Jesus Was a Teenage Rebel And This is How I Know

So that’s a bit of cultural background to the passage that we are looking at. I thought you might find it interesting just as context. Since this passage tells us Jesus was 12, we can assume he was in the middle school working hard at memorizing the Talmud.

Anyway, enough history. Let’s look at the passage:

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.

Notice what is going on here.  The family, all together, were having a Spiritual holiday. This was a tradition. You see, “every year” they went to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover.

We have a few things like that. We have a few customs and traditions: Christmas is one – kids being a part of the kids Christmas pageant, going to church together on Christmas eve, our Easter services, etc.

I would even say that getting to church together week after week is like this passage. This teaches our kids that the family goes to church together.