viii. Nazareth days

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Luke 2:41-42

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It was the custom of Joseph and Mary to make the trek from Nazareth to Jerusalem to attend the annual Passover celebration. Mary recalled one trip, when her son was 12 years old, particularly vividly.

On their way back from the feast, they assumed that the lad was walking with friends or relatives from Nazareth,¹ when in fact he had decided to remain in the Temple, where he was discussing scripture with the expert doctors of the law. ² Once Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus had not returned with them, they headed back to Jerusalem.

It was the custom of Joseph and Mary to make the trek from Nazareth to Jerusalem to attend the annual Passover celebration. Mary recalled one trip, when her son was 12 years old, particularly vividly.

On their way back from the feast, they assumed that the lad was walking with friends or relatives from Nazareth,¹when in fact he had decided to remain in the Temple, where he was discussing scripture with the expert doctors of the law. ² Once Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus had not returned with them, they headed back to Jerusalem.

For three days, the frantic couple hunted high and low for him. When they finally found him sitting amid the learned men discussing scripture, they were surprised to see that Jesus' listeners were amazed at the depth of his answers to the questions of the experts. His astounded mother exclaimed, "Son, why did you do this to us?! See here, your father and I have been looking everywhere for you! We were worried sick!" Jesus replied, "Why were you looking for me? Don't you know that I must be in my Father's house?""

That remark went right over their heads.

But he returned to Nazareth with them and was an obedient son.

As Jesus grew, both physically and mentally, people tended to think well of him – as did God, of course.

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1. This shows that his parents had a great deal of trust in the boy being a responsible person.

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2.  Implicit here is the understanding that Jesus had reached the age at which he could make some decisions as a man without first consulting his earthly father or others. This age threshold evidently coincided with the onset of puberty, and may not have been a fixed at a particular number.
According to Jews for Jesus,

The bar/bat mitzvah is not found in the Bible. Bar mitzvah is of medieval origin, though the term itself is found in the Talmud, while bat mitzvah did not exist until the 20th century...
The bar mitzvah ... takes place at thirteen years of age, and the only mention of someone of that age in the Tanakh [Old Testament] is in Genesis 17:25:

And Ishmael his [Abraham’s] son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

The web article continues,

The fact that the age of twelve is specifically noted may suggest that it was a transition age even in the first-century, though any evidence comes from the later period of the Talmud. At least, twelve could be considered an age when a young man evidenced wisdom and piety. Josephus (Antiquities X.4.1) says of King Amon:

And when he was twelve years old, he gave demonstrations of his religious and righteous behavior; for he brought the people to a sober way of living, and exhorted them to leave off the opinion they had of their idols, because they were not gods, but to worship their own God. And by repeating on the actions of his progenitors, he prudently corrected what they did wrong, like a very elderly man, and like one abundantly able to understand what was fit to be done …

Josephus likewise speaks of Samuel (Antiquities V.10.4):

Now when Samuel was twelve years old, he began to prophesy: and once when he was asleep, God called to him by his name …