| “Now His [the Lord Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when He [the Lord Jesus] was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast” (Luke 2:41-42). |
| We do not know for sure at what age the parents of the Lord Jesus started to take Him up to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, but we do know that He went up at the age of twelve. People did not travel much in those days, so it was probably quite an event for children to make that kind of a trip. They likely enjoyed traveling with their friends, for most people probably walked in those days, although some might have had donkeys on which to ride. We know that when the parents of the Lord Jesus started home after the Passover, and did not see their son the Lord Jesus, they just assumed that he was with others in the company, and were not concerned until they had traveled a whole day. While those Jewish people surely appreciated the significance of the Passover, the children probably liked a trip to “the big city” of Jerusalem. |
| But have you ever thought of what the Lord Jesus must have been thinking as He kept the Passover, even as a boy? Although I am sure that He behaved as a perfect twelve-year-old boy, yet He could say to His parents, when His mother scolded Him a little for staying behind in Jerusalem, “Wist ye not [didn’t you know] that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). As God, He understood perfectly that one day He would be the true Passover. One day He would suffer and die, so that the matter of sin would be settled once and for all. We want to say all this very reverently, but we can only imagine what thoughts must have gone through His heart, even as a boy, as He saw those lambs killed every year. For the Jews, it was celebrating the fact that their firstborns had not been killed on that night back in Moses’ time, when the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. But for the Lord Jesus, all this was also a picture of His death on the cross. |
