When Jesus Ran Away: Luke 2:41-52

The gospel of Luke is the only gospel to touch on an event in Jesus’ childhood between His birth story, which Matthew also includes, and the beginning of His ministry when He was fully-grown. This event happened when Jesus was twelve years old and part of me wonders why Luke chose to include it.

Perhaps this event was the only time in Jesus’ whole childhood that He “rebelled”, for lack of a better word, and ran away. Well, as we will soon see, Jesus didn’t run away, but in Mary and Joseph’s minds, it might have appeared to be that way.

Let’s read about what happened, from the gospel of Luke, chapter 2, using the New International Version. Starting in verse 41, Luke tells us that:

⁴¹ Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. ⁴² When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. ⁴³ After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴ Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

⁴⁹ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁵¹ Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵² And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

In many ways, this event shines a negative light on Jesus’ parents, because after all, how could you get a whole day’s journey away from Jerusalem before realizing Jesus was not with your group of travelers. This also shines a little bit of a negative light onto Jesus as well, because if He wanted to stay behind in Jerusalem and test the leaders’ receptivity to His upcoming ministry, it is likely that Mary and Joseph would have given him a day or two.

Perhaps this was one big misunderstanding, with Jesus believing He had given them the message, but the message not being understood.

However, one big thing I see in this event is with the reaction those present in the temple had towards Jesus. Luke tells us in verse 47 that at twelve years old, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” This verse emphasizes how much Jesus had learned being taught by Mary at home, and it also hints at Jesus’ bigger understanding of His mission and the path for His life.

While getting the right answers to the rabbi’s questions would be satisfactory, it would seem that Jesus understood the scriptures in a unique way from the religious leaders in order to actually amaze them with His understanding and challenging counter questions.

But as I read this, I still wonder what Jesus wanted to accomplish during this extended stay at the temple. I wonder, as I alluded to earlier, if Jesus was testing the waters regarding how receptive the leaders were to God’s self-sacrificing Messiah that Jesus would become, or if they were closed-minded to anyone other than the military leader they were hoping for.

Part of me also wonders if Jesus was testing the waters with how the religious leaders formed their arguments, questions, and challenges, and this would be a valuable set of skills to have later in life when other Pharisees and religious leaders would be challenging Him throughout His ministry.

Maybe Jesus’ time in the temple wasn’t as much for the teachers themselves, but an attempt to plant seeds in the minds of the other students that were likely present. A number of these students would likely have been leaders during the time of Jesus’ ministry, and it would be fascinating to learn that a young Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea were with Jesus those days in the temple. Equally fascinating in my mind would be if Jesus’ strongest opponents would also be there in the temple learning from the teachers and leaders in the older generation.

In Jesus’ response that He gives His parents, we see a powerful picture of how Jesus saw Himself. Whether Mary had taught Him this while growing up, or if Jesus had internalized this truth another way, when Jesus responds with the somewhat rhetorical question in the last part of verse 49 by saying, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” it appears to us looking back on this event that Jesus was well aware of God the Father being His Father, even if Joseph was filling the role of “dad” on earth.

We circle back around to where we began by asking ourselves why Luke might have chosen to include this event in His gospel. Not only is this question relevant to a discussion on Luke’s gospel, but equally insightful would be asking the question of how Luke learned about this event. While I’ve shared some ideas regarding the first question, Luke hints at his source for all of Jesus’ birth and childhood in the last phrase of verse 51, where Luke tells us that Jesus’ “mother treasured all these things in her heart”.

The only way for anyone to know this brief piece of information is from the source itself. It would appear that Luke the gospel writer had the chance to interview Mary personally, or at the very least, someone really close to Mary, to have learned some of the events that she treasured in her heart.

While we can only speculate as to why Jesus stayed behind, and why this event prompted Mary to treasure it, we can learn that even at this early age, Jesus understood that God was His Father, and that His life was to be lived according to God’s bigger plan.

As we come to the close of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally place God first in your life. While Jesus can claim God as His Father, we can stand on this truth as well because when we are with Jesus, God has adopted us into His family.

With this truth in mind, study the Bible for yourself to learn what it means to be a member of God’s family, both the benefits as well as the responsibilities. While we can learn about these things from others, it is when we study them out for ourselves, personally, that we grow our personal relationship with God and His truths are better internalized into our lives.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!