Luke 2:46, commentary and pictures

At twelve years old on His first Passover visit to Jerusalem, Jesus tarried behind unknown to Joseph and Mary, and after a day's journey without Him and three days of anxious sorrowful searching they found Him in the temple court on a public teaching occasion, sitting in the midst of the grave and learned doctors as a humble learner both hearing them and asking questions with grace and eagerness. His questions and answers displayed astonishing mature wisdom and discernment, directing the teachers to the Scriptures concerning the Messiah, especially Isaiah's prophecies of His humiliation, suffering and death as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, thus giving light to their darkened minds while His respectful childlike manner kept them from suspecting He was teaching them. He had not learned this wisdom in rabbinical schools or from human teachers, but taught first by His mother and continually by His Father in heaven from the pure words of God and the book of nature, standing by It is written rather than human tradition. His being lost to His parents sorrowing for three days and then found foreshadowed His being separated from them in death for the sins of the world for three days and then rising and revealing Himself, that their faith would rest on Him as Redeemer and their sorrow turn to joy. Their three days of anxious search after one day of neglect warns that by careless talking, neglect of watchfulness and prayer, and journeying without Him, believers can lose the felt sense of His presence and withdraw His cheering light and peace, and recovering it then requires many days of sorrowful seeking with meditation, watchfulness and prayer.

Passover Visit Setting

At twelve years old Jesus went up to the Passover at Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary, for that was the age when a Hebrew boy reached the dividing line between childhood and youth and was called a son of the law and a son of God, receiving special opportunities for religious instruction and being expected to take part in sacred feasts and observances. It was His first visit to the temple as a child, and there He looked for the first time upon the white-robed priests in their solemn ministry and upon the impressive rites of the paschal service. Day by day as He watched, the meaning of every act grew clearer to Him as bound up with His own life, while new impulses awakened within Him and the mystery of His mission and the work He was to accomplish for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the appointed heirs of the covenant promises, began to dawn upon His mind.

After the worshipers left Jerusalem He tarried behind without Joseph and Mary knowing it, and was lost in the multitude of travelers returning toward Galilee. They journeyed a day without noticing His absence, engrossed in talking and visiting, and then first sought Him among kinsfolk in the crowd traveling toward Galilee before having to acknowledge He was lost. That one day of neglect cost them three days of anxious, sorrowful, painful searching to find Him again.

In great fear remembering how Herod had tried to kill Him in infancy and dreading that some evil had now befallen Him, His parents hastened back to Jerusalem and sought Him with sorrowful hearts. After three days they found Him in the court of the temple, sitting in the midst of the grave and learned doctors, scribes and teachers of the law. It was a special public teaching occasion when the teachers publicly instructed the people, holding daily studies much like Bible studies.

He had taken the humble place of a learner, both hearing them and asking questions with grace, modesty, seriousness and eagerness to gain knowledge, a grace that charmed these learned men. His well-known voice, serious and earnest yet full of solemn melody, arrested His parents in the crowd. He was found in the temple school among the rabbis, sitting in the midst of the doctors listening and asking, and His questions and answers astonished Mary and Joseph.

The astonishment was the greater because He came from a poor family and had never learned in formal schools. He made His home for thirty years among the people of Nazareth, living there unhonored and unknown, though Nazareth was proverbial for wickedness and of bad reputation, considered the worst of the people of Palestine, a town from which it was thought a wonder if any good thing could come. Thus He set His own feet upon the paths the poor and neglected souls must tread, and as the Light of the world poured contempt upon human pride of place, station, honor and fame, demonstrating that any place, however hard and lowly, if it is the post of duty, can be made honorable by fidelity, lest His followers compelled to live in lowly places should frame an excuse for their sins and for rough, hard, discourteous character. His godly home training at Nazareth had prepared Him for this thoughtful engagement with Scripture.

His parents were gratified to see Him thus honored, and finding Him again brought them great joy. Yet from that time His way of acting remained a mystery to them. Mary's three days of anguish when she thought Him lost remained a memory that later made her anxious as she awaited His return.

Wisdom Among Teachers

His questions and answers displayed superior wisdom, discernment, penetration and mature judgment that astonished all who heard Him, and the astonishment was the greater because He was poor and had never learned in formal schools. The teachers were instructing the people publicly on a special occasion, and the crowd as well as the learned men were astonished at His understanding because His words opened subjects of deep importance and showed knowledge of sacred things although He had not been taught in the rabbis' schools.

Though He took the humble place of a learner, His questions led the teachers to consider the Scriptures concerning the Messiah, especially Isaiah's prophecies of His humiliation, suffering and death at His first appearing. He asked about the meaning of the Saviour's death and about the prophets, and He explained the Scriptures to them, identifying the Messiah with the Lamb who takes away the world's sin and revealing the light of the plan of salvation. His understanding and answers showed that He understood Scripture deeply while approaching the teachers with modesty and a desire to learn.

His questions were about the coming of the Messiah and the promises and events centered in Himself, including prophecy and events that foretold the Messiah's coming. They challenged the expectation of personal and national exaltation at the Messiah's coming and brought attention to the humiliation of His first advent, helping willing hearers understand the Messiah's true mission. They showed that He already knew His work and what lay before Him, that the Holy Spirit was upon Him, and that He was conscious of the work He had come to do, so that even from childhood His life was an example.

By those questions He was also giving light to their darkened minds and opening subjects of deep importance about His mission that they had not seen. His questions and answers were instructive to the learned men, teaching them while His insight opened thoughts about His mission that the teachers had not considered. He did not make them suspect that He was trying to teach them, since they would have rejected Him, but entered their gathering as a learner, listening and asking questions with eagerness to gain knowledge. His respectful, childlike manner in this way brought light without openly claiming to teach, and gave them opportunity to receive spiritual truth.

The paschal service increasingly showed Him that its meaning was bound up with His own life and mission, which was beginning to dawn upon His mind as He silently studied the great problem of the work for the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the appointed heirs of the covenant promises. Watching the white-robed priests in their solemn ministry and witnessing the impressive rites, He day by day saw their meaning more clearly, with every act bound up with His own life, while silent and absorbed new impulses awakened within Him and the mystery of His mission opened to Him. The Passover lamb, unleavened bread and firstfruits represented the Saviour, and Israel's deliverance from Egypt illustrated redemption, though for many the rites had become formal observances.

When found He declared He must be about His Father's business, meaning He was engaged in the work of His Father Jehovah, not Joseph, while showing early understanding of His relation to His Father and His interest in heavenly truth. His answer, asking how it was that they sought Him, modestly reflected censure back on His parents to show that if mindful of duty and of the sacred trust of the Saviour intrusted to them they would not have left without Him, while they had neglected the work His Father had intrusted to them.

Though the rabbis had not taught Him He was more learned than they, and His conduct revealed perfection of character. Years later this scene in the temple among the learned teachers, when at twelve years old He asked questions that astonished them, returned vividly to the rulers' minds as they planned His death.

Foreshadowing Death and Resurrection

He knew the hearts of the returning crowd, that there would be much talking and visiting without humility and grace that would leave the Messiah and His mission nearly forgotten. He therefore deliberately separated from His parents on the return from Jerusalem and chose to return with them alone. In that retirement His father and mother would have more time for reflection and meditation on the prophecies of His future sufferings and death, so that the painful events of His offering up His life for the sins of the world would not come to them new and unexpected.

His being separated from them and sought sorrowing three days and then found foreshadowed His being slain for the sins of the world. Then He would be separated from them and lost to them for three days, and after that would reveal Himself to them and be found of them. So their faith would rest on Him as the Redeemer of the fallen race and the Advocate with the Father in their behalf.

His being lost to Mary for three days foreshadowed His being lost to her in death for three days and then rising, when her sorrow would turn to joy. He wished to leave Jerusalem quietly with His parents and turn their thoughts to the prophecies of the suffering Saviour. Understanding those Scriptures He was directing her to would have prepared her to endure His death.

Source of True Education

He had never learned in the rabbinical schools or from human teachers, and He did not study the learned lore handed down by the rabbis. Taught first by His mother and continually by His Father in heaven, He was instructed by God from a source likened to the tree of life and unknown to those around Him. Under the Divine Teacher He studied the pure and uncorrupted words of God, and He studied also the book of nature. Angels carefully watched Him in His first years, and the Lord Himself was with Him and kept Him in His younger days.

His wisdom developed as His abilities, talents and faculties were exercised, without pride or desire for greatness. Very soon the Word of God was plainly opened to Him, so that as a boy He stood before priests and rulers interpreting the Scriptures in their true meaning. That understanding came from constant study, by which He knew Scripture and presented it as authoritative rather than accepting human traditions.

The words Thus saith the Lord were ever on His lips, and It is written was His reason for every act that varied from family customs, and He brought a purer atmosphere into the home life. Even in childhood and youth He followed the instruction of the Lord rather than the counsel of priests and rulers, and even from childhood His life was an example. When brought in contact with the rabbis He asked questions as if a learner without becoming their student. His questions puzzled the wise men because their practices did not harmonize with the Scriptures and they did not have the wisdom that comes from God, so that even those displeased at His refusal to follow popular customs recognized His education as of a higher type than their own.

After sitting among the learned teachers asking and answering questions, He returned home and worked with His father as a carpenter, helping support His family, showing that education should include useful work as well as intellectual training. He lived as one set apart, finding happiness in solitude with nature and God. He regularly withdrew from work to meditate, search the Scriptures and pray, often early in the morning, then returned to His duties and patient labor.

While still a child among the teachers He solved mysteries that priests and rulers had not discerned. His course in this was a pattern for the closing work of the earth, when rightly educated children will speak simply about truth and astonish people who pride themselves on higher education and boast of it. His example supports joining religious gatherings and temple schools, where studies are conducted daily much like Bible studies, not to argue but to search Scripture and raise helpful questions as a learner. In the same way, believers who enter worldly colleges are to live the truth, respect the rules, avoid open controversy, and spread light by godly lives and by asking questions upon Bible doctrines, since asking questions can help teach truth, pour light into darkened minds, and give people opportunity to receive light.

Lessons for Believers Today

One day of neglect, when Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem without the twelve-year-old Jesus, cost three days of anxious, sorrowful searching to find Him again and regain peace of mind and the consolation of His grace. They had been engrossed in talking and visiting, in vain talking, jesting, joking, evil speaking, and neglect of prayer, and traveled a day without noticing His absence before seeking Him among kinsfolk in the crowd going toward Galilee. Losing Him led them to recognize their responsibility toward Him, for His stay behind was meant to awaken them to the sacred mission entrusted to them and keep them from indifference to it. They were reminded not to take His presence and their charge for granted, though He lived among them in many ways like other children with His divinity veiled in humanity, and His presence was a precious blessing. His answer modestly turned their censure back upon themselves, showing that if mindful of duty they would not have left without Him, for He was engaged in the work of His Father Jehovah, not Joseph, while they had neglected the work His Father had entrusted to them.

Their experience warns that neglect of watchfulness and prayer and care in following Christ can cause His followers to lose the felt sense of His presence. Christians can journey on without Jesus when careless in company and in words and actions when associated together, letting talk and thoughts turn away from Him with no reference to their Redeemer and passing along without marking His absence. Jesus will not be found in the company of those careless of His presence, and Jesus and the angels who do His commands withdraw where His presence is neither desired nor noticed. Without His cheering divine light, peace and joy, there remain mourning, grief, discouragement and gloom.

When aroused to their condition, believers find days occupied in returning and searching for Him whom they should have retained every moment. Recovering the peace, comfort and consolation of His grace may take many days of anxious, sorrowful seeking. Retaining Him is the privilege of all, but it requires select words seasoned with grace, disciplined thoughts meditating on heavenly and divine things, and meditation, watchfulness and prayer after meetings of devotion and on the return home, instead of talking, jesting and visiting away the heavenly Guest and then complaining or murmuring, for the fault for darkness and suffering of mind is in themselves.

The account appeals to all fathers and mothers never to lose sight and companionship of their boys and girls through careless inattention. It warns against exchanging a country home like Galilee for the city with its crowds, lest through such inattention sons and daughters become ensnared by the world and be lost and never found again, sometimes without parents even knowing they are lost. Christ Himself was once a little child who came into the world as an infant and passed through every stage from infancy to manhood without sin because God protected Him, carefully watched by angels and kept by the Lord in His younger days. For His sake children are to be honored and dealt with gently 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 to form perfect characters, with mothers cooperating with God and parents putting away harsh, unjust rule with an iron rod and seeking Christ, pleasant voices and salvation every day.