Once upon a time, I asked my religion teacher why we didn’t know more about Jesus’ childhood.
“The gospel writers didn’t feel it was important,” she told me. “But the fact that they didn’t include more about that period of His life tells us that His childhood would have been typical of other Jewish males living in that part of the world.”
Somehow I doubted that. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that Mary and Joseph tried to raise Jesus as if he were “normal,” but come on! They knew who He was and more importantly so did He. As much as I would love to believe that Jesus was just like everyone else, it doesn’t seem possible, does it? The fact that He might have been a little different right from the very start is alluded to in the famous Christmas carol “Away in a Manger” when we sing, “The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying He makes…” Seriously, what infant doesn’t cry? How would His mother know if He was hungry, needed a diaper change or merely needed to be burped? I suppose if Jesus was aware that He was God right from the get go He could have simply said, “Madam, when you have a spare moment, I’m going to need some assistance here as my bodily functions are not quite developed yet.” (Yes, these are the kinds of things I ponder late at night.)
Over the course of my childhood, I was expected to believe that Jesus was not only typical, but at the same time, He was also perfect. These seem like two diametrically opposed ideas. On the one hand, if you are God in human form, there is really no point in bellyaching about having to eat your broccoli, coming in at a certain time, or asking why you can’t have that awesome new 2G Dreidel that all of your friends have. I mean, if you were the one to come up with that whole “Honor your mother and father” rule in the first place, it’s kind of poor form to break it…but on the other hand, if I were God in human form and expected to live a “typical” human life, there is about a 100 percent chance I would abuse my power at some point!
So where exactly does this leave our pal Jesus? According to my religion teacher, right in the middle of today’s gospel. Though it is packed with a lot of flowery verbiage and is often spun to showcase Jesus as a child prodigy who no one really understands, if we look closely, we find a story that could have been pulled straight from our own biographies. During a family trip to Jerusalem for the holidays, Jesus (being a “man” at the ripe old age of 12) decides He’s big enough to go off by Himself. We are never told why He does it or whether He asked anyone for permission, but my first guess is no. (Either that, or He waited until Mary was distracted in conversation and said yes without realizing what she agreed to…come on moms, you all know what I’m talking about.) At any rate, Jesus goes off, gets caught up in what He is doing, loses track of time, doesn’t make it back to the caravan and everyone sets off for Nazareth without him.
When Mary and Joseph realize that they have misplaced their son, they panic and return to Jerusalem to find him. Did Mary berate herself for being a bad mother like Kevin McAlister’s mother did in Home Alone? The gospel writers never say, but they do tell us that the longer she and Joseph looked, the more worried they became. Finally, they check the temple and lo and behold there is their wandering child, sitting alongside the officials and having a great old time. (Add a police station and an ice cream come and you’d have the ending to a 1950’s sitcom.)
But that is not the end of the story and it’s in the ending that we see proof of how typical the Holy Family really was. Read between the lines of Mary’s “great anxiety” and you can almost hear her saying, “Just where in the heck have you been, young man?” Buried beneath Jesus’ calm response of being in His “Father’s house” can practically see Him rolling His eyes and muttering, “Don’t have a cow, man!” And if that isn’t convincing enough, Luke tells us that when Jesus returned to Nazareth, He was obedient from then on…It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that He was – at the very least – grounded for a few weeks.
Perhaps my religion teacher was right. Maybe Jesus was a typical teenager and maybe that doesn’t make Him any less perfect. By testing the limits, getting busted and enduring some consequences for His actions, it helps Him understand us even more.
And maybe, just maybe it helps us understand Him a little better too.
