Is the story of Jesus as a Boy true? Luke 2:41-52

There is only one story about Jesus as a boy in the whole Bible. It is very interesting. It tells us a lot about how we know what parts of the Bible are real and what parts are just stories. In this episode, I tell you all the background of Jesus as a 12 year old boy in the temple. He is speaking to the old rabbis and they are super impressed with how smart he is. When you have a story like this, you must always ask whether it make sense in the culture and why the author of the book wrote about it. I explain how the authors of the bible were inspired and how you can know what their purpose was.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Real Bible Rob teamcast. And today I'll talk about the boy Jesus. Did you know that Jesus is only portrayed in one story in all of the Bible as a boy? Otherwise, you know, of course, there's the baby narrative or the birth narrative, but then there's this one little story about him being 12 years old. And then we don't really read about him again until he's at least 30 years old and ready to start his ministry. And you go, well, wow, what is this one little story? And why is it there? Well, it's uh Luke 2, 41 through 52, and uh it tells you a lot about how the Bible is used and why people put these stories in the Bible. And you go, well, but wait a minute, well, why don't we have all these other stories about it? Well, uh the writers of the of these gospel stories, they wrote them many years after Jesus, probably 30, 40, 50 years after Jesus, and um, they were trying to get just the basics, the basic facts, the the stories that would um really help the churches and help people understand who Jesus was. And um, so that they didn't they didn't think about putting a lot of details in about the other parts of Jesus' life, other than those parts that were important to who he was and what his ministry was. So that's why it's a little bit different than how we read about novel novels or biographies and stuff like that. The biblical authors tended to they focus more about meaning, and that was what was really important to them. So is the story of the boy Jesus in Luke is that a real story? Is that really what happened? Well, let's talk about that because it's really interesting that um a lot of times, especially with the Bible, you don't know it's so long ago. It was written and nearly 2,000 years ago, this was written. So you go, well, how do you know if it's true or not? Well, you know it because of the culture that it's in, and um what kind of uh uh and and does it fit in the culture? Does the meaning of the story is that what's true? And does it fit in the culture? And I'm gonna explain to you sort of the background for this story and why it's a really cool story because Jesus looks amazing in this, and why it it almost certainly has truth in it. You know, we don't we'll never know about the details, but because of the way it was written and the where it sits, it makes a lot of sense. So um that's a lot of times how you know what's true or not true. What and and true is doesn't mean that, you know, if it's not true, it doesn't mean it's a lie. It just means that it's a story instead of a historical fact. And that's that uh on it's a little bit hard to do that. Remember that that's kind of true for anything that you read, especially if it's something that you read that comes from a really long time ago where there's no way to verify facts by other stories that match it. Remember, the a lot of the Bible doesn't have other um uh other books or other stories that are written around the same time. There are some, but not many. So a lot of what we have to do to decide is this story in the Bible is it meant to be a historical fact, or is it meant just to be a parable or a story to give us a lesson or something like that? Well, this is one of those ones that most of the people who are uh, you know, historians and scholars, you know, that study the Bible for a living, um, don't think that this has a uh a historical basis because of where it comes, but it really rings true. And um, I think if you look at the way the Bible is like this, you remember when I talked about Jonah a couple episodes ago, uh, Jonah was not a real story because it's kind of written like a fable. But in the story, the purpose of it was to tell a truth, to tell truth to the people about how they should treat each other, about how God loves people. Um, and you could say that this is about this, but this story here is much more likely to have happened. It's not like being swallowed by a fish for five, for four, or sorry, for three days. It's much more realistic. And let me explain this. I'll get into it. For first, first of all, the story is um very interesting. It says each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. So Jerusalem was the center of worship, and they would have to walk as a group of people from uh pretty far away, from about 70 miles away. So you can imagine what it would be like to walk 70 miles to go to a festival once a year. That's a lot of commitment. But they did that, and they did that because uh they would go in big group families, so it'd be almost like a uh a yearly vacation. You would go down to Jerusalem and you would worship for Passover, and Passover is that you know, that special holiday that Jews have. Um, and they would go and then they would um spend a week down there, and then they would walk all the way back home, about another 70 miles to the north to home. And uh it was kind of like a big party in a way. And they even said that it's the festival, the Passover festival. Sounds like a load of fun. Uh, and it probably was. You know, a whole bunch of people gathering in Jerusalem for a week of fun, but also a week of seriousness, worship and everything. And that's what they did. So this says, when Jesus was 12 years old, they went to Jerusalem according to their custom. After the festival was over and they were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem and his parents didn't know it. And that's interesting because this kind of tells you that it was probably a big group, a big family. They thought, you know, Jesus, hey, he's a 12-year-old, he's hanging out with his uh other friends, or he's hanging out with another family and coming back. And, you know, they just trusted that would happen. But instead, Jesus stayed in Jerusalem and he was staying behind, and his parents didn't know. Supposing he was among the other band of travelers, it says in uh 244, uh, they journeyed for a whole day while looking for him among the other families and friends. When they didn't find Jesus, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found him in the temple. He was sitting among the teachers, the rabbis, and listening to them and putting questions to them. And everyone who heard him was amazed by his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw them, saw him, they were shocked. They were probably mad, right? They go, wait a minute, we have already traveled a day, and then we've came back, and it took us three days to find you, Jesus. Where are you? Why did you put us through this? So Jesus' mother said, Jesus, why have you treated us like this? Listen, your father and I have been worried about you. We've been looking for you. And then Jesus said, Well, why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to stay behind in my father's house? He meant the temple there. But they didn't understand what he had said. They didn't understand that. Jesus went to Nazareth with them afterwards, and he was obedient with them. His mother cherished every word in her heart. Mothers do that, right? They remember things that you said when you were young, young, and when you were uh you know, a 12-year-old or a teenager, and they they just cherished that memory. They did Mary did that with Jesus, and Jesus matured in wisdom and years and in favor with God and with his people. So this is the only story where Jesus is um a young person, you know, a young man, uh, a 12-year-old. And you go, Well, why is the story there? And um, how do we know it's true? Well, there's something, some background to this. What happened in that culture is that when you were a 12-year-old boy and you were in the temple and you were faithful and you were following all the religious rules, customs of the day, 12 years old was very important because that was the year of your bar mitzvah. So if you have any Jewish friends, you know what a bar mitzvah is. That's when you turn 13 years old. And when you turn 13 years old as a boy, you have a uh basically a party, but you also have um you are anointed, basically, or you are you have passed over from childhood into adulthood. You begin your adult life as a 13-year-old, and that means you can make decisions for yourself. Now, of course, you still obey your mother and your father and your part of the family, and you do all of that, but what they believed was that you made spiritual decisions for yourself, that whether what you believed, why you believed it, you were responsible. And um, I think that really fits even in our culture. I talked uh about that in my first episode about what it means to mature. And right around that age, what, 12, 13, 14, uh, almost all everyone uh goes through where they kind of stop believing everything their parents believed and told them, and they start understanding and believing for themselves. Well, that it was made is made formal in Jewish times, and that in uh the Jewish people say when you're 13 years old, you're ready to make spiritual decisions for yourself. Now you you may not, you're not independent yet. You know, there are many years left to grow until you finish your education and you get a job and all of those things. But, you know, even in our sus in our society, in our world, when you're 13, you're starting to make a lot of your own decisions and you're starting to think for yourself a lot. The same thing happened in Jesus' day. So that's what makes it very real. Now, for girls, um, there's something called the bot mitzvah. Bot mitzvah, just bot means uh is a girl and a uh bar is a means for boy. And this is uh a similar kind of thing. In Jesus' time, it was less important for the girl because the girl wouldn't take a leadership position just because that's the way those societies were. But when a girl reached 12, then or would reach 13, then she became um more independent and she became eligible for marriage. Um, now, of course, we wait a lot longer, and I think that's a good thing that we don't get married as young as that because we're just not ready, right? But um, you know, certainly, you know, just boys and girls both begin to make their own decisions at this age. So it makes perfect sense. Now, what is uh interesting for uh this too is that so when a boy at this in this culture and Jewish culture is that 12 years old, he's in preparation. He is getting ready to be uh to have his bar mitzvah. That means that he's talking to the leaders, the religious leaders. He's uh talking, it's kind of like talking to your pastor or your Sunday school teacher or something, or just you know, even just your teacher, is that you're beginning to ask tough questions because you really want to understand. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He's staying behind because the the top rabbis, the top teachers were in Jerusalem. Now, of course, there were rabbis and teachers in his hometown in Nazareth, uh, about 70 miles away. But he, you know, he goes, hey, I'm in Jerusalem. I'm 12 years old. I might as well talk to the to the top leaders, right? The top, the top teachers. And uh that's what he apparently did. And what makes it so amazing is that they were really impressed because these leaders, these teachers, and that's even true in Jewish culture today, rabbis, when they're talking to uh um young people, uh, and just as they're starting to become teenagers, are real intensely interested in how they're developing, what they're thinking, uh to uh help them understand, but also to hear what they have to say so they understand. That's something that as I've been uh both a youth leader and a minister, I just absolutely love talking to 12 and 13, 14, 15-year-olds uh because that helps me understand what they're thinking, what you know, what kids today are thinking. Um, but also um that those are the years when you're developing your own faith and you're trying to learn from others, right? So you want to be available for those. So that's the way these rabbis thought is they go, oh, here's this uh young man, and he is so um interested in things, he is asking really hard questions, and I want, you know, we want we want to help him uh very much in that uh way. And everyone, it says everyone who heard him was amazed by his and uh his understanding and his answers. And that's true. Uh when even when you hear somebody and you can tell that they're wise, sometimes they'll say they're beyond their years or they're precocious, if you've ever heard of that word. It means all it really just means is that they're very thoughtful and they have a gift. So that gift, you know, we believe, comes from God, that God gave a gift of understanding, of what we would call prophecy or um or just being really smart, right? And we all know people like this. So clearly Jesus was one of these people, that Jesus had a very special level of knowledge and understanding, and um, and that was given to him. So, you know, it I can almost think of it this way: Jesus may have forgot about his parents and he was there in Jerusalem just because he was so interested. He may have just lost track of time, was just totally focused. Um, you know, he was getting his questions answered. He was having this great conversation with these older men, and um, you know, he was taking advantage of the situation. So when he comes back, he has that curious answer. He goes, Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my father's house? So what we're told in this story is that Jesus probably already knew that he was, he was the Messiah, or that he was um at least he knew that he was somebody uh that was special, that it was going to make a big difference, and that God had a plan for him. And you know, and you can't blame him for that, can you? Um, and it's interesting how Mary thinks of this frustrating thing of having to go back, and she cherishes it in her heart, and she remembers uh many years later when Jesus, you know, was out around and it became more and more obvious that he was the Messiah, that he was gonna be the savior. And he's going all all around, and she goes, Oh, that's what was happening, you know, uh 18 years ago, 20 years ago. That's what was happening in the temple. Now I understand, and she cherishes it in her heart. Isn't that a wonderful story? But um, so let's talk a little bit about history again. Uh there's like I said, there's no way that we know that this is a factual story, but you can see that it doesn't really matter. It mat doesn't matter for a couple reasons. One is that uh it makes perfect sense that this is what Jewish families did at that time, and it makes perfect sense that Jesus, who would become uh this incredibly important person and would and is the Messiah, you go, well, it makes perfect sense that he would um be there, and it fits culturally, and this is super important for really any Bible story, is you have to look, does it fit in history and does it fit culturally? Does it um are the words being used? Um, are they being used kind of in a factual way, or are they being used metaphorically, or are they being used to tell a story? So um I mentioned uh Jonah, but I also did an episode on revelation, and revelation, you know, of course, is this big dream sequence. So it's chapter after chapter of these dream-like images, and none of us really can say that that that that's fact, right? Now, some people will say it's about the future, but we can say, oh, you know, but the reason why we think that it's important is not because of the details or because of its factual history, it's because of what it tells us about God and what it tells us about empire, uh, in the case of Revelation. In this case, it tells us what it tells us what it was like to be in the temple, what it was like to be a young man uh in in this time. And you can imagine it. There's lots of movies, of course, there's where you know that portray Jesus walking in sandals and walking um through the hills with groups of people. Well, that's pretty factual. That's because that's how people traveled back in those days. Um, you can go there today. You can go to Israel today. Um, it if you're um if you're not familiar with that or haven't been there, uh all you have to do is go to like Southern California, for example, has the same weather, the the same hill, you know, the hills look the same. Uh has you know, it's dry in the winter in the summer, dry and hot, and and all the rain comes in the winter. It's the the the landscape and the weather and everything are really, really similar to California, that in Israel. So you can imagine that, you know, you can walk through the hills in California in Southern California and you go, oh, well, this looks just like Israel. And this, I can imagine, you know, walking in sandals being like Jesus with a whole bunch of people on this trail, for example. So that's what makes it real, because the story makes sense, and we have a place that we can um remember for it. You can go to Jerusalem today, you can see where the temple was today, you can see the walls that were there that are there. Those walls were made by Herod, the King Herod, just before Jesus. So the a lot of the walls that you see around Jerusalem, some of them came quite a bit later, but a lot of the walls that you see there um l look like they came just kind of like they did when Jesus was there. So this is a real place. And you can do that and and go, oh, yeah, this is real. Whether the story is every fact real or not, doesn't matter. It's whether and how it's useful for us and how we use it. So this is a really great example of whenever you're reading the Bible, whenever you're in a and you're reading a story, first of all, just enjoy the story. That's number one. Number two is that I You can go, okay, is this a story that's being told to me to give me some background, some facts, that kind of thing? Or is it being told to me as a as a fable or as a story to kind of tell me uh some truth about God and our relationship, say like Jonah is, or yeah, or not? And if you can read the Bible that way, it becomes a lot more rich and real because it it's all of these things. It's parables, it's history, it's fables, it's um dreams, and it's prophecy looking forward, and and and it tells us a lot about even our own uh like political history, about how the government works and things like that. So as you get older and you look more and more into the Bible, you can start beginning to see, oh my goodness, these people are acting just like, you know, just like my parents are acting just like people in the government, people on the news, they're acting like the people 2,000, almost 3,000 years ago. That's amazing. It really is. So with that, I hope you enjoy this story. Take a look at it again and put your, you know, close your eyes and imagine what it was like to walk through these hillsides and and in these uh big family groups going to Jerusalem for a yearly party. Imagine how excited you would feel being Jesus walking down to Jerusalem for uh for Passover. And then imagine how rich it would be to sit with really knowledgeable teachers and to discuss what it means to for somebody like like Jesus. And with that, I thank you so much for listening and God bless you.