Why do dark, cryptic, or secret things have so much appeal? It’s as though our minds are magnetically attracted to the unknown and forbidden.
Even if a tinge of fright is associated with the mysterious, we remain so intrigued and fascinated that we’re drawn to it. If you question how powerful the forbidden can be, try not looking at something after you are told not to look at it.
Religious Mysteries and Speculations
Religious mysteries have a strong attraction. But secret religious knowledge ends up proving to be a scam. Looking for information about the hidden years of Jesus leads to spiritual speculations and sometimes financial abuse. When considering important matters like who Jesus is or how you get to heaven, don’t leave it up to guesswork based on obscure or cryptic information. If we speculate about God, our conclusions will most likely be wrong and unfounded. False assumptions about important spiritual matters place our eternity in jeopardy.
Speculating in theology (the study of God) is like considering brain surgery as a hobby. If your neurologist isn’t properly trained and precise with his diagnosis, you will be worse off having him do surgery on your brain than if you had never undergone surgery. Similarly, when people speculate about God, their theology ends up confused, contradicts Scripture, and leads to weird thoughts and behavior. Mystical or subjective sources of knowledge don’t support a God-honoring lifestyle. Rather, they lead to spiritual disaster.
John Calvin once said that when Scripture is silent, he is silent. If Scripture doesn’t address an issue it must not be that important. A key hermeneutical principle (the science of interpreting Scripture) is: be silent where Scripture is silent and speak boldly when the Bible addresses a topic multiple times in various contexts. God a way of underlining what’s important is by using repetition. To properly understand Jesus and the way to heaven we must focus on issues that God repeatedly addresses and not allow cryptic sources to mislead us into speculative theology.
Jesus’ Hidden Years
There is a high level of interest in the hidden years of Jesus. His hidden years fall between the time he was two and twenty-nine years old. During these years the Bible is silent about Jesus’ earthly upbringing. However, after Luke interviewed Mary, he learned many things about Jesus as a child. But only one story found its way into the Bible.
The absence of so much potential information about Jesus’ hidden years brings this one story into sharp focus. It must be important to understanding who Jesus is. Otherwise, Luke wouldn’t have felt the need to include it in the Scriptures. Furthermore, God thought this story important enough that he inspired Luke to document it in Scripture. In this brief description of Jesus encountering the Jewish teachers of the law, we learn important things about who Jesus was as a child (Lk 2:41-52).
The Devotion of Jesus’ Parents
Joseph and Mary were poor. Yet, they annually saved enough money to travel each year to the Temple in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration. This indicates how deeply devoted they were to the Lord. Trips to the capital were not easy or inexpensive. After the week-long festivities, they and their relatives began the two-day journey back to Nazareth. However, halfway home they realized that Jesus, who was only twelve years old at the time, was missing.
Can you imagine the panic in Mary’s heart when she realized her pre-teen son was lost? For several days he was alone in a large metropolitan city. What dangers was he facing? Where would he sleep? Who would prepare his meals? Her prayers for his safety were intense. And they raced back to the city to find him, leaving their other children with relatives.
God entrusted Joseph and Mary with his one and only Son and they lost him. They lost the Son of God! Their anxiety levels must have been through the roof. Nervously, they backtracked their steps. For three days they searched for the boy. Exhausted and overwhelmed with concern, they eventually found him in the Temple. He was calmly sitting among the Rabbis, Pharisees, and Temple priests.
Jesus: A Student of the Scriptures
Here’s our first clue as to what Jesus was doing during his hidden years. Luke wrote that everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and answers (vs 47). Usually, it’s a child’s inquisitiveness, articulation, attentiveness, or winsomeness that makes a parent proud. But this isn’t how Mary described Jesus as a child. Jesus was giving the answers!
People gathered around him and interacted with him–especially the religious teachers. What was Jesus doing over the past few days? He wasn’t learning from the most educated clergy in the country. He taught them!
They assembled around a twelve-year-old boy as though he was a formally trained Rabbi. Jesus listened to them speak and then asked them questions. When the Jewish teachers became less than satisfied with their answers, they listened to the boy Jesus. He would ask another a question designed to stimulate their critical thinking and draw out their presuppositions. As he did this, he accomplished two things. 1) he exposed their misunderstandings of God and, 2) he corrected their faulty interpretations of the Scriptures. Asking a question and then answering it was a typical rabbinical teaching method. It was similar to the Greek Socratic teaching form.
Jesus: An Effective Religous Teacher
Both his pedagogy (how he taught) and his answers from the Scriptures amazed the crowd. His understanding of spiritual matters, of God, and of what God expects of people were truly astonishing. The Greek word used to describe the crowd’s response to Jesus is “Existayme.” It’s a compound of “Ek” a Greek preposition meaning out of or to cause and “Histaymee,” which means to hold up or establish. This word describes the crowd marveling/ A twelve-year-old boy was holding his theological ground against the most educated religious teachers in all Israel. That was amazing indeed!
His teaching content and the way he corrected the religious academics really was amazing to watch. And his answers had a depth of understanding beyond his earthly years. The boy Jesus refuted and corrected the Temple experts.
But the most astonishing thing of all was that he sat down to teach. This was the posture of a Rabbi. Rabbis sat while instructing. Jesus sat while teaching the Jewish teachers (Lk 2:46). Only a recognized and well-trained teacher sat down to instruct. This further indicates how much of a deep thinker Jesus was and how perceptive he was of the things of God. This is only achieved through faithful studying and diligent memorizing of large portions of the Old Testament.
Jesus’ Parents Taught Him About God
Additionally, this assumes his godly parents took seriously the call to teach him about God. They insured his spiritual development by providing him access to regular synagogue worship and instruction (Lk 4:16).
Jesus’ meditations on and study of the Scriptures caused him to be (humanly speaking) more insightful than all of his teachers (Ps 119:99-100). Mary and Joseph’s son was so committed to knowing God that he emersed himself in the Bible. And he became a teacher of the teachers of Israel.
So often parents underestimate a child’s or grandchild’s ability to know God. Children don’t need to be entertained. More attention is given keeping them out of trouble than talking about God on a personal level. God isn’t boring to them. The truth is that children want to know and understand who Jesus is. They want to honor God. Healthy activities for children include talking to God and reading their Bibles.
Train Children in the Scriptures
Parents assume children aren’t interested in God. Or, they think it’s not good to push religion on them. This assumption and neglect to take responsibility for the spiritual nurture of children are detrimental. Children have a natural inquisitiveness about God. It’s more common that children are taught not to value time with God because they see their parents neglecting devotional time with Jesus. If the parents don’t value knowing Jesus and don’t talk about him and to him with children, then children conclude God isn’t important. They develop a desire to know God when they see family members valuing God.
Jesus’ parents took the time necessary to train their son in the ways of God. And this became evident when, as a child, Jesus dominated the conversation in the Temple with the religious teachers.
His parents committed themselves to God and the Scriptures. And they directed their son’s spiritual growth to reflect their own religious convictions. If God is important to you, as a parent or grandparent, then talk about God with your children. Pray with them so they see your faith as meaningful. And read the Bible together. This matures children into godly teens and adults. And this is how they learn the importance of God in their lives.
Luke tells us more about Jesus’ encounter with the religious teachers. In the next article on the Hidden Years of Jesus, we will learn what it meant that he grew in wisdom.
Picture attributions: Cover background from Pixabay.com, nurse by Alexas Fotos @ pixabay.com, face with question mark by Anemone123 @ Pixabay.com, Fear graphic by John Hain @Pixabay.com, Life pic by Gerd Altmann @ Pixabay.com, Man thinking @ Pexels.com.
