
