Luke 2:43
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
At twelve, at the age marking His transition to youth as a son of the law, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem after the Passover days were fulfilled while Joseph and Mary began the return journey assuming He was among relatives and friends in the crowded caravan, and they did not discover His absence until after a day's journey. He lingered in the temple courts because He was absorbed in the paschal service whose meaning for His own life, mission and coming death was becoming clearer, questioning the learned rabbis as a humble learner yet astonishing them with greater learning. His tarrying was intentional to remind His parents of their sacred charge not to treat Him merely as their own child, and the three days of sorrowful searching foreshadowed His death for the sins of the world when He would be lost for three days and then found. Joseph and Mary forgot Him for an entire day because their minds were absorbed in visiting and conversation, which warns that one day of carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer can lose the sense of Christ's presence and cost three days of anxious searching to recover peace. He was lost amid a religious feast meant to point to Him as the coming Saviour, appealing to fathers and mothers never to lose sight of their children to the ensnaring world, while His sinless childhood of faithful diligence gives homes the pattern for gently training little ones as God's property.
Passover Setting and Events
The verse belongs to the boyhood Passover visit to Jerusalem, made when Jesus had reached the age required for a Hebrew boy to take part in the sacred feasts. The twelfth year marked the transition from childhood to youth, when a boy completing it was called a son of the law and a son of God and received special religious instruction. The remaining behind happened after the Passover days were fulfilled, as the annual pilgrimage company began the return journey from Jerusalem without knowing He had stayed behind in the city. For many the observance of the feast had become formal, but for Jesus it held deep significance.
Joseph and Mary assumed Jesus was traveling with the large, crowded caravan among relatives, acquaintances and friends. They had trusted Him to be ready to help them, and did not notice His absence until after a day's journey when the travelers stopped to rest at night. Realizing He was missing filled them with fear and regret, and after searching among kinsfolk and acquaintances they returned sorrowfully to Jerusalem. There they searched anxiously for three days before finding Him.
After this episode Jesus made His home in Nazareth for thirty years, living there unhonored and unknown in a humble home. That home stood among a people proverbial for wickedness and considered the worst in Palestine, in a town of bad reputation from which no good was thought possible. Though He could have lived in places of renown, He deliberately began His great work of uplifting and regenerating the human soul amid moral darkness and misery, setting His feet on the paths the poor and neglected must tread. By this choice He pours contempt on human pride of place, station, honor and fame, and demonstrates that any hard and lowly place, when it is the post of duty, can be made honorable by fidelity. Lowly surroundings give no excuse for sin or for a rough, hard, discourteous character, and no secluded mountain home or country location itself can sanctify and cleanse from moral defilement.
Why Jesus Tarried Behind
After the Passover services ended and the worshipers left Jerusalem, Jesus remained behind in the temple courts because He was absorbed in the temple rites and their meaning was becoming clear to Him in relation to His own life and mission. For the first time in His child-life He looked upon the temple, saw the white-robed priests performing their solemn ministry and witnessed the impressive rites of the paschal service, and day by day He saw their meaning more clearly, with every act bound up with His own life. In silence He studied out the great problem of His mission as it opened to Him, wanting to be alone with His thoughts about His coming death, and the work He was to accomplish for the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the appointed heirs of the promises of the covenant, began to dawn upon His mind. Even from childhood He knew His work and what lay before Him.
He lingered in the temple courts where He questioned the learned rabbis and doctors of the law about the coming of the Messiah. Though He approached them as a humble learner eager to obtain information, His questions astonished them, and He showed greater learning than they despite never having studied with the rabbis. At twelve years old He was already a teacher while coming before them as a learner, and by every question He poured light into their darkened minds, teaching truth without appearing to teach, for had they suspected He was trying to teach them they would have spurned Him.
His remaining in Jerusalem as His parents began their return was intentional, a gentle reminder to Joseph and Mary of their duty and of the great favor and high privilege God had given them in placing the Son of God in their parental care. Because His divinity was veiled in humanity and His daily life was in many ways like that of other children, they were in danger of regarding Him merely as their own child and losing sight of His sacred mission, divine identity and the blessing of His presence. Their minds had been absorbed in conversation and visiting, so they neglected their entrusted responsibility, and His staying behind reminded them not to grow indifferent to that duty. The event teaches believers to keep God's works and mercies in mind, to turn from worldly concerns, and to trust and reverence Him.
The separation after the Passover and the three days spent searching for Him foreshadowed the separation they would face when He was killed for the sins of the world, when He would be lost to them for three days and then reveal Himself and be found. This prepared them to trust Him as the Redeemer of fallen humanity and their Advocate with the Father. For Mary the separation left deep distress, and it later became one of the painful memories she long pondered.
Warnings for Believers Today
After the Passover days were fulfilled and the return from Jerusalem began, Joseph and Mary went a day's journey supposing Jesus to be with the company, and did not know He had tarried behind until the close of the day when His absence was observed. Their minds were engrossed by talking and visiting with relatives, acquaintances and friends in the crowded caravan, and absorbed in that conversation they forgot Him for an entire day. That forgetting was neglect of the sacred responsibility entrusted to them as those honored of God with charge of the Saviour whose birth angels heralded and whose infant life had been divinely preserved, and they should not have forgotten Him for a moment. Their failure to recognize His mission was linked to lacking deep insight into the prophecies and the significance of the Passover itself. When the loss was discovered at day's end, inquiry among kinsfolk found no trace, and they hastened back to Jerusalem with hearts heavy with sorrow and fear, remembering Herod's attempt to kill the King of Israel.
One day of neglect through vain talking, jesting, joking and evil speaking, or even neglect of prayer and confusion of much talk, cost them three days of anxious, sorrowful searching to find Him again and regain the peace of mind and consolation of His grace they had lost. The same loss threatens followers of Christ today, for carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer can take away the sense of His presence, and vain or harmful talk when associating together can cause Him to be forgotten. Recovery then requires an anxious, sorrowful search before peace is regained. The warning is to watch carefully on the journey home, to be careful in words and conduct when together, to keep the mind on God with attention to Jesus, and not to leave Jesus behind.
It took only one day to lose Him, at the cost of much sorrow and three days of painful searching among kinsfolk on the way to Galilee until the loss had to be acknowledged. That swiftness carries an appeal to all fathers and mothers never to lose sight of their children. Many parents today do the same work, exchanging the country home in Galilee for the city with its crowds and through careless inattention losing sight and companionship of their boys and girls without knowing it. A time will come when fathers and mothers must acknowledge they have lost their sons and daughters to the ensnaring world, often never finding them again and not knowing they are lost.
He was lost at a religious feast that was meant to call attention to Him as the coming Saviour, amid festivities, reunions, hilarity and glee. Recreation and innocent enjoyments are no sin when carefully guarded, but such surroundings lead to frivolity and indulgence of appetite, with religious, thoughtful conversation set aside for another time. No one can be loose and lax in banqueting enjoyment where there is danger of losing the company of Jesus Christ for even a single hour.
Christ was once a little child who committed no sin because the God of salvation protected Him, living a real human childhood from infancy to manhood. Even as a child He did all His work with full faithfulness and careful pains, and when other children asked why He took such pains He sang songs of heaven until they were all singing with Him and turned to heavenward joy. His childhood gives homes the pattern of gentle, joyful, faithful diligence instead of unjust rule with an iron rod, and the daily salvation parents and children need. For His sake mothers are to deal gently with little ones and honor children as a sacred charge and God's property whom He loves, not to be indulged, petted and idolized but to be taught to live a pure, noble life and helped to form perfect characters.