Parental shaming is a “real thing.”
This passage is “unique” in the Gospels. This is the “only” account we have in the “Canonical Gospels” of Jesus’ childhood. That alone makes it – a “very important passage.”
It is a mundane, utterly earthly and a very simple story. Lost child… Panicked parents… A frantic search… The whole saga started with angels singing at his birth and ends, paging for a lost child over the PA system at one of the remaining Sear’s stores…
The fact that it takes his parents “three whole days” to find him – has historically raised all kinds of issues.
Parenting skills… Home alone3…How do you lose the Son of God? What did you DO before 911? We ONLY thought that the WISEMEN were seeking Jesus! Hide and Seek, Messiah…and on and on, you could go.
Fifteen minutes of this kind of panic is more than enough to make the average parent feel dizzy, lightheaded and on the verge of mental and physical collapse. Five minutes of this kind of panic is like a lifetime.
Isn’t it funny – how when people misplace things – they usually say, “I finally found it, and of course, it was in the last place I looked.”
Well, HELLO of course, it was in the last place you looked-because once you find what you are looking for – you stop looking!
I wonder who said it first, was it Mary or Joseph, “Maybe we should check the Temple?” You don’t honestly think we would find him there do you? So, they go there…it was – after all – the very last place they checked.
The family was religious, they were pious Jews. They were practicing Jews. We are told that the family was accustomed to making this trip each and every year. It is what they did. They went to the Temple. Mary and Joseph were God-fearers.
Luke is the gospel that is all about the importance of the “Temple.”
Again Luke is the one who tells us about Zechariah carrying out his priestly duties in the Temple. Zechariah being the father of John the Baptizer…
Luke is the one that tells about Jesus being circumcised in the Temple on the eighth day following his birth.
Luke tells us the story of Simeon and Anna the old prophet and prophetess in the Temple. It is where we get the Nunc Dimittis from…
He tells us that Mary observed the rites for purification after childbirth.
Again Luke informs us how Mary and Joseph participated in the ritual of the Redemption of the Firstborn.
So the Temple did play a central role in the life of the family. A HUGE PART.
We can assume the next major religious event in the life of a child would be what came to be known as the Bar Mitzvah, which means (Son of the Commandment) – which usually occurred during the 13th year…when Jesus would be considered a man.
You would have thought it would have been the first place they would have looked…
But no not them…
They had to check first – all the Jerusalem Arcades, the Batting Cages, the Miniature Golf Hotspots, the Rock Climbing Walls, Herod’s Stadium, the Lazer Tag and Paintball Parks, Go Cart Racing, Bowlero Lanes, Chuck E. Cheese’s, the Trampoline Romp Room…and just in case, the Caiaphas Casino.
He was nowhere to be found. He was in none of the places where “tweens” usually “hung out” or could be spotted.
It is no wonder they were besides themselves with fear and terror, filled with all kinds of anxiety.
Where could he be? Where would he go?
And you know how the mind can play all kinds of tricks on you…how easy it is for us to think the worst…
Talk about having your PTSD, I am sure it probably took both Mary and Joseph a time to get over this one!
And then, there is all the shame and humiliation once the word gets out!
You know “how much” we worry about “WHAT OTHERS” will say! Oh, the disgrace, the indignity of it all, the embarrassment, the dishonor and the loss of pride. Word like this scatters quickly and people remember.
There will be the sidelong glances, the finger pointing and the outright mean heartedness. There are always haters!
They were getting use to this kind of treatment they had been through it all before. It simply continued on. When would it end?
People can be so judgmental and so hurtful! Boy does this world need a savior!
Parental shaming (I tell you) it is a “real thing.”