JESUS STAYED at the school in the village church until he was twelve
years old. By that time he could read and write and could also repeat
many verses. But as his reading book and spelling book and copy book and
memory verses were all in the Bible, and as he heard long readings from
its books at the church service, we may be sure that he knew quite well
all the best things in that best of all books, the Bible. One proof of
this is that in later years, when anyone tried to puzzle him with a hard
question, he often answered promptly with a sentence from the Bible.
A Jewish boy generally left school at the age of twelve, unless he
wished to become a rabbi, which was the name among the Jews for a
teacher of their law. If that was his wish or the purpose of his
parents, he was sent up to Jerusalem to study in the college held by the
scribes or teachers in the Temple. Saul of Tarsus, a boy about four
years younger than Jesus, whom we know as Paul the Apostle, was a
student in the Temple college, but Jesus was not. While the young Saul
was studying in Jerusalem, Jesus as a young man was working in the
carpenter shop at Nazareth.
When Jesus was twelve years old he was taken on his first journey from
Nazareth up to Jerusalem to attend the great feast of the Passover.
Three great feasts were held during the year. The feast of the Passover
was in the early spring, and kept in mind the great day when the
Israelites went out of Egypt, no longer slaves but free men. The feast
of the Pentecost was held in the late spring, just fifty days after the
Passover--the word "pentecost" meaning "fifty days"--and reminded the
people that fifty days after their fathers went out of Egypt, God gave
them their law amid lightning and thunder on Mount Sinai. The feast of
the Tabernacles, or "feast of tents" (for that is the meaning of the
word tabernacles), was held in the fall; and at this time the people
built for themselves huts of green branches, ate in them and slept in
them for a week, to show the outdoor life of the early days in the
wilderness, while they were marching to Canaan, the Promised Land. These
three great feasts were held in Jerusalem, and from every part of the
land the people came up to the city to attend them.
It was a great event when the boy Jesus for the first time went on this
journey to Jerusalem. The younger children were left at home, under the
care of some friend, for a boy did not begin attending these feasts
until he was twelve years old. Of course, Joseph and Mary knew all about
this journey, for they had made it many times. They went in the caravan
or company from Nazareth, following the road that Joseph and Mary had
taken on their way to Bethlehem, twelve years before. As they journeyed,
Mary seated on the ass, Joseph and the boy Jesus walking beside her,
they would talk about the places which they passed, and the stories of
old times told about them. Jesus knew all those stories, for every
Jewish boy had heard them, over and over.
As they paused on the top of the hill beside Nazareth, below them was
spread out the great plain of Esdraelon, and they would say, "That
mountain by the Great Sea on the west is Mount Carmel, where Elijah
built his altar and made his great offering, when in answer to his
prayer the fire came down from heaven and burned up the bullock laid on
the altar. Do you see that road running across the plain? On that road
Elijah ran in front of King Ahab's chariot, after the long drought, when
the rain was coming. And then, this plain! Over it from Mount Tabor,
there on the left, Deborah and Barak chased the flying Canaanites across
the plain. Do you see that second mountain beyond Tabor? That is Mount
Gilboa; and at its foot Gideon with his brave three hundred frightened
at night the Midianite host and won a great victory."
[Illustration: Mount Tabor and the plain of Esdraelon]
They went down into the Jordan valley and walked southward by the Roman
road, following the Jordan River. At one place the mountains on either
side came down close to the river, and there was barely room for the
road between the foaming stream on one side and the steep rocks on the
other.
"Look," said Joseph, "this is the place where the waters rose up and
stood in a heap when our fathers under Joshua were about to cross the
river, thirty miles below."
They crossed a brook which fell into the river; and Joseph said, "Do you
see this brook? Up there among the mountains was the place where the
prophet Elijah was fed by the ravens; for this is the brook Cherith."
They came to the place just above Jericho where under Joshua the
Israelites walked across the dry bed of the river, the holy ark carried
by the priests in front and the people following in a long procession.
There the river is very wide and quite shallow, so that people walk
across, except in the early spring, when it is swollen by the rains and
the melting snow on the high mountains far to the north.
[Illustration: The Temple of Herod restored by Fergusson. The covered
portico on the left is the royal porch extending along the southern side
of the Temple area. The colonnade running from left to right is
Solomon's porch extending across the eastern side of the area. The
courts were much larger than as here shown.]
[Illustration: At last his parents found Jesus in the Temple, the center
of a company of learned scholars; he was asking questions of them and
they were asking questions of him, while all around were people
listening and wondering at this boy's deep knowledge of the truth.]
There they would point out across the river Mount Nebo, where Moses
stood looking upon the land and then all alone lay down and died. They
stopped for a rest at Jericho, where were stories to tell of the walls
that fell down when the Israelites marched around them, and the
priests blew their ram's-horn trumpets. Perhaps they stopped and drank
at the great spring near Jericho where the water was made pure by Elisha
the prophet. And after a climb up to the mountains, at the end of six
days or a week, they came to Jerusalem, the end of their journey, and
the place called by the people "the holy city."
And then, there was the splendid Temple of God! How the boy's heart was
stirred as he walked over the bridge leading from Mount Zion to Mount
Moriah! They went into the great outside court, the court of the
Gentiles, the only place in the Temple where foreigners were allowed to
enter; and the boy Jesus was shocked to see that it had been turned into
a market, where cattle and sheep and doves were sold, and where tables
stood around for the men who changed foreign money into Jewish shekels.
Over the eastern wall and the Golden Gate, they saw the Mount of Olives,
then covered to the top with vineyards and olive trees and gardens. They
climbed up a flight of steps and passed through a gate called "the
Beautiful Gate," into a smaller court, like the outer court open to the
sky. This was named "The Court of the Women" because from its
lattice-covered gallery the women looked down on the altar and the
services of worship. Jesus noticed that in this Court of the Women were
many classes of young men studying, seated in a circle, listening to
their teachers. How he longed to sit down among them and listen to these
wise scholars; for though only a boy, he had thought deeply on many
things which he had read, and many questions had come to his mind which
he greatly desired to have answered. He saw the sacrifice offerings laid
on the altar and burned, while trumpets sounded and censers of incense
were waved and the priests chanted the psalms of David.
While the family were in Jerusalem they found friends with whom they
stayed, and in their house the Passover feast was eaten. It was a very
simple meal, just a roasted lamb, some vegetables and bread made without
yeast, in thin cakes, like soda biscuit, only larger. They ate the meal
lying down on couches around the table, their heads toward the table,
their feet away from it. It was the custom or rule of the Jews, at this
feast, to have the story of the first Passover. Perhaps Joseph said to
Jesus:
"My son, you know what took place when this passover was eaten for the
first time. Tell us the story."
[Illustration: David street, Jerusalem, looking toward Olivet]
Then the boy Jesus told of the terrible plagues that fell upon the land
of Egypt; of the last and greatest sorrow, the death of the oldest son
in every house; how the Israelites sprinkled their door-posts with the
blood of the slain lamb and were passed over by this death-angel; how
they ate the lamb on that night, dressed for their journey; and how they
went out of Egypt and marched through the Red Sea.
The family were in Jerusalem for a week, and every day Jesus went up to
the Temple to worship in its services and to learn what he could from
its teachers. The last day of their visit came, and at its close the
families going to Galilee met together for their homeward journey. A
horn was blown and the caravan or company started northward. Mary missed
her son, but thought that he was somewhere in the crowd, talking with
other boys of his own age. But when night came, the company stopped to
rest and Jesus did not appear. Mary was alarmed. They looked through all
the crowd, but no Jesus was to be found.
Then in great trouble, Joseph and Mary hastened back to Jerusalem,
looking for their boy. They asked for him among the friends at whose
house they had stayed, but he had not been there. They wandered up and
down the narrow streets, but while they saw many groups of boys, their
boy was not among them. At last, on the third day, they looked for him
in the Temple. In one of its courts a crowd of people were listening to
the teachers who seemed to be talking with someone. They drew near, and
Mary's heart began to beat as she suddenly heard a boy's voice sounding
from the middle of the throng. She knew that voice, in its clear, rich,
honest tone! She pressed her way in; and there stood her boy, the center
of a company of the learned scholars. He was asking questions of these
men, and they in their answers were asking him questions in turn, while
all around were people listening and wondering at this boy's deep
knowledge of the truth.
Mary hastily rushed up to Jesus, and said:
"My son, why have you treated us so unkindly? Your father and I have
been looking for you, in great trouble, for three days!"
Jesus looked up at his mother's face, with surprise, and said:
"Why should you look for me? Did you not know that I would be in my
Father's house?"
Evidently on the last day of their stay, he had slipped away for one
more visit to the Temple; and once there his mind and heart had been so
full that no thought of the home-going had come to him. He had just
stayed there in the courts of the Lord's house without a thought of the
outside world.
Where had he slept on those two nights? Who had given him food during
those three days? He might have lain down, as thousands did during the
feast, under the olive trees on the Mount of Olives. Some stranger may
have seen him and invited him to a meal. But it would not be strange if
in his deep, whole-souled interest, he had never thought of food and had
eaten nothing during those three days.
But without a word he took his mother's hand and walked out of the
Temple. He made the journey home to Nazareth, saying little but thinking
much of all that he had seen and heard. One great, precious truth at
least had come home to his heart. He felt that the Lord God of Israel
was his own Father and he could trust fully the Father God.
The Young Woodworker