And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
After a day's journey home toward Galilee supposing twelve-year-old Jesus was with friends in the crowded caravan, Joseph and Mary found Him not among kinsfolk and acquaintances and turned back weary and sorrowful to Jerusalem seeking Him. It belonged to the Passover visit when He was twelve, a son of the law, when after the feast He remained behind in the temple absorbed in its meaning and His mission. One day of neglect in losing Him cost three days of anxious searching before they found Him among the doctors. That three-day separation foreshadowed when He would be lost to them by being slain for the sins of the world, and as He was found after three days so He would reveal Himself again. So those who follow Him can lose the sense of His presence through carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer, and when He is missing they must return and seek Him whom they should have kept every moment.
Passover Visit Setting
The verse belongs to the Passover visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve, the age at which a Hebrew boy was considered a son of the law and expected to take part in sacred observances. Its setting is the annual Passover pilgrimage, when worshipers traveled to Jerusalem from across Palestine and beyond. After the Passover worshipers departed, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem in the temple, absorbed in the meaning of the rites and the mystery of His mission, while His parents left without Him.
It was His first sight of the temple in childhood, where He saw the white-robed priests in their solemn ministry and witnessed the impressive rites of the paschal service. Day by day He saw their meaning more clearly, with every act bound up with His own life, and new impulses awakened within Him as He silently and absorbedly studied out the great problem. The mystery of His mission opened to Him as 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. He chose to remain behind because with the thoughts in His mind He wanted to be alone, and to go to the school connected with the temple.
His parents returned to Jerusalem and searched for Him, and found Him in the temple among the learned rabbis and doctors of the law, attending to His Father's business, where He had begun to make clear that He knew His work and what lay ahead of Him. He entered before them as a learner asking questions with eagerness to obtain information, and His questions surprised the learned doctors. Though only twelve He was already a teacher, and by every question He poured light into their darkened minds without letting them suspect He was trying to teach them, lest they spurn Him, working continually in purity, humility, and meekness that rebuked sin while giving those around Him nothing to blame. The Passover feast itself whose observance is here in view had become formal observance for most people, though it held deep significance for Jesus.
His wider childhood background was a humble home at Nazareth with faithful instruction. There He made His home for thirty years, unhonored and unknown, in a town of bad reputation whose people had become proverbial for wickedness and were considered the worst in Palestine, from which it was thought a wonder if any good thing could come. As the mighty Worker to uplift and regenerate the whole human soul He commenced amid moral darkness and misery by becoming a citizen of that place, setting His own feet upon the paths the poor and neglected must tread, and as the Light of the world pouring contempt upon human pride of place, station, honor, and fame. He might have made His home in places of renown but did not, lest His followers compelled to live in lowly places should frame an excuse for their sins and for their rough, hard, uncourteous characters, thereby demonstrating that any place, however hard and lowly, if it is the post of duty, can be made honorable by fidelity. No mountain home or secluded location in bush or woods can enclose from the enemy who found entrance at the gates of Paradise, for wicked people are everywhere, and no seclusion from the world can sanctify and cleanse from moral defilement of sin. He came into the world as an infant and passed through every stage from infancy to manhood without committing sin because God protected Him, doing all His childhood work with full faithfulness and drawing other children by singing songs of heaven until they all sang together.
Parents' Anxious Search
Joseph and Mary had left Jerusalem for home toward Galilee with twelve-year-old Jesus in the Passover company, and after traveling a day's journey they supposed He was with friends in the crowded caravan. Their attention was absorbed by traveling with friends, so they did not notice His absence until they stopped to camp for the night and missed His helpful hand, when they discovered He was not with the company. They searched throughout the company among kinsfolk, relatives and acquaintances and found no trace of Him. Fear and self-reproach followed the discovery.
When they found Him not, they hastened back on the weary way to Jerusalem sad, fearful and sorrowful seeking Him, with hearts heavy with sorrow and with great anguish to Mary. One day of neglect in losing Him from their company cost three days of anxious, painful searching with sorrowful hearts before they found Him in the temple. The one day of forgetting came because talk and visiting with the crowd engrossed their minds, with vain talking, jesting, joking and evil speaking and neglect of prayer. Those who should not have forgotten Him for a moment did not bring Him to mind for a whole day until its close, neglecting their sacred trust though especially honored to care for the Saviour whose birth angels heralded to the shepherds and whose infant life God preserved by directing Joseph.
Their fearful return recalled Herod's cruel massacre of innocent children in hope of destroying the King of Israel. When they found Jesus they did not acknowledge their own neglect of their sacred responsibility to care for Him but reproached Him with censure. Mary had endured three days of anguish believing Him lost to her, and she later recalled that fear while anxiously awaiting His return.
Foreshadowing Death and Resurrection
The separation when He remained behind as His parents returned from Jerusalem, and they discovered He was not with their returning company and sought Him sorrowing for three days, foreshadowed the later separation when He would be lost to them by being slain for the sins of the world. As He was then found after three days, so after three days He would reveal Himself again and be found by them. This experience prepared their faith to rely and rest on Him as the Redeemer of fallen humanity and their advocate with the Father.
Losing and Regaining Presence
Those following Christ can lose the sense of His presence through carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer, and through neglect of meditation or absorption in worldly things, so that one day of neglect may cost three days, even many days, of anxious and sorrowful seeking to regain the peace and comfort of His grace. He is lost through carelessness in words and actions when Christians are together, through careless thoughts, through talk and jesting and visiting with no reference to the Redeemer, through vain talking, joking and evil speaking, through an irreverent spirit, and through conversation not centered on heavenly and divine things. Talking and visiting can so engross the mind, with neglect of prayer, that He is not brought to mind.
Jesus will not be found in the company of those who are careless of His presence but shuns such company, and the angels who do His commands also leave, because those pure and holy spirits cannot remain where His presence is not desired and encouraged and His absence is not marked. The result is loss of all that is valuable, loss of peace and joy and the consolation of His grace, with gloom instead of the cheering divine rays of light from Jesus, and mourning, grief and discouragement. When Christians realize they have gone on without Jesus and that He is missing, they must turn back and return and seek Him whom they should have kept with them every moment.
Regaining His peace may require many days of anxious, sorrowful seeking. The fault for His absence is in themselves, not in others and not in God, and complaining and murmuring against others or God only hides that they themselves talked and jested away the heavenly Guest. It is the privilege of all to retain Jesus with them, but to do so words must be select and seasoned with grace and the thoughts of the heart must be disciplined to meditate upon heavenly and divine things, with prayer and watching on the way home from seasons of blessing lest they return no better than they left. The turning back to Jerusalem warns people not to leave Jesus behind as they go home.
Parental Responsibility for Children
When they realized He was not with the traveling company, they turned back to Jerusalem and sought Him with anxious searching, and that searching pressed upon them the weight of the responsibility God had laid upon them to care for Him. His remaining behind gently recalled them to their duty and to the great privilege of caring for the Son of God, lest closeness and familiarity should make them indifferent to His presence and sacred mission. It took only one day to lose Him through neglect of their charge, and the loss cost much sorrow and three days of painful searching until they had to acknowledge that He was lost. Parents must therefore never lose sight of their children and their companionship through careless inattention to their charge, and must not exchange the country home in Galilee for the city with its crowds. Fathers and mothers today in the same way lose their sons and daughters to the ensnaring world through neglect, and often never find them again or even know that they are lost.
Because Christ was once a little child, mothers are for His sake to deal gently with little ones and to honor them. Children are to be regarded as a sacred charge and as God's property, whom He loves. They are not to be indulged, petted, and idolized, but are to be taught to live a pure, noble life, with mothers working together with God to help them form perfect characters. In His own childhood He did all His work with full faithfulness and drew other children by singing songs of heaven until all sang together, thereby teaching parents to put away harsh ruling with an iron rod and to seek Christ for daily salvation with pleasant, joyful voices.
After a day's journey home toward Galilee supposing twelve-year-old Jesus was with friends in the crowded caravan, Joseph and Mary found Him not among kinsfolk and acquaintances and turned back weary and sorrowful to Jerusalem seeking Him. It belonged to the Passover visit when He was twelve, a son of the law, when after the feast He remained behind in the temple absorbed in its meaning and His mission. One day of neglect in losing Him cost three days of anxious searching before they found Him among the doctors. That three-day separation foreshadowed when He would be lost to them by being slain for the sins of the world, and as He was found after three days so He would reveal Himself again. So those who follow Him can lose the sense of His presence through carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer, and when He is missing they must return and seek Him whom they should have kept every moment.
Passover Visit Setting
The verse belongs to the Passover visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve, the age at which a Hebrew boy was considered a son of the law and expected to take part in sacred observances. Its setting is the annual Passover pilgrimage, when worshipers traveled to Jerusalem from across Palestine and beyond. After the Passover worshipers departed, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem in the temple, absorbed in the meaning of the rites and the mystery of His mission, while His parents left without Him.
It was His first sight of the temple in childhood, where He saw the white-robed priests in their solemn ministry and witnessed the impressive rites of the paschal service. Day by day He saw their meaning more clearly, with every act bound up with His own life, and new impulses awakened within Him as He silently and absorbedly studied out the great problem. The mystery of His mission opened to Him as 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. He chose to remain behind because with the thoughts in His mind He wanted to be alone, and to go to the school connected with the temple.
His parents returned to Jerusalem and searched for Him, and found Him in the temple among the learned rabbis and doctors of the law, attending to His Father's business, where He had begun to make clear that He knew His work and what lay ahead of Him. He entered before them as a learner asking questions with eagerness to obtain information, and His questions surprised the learned doctors. Though only twelve He was already a teacher, and by every question He poured light into their darkened minds without letting them suspect He was trying to teach them, lest they spurn Him, working continually in purity, humility, and meekness that rebuked sin while giving those around Him nothing to blame. The Passover feast itself whose observance is here in view had become formal observance for most people, though it held deep significance for Jesus.
His wider childhood background was a humble home at Nazareth with faithful instruction. There He made His home for thirty years, unhonored and unknown, in a town of bad reputation whose people had become proverbial for wickedness and were considered the worst in Palestine, from which it was thought a wonder if any good thing could come. As the mighty Worker to uplift and regenerate the whole human soul He commenced amid moral darkness and misery by becoming a citizen of that place, setting His own feet upon the paths the poor and neglected must tread, and as the Light of the world pouring contempt upon human pride of place, station, honor, and fame. He might have made His home in places of renown but did not, lest His followers compelled to live in lowly places should frame an excuse for their sins and for their rough, hard, uncourteous characters, thereby demonstrating that any place, however hard and lowly, if it is the post of duty, can be made honorable by fidelity. No mountain home or secluded location in bush or woods can enclose from the enemy who found entrance at the gates of Paradise, for wicked people are everywhere, and no seclusion from the world can sanctify and cleanse from moral defilement of sin. He came into the world as an infant and passed through every stage from infancy to manhood without committing sin because God protected Him, doing all His childhood work with full faithfulness and drawing other children by singing songs of heaven until they all sang together.
Parents' Anxious Search
Joseph and Mary had left Jerusalem for home toward Galilee with twelve-year-old Jesus in the Passover company, and after traveling a day's journey they supposed He was with friends in the crowded caravan. Their attention was absorbed by traveling with friends, so they did not notice His absence until they stopped to camp for the night and missed His helpful hand, when they discovered He was not with the company. They searched throughout the company among kinsfolk, relatives and acquaintances and found no trace of Him. Fear and self-reproach followed the discovery.
When they found Him not, they hastened back on the weary way to Jerusalem sad, fearful and sorrowful seeking Him, with hearts heavy with sorrow and with great anguish to Mary. One day of neglect in losing Him from their company cost three days of anxious, painful searching with sorrowful hearts before they found Him in the temple. The one day of forgetting came because talk and visiting with the crowd engrossed their minds, with vain talking, jesting, joking and evil speaking and neglect of prayer. Those who should not have forgotten Him for a moment did not bring Him to mind for a whole day until its close, neglecting their sacred trust though especially honored to care for the Saviour whose birth angels heralded to the shepherds and whose infant life God preserved by directing Joseph.
Their fearful return recalled Herod's cruel massacre of innocent children in hope of destroying the King of Israel. When they found Jesus they did not acknowledge their own neglect of their sacred responsibility to care for Him but reproached Him with censure. Mary had endured three days of anguish believing Him lost to her, and she later recalled that fear while anxiously awaiting His return.
Foreshadowing Death and Resurrection
The separation when He remained behind as His parents returned from Jerusalem, and they discovered He was not with their returning company and sought Him sorrowing for three days, foreshadowed the later separation when He would be lost to them by being slain for the sins of the world. As He was then found after three days, so after three days He would reveal Himself again and be found by them. This experience prepared their faith to rely and rest on Him as the Redeemer of fallen humanity and their advocate with the Father.
Losing and Regaining Presence
Those following Christ can lose the sense of His presence through carelessness and neglect of watchfulness and prayer, and through neglect of meditation or absorption in worldly things, so that one day of neglect may cost three days, even many days, of anxious and sorrowful seeking to regain the peace and comfort of His grace. He is lost through carelessness in words and actions when Christians are together, through careless thoughts, through talk and jesting and visiting with no reference to the Redeemer, through vain talking, joking and evil speaking, through an irreverent spirit, and through conversation not centered on heavenly and divine things. Talking and visiting can so engross the mind, with neglect of prayer, that He is not brought to mind.
Jesus will not be found in the company of those who are careless of His presence but shuns such company, and the angels who do His commands also leave, because those pure and holy spirits cannot remain where His presence is not desired and encouraged and His absence is not marked. The result is loss of all that is valuable, loss of peace and joy and the consolation of His grace, with gloom instead of the cheering divine rays of light from Jesus, and mourning, grief and discouragement. When Christians realize they have gone on without Jesus and that He is missing, they must turn back and return and seek Him whom they should have kept with them every moment.
Regaining His peace may require many days of anxious, sorrowful seeking. The fault for His absence is in themselves, not in others and not in God, and complaining and murmuring against others or God only hides that they themselves talked and jested away the heavenly Guest. It is the privilege of all to retain Jesus with them, but to do so words must be select and seasoned with grace and the thoughts of the heart must be disciplined to meditate upon heavenly and divine things, with prayer and watching on the way home from seasons of blessing lest they return no better than they left. The turning back to Jerusalem warns people not to leave Jesus behind as they go home.
Parental Responsibility for Children
When they realized He was not with the traveling company, they turned back to Jerusalem and sought Him with anxious searching, and that searching pressed upon them the weight of the responsibility God had laid upon them to care for Him. His remaining behind gently recalled them to their duty and to the great privilege of caring for the Son of God, lest closeness and familiarity should make them indifferent to His presence and sacred mission. It took only one day to lose Him through neglect of their charge, and the loss cost much sorrow and three days of painful searching until they had to acknowledge that He was lost. Parents must therefore never lose sight of their children and their companionship through careless inattention to their charge, and must not exchange the country home in Galilee for the city with its crowds. Fathers and mothers today in the same way lose their sons and daughters to the ensnaring world through neglect, and often never find them again or even know that they are lost.
Because Christ was once a little child, mothers are for His sake to deal gently with little ones and to honor them. Children are to be regarded as a sacred charge and as God's property, whom He loves. They are not to be indulged, petted, and idolized, but are to be taught to live a pure, noble life, with mothers working together with God to help them form perfect characters. In His own childhood He did all His work with full faithfulness and drew other children by singing songs of heaven until all sang together, thereby teaching parents to put away harsh ruling with an iron rod and to seek Christ for daily salvation with pleasant, joyful voices.