In Jesus’ time, a Jewish boy was eligible to be consecrated as a citizen of Israel when he completed his synagogue schooling. This usually occurred when he was 13 years old. It was a special thing to be consecrated in a ceremony at the temple in Jerusalem at Passover so Joseph arranged to go with Jesus and several others from Nazareth to the Passover celebration following his completion of school in Nazareth. Women seldom went to Passover in Jerusalem but Jesus virtually refused to go unless his mother went. Mary went and therefore some other women also went. The trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem was about a three day walk. At Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Jesus and his family first met Lazarus and his family including Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters and their father, Simon. The young people became immediate and life-long friends.
Jesus was in for several events of disillusionment at the temple. Mary could not attend his consecration ceremony. She had to go to the women’s gallery. Jesus objected to his father about this. The consecration ritual was perfunctory and routine. The temple could accommodate over 200 thousand so there were crowds and everything was impersonal.
Jesus was more intrigued by the contemplation of the spiritual significance of the temple ceremonies and their associated worship. He was always disappointed with the explanations of the real meanings of these ceremonies. He simply would not accept explanations of worship and religious devotion which involved belief in the wrath of God or the anger of the Almighty. When Joseph pressed him to acknowledge acceptance of the orthodox Jewish beliefs, he turned suddenly on his parents and looking appealingly into the eyes of his father said “My father, it cannot be true—the Father in heaven cannot so regard his erring children on earth. The heavenly Father cannot love his children less than you love me. And I well know, no matter what unwise thing I might do, you would never pour out wrath upon me nor vent anger against me. If you, my earth father, possess such human reflections of the Divine, how much more must the heavenly Father be filled with goodness and overflowing with mercy. I refuse to believe that my Father in heaven loves me less than my father on earth.” Joseph and Mary never again sought to change his mind about the love of God and the mercifulness of the Father in heaven.
In the temple there was irreverence everywhere. In the court of the gentiles there was loud talking, jargon, cursing, bleating of sheep, babble of money changers and vendors of sacrificial animals and other commercial transactions. Most offensive to Jesus was the presence of prostitutes marketing themselves in the court of the gentiles. He was shocked by the spiritual ugliness that was visible in the faces of so many of the unthinking worshipers. At the killing alter, the blood stained pavement, the gory hands of the priests, and the sounds of the dying animals were more than this nature loving lad could stand.
The Passover celebration was 7 days long. The first night Jesus slept little. He dreamed of the dying and suffering animals. The next day Lazarus showed Jerusalem to Jesus. Most interesting to Jesus were the places around the temple where teaching sessions were going on. There were thousands of young people in Jerusalem and Jesus met and interviewed more than 150. These contacts caused him to begin thinking about traveling to learn how the various groups of people earned their living.
Jesus’ absence when the Nazareth group departed Jerusalem was over-looked by both Mary and Joseph because men and women traveled in separate groups and each thought he was with the other. Meanwhile Jesus was in the temple completely absorbed in the discussion of angels. At noon he discovered he had been left behind but this did not concern him. Mary and Joseph did not miss Jesus until they reached Jericho and checked in with each other and others of their group as they straggled into Jericho.
The day Jesus was left behind, he attended temple discussions but did not participate. That evening he walked to Simon’s at Bethany and arrived at evening meal time. He spent the night there, visiting very little and meditating a lot in the garden. The second day Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem and searched for Jesus without finding him. He was in the temple again. This time he was determined to participate. He did this by asking questions. Sometimes his pointed questions were somewhat embarrassing to the learned teachers of the Jewish law, but he evinced such a spirit of candid fairness, coupled with an evident hunger for knowledge, that the majority of the temple teachers were disposed to treat him with every consideration. He questioned the justice of putting to death a drunken Gentile who wandered out of the court of the gentiles and into the forbidden sacred precincts of the temple. At the end of the day he went again to Bethany and to the garden to meditate about what his career should be and how to begin being about his Father’s business.
On the third day Jesus again was with the scribes and teachers at the temple. His questions to them had begun to attract spectators. Simon came over from Bethany to see what Jesus was up to. Joseph and Mary spent the day looking for Jesus but never thinking to look for him in the discussion groups. Among his many questions this day were:
- What really exists in the holy of holies behind the veil?
- Why should mothers in Israel be segregated from the male temple worshippers?
- If God is a father who loves his children, why all this slaughter of animals to gain divine favor – has the teaching of Moses been misunderstood?
- Since the temple is dedicated to the worship of the Father in heaven, is it consistent to permit the presence of those who engage in secular barter and trade?
- Is the expected Messiah to become a temporal prince to sit on the throne of David, or is he to function as the light of life in the establishment of a spiritual kingdom?
For four plus hours, Jesus plied these Jewish teachers with thought-provoking and heart-searching questions. He made few comments on their remarks. He conveyed his teaching by the questions he asked. By the deft and subtle phrasing of a question he would at one and the same time challenge their teaching and suggest his own. In the manner of his asking a question there was an appealing combination of sagacity and humor which endeared him even to those who more or less resented his youthfulness. He was always eminently fair and considerate in the asking of these penetrating questions. He exhibited that same reluctance to take unfair advantage of an opponent which characterized his entire subsequent public ministry. He seemed to be utterly free of all egoistic desire to win an argument merely to experience logical triumph over his fellows. Jesus and Simon returned to Bethany for the night. Again, Jesus went to the garden where he lingered late. Trying to come up with a plan for his life’s work, how to reveal a more beautiful concept of the heavenly Father and so set men free of their terrible bondage to law, ritual, ceremonial and musty tradition. But the clear light did not come to the truth-seeking lad.
Even on the morning of the fourth day, Jesus was still unmindful of the concern his parents might have for his absence. It didn’t seem to occur to him that they might be worried. Jesus participated again. The morning was devoted largely to the law and the prophets. Jesus displayed familiarity with the Scripture in Hebrew and Greek. The teachers were impressed with his youthfulness. At the afternoon session, the leader invited him to come forward and have a seat beside him and express his own views regarding prayer and worship. This is when Joseph and Mary found him. Mary reproached him for not informing them of his whereabouts. His mother’s comments brought to an end one of the greatest opportunities ever to be granted him to function as a teacher of truth, a preacher of righteousness, a revealer of the loving character of his Father in heaven. His response to his mother was “Why is it that you have so long sought me? Would you not expect to find me in my Father’s house since the time has come when I should be about my Father’s business?
On passing out of Jerusalem, Jesus paused on the brow of Olivet and said out loud and in his parents’ presence “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and the people thereof, what slaves you are – subservient to the Roman yoke and victims of your own traditions—but I will return to cleanse yonder temple and deliver my people from this bondage.” Mary mulled this over and concluded that it was prophetic of the messianic mission of her son as Israel’s deliverer. She set to work to mold him into a patriot who would assume leadership of those who would restore the throne of David and cast off the gentile yoke of political bondage.