THE BOY OF NAZARETH.
Nazareth was a little town high among the hills of Galilee. It still
stands there, but it is not so large a town as it was when Mary and
Joseph and the Child Jesus lived there. Then Galilee was full of
cities and villages, and men and women were busy among its fields, and
vineyards, and gardens, and the shores of the beautiful Lake of Galilee
were lined with the boats of fishermen.
Nazareth was more quiet than the crowded cities by the Lake. A great
green plain lay below it, and a narrow road winding among the limestone
rocks led up to it. Its streets were narrow and steep, and steps of
stone led from house to house. A fountain of pure water breaking out
of a rock was the meeting place of the women of Nazareth, who came with
their tall pitchers for water and bore them away upon their heads.
Here Mary often came tenderly leading the Holy Child. Perhaps He
gathered the bright wild flowers that grew thick around the fountain
and along the stream flowing from it. When he grew a little older He
could climb the rocks around His home, or go with His mother and Joseph
to the top of the hill from which they could see the snowy peak of
Hermon, or the long line of shining blue sea beyond the hills on the
west, or they would point out a slowly moving caravan of heavy-laden
camels from Tyre and Sidon by the sea on their way to Damascus.
Sometimes He would go with Joseph to the woods when a certain piece of
wood was needed, for Joseph was a carpenter, and in a lower room of his
humble house of rough white stone there was a long bench and the tools
of a wood-worker. Here, perhaps, the Holy Child played with the curled
shavings that fell from the bench, and watched the making of the plows,
the yokes, the doors, and the lattices until He was old enough to help
in the making of them.
He learned to read and write while a young child at home, as Jewish
children did, and His reading book was the Old Testament, which was the
Jews' Bible. Then He went to school at the Synagogue, which was the
Jews' Church, and there, we may be sure, He was a gentle, obedient
pupil, and a loving, unselfish playmate. While he read He may have had
many strange thoughts about the prophecies in the Book that were
promises of the Messiah, the King that was to reign in righteousness.
When He was twelve years old His parents took Him with them to the
Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem. Great companies of people went
from all parts of the Jews' country, and from every country in which
they had settled, to keep the feast that the Lord had commanded when
they were led out of Egypt. The very journey to Jerusalem was a
festival, for their friends joined the company from almost every house
in Nazareth, and on horses, and camels, and asses, the men walking
beside them, a happy group set forth from home to keep the Passover
week in the city of the great King. It was the first visit of the boy
Jesus to Jerusalem, and as He walked strong and beautiful beside
Joseph, what tender and holy thoughts, what questions about the future
must have filled the mind of Mary. He was going to see His Father's
House, the beautiful Temple where the thousands of Israel gathered
every year for worship and of which He had read in the Book of the Law,
for He was now old enough to be called a "Son of the Law," and verses
from the Bible folded in little boxes, had been tied upon his arm and
his forehead by the village Rabbi, as a sign that He was old enough to
think for Himself and go to the religious Feasts at Jerusalem.
When they reached the great public roads they found other companies of
pilgrims going up to the Holy City, and by their banners they knew the
tribe and city from which they came. There was music, also, of timbrel
and pipe and drum as the songs of Zion were sung along the way, or at
evening when they camped in the fields.
When they had climbed the steep Jericho road and the Mount of Olives, a
glorious sight opened before them. There lay the City of David shining
in the sun, its thick walls set with towers; its marble palaces, and
castles, and gardens, and, most wonderful of all, the Temple with its
hundreds of white marble pillars, its beautiful porches and arches,
and, rising within its richly-paved courts, the Holy Place with the sun
like fire upon its roof of gold. The people shouted and sang a song of
joy. Perhaps they sang that song of David beginning:
"I was glad when they said unto me
'Let us go into the house of the Lord,'
Our feet shall stand within thy gates,
O Jerusalem!"
Like thousands of others they pitched their tents outside of the walls,
perhaps on the slopes of Olivet, and after eating the Passover supper
together went daily into the Temple. To the Boy of Nazareth this must
have been the one charmed spot in all Jerusalem. Other boys loved to
watch the strange people from far countries, and wander among the
bazars, but Jesus stayed in the Temple. He saw the white-robed
priests, the altars, and the sacrifices; He saw the great curtains of
purple and gold that hid the Holy place, and He heard the Temple choirs
answer each other in song; He also saw the old Rabbis who taught and
answered questions daily in the outer courts, and stood long among the
listeners.
When the company from Nazareth began the Journey home, and had gone as
far as the plains of Jericho, Mary looked for her boy. She had not
been troubled about him, for she thought He was walking with the other
children, or with relatives, but when Joseph found that he was not with
them they went back over the long, steep road full of fear and anxiety.
They searched Jerusalem through, asking everybody they knew if they had
seen the Boy Jesus.
When they had been searching for three days, and Mary's heart was
almost broken, they went again to the Temple, and looking through a
crowd gathered around the Rabbis, Mary saw her Boy. She pressed
through to speak to Him, but He was speaking. She listened, and her
heart must have stood still to hear His simple, yet wonderful words.
Sometimes he asked questions which the old teachers could not answer,
and when he replied to the questions of the learned teachers His wisdom
astonished all who heard Him, for it was not like the wisdom of the
Rabbis, who used many words to explain the Word of God.
[Illustration: The Boy Jesus in the temple]
When Jesus saw His mother and came to her, she said,
"Son, why hast Thou so dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have
sought Thee sorrowing."
"How is it that ye sought me?" He said, "wist ye not that I must be
about my Father's business?"
They did not quite understand how He could so easily forget them, and
yet Mary, perhaps, remembered that the angel had told her that He
should "be called the Son of God," and that He was at home in His
Father's house.
But He was content to go home and be subject to His parents, so that
through all the world children may learn how He lived, and try to live
like Him.
He found that His Father's house was greater than the Temple, and under
its starry roof, and wandering over its wide courts paved with grass
and flowers, He learned more than the Rabbis could teach Him. And
every day He grew in wisdom as He grew in stature, and "in favor with
God and man."