Young Jesus staying behind in the temple

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rebecca_Fleming
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rebecca_Fleming

Guest
When Jesus stayed behind in the temple and Mary and Joseph had to search for him for three days was there any sin involved? Because Mary and Jesus were both sinless. Jesus disobeyed his parents which would of broken the 4th commandment. Why didn’t Jesus commit a sin in doing this?
 
I don’t think we can conclude that He disobeyed His parents. Jesus and Mom and Dad have gone up to Jerusalem for the feast, the way they do every year. At the end of the feast, the group from Nazareth leaves for home. Jesus is 12. He has made His bar Mitzvah: “Today, I am a man,” and it’s not an era when parents obsessively check on their kids even when they’re freshmen in college. He’s hanging out at the Temple, caught up in the discussion with the rabbis, loses track of time or just forgets the plan. Mary and Joseph figure He’s with His friends. Not until the group camps for the evening do they discover that He’s not anywhere among the group. Now they become concerned(Mary’s sinlessness does not suggest any supernatural knowledge), and they go back and hunt for Him. When they find Him, she remonstrates “didn’t you know we’d be worried?” and He, bemusedly because it’s OBVIOUS to Him (have you raised teenaged boys? This is so true-to-life) that He would be there, “Didn’t you know I’d be in My Father’s house?”

Sin always requires intent. Misunderstandings and mistakes are not sins.
 
When Jesus stayed behind in the temple and Mary and Joseph had to search for him for three days was there any sin involved? Because Mary and Jesus were both sinless. Jesus disobeyed his parents which would of broken the 4th commandment. Why didn’t Jesus commit a sin in doing this?
No I don’t for a moment think He sinned;I think it was a foreshadowing of the anguish(one of many swords through Mary’s heart)that she would suffer during Christs Passion,Crucifixtion,time spent descended unto the Dead and finally the joy of the Resurrection.Remember she at and St Joseph sought Him for THREE DAYS(same period of time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday) There are NO coincidences in the Bible.I do agree however if you put a 21st century interpretation or spin on the words that young Jesus used,He does come across as a snotty 12 year old.

“Jesus is breaking new ground with his parents here, and they need to understand who he is, just as Luke’s readers do. The text makes it clear that at the time they still did not understand what he was saying to them. But Mary treasured (or pondered) all these things in her heart, an appropriate response to Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic remarks. Mary does what Luke wants his readers to do as well. It is good to pause and contemplate who Jesus is and the mission he performs. Even two thousand years of history does not do away with the need for such reflection”.
But,the rest of the passage indicates that Mary took these happenings into her heart and pondered them(as usual)and that Jesus accompanied his parents home and was SUBJECT to them.“Obedient to his parents, Jesus goes home with them to Nazareth. While there he grows in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Lk 1:80; 2:40). There he awaits God’s timing to begin the ministry associated with God’s house. In the meantime he shows respect for his parents through his obedience, a model for us in a world where teenage rebellion is all too common”.

I took some of this from Biblegateway-parts with quotation marks…
 
It’s a beautiful glimpse of Jesus’ life to find Him in the Temple at that age. Yes, assuming that He is of age and gone through bar mitzvah, We have to assume that Jesus was very eager to get to Jerusalem in the first place.

He must have been very practiced for the ceremony. I don’t recall which feast prompted them to go to Jerusalem. If it was for Passover, He must have been enthralled by the animal sacrifices.

Jesus is not usually (huh, never) depicted with the bindings of scripture to His head and wrist, nor with a prayer shawl. This is all deeply “Jewish” but I can’t visualize all the symbolism going on here.
 
Jesus disobeyed his parents which would of broken the 4th commandment. Why didn’t Jesus commit a sin in doing this?
not unless they specifically told him, “whatever you do, stay with the caravan and no way should you stay in the temple, kid.” As so many kids do at that age he did what seemed logical and right to him without intent to disoby, but his viewpoint differed from that of his parents–situation normal for any parents of teens. He immediately, the gospel says, when asked left the temple where he longed to be, returned home and was subject to them. Also, as can happen between any parties who love each other deeply, he seemed to expect they would understand his feelings without being told, a very common experience, so he was learning how to communicate, a life skill like all others he learned in the natural course of maturing.
 
not unless they specifically told him, “whatever you do, stay with the caravan and no way should you stay in the temple, kid.” As so many kids do at that age he did what seemed logical and right to him without intent to disoby, but his viewpoint differed from that of his parents–situation normal for any parents of teens. He immediately, the gospel says, when asked left the temple where he longed to be, returned home and was subject to them. Also, as can happen between any parties who love each other deeply, he seemed to expect they would understand his feelings without being told, a very common experience, so he was learning how to communicate, a life skill like all others he learned in the natural course of maturing.
Well, I do think Mary and Joseph were just a little too harsh in grounding Him for the next 21 years:D
 
Jesus was not only sinless, but was also perfectly obedient to his heavenly Father, and always did the will of his father in heaven. “I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” (John 5:30). Why did Jesus linger on in Jerusalem while his parents went on ahead in the caravans? Because God the Father willed him to do so, and to go to the Temple of Jerusalem to answer the questions of the Rabbis. Jesus, being perfectly obedient to his heavenly Father, immediately obeyed. Jesus must have trusted his heavenly Father to make known his whereabouts to Joseph and Mary.

When Joseph and Mary found Jesus three days later, Mary, who was herself also obedient to God’s will in all things, simply asked Jesus, "“Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold, in sorrow thy father and I have been seeking thee.” Jesus in all simplicity and innocence replied, “why were you looking for me? Did you not know I had to be in my Father’s house?”. Jesus always honored his parents, He was never rude to them or rebuked them.

Why did God permit Joseph and Mary to suffer anguish for three days while they were looking for Jesus? One reason could be to give us an example of obedience to God’s will, even when we do not understand it ourselves. We are called to emulate the great faith of Mary and Joseph, as well as holy perseverance in times of trial. It is in times of the greatest sorrow and trial when our faith, hope and love is tested by God, for His greater glory, and for the edification of the faithful.
 
here is a link to one explanation of the bar mitzvah

jewfaq.org/barmitz.htm

It says that a ceremony or celebration are not required, but have become something of a custom in modern times.

I was hoping to find a clue to what Jesus might have committed to in a bar mitzvah ceremony, but I don’t see it. Perhaps what Jesus says about having to be in His Father’s house has to do with the essential of becoming resonsible for observance of the commandments and the essential Jewish concept of lifelong study of the Torah.

Aside from what Jesus said, what He was doing was apparently studying the Torah and discussing it.

In Jesus’ obedience to His parents, He was fulfilling hte commandment about honoring his parents.

In a separate post I have briefly discussed the difference between the commandments to honor one’s parents and to rever one’s parents. Revere has a meaning in the negative sense: not to strike one’s parents, not to curse them, etc. Honoring them includes the positive implications of taking care of one’s parents, obeying them, etc.

Mitzvah has the essential meaning of “commandment” but it has the idiomatic sense of “blessing” insofar as when one fulfills a commandment it is a blessing of God and of onself. Honoring His parents is a commandment in which Jesus would have taken great pleasure.
 
here is a link to one explanation of the bar mitzvah

jewfaq.org/barmitz.htm

It says that a ceremony or celebration are not required, but have become something of a custom in modern times.

I was hoping to find a clue to what Jesus might have committed to in a bar mitzvah ceremony, but I don’t see it. Perhaps what Jesus says about having to be in His Father’s house has to do with the essential of becoming resonsible for observance of the commandments and the essential Jewish concept of lifelong study of the Torah.

Aside from what Jesus said, what He was doing was apparently studying the Torah and discussing it.

Mitzvah has the essential meaning of “commandment” but it has the idiomatic sense of “blessing” insofar as when one fulfills a commandment it is a blessing of God and of onself. Honoring His parents is a commandment in which Jesus would have taken great pleasure.
I think the important point for this event is that, once a boy had been Mitzvah-ed, he was then a “man” for religious purposes. He “counted” toward the necessary minimum for a synagogue. He was able and expected to take his turn at reading from the Torah in the synagogue service and offering his thoughts about the reading, as we see him do in Luke.

I would imagine that having made his Bar Mitzvah in that year, He would have been able to participate in the discussions at the Temple in a way that would not have been possible/welcome in previous years’ trips.

This is not directly connected with His mother not being particularly concerned if He wasn’t hanging on to her skirts when they left Jerusalem, though both are a function of His having achieved an age of some “respect” and responsibility.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top