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Jesus as a child and young man

It was customary at the time Jesus was born to circumcise a son and declare his official name eight days after his birth. Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem for this ceremony. The Mosaic law required every firstborn to be consecrated to the Lord along with a sacrificial offering of two doves or two young pigeons.

Once Joseph and Mary had completed all the requirements of the Law of Moses, they returned to Galilee, where they made their home in Nazareth. Jesus grew up in a family who meticulously observed the Law of Moses. From birth, he was brought up in the moral and ritual life of Judaism.

Home, temple, and synagogue formed him. The only other glimpse of Jesus's early childhood is when he was 12 years old. As a preteen, Jesus went with his parents to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, a one-way trip of approximately 80 miles. This annual trip to celebrate the Passover Festival was a popular family affair for the average Jewish family and was designed to commemorate Israel’s communal identity as God’s firstborn son, as depicted in Exodus 4:22.

At 12, Jesus would be beginning to transition from childhood to adulthood in terms of the culture of the day. After the Feast was over, his parents returned home, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. This would be his first experience of the temple services and especially of the slaying of the Paschal lamb.

His parents were unaware of his absence. They thought Jesus was with family and friends returning to Nazareth and traveled a day’s journey before they realized he was not with them.

After three days of searching, they found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among the law teachers, listening and engaging them with questions. Everyone who heard Jesus was amazed at his understanding and answers.

When Joseph and Mary saw Jesus, they were astonished. Mary asked Jesus, “Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (v. 48). One author suggests Mary and Joseph were shocked or dumbfounded at their son’s behavior. In their time, independence represented insolence rather than a proactive initiative admired by Westerners today.

But at the same time, Mary and Joseph may not have fully realized that since Jesus was the Messiah, there was no reason to be anxious about his welfare. Jesus answered, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house?” (v. 49).

Jesus makes a sharp turn in his redefinition of the term father, which may have led his parents to reflect further on what he meant. While there are references to God as the Father of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, the idea of a personal and paternal relationship between God and the soul is practically unknown at this point in time.

Joseph and Mary could not see Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. Their daily contact with the human Jesus caused them to forget the divine statements made about him at birth and in childhood.

Jesus spent 30 years with this family and in family life before his three-year ministry. Today, most seminary students spend three years preparing for a 30-year ministry.