Jesus Was a Teenage Rebel And This is How I Know

Jesus, The Teenage Rebel. I wish there were a couple hundred more verses at the end of Luke 2. I wish there were more stories about Jesus’ teen years. some indication of how He related to His peers or how He and His parents got along.

Somehow we get this idea that Jesus’ growing up must have been conflict-free; that since He was sinless everything would have been just fine all the time. That simply can’t be true – Jesus was perfect but His parents (and siblings) weren’t!

Maybe Mary was having a bad day and got all mad at Jesus for something He didn’t do. Maybe Joseph hit his thumb with His hammer one time and tried to blame it on Jesus because He made some noise in the shop right then. Then maybe one of His siblings lied and got Jesus in trouble (it wouldn’t be the last time He was punished for someone else’s wrongs). How would Jesus have responded when He saw His parents sin? There may have been some conflict!

The point is that there would inevitably have been some conflict. Even though Jesus was without sin, His parents and siblings were not.

Take Comfort

I hope that those of you who are parents of teens, and those of you who are teens, will take some comfort from that. Some conflict is normal! And although there are not a bunch of stories of Jesus as a teenager, there is one: Luke 2:41-52. And you know what it shows us? It shows us that there WAS some conflict. It shows is that Jesus was a teenage rebel!

Luke 2:41-45 Every year Jesus’ parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast. When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn’t know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.

Luke 2:46-48 The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.

His mother said, “Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you.”

Let me give you a little bit of historical background. First let’s look at  Jesus’ education:

At the time of Jesus, most Jewish kids went to school in the synagogue. There were 3 schools that the children would go starting at 3 years of age.