Jesus in the Temple

Yesterday at church we explored the story of Jesus being left at the temple during our Sunday school. I’ve heard this story told a number of different ways with various applications points. There were of course the lessons as a kid that either encouraged us to listen to our teachers or to not wander from our parents. Then there were the  spiritualized lessons framed to convince people of how perfect and holy Jesus was as a child, or the practical application that used it to push for discussion based classes in church. When we dove into the text yesterday, the snarky side of me thought “I wonder if Jesus’ parents were pissed over which rabbinic tradition he was being exposed to? Because if they were Hillel followers, I’m sure they wouldn’t want their precious child exposed to the socialist mantras of the Shammai crowd.” But snark aside, as we discussed this passage, one common thread that I’ve always encountered in every interpretation is the portrayal of Mary as nagging, worried suburban mom. Granted, she is a mom and she was “anxiously searching” for him, but often her character is restricted to how we believe a modern day mom would act without reflection of her character as we know it from scripture.

David Gentiles was leading the discussion yesterday and he had a great retelling of the story that presented Jesus being shaped in life and thought by Joseph. I fully agree that there is truth in the idea that the ideas expressed by the adult Jesus were imprinted on him in his youth. Too often we can just believe that one day God downloaded into Jesus the script for everything he was to do and say. But, in truth, like any person, Jesus would have been shaped by his experiences and encounters as a child. So as David described, one could imagine him as a boy visiting the temple and encountering the hypocrisy of the money changers, seeing the pompous men publicly praying, or seeing the rich making a show of their donations. All the things he spoke out against as an adult could have been encountered as a child. While David proposed that Jesus may have learned his response of justice and compassion to such things at Joseph’s knee, I tend to favor Scot Mcknight’s suggestion in The Real Mary, that he learned those ideas from Mary.

For Mary was much more than just a nagging worried mother, she was woman who spoke words of justice and sought the end of oppression of the poor. In the Magnificat she proclaimed “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.” Mary was subversive, and definitely had an opinion about the way things were amidst the rich and the powerful in Roman occupied Israel. She would not be one to stay quiet when she saw money-changers cheating the poor, or the wealthy showing off their “generosity.” I figured Mary had a very low BS tolerance and peppered dinner table conversations with rants about injustices and oppression. If she blogged, it would be just the sort of thing I would love to read. So knowing that about Mary and believing that Jesus must have been exposed to ideas about releasing the oppressed as a child, I wonder if Mary can so simply be reduced to “modern worried mom” in the passage.

If you were poor and oppressed and your family conversation revolved around seeking justice in a world where subversion of empire could get you killed, and you discovered your child in conversation with the rich and the powerful leaders, what would be your first reaction? I’m sure, Mary was loving and was genuinely worried (or panicked) about her missing child, but I have to also wonder if there was something more. If instead of being proud or amazed at Jesus wanting to be “at church,” she was scared and immediately concerned for the safety of her whole family. Kids do say the darndest things in public you know. And Jesus was always one to call things as they were, even when it meant challenging the powerful or getting himself killed. I think Mary here had more to ponder and “treasure in her heart” after this event than we normally give her credit for. Was she seeing in her 12 year old son, the one who would turn those hidden dinner table rants into action and challenge the systems of oppression?

It is all just speculation of course, but Luke gives this one glimpse into Jesus’ childhood at the start of a book full of stories of how Jesus challenged the powerful and stood with the oppressed. This event just may have been more than Jesus displaying his deep spirituality or eagerness to learn about God, it may have been his first attempt at confronting the religious leaders on how their beliefs have strayed from loving god and loving others.

Image is “The Boy Jesus in the Temple” by He Qi