Why Is the Story of Mary and Joseph Finding the Twelve-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple Told in the Bible? I never understood

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Our Lord gives our intellect a glimpse of his family life.

They were faithful Jews, making the journey ‘every year’

We learn that Jesus was an obedient son.

That he knew He was God.

That Mary was a bright woman.
 
I was “forgotten” by my Girl Scout troop leaders for all of a half hour when I was 12. I was bemoaning my horrible plight to my parents and they told me the story of how even Jesus was left behind at the same age.

So that’s why it is there…so my parents could stop my bellyaching. Haha. Just kidding.

I love that passage…there are lots of good items in it but the best one is where we can always find Christ when we feel we’ve lost him. In His Father’s House.
 
NT Wright, an Anglican bishop and scholar, describes the finding of Jesus in the Temple as a contrast to the story of the couple on the way to Emmaus. Each has a couple walking away from Jerusalem; Jesus is lost to them, either by accident or death; they find him, in the temple or the breaking of the bread; Jesus is teaching; etc.

It is an interesting way of linking the infancy narrative and the resurrection.
 
This story is the meditation for the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.

While praying it, I like to think of a few things:

Mother Mary “kept all these things in her heart.” Being our Lord’s first disciple, he later acknowledged her as a model for us of one who heard his word and kept it.

“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them”
Though one with God the Father, Jesus was truly man, and modelled the great virtue of obedience for us.

Verse 52, which you did not quote, follows “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Jesus, though God, the second person of the Trinity, modelled for us the virtue of humility, in being subject to his parents Joseph and Mary, learning from them the scriptures, a trade, and how to relate to friends, neighbours and relatives.

This last verse contrasts with Jesus’ later announcement of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Here we see a boy asking remarkable questions. Later as a grown man, he announces the arrival of what all generations have longed for.
 
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Another thing to remember is the nature and direction of the four Gospel writers. The story of the finding in the Temple only appears in Luke’s Gospel. Mark’s was written to the Romans, they only wanted the facts, who Jesus was as an adult, there is nothing about Jesus until his public ministry. Matthew, written to the Jews, was concerned with connecting Jesus to Jewish tradition. One can only think this incident was not of importance in his narrative. John wrote to the early developing Church, it was a more theological treatise, not a recitation of trivial history. Luke, writing to the Greeks was writing to an audience that wanted to know all about the man, from his infancy to his resurrection. This incident would have been important to the Greeks in understanding the nature and background of the man.
Yes there are theological implications as many above posters have mentioned. But it should be remember that each of the four writers has to tell an amazing story to different audiences who had different “needs” in understanding the event that was the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 
The Symbolism Here is Jesus Being Buried for 3 days in the Tomb

BUT this was also a Life-Test for Mary and Joseph. Can you imagine the thoughts, the grief, the anxiety that THEY experience having been entrusted the CARE Of GOD? And then Loosing him?"… the test was one of FAITH! And they PASSED! {Would we have?}

God Bless you and thanks for asking,
Patrick
 
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