What He Said as a Twelve-Year-Old

Luke 2:41-52

The only recorded words of Jesus spoken during His childhood were spoken as two questions. “Why were you looking for Me? … Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Or “… about My Father’s business?”) He seems surprised that His parents had been searching for Him, that they were worried about Him!

Three days prior, after their time in Jerusalem for the annual Feast of the Passover, their home town group had set out on the long journey back toward Galilee. But on the evening of that first day of travel, their Son Jesus was not found among them!

Listen, this was no ordinary boy; this was the Child announced by angels, born of a miraculous conception, the very Son of God, placed in their keeping, and they had lost Him! No wonder that Mary was worried, that Joseph was worried!

After another day traveling back to Jerusalem, they had begun the third day without Him with a desperate searching. And they found the twelve-year-old Jesus “… in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” (We might also note, “And all who heard Him were astounded at His understanding and His answers.”)

Our imaginations could get a little wild here thinking about all of that and Jesus being only twelve years old at that time. However, it’s His questions spoken in answer to Mary that really get me. If we could set aside the context for just a moment (not normally a good idea), we might hear Jesus asking us the first part of that same question, “Why were you looking for Me?” Perhaps we should ask first if we really are “looking” for Him! How much effort, time, or attention are we putting into our search for Jesus? And again, “Why?”

Are we simply trying to make sure that we get to go to heaven? Or escape that other alternative in eternity? Or are we searching out of a sense of curiosity? Or, perhaps because we find ourselves in a difficult or even impossible situation in life at the moment and we need His help? Maybe at some deeper level you feel some sort of responsibility to Jesus for yourself, your life, or for the fact that you even exist? Do we “owe” Him anything? Will we be held accountable for what we do about Jesus? What might He think about our search for Him?

Jesus may, even now, be searching deep in your soul as He asks you, very personally, “Why are you looking for Me?”

His second question to Mary is also a major clue to us concerning where we might find Him. “Do you not know that I have to be about My Father’s business?”