The Boy Jesus In The Temple
THE BOY JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
LUKE 2:36-52
Jesus wasn’t even a teenager but he amazed the Jewish teachers with his insight.
Verses 36-40. Another of God’s remnant enters the story, this time an aged woman, but with insight akin to Simeon’s. There is no end to usefulness. John wrote his Gospel in his nineties. Anna was eighty-four. Or, if the phrase means that she had been a widow for that total of years, she could have been well over a century old. She gave her life to prayer, and the old can always serve in this way. But let it be borne in mind that most people, for good or ill, are much the same in age and declining years as they have been through life. If Anna’s extreme old age was prayerful, it is a fair inference that she had always been prayerful. Thanks to the triumph of medicine it is given to more and more to know long retirement and old age. God’s plan for the evening should be the concern of the afternoon. Spend some time studying the old folk of the Bible.
2:41-52. This is a revealing picture of the pious Nazareth family, journeying to Jerusalem and remaining for the full length of the festival. Perhaps there was strong reason for this visit. A Jewish boy was accounted of responsible age at twelve years. He became “a son of the Law,” and assumed a dress more proper to maturity. Joseph and Mary were forced to abandon the Galilee caravan which ensured their safety, and hasten back only to find a Child whom they must have felt they hardly knew. A new dignity had come upon him, and there was now a part of him which they were unable to penetrate. Mary “kept all these sayings in her heart,” and we can almost hear her telling Luke the story. But is not Christ always thus? Could any earthly character have engaged the wonder, the love and the questing of man as he has done? Does any earthly character grow ever more awesome, as he did among those that knew him, without ever revealing flaw, fault or weakness? The character of Christ is the strongest proof of the deity of Christ. Consider this.
Notes 2:48: in civil law and everyday language Joseph was the father. Specious arguments against the miraculous birth are founded upon this verse. Luke saw no contradiction between the words and what had already been written, nor is there any. 2:49: the RV rendering, “in My Father’s house,” is correct.