The Passover Feast

Jesus, at the age of 12, traveled to Jerusalem with his family and friends for the Passover Feast. They stayed in tents or booths and Jesus went to the temple and saw the sacrifices. On the way back, Joseph and Mary realized Jesus was missing and they returned to Jerusalem to find him. They found Jesus at the temple, discussing and asking questions with the learned men. Mary was relieved but scolded Jesus for causing worry. Jesus said he must be about his father's business, which confused Mary and Joseph. Jesus returned home and obeyed his parents. Mary pondered these events in her heart. The Passover Feast. This is a story of when Jesus was 12 and beginning to grow up. Every year Joseph and Mary had been in the habit of taking a journey to Jerusalem to attend the Passover Feast. This was a great occasion for the Jews and Jesus must have felt glad to be traveling with up to the great city with family and their friend. Crowds and crowds of people from all parts of the country were going and the feast lasted for a whole week. As there was not room in the city for such multitudes they slept in tents or built booths of boughs of trees. It was quite warm and sunny so this was very delightful. Many men walked placing the women on donkeys and the boys walked or got lifts given them by kind friends. The people sang as they traveled and chattered and laughed and told each other the news. The road went up and up towards the end for Jerusalem is built on a number of hills and can be seen a long way off. Now whether the family from Nazareth lived for the week in a tent or a booth or whether they had friends in Jerusalem who lent them a room we do not know. But Jesus went to the temple and heard the service and saw the sacrifices. Perhaps he saw the king and he certainly saw the Roman soldiers whom the Jews hated so. At last the time came for going back to Nazareth but when Joseph and Mary had gone some way on their homeward journey they found that Jesus was not with them. Still they did not trouble themselves for they thought he was with some of their relatives amongst the company. But after a whole day's traveling they discovered that Jesus was not there and that no one had seen him or knew where he was. At this news they were filled with alarm for it was dangerous to travel in those days and even in Jerusalem great harm might happen to a young country boy. So they left the company and went back alone along the road to Jerusalem. But how could they find one boy in that crowded city? It was now the third day since they lost Jesus and they were quite worried. We do not know what made them think of going to the temple but they did go and what was their astonishment to find the youthful Jesus sitting among the learned men listening to their wisdom and busily asking and answering questions. The learned men were quite amazed at the insight of this young lad. You see they had forgotten all about the baby king of the Jews who had been born in Bethlehem and only thought of Jesus as a country boy from Nazareth, a town they despised. You can imagine how delighted Mary was to find her son alive and unhurt but she forgot for a minute that whatever he did was right. With a flash in her eye she said, son why have you treated us so? Behold your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. Jesus answered, did you not know that I must be about my father's business? Mary and Joseph looked at each other and did not understand what he was saying. But seeing the trouble in his mother's face and in Joseph's face he got up at once and left the learned men and went straight back to Nazareth where he lived a quiet obedience to his mother and foster father. And Mary as she watched her son grow in wisdom and stature pondered all these things and kept them in her heart.