Several outstanding occasions of the Passover I found in the Scriptures. One that took place when Jesus was growing up is found in Luke 2:39–52. And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. And His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover.
And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for Him. And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (The literal translation reads: “in the things of My Father.”) And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them, And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Usually we think of this as the story of the lost Christ However, I have the feeling that Christ knew where He was all the time; I think it is really the story of the lost parents. There is a beautiful application in this account.
No doubt Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover before, but this was the first Passover that He was required to appear. For a Jewish child, the age of twelve brought the age of responsibility. Today, much of the juvenile delinquency might be eliminated if the pattern of Bible times was followed, making a person responsible for his actions from the time he is twelve. As it is, many young criminals are not held responsible for their actions because they have not yet reached adulthood.
At the age of twelve, Christ was required to follow the commandment which had been given in the Old Testament that every male must appear before the Lord three times a year (Exodus 34:23). He went up to Jerusalem with His parents; and, as an adult, He no doubt was given a great deal of liberty. Today, any twelve-year-old who would go wandering off from his parents would deserve a good spanking, but in those times life was much different.
Twelve-year-old children today know much less about life and its responsibilities than children did in those days. Then they were required to know much more.
For instance, in that day every drop of water for drinking or for bathing had to be carried by hand. Sanitation systems did not exist, and the disposal of human elimination had to be taken care of by the family.
There were no modern supermarkets. Families prepared their own food. They raised the grain themselves and ground it into flour—not with an electric mill, but usually by hand with a mortar and pestle. They worked at it until the flour was the right consistency. Can you imagine how long it would take to prepare pancakes in the morning?
Even in the United States, conditions are much different than they were a couple hundred years ago. Then seventy-five percent of the population lived on the farms, where they worked diligently to produce enough to feed the other twenty-five percent.
Now, with modern mechanization, the ratio is reversed; and only one-fourth of the people live on the farms. Times have changed a great deal, and we are in another situation completely, though in some ways we are not.
Regardless of scientific progress, thousands of people throughout the world are dying of starvation every week because there is not an ample food supply. Confusion is upon the whole world. At the age of twelve, Christ would have been able to go out and live in a wilderness and survive. Can our children today do that? Could you have done it at that age?
Because Christ had responsibility resting upon Him, He did not miss His parents for three days. They had gone a day’s journey in the caravan before they realized that He was missing, and they searched for another day before they found Him in the temple.
He had never left the temple, where He was worshiping the Father and listening to what the teachers had to say about the Law and asking them questions. The wise men in the temple were astonished at Christ’s knowledge of the Law. We should teach our twelve-year-olds to listen—to really listen.
The printing press was not invented until about 1400 A.D. Before that, everything that was transmitted in the way of knowledge had to be copied by hand. For Christ to know the Law and to be able to understand it as a child was astonishing.
Jesus, at that time, probably did not fully know who He was. One of the first hints of His awareness came at the age of twelve when He said, “I must be about My Father’s business.” As a young child, He was limited in His knowledge. When He was a little baby, lying in a manger, I do not think that He looked up at His mother and said, “I am the Son of God.” I think that He was completely limited and restricted as an infant, with many limitations upon His own awareness. However, He became increasingly aware of who He was.
In the same way, there is a growing awareness now in the Body of Christ. As a child, Christ was growing in wisdom and knowledge, setting before us a symbolical picture of His Body. We are just beginning to discover who we are, where we are, where we are going, and what we are going to do.
There must have been a lack of awareness upon John the Baptist too. The disciples came to Jesus one day and asked, “What about this passage in the prophets which says that Elijah must come before the Messiah?” Jesus said, “Elijah has already come and they did to him whatsoever they would,” meaning that they had killed John the Baptist (Matthew 17:10–13).
On another occasion, Jesus said about John the Baptist, “This is Elijah who was to come, if you can receive it, if you can just believe it” (Matthew 11:14). Was this a unique evidence of reincarnation? I believe so. However, John did not know it. When the priests and Levites came to John and asked, “Are you Elijah?” he said, “No” (John 1:21). He did not know who he was.
I think there are many people today who do not know who they are, either. Are you aware of your own spiritual identity? Are you fully aware of what the Lord is to you, what you are to the Lord, and what God is going to do for you?
A day of revelation has come to us in which God is showing us more and more truths. Imagine how many generations have lived and died without ever coming into that knowledge of the will of the Lord.
No wonder Paul prayed so earnestly in the first chapter of Ephesians that the believers might be filled with the knowledge of His will with all understanding, that they might know His calling and exactly what He had for them. How precious that is.
Jesus experienced a gradual awareness of His ministry and destiny just as we are experiencing now. But in Jesus’ life there was another problem. The disciples probably did not even have the full awareness of who He was. They had walked with Him for quite some time before the day that He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?”
They had many answers: “Some say that You are Elijah; some say, John the Baptist; others, that You are one of the prophets.” Then He asked, “Who do you say that I am?” All the disciples probably just stood there and stared—all except Peter, who said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” At that point Jesus said, “You are blessed, Simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but My Father did” (Matthew 16:13–17).
In the final analysis, there are no psychic phenomena by which you can find your destiny. You cannot go to a fortune-teller and have her tell you what your future is going to be. There is only one way to find it. If you wait before God, the Father will tell you what is going to happen. He will reveal to you the Lord, and He will reveal to you yourself: what you are to be, what you are to do, and how you are to walk with the Lord.
There is another important and significant application to this story of the Passover. According to Deuteronomy 16, the Feast of Passover had to be kept in the place that the Lord chose, which was in Jerusalem.
It was for this reason that the kings of the ten tribes (after Solomon’s death and the division of the kingdom) were so quick to introduce idolatry. The people loved God and wanted to follow His commands concerning the feasts. But if they would go down to Jerusalem three times a year, the kings would soon lose control of the people.
Therefore they built groves, put up idols, and introduced immorality in the worship. The kings were ready to do anything to hold the attention of the people, to prevent them from going back to Jerusalem to keep the feasts in the place where the Lord chose to manifest His name and His presence.
The caravan of travelers returning home must have been large, and the roads were very crowded. Who was lost in this story? Jesus or the parents? Jesus knew where He was. He was right there in the temple all the time. But the parents were on their way home. When they finally discovered that Jesus was missing, they had to go back to Jerusalem, against the stream of traffic. They found Him in the temple.
In the application of this incident we find an important key. The day you become aware that you have lost His presence, remember that you will find Him just where you left Him. Never forget that. The day that you lose the awareness that He is with you and you are wondering where He is, do not run on down the road in your rebellion any farther. Go back to where you lost Him. He will be right there, waiting to receive you.
Have you lost your first love? In the message to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:4–5a: the Word says, … I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.
That is the way it happens. Go back. Do it again. Meet Him right where you left Him. Did you become bitter and disillusioned, and so you walked away from the Lord? Go back where you left Him and get right back on the track again. That is where you will find Him.