Day 10 - Luke 2:41-52

Hopefully you find this story in Luke 2:41-52 as funny as I do.

So, Jesus and his family always travelled to Jerusalem for Passover. We all have heard of the holiday and maybe know a bit about it.
Passover was established in Exodus 12, when God passed over the Hebrew homes during the 10th plague that killed the first born of every family and consequentially freed the people of Israel from slavery.
In biblical times, It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals that all the nation of Israel and tribes of Judah travelled to Jerusalem for. You know those family reunions you go to every year? My family has a reunion every year. Always just after Christmas and always either in Riverside or the outskirts of LA. Either way, its only about a 30 minute drive for us, and we find reasons to get parts of the family together during other parts of the year. I know some people have an annual family reunion where they have to drive 6 hours to get there and you might as well stay the weekend because you have to drive another 6 hours back home. Other people have a family reunion where they have to take a 12 hour flight to get there. And you might as well stay a week or two because it was expensive getting there. But these six hour drives and twelve hour flights mean that it is really difficult to get back to your family at any time during the rest of the year, right? I don't know which category you fall in with the distances you travel to your families. But think about that when you think about the biblical observance of passover. Because it was all the Jews who travelled to Jerusalem for the festival, each town travelled by foot or donkey in a group for days. Of course, each group's travel distance was different, and I'm sure each city had it planned out what time they had to leave. Maybe the furthest town would start at a certain time and when they got to a city, all the Jews joined them and added to their numbers traveling. I don't know how they did it then, but they travelled for days. By the time they got there, it was like the 12 hour flyers, you might as well stay for the whole week. I know why Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days, but I don't know why other Jewish holidays are celebrated for 8 days also. Personally, I think it was because they travelled so far and figured they should stay there for a bit before going home. But not only did they make this immense journey, by Jewish law, they did it three times a year!! They travelled for Passover (which was in March or April), Pentecost (which was in May or June and only lasted 1 day, not 8), and for the Feast of the Tabelnacles (which was another 8 days in September or October). Literally, the Jews of the Bible, and some modern Jews, spent their whole lives either worshipping God, praising God, celebrating what God had done, or planning out how to do one of the 3 previous things. I have full repeat for that. They had their priorities straight.
This is how Jewish people currently celebrate it.
But this is the Christian perspective on this. This is why Christians do not celebrate Jewish holidays. I fully respect Jews who celebrate their holidays with full knowledge of the history and meaning of the holiday, with full understanding (which leads to the emotional connection to it), and with full application to their life. But we, as Christians, are called to not celebrate those days because Jesus is the Lamb of God, He is the ultimate sacrifice, and we no longer need to sacrifice or remember the sacrifices of the past because of what He has done. Jewish holidays were only a glimmer of the greatness, glory, and celebration that is due for Jesus.

Ok, so back to how they celebrated Passover in the Bible. With the big long journeys for the week-long feast. The year that this Passover took place, Jesus was 12 years old. The festival ends and Mary and Joseph start their journey home with the mass going to Nazareth. A full day later(!) Mom and Dad realize that Jesus is not with them, He had stayed behind in Jerusalem. So they turned around to go back to Jerusalem. I don't know if Mary and Joseph had turned around alone, or if the other Nazarenes had gone with them. But they went back. It says they found Jesus after three days. I don't know if this means 3 days total from when they had left the first time, or three days after they got back to Jerusalem, which would be 5 days. Total. Either way, panicked parents.

Have you ever lost your child? I'm sure everyone has had that 5 minutes of panic. When I was little, maybe 3 years old, I wandered off in a Ralph's. Pretty much a blink of an eye situation. Mom turned for three seconds and I was gone. She panicked. She left her shopping cart where it was, she ran through the aisles, she ran into the parking lot looking for me, or a van with a screaming child, or a van speeding off. She didn't know what to think. She was freaking out.

Finally, after 3 or 5 days, Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple courtyard with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Naturally, the teachers didn't know He was God in human flesh and were amazed at how much Jesus understood at His age. Mary comes us and gently scolds him. "Why have you treated us this way. Why did you run away? We were so worried about you!" And Jesus replies, "Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know I would be in my Father's house (or in some translations "doing my Father's work")? Didn't you realize I would be in the temple, doing my job on earth?" But Mary and Joseph were confused. He used the word "Father" referring to "Heavenly Father" right after Mary uses the term "Father" referring to Joseph. And with parent panic mode fully engaged, I think they forgot that their little boy was, in fact, the Messiah.

So, Mom takes another look through the Ralph's and finds me Right in the front. I haven't seen them in a long time, and my mom still swears this is why, but do you remember those giant metal cages that had big plastic/rubber balls inside? I was there. Playing with the bouncy balls. My mom ran up, spanked me and after a few quick scolds to never do that again, she asked why I was there. I simply responded, "I like the balls, Mommy. I just wanted to play with the balls." She then had to give me a quick lessen that there are bad men in the world who like to steal little girls so I had to never leave her side in public. Especially since the ball cage was by the front door and someone could pop in, grab a kid, and run off.

So all was well, both Jesus and I were found during our panicked parent situations.
Jesus went home with His parents. He had to learn to be obedient to both His earthly parents and His Heavenly Father. I still struggle with this.
His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And I love that. She took what she saw in her son and she learned from them.
Jesus grew in wisdom and stature (in body and mind). I think this is mentioned because we don't hear anymore childhood stories of Jesus. That's Luke's way of saying, "Jesus grew up".
In favor with God and man, which I take to mean, He was loved by the people as He was loved by God.

All done with Luke 2, and done with Luke for a bit. Tomorrow, we'll continue our "Life and the Teachings of Jesus" route with Mark 1.