(The life of our Savior) Jesus growth and first Passover. Chapter 2.5

Luke 2:40-52

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Our last study we had Joseph and Mary returned to Israel from Egypt (they went there to escape Herod killing all the babies, which was to trying to kill the baby Messiah) to a northern town named Nazareth in the region of Galilee.

 There is some time that goes by and the next text that we are going to study in the Bible is in the Gospel of Luke and we see that it is recorded that Jesus was 12 years old. 

Before we start going through the study we need to lay some foundation and understanding about the time of year it was and what was going on. It was the time of the Passover which is around our March/April.

 

Passover what is it and what does it mean?

If you don’t know some of this Passover stuff we are about to cover, hold on to your pants. I’ll try to break it down so it’s easy to understand.

• The first Passover was during the time of the Israelites being held in slavery in Egypt when things started to go bad for them. (In the book of Exodus 1-12). This is roughly 1600 years before our current time we are reading in the Gospels.
• It was the last plague that God Almighty used to free the Israelites from Egypt
• Pharaoh kept refusing to release the Israelites so God with each plague kept raising the stakes/consequences  (there were 9 plagues)
• The final plague was the “Passover”, which was the spirit of death killing each first born thing in Egypt (Children, cattle, everything)
• God told the Israelites to prepare a special dinner with specific instructions and with the blood from the lamb they were cooking they were to rub blood on the door posts outside the house they were living in and the spirit of death would “Passover” them and not kill any of their first born. They knew the time this had to be done by, when the spirit of death was going to be unleashed by God.
• When Pharaoh’s first son was killed he was furious and heart broken. So he told the Israelites to leave as soon as possible. (No time to go into much detail here but Pharaoh watched them leave as he had ordered and after seeing the Israelites actually leave made him mad and when they were a distance away he chased after them, and that’s where the dividing of the Red Sea comes in).
• The Passover is a yearly festival/celebration of this happening, God freeing them from Egypt

The reason this is so important to understand is this is a HUGE deal for the Jews, not only back them (2,000 years ago, but still today the Jews celebrate this feast). And in Jesus time there would be 2-3 million people flocking to Jerusalem to join the feast/celebration. So it is important when you hear the word Passover feast you understand what’s going on in Jerusalem.

Imagine it like today if everyone in America traveled to New York for the 4th of July.  As we did this it was intended to be an orderly remembrance of what our forefathers did for us. It was not to be a party. This should help us understand what’s taking place through Jesus life when it comes to the Passover.
Luke picks up the life of Jesus in an interesting place, recall Luke read all the others writings (Matthew, Mark, John) and wanted to cover stuff they did not about the life of our Messiah. So Luke turns to a time in Jesus life where He is 12 years old, this means He is not truly doing His ministry yet. This is the Son of God literally as a child, simply amazing to think about.

This is sometime after Jesus and His parents return from Egypt. Recall the went to Egypt to escape Herod the Great, not to be confused with the Israelites in Egypt as slaves thousands of years ago.

 

Luke 2:40 There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.

So we read and we will see that Jesus was fulling being blessed by God with wisdom that passed any other 12 year old, and I love the words “God’s favor was on Him”. This happens in our life today and when God’s favor is in/for us the blessing and doors that are opened can’t all be counted.

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual.

Twelve years old for young males was when they started to go to Jerusalem because they had to start learning their duties for the Passover festival.

43 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, 44 because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.

The things people did back then to travel for something like this blows my mind, and we think we have no time today and can’t drive 20-30 minutes somewhere. We see that Mary and Joseph went yearly to the Passover feast. The distance they traveled by foot was about 90 miles, with elevation might I add.

45 When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. 46 Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. 47 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Man, the worry and agony that must have been in Mary and Joseph mind about losing their very special child. Think about this, Jesus at the age of 12 was alone for three days in and around the temple talking with the religious teachers. We can only imagine what was talked about. As Luke writes everyone was amazed at His understanding and answers.

48 His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”

49 “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”50 But they didn’t understand what he meant.

There are so many things in our lives that we see and hear that we don’t know or understand until days, months or years later what the purpose was for. This was a repeated thing in the life of Jesus, our Messiah. Even at the age of twelve. Reading that Jesus was so connected to God the father even at a young age is chilling.

51 Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.

To think all the things that Mary saw until to death of Jesus on the cross is something to just be in awe.

52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

Luke wrote that Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor. Jesus had the perfect balance in everything. No part of Him was overemphasized, underdeveloped. He developed physically, intellectually, spiritually, and socially. We should be balanced in the same manner.