Luke

2:41-52

The mission of the Messiah, 1:5-9:50

2. Testimonies to the Messiah, 2:41-4:30

i] Witness in the temple

In his thirteenth year an Israelite child was obliged to apply himself to covenant law, including the cultic law. For this reason Jesus' mother and father take him to Jerusalem, to the temple, to fulfill his ritual obligations. So, Jesus submits to covenant law, but he also demonstrates a higher obligation "to one whom he recognizes as Father, for he is the Son of God, declared so by an angel", Danker.

Luke now moves from the infancy narratives to a set of stories which serve to inaugurate Jesus' mission. In the Testimonies to the Messiah, each of the six episodes tell us something of Jesus' messianic character. So, Luke lets us into a secret, Jesus is the Son of God, the messiah. In this first episode, Witness in the Temple, Luke introduces us to Christ's unique character.

The sample sermon provided for the first Sunday after Christmas in the church year has the potential to promote some awkward questions. In the mind of some, suggesting that Jesus may have acted outside his parent's authority, can undermine belief in Jesus' sinless state and therefore his capacity to be a perfect sacrifice for sin. Of course, a child's testing of their person, in relation to their parents, is all part of growing up. Sin is found in our defiance of parental authority, not our submission to it. Luke makes a point of telling us that Jesus submitted to his parent's authority. Also, such a sermon introduces the subject of Jesus' humanity. The apocryphal gospel's treatment of Jesus' miracle-working childhood well illustrates the difficulty believers have in conceiving of Jesus as a boy with a runny nose, etc. Yet, it is important to keep before God's people the full humanity of Jesus, and to do so without denying his diety.

kat etoV "every year" - according to the year. Typically, those far from Jerusalem only made one pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year, namely Passover.

oiJ geneiV (euV ewV) "parents" - the parents. Only men were required to attend, so a woman's attendance at the feast was a sign of great devotion.

tou pasca "the Passover" - Also called "feast of Unleavened Bread", 15 Nisan, March/April. Celebrating the escape from Egypt.

etwn (oV) "[twelve] years old" - of years. Genitive of quality

anabainontwn (anabainw) part. gen. "they went up" - going up. Probably best read as a genitive absolute forming a temporal clause, "when they were going up", Marshall; "to the city", Phillips.

thV eJorthV (h) gen. "the feast" - [the custom] of the feast. Genitive of association. The custom was a yearly visit to the feast.

teleiwsantwn (teleiow) aor. part. gen. "was over" - having fulfilled, completed, finished [the days] - Temporal genitive absolute participle. Possibly indicating the family's attendance for the full seven days of the festival; another sign of devotion. "They stayed to the very end of the festival", Barclay.

uJpemeinen (uJpomenw) aor. "stayed behind" - remained. No value judgment is made of Jesus' staying, nor of the parents' being "unaware". Today the parents would be charged with neglect, which may indicate that we are overly protective of our children.

nomisanteV (nomizw) aor. part. "thinking" - having believed, supposed, assumed. The participle is adverbial, probably causal, "because they thought ...."

hJmeraV oJdon "for a day" - a day's way. "At the end of the first day's journey", Barclay.

th/ sunodia/ (a) "their company" - the company, group. "In the caravan."

anezhtoun (anazhtew) imperf. "they began looking for [him]" - they were looking for. The imperfect carries a durative sense which possibly means that not only did they go searching for Jesus at the end of the day, but that they were searching for him the whole day. The NIV opts for an inceptive translation.

uJpestreyan (uJpostrefw) aor. "they went back" - they returned. Aorist expressing a singular action.

anazhtounteV (anazhtew) pres. part. "they began looking for" - looking for, seeking. The present participle expresses an ongoing search and is adverbial, consecutive, "with the result that ...", "they were unable to find him so as a result they went back to Jerusalem"; "looking for him as they went", Phillips.

meta hJmeraV treiV "after three days" - Possibly meaning that the search in Jerusalem lasted three days, although it is more likely that it was three days after the caravan had left Jerusalem that they found Jesus.

twn didaskalwn (oV) "the teachers" - A word usually reserved for Jesus. Luke usually calls the Jewish teachers "layers", or "scribes".

akouonta (akouw) pres. part. "listening" - As with the participle "sitting", the participle here is adverbial, modal, expressing the manner in which they found Jesus. Jesus is under instruction; he is not doing the teaching.

existanto (existhmi) imperf. "was amazed" - were amazed, confused, astonished. The word is often used of pre-belief, which may well be the sense here. Also possibly the word may just express surprise at the depth of Jesus' questions and answers. "Everyone who heard him was surprised at how much he knew and at the answers he gave", CEV.

th/ sunesei (iV ewV) "understanding" - the intelligence. "Were astonished at his powers of comprehension", Phillips.

exeplaghsan (ekplhssw) aor. "astonished" - perplexed, astounded. Luke's use of this word in Acts 13:12, "he was greatly astounded at the teaching about the Lord", indicates that Jesus' parents are probably astounded by the theological capacity of their son. "When Joseph and Mary saw him they could not believe their eyes", Phillips.

ti "why" - Interrogative pronoun.

odunwmenoi (odunaw) pres. pas. part. "anxiously" - being anxious, pained. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "were looking for." Expressing intensive mental pain or trauma; "we have been worried to distraction", Barclay. Mary's complaint prompts Jesus' reply.

oJti "-" - [why] that [you are looking for me]. The first hoti Introduces a dependent statement (object clause) expressing the content of the question, "why is it that you have been searching for me?", Weymouth, or simply "why", as NIV. The second hoti, "don't you know that I must be ..." also introduces a dependent statement, this time of perception, expressing what they should know.

dei "I had" - it is necessary. With the infinitive of the verb to-be, einai which forms an infinitival phrase subject of the verb "is necessary". So, "it" = "that to be in the things of my Father is necessary." An important tag expressing divine compulsion, here the only time it is used of Jesus' relationship with the Father; "I must", Phillips.

ouk - The negative construction of the question implies a positive answer. It is obvious where Jesus would be found since the business of knowing God's will takes precedence over everything else, "surely you realize that I was bound to be ...?

en toiV tou patroV "in [my] Father's house" - in the things of the father. A neuter plural article functioning as a substantiver with the genitive of "the father" indicating "things" in relationship with "the father." What are the "things"? Obviously not the teachers as the article is neuter. There seems to be three possible options: i] "house", NIV etc. meaning "I must be in my Father's dwelling place (ie. temple)", presumably for the business of revelation, although the article is plural, ie. "things", not "thing". None-the-less, en, "in", together with the neuter plural and the genitive can give the sense "house" as of "involved with instruction in divine things", Bock; ii] "I must be about my Father's business", obviously again the Word business, NKJV; "to be engaged in the affairs of my Father", Nolland, cf. Brown. The difficultly with this option is that it doesn't really answer Mary's question; iii] Jesus must be among the teachers of the law in his Father's house. This option is not widely accepted. Whichever option we choose, Jesus is messiah in training and must be about his vocation under God in the divine business of fine-tuning truth.

mou "my [Father's house]" - of me. Probably a full-blown filial relationship is not intended, rather it is an expression of piety, or possibly expressing Jesus' messianic role as "son of God" = messiah.

ou sunhkan (sunihmi) aor. "did not understand" - "They did not understand what he meant", CEV, best captures the general sense of Mary and Joseph's failure to understand Jesus' enigmatic reply, rather than their failure to understand any filial, or messianic allusions. They have not forgotten Jesus' miraculous birth, nor the prophetic word associated with that birth, but they are hot under the collar and at this moment, have little patience for riddles. Luke's comment that Jesus was "obedient to them" probably reflects the reprimand Jesus received from his parents on this occasion.

hn uJpotassomenoV (uJpotassw) pres. pas. part. "was obedient" - he was being subject. An imperfect paraphrastic construction probably emphasizing durative aspect so expressing a continuing submission of Jesus to his parents until he was of age.

diethrei (diathrew) imperf. "treasured" - was keeping, maintaining. "Jesus' mother continued to mull over his words."

ta rJhmata "these things" - the matters, words. The definite article indicating that the matters are those just described, either the words of Jesus, his actions, or both.

proekopten (prokoptw) imperf. "grew" - was increasing, advancing, growing. Probably "progressed" is better. "As Jesus grew, he advanced in wisdom and in favor ....", REB.

en th/ sofia/ (a) "in wisdom" - wisdom, skill. Possibly "intellect", although "insight", and in particular, "theological insight", may well be intended.

hJlikia/ (a) "[in] stature" - age, height, stature. "Bodily stature" is preferable. Nicely handled by REB.

cariti (iV itoV) "in favor" - The meaning "blessing" doesn't work. Advancing "in favor with God and other humans" probably indicates a moral/ethical advance. So, "Jesus progressed intellectually, physically, and morally."

Luke Introduction

lectionarystudies.com