There is a hole, a Grand Canyon of missing words in scripture. Because of this hole of missing words, we are left with a confusing picture of Jesus, who he was or who he understood himself to be. On the religious holiday of Passover, the twelve-year-old Jesus walked with his family to the big city and the religious celebration in Jerusalem. As the family began the return walk home, they became aware that Jesus was nowhere to be found. Panicked, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him but after searching for a few days, no Jesus.
On the third
day they found him, where? Jesus was and
had been hanging out at the church of his time, the Temple in the city. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 2, verses 41 to 51,
records the events surrounding Jesus at the Temple. Verse
46 tells us that he was “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and
asking them questions”. We can surmise
that Jesus was listening to the religion of his ancestors, the Jews, as they
experienced the ups and downs of their historical search for spiritual
credibility.
The hole in
scripture occurs right at this point, what questions was Jesus asking the
teachers of Judaism? The Bible does not
give us a single question nor any possible answers. Without the questions we have no knowledge of
what was in the head and heart of Jesus.
All we know is that “everyone who heard him was amazed at his
understanding and his answers (47)”. Again,
amazement tells us nothing.
Bible
commentators have long assumed that this was a cumbia meeting of the minds, the
religious leadership of the day and Jesus.
Somehow, they must have been on the same team yet there is no reason to
make such an assumption. The verses in
question do not tell us if the meeting was mutually supportive or a vailed
criticism of the religious method in Jerusalem.
Why do you
sit in this religious gathering spot and expect the people to come to you for
spiritual guidance? Why do you expect
believers, who were born into this religion, to travel here to Jerusalem once a
year and do homage and pay their dues?
Possibly to Jesus, the obvious answer, this is the way it has always
been done, was just not good enough. We
shall never know for sure about the conversation between Jesus and the
religious leadership but Jesus showed us how spiritual evangelism eighteen years
later should be done. The Jesus way is well documented in the next chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Jesus did have the spiritual chops to ask just such questions at
age twelve.
G. Goslaw
Landers, CA
