Boy Jesus at the Temple

Luke 2:41-51 forms a chiastic structure (a writing style that uses a unique repetition pattern for clarification and emphasis) focusing upon the wisdom of Christ even as a child. Novethat this chime may be expanded ("wisdom" and "favor" in Luke 2:40, 52):

• A. his parents (Luke 2:41)
  • B. they went up . . . (Luke 2:42-44)
    • C. Searching in the WRONG place:
      they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances (Luke 2:44)
      • D. searching for him (Luke 2:45)
        • E. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46)

        • E'. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers (Luke 2:47)
      • D'. searching for you (Luke 2:48)
    • C'. Searching in the RIGHT place:
      looking . . . I must be in my Father's house (Luke 2:49)
  • B'. he went down with them (Luke 2:51)
• A'. his mother (Luke 2:51)

After the feast, after seven days (cf. Lev 23:5-6), while Mary and Joseph were returning home and realized after a day that Jesus was not with them (Luke 2:43-44). Luke does not say why Jesus stayed behind or how Joseph and Mary came to leave him behind, but in a large caravan it would have been easy to miss one boy. If later custom was followed, the women and small children went ahead and the men followed. Each parent might have assumed that a twelve-year-old boy was with the other parent, or with the other relatives and friends (Luke 2:44).

Mary and Joseph go back to Jerusalem and after three days discover Jesus sitting in the Temple courts (Luke 2:46-48). The Temple courts were commonly used for teaching. Jesus both listened and asked questions, which demonstrates a determination to learn. In Jewish education there was an emphasis on discussion of problems, which is perhaps behind the reference to his understanding and his answers. Others were amazed at his understanding and answers (Luke 2:47). But Joseph and Mary did not understand, for there is a note of reproach in Mary's words (Luke 2:48). Why were Joseph and Mary surprised? Stein says:

Why were Joseph and Mary surprised by this incident by this incident in light of the miraculous announcement of Jesus' birth (Luke 1:26-38), the angelic message (Luke 2:1-20), and the prophetic pronouncements (Luke 2:21-40)? Mary, despite all these indicators, seems to have been uncomprehending of just who her son really was. Such a failure to understand is also found in the disciples (cf. Luke 9:44-45; 18:31-34; 24:25-26).

Jesus replies, "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" (Matt. 2:49). In essence, Jesus says, 'Why were or would you look for me elsewhere? Didn't you know I must be in my Father's house?' Jesus was not rebuking his parents (cf. Mary treasured these events in her heart, Luke 2:51), rather his words imply an expression of surprise. It assumes that they, due to the previous miracles related to his birth, had a every basis for understanding his special relationship to his heavenly Father. This said, his parents did not understand (Luke 2:50).

Despite his understanding of his relationship to the heavenly Father, Jesus was a dutiful son on earth and was obedient to Joseph and Mary as he developed (Luke 2:52). Luke closes his record of Jesus' childhood by noting Jesus' well-rounded personal development: intellectual, physical, and spiritual. It is a testimony to Jesus true humanity hat he grew in these ways. His deity had already been indicated in Luke 1:76 (note, deity is not something Jesus grew in, for as he is God of very God (John 1:1-2), he is, was, and always will be divine).