GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:42-44
42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, as was their custom. 43 After the Feast days were over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they did not realize it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.
It was typical in ancient times for large groups like this one to travel with the women and children in front and the older boys with the men in the back (Genesis 33:2 is an exception). Perhaps this is what happened here. Jesus at 12 might fall into either category, and this is probably the best explanation for the reason that they didn’t realize he wasn’t with them for the first day: His mother thought he was back with the men, and Joseph thought he was up with the boys.
When we read this account, we usually surge on to the temple to hear the first words spoken by Jesus in this Gospel. But if we take these verses just as they are, we learn another detail about the Lord’s childhood that’s easily missed. Mary and Joseph were traveling in their “company.” This is the Greek word synodia (συνοδία), closely related to “synod” which we use for our church body. Synod means “a road together,” and refers to one’s traveling companions. A synodia is a caravan, a group of travelers going to the same destination—people who take such a “road together,” and it especially refers to a family traveling this way. For example, in the Greek translation of Nehemiah, synodia is used for families returning from the exile (Nehemiah 7:5; 7:64; 2 Esdras 17:5; see also the Greek translation of Jeremiah 9:2).
This “Synod (caravan) of Nazareth” was comprised of most of the village of Nazareth, especially the men and boys. It included “their relatives and friends.” We see from this passage that Jesus’ family was not isolated in Nazareth. It wasn’t as if he made no contacts with the people around them. It was very much the reverse. Jesus’ parents thought he might well be with family and friends, and even that it would be likely that this would be where he was. This tells us that Jesus had a socially active childhood, interacting and playing with friends and cousins who lived in the same town. He was welcome in their groups, and so doubtless he would have been welcome in their homes. Mary and Joseph did not hide him away or shelter him, but let him run and play and dream with his childhood friends.
We should not hide him away or shelter him in our hearts, either. We should share Jesus with our family and friends, so that they meet him, learn to love him, and put their faith in him. Don’t be stingy or selfish with your Savior. The more you share him, the more precious he is to us all.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota