According to the law of the Old Testament, all males at the age of twelve, were required to visit the Holy Land three times a year, at the feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Exodus 23:14-17; 34:23). But because of the long journey, many were not able to travel but once a year. The Passover became the greatest of the three feasts to the entire nation.
When Jesus was twelve years old, he was required to go for the first time to Jerusalem, the center of the world, and the dwelling place of the one God who has not partner, to whom the boy Jesus longed for God was the aim of his heart and the end of his hopes.
What did he see in Jerusalem? Thousands of slain lambs, for all the pilgrims went to Jerusalem to remember God’s wrath that passed by them. The thought of "the Lamb of God" had a deep impression in the boy’s mind. He understood the principle that no one could come near to God without blood. Sacrifice became the motto of his life, for he was designated as the Lamb of God who would open for us the door to the Father.
Jesus lived a sinless life, and was holy at all times. He was drawn with all his heart to God, his origin, and forgot his father and mother by adoption, and all the world and nature. He took up knowledge from the teachers of righteousness who interpreted the Torah and the Prophets to pilgrims in the porches of the temple. Those teachers were also prepared to answer the boys who asked important questions.
Jesus asked the priests with all attention, and answered their questions in way, which drew their attention to him. So the teachers raced to converse with him, and the boy became the center of attraction in the temple, without haughtiness, for the adults felt automatically that the wisdom of God spoke through that genius and exceptional boy. Some of them were impressed by his character. They took him home with them, gave him food to eat, and completed the conversation with him until the nightfall, for the boy’s soul was deeply penetrated into the word of God.
At that time, his parents thought that he was traveling together with his friends in the caravan to Nazareth, alongside of the Jordan. They became obviously worried and afraid when they did not find him with their kindred and acquaintance, and knew that he did not tell his uncles and aunts where he was. Then his parents turned back again and went up to Jerusalem seeking him, and when they did not find him with their relatives, they went toward the temple where they found him surrounded with the scribes and scholars. They were afraid for him for they were not much educated. They were simple villagers who lived in a high mountainous region, and were not accustomed to the noise of capital cities.
Joseph said nothing so that he might not explode with anger, or for he was not the strong person in the family. Mary did not want to oppose the boy’s enthusiasm for the word of God, or to disparage blaming him for his disobedience. She clarified her trouble and told him how ill his father Joseph took it: how he became extremely afraid with her for the boy might have been stolen, lost in the desert, or ravened by beasts. Then the Holy Spirit, through Jesus, contested the unbelief of his parents and asked them, "Why are you searching for me? Did you not know that I am under my Father’s care and protection? I have come to his house to worship to him, and he will not leave me. He is my protection, my fortress, and my rock.
Furthermore, Jesus was certain, through his study of the Torah, that the great, creating, and All-Ruling God was not far from him or strange to him, but was his true and essential Father. No man in the Old Testament dared to call God his own Father except Jesus, for this statement was only privileged to the long-awaited Christ (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 2:7; 89:27). The people considered themselves as the servant of God, and the called the Eternal One their Father. But this means a true birth of God only figuratively.
When he was twelve years old, Jesus spoke the supreme revelation of the New Testament that God is not fearful and distant, but he is his Father. In that age, he knew clearly the mystery of the Holy Trinity, his own sonship, and God’s adoption. With this word, he overcame the Old Testament and all religions in principle, and opened for us the way to God, that we may, after reconciliation, call God our Father in heaven. Flesh and blood did not reveal this truth to him. But his near Father did.
God, praise be to him, gave him not only the knowledge of his fatherhood, but also the power to abide in him. Jesus knew that he should continue constantly in his Father’s business. His love, joy, peace, kindness, truth, and power were all the spiritual expanses in which Jesus lived. God’s power and complete divinity appeared in the boy when he was twelve years old. Did you realize the motto of your life? Did you remain in your past about your Father’s business, or did you not realize yet your Father? Penetrate deeply into the word of Jesus so that you may live forever.
Mary said to Jesus that Joseph was his father, and the boy answered her rightfully that his only Father was God. It was not the voice of the twelve years old young man that spoke those words, but the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him. This same Spirit directed the newborn child of God to be immediately dutiful and obedient to his father by adoption, and go with him not resentfully, but humbly, obediently, and agreeably. They went down together to the deep Jordan Valley as a symbol of his coming down from his communion with God to the level of human life in family and village, also to be engaged in the trade he learnt, and to work with his father at the trade of a carpenter.
From that time and until the age of thirty, Jesus retired into obscurity, growing up in the power of God, his Father, without leaving his wide expanses. And when Joseph, his father by adoption died, he was still in obscurity, taking upon himself the duty of providing the family, working with his hands and trusting his Father’s providence, as we read in (Matthew 6:19-34). Jesus did not become an intellectual, or philosopher, but a continuing worker in the power of the Holy Spirit, beloved by all men. Is this the second motto for your life: not to become haughty and wish for climbing the stairs of life, but to remain humble and industrious in the profession which God put you in?