Each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety."
And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
Source: https://dailygospel.org/M/AM/
Analysis
This passage is very interesting and important, as this is our only mention of Jesus' childhood in the Gospels. Specifically, this passage describes the event where Jesus strayed into the Temple and His parents went looking for Him. Essentially, every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for Passover, and since Jesus was already twelve years old at that time, He was taken with them to Jerusalem. After they had finished their duties, they were going to return, only to realize that little Jesus is nowhere to be seen. They thought that Jesus is in the caravan, and looked for Him among relatives and friends. They eventually returned to Jerusalem and found Him in the temple after three days.
Apparently, Jesus was busy discussing with the teachers, about something, which I infer to be the Torah and the Jewish scriptures. His parents was astonished as well as those who heard and saw Jesus there, and Mary scolded Jesus, asking Jesus why He had left them, His answer is particularly mysterious for a twelve year old boy. He answered, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" Eventually Jesus went back with His parents, though they have no idea what Jesus was saying, and returned to Nazareth. Mary then kept these peculiar events in her heart, basically remembering it for eternity. Let's see what this means, shall we?
This passage gives us strong evidence that Jesus had knowledge and deep understanding of the Torah, and thus God Himself since He was young. This is proof for His Divine nature, it's only natural for Him to retain all of His knowledge. As such, we can also assume that He has knowledge of something else, His own death and the impending doom and damnation He is going to face, a curse that He put unto Himself by His own choice. This has a major implication, that is Jesus has always known what is going to happen, perhaps even when He was born or before He was born. Such knowledge is certainly a burden to anyone, even Jesus Himself, and this burden scarred Him for life, a scar that is unknown and unexpressed.
Knowing that eventually you will die in more ways than one and that you will feel great suffering for yourself is not healthy for the mind. This is the reason why Jesus answered in a way that is uncharacteristic of a child. Jesus' words has no relation with His curse of knowledge though, though it has deep meaning. Since Jesus and the Father, that is God is one and the same, when Jesus said that He must be in His Father's house, He is saying that He needs to be in His house. This house refers to the temple that Jesus was in when He was found by His parents. But why would Jesus go there in the first place? Shouldn't He just stay with His parents? Well, just because He has the knowledge, it does not mean that His young brain would be able to process it that well, which explains His unusual behavior. His weird words is evidence of Jesus constantly hiding His true self from everyone, and this makes sense as no child would say something that serious with a very straight face and tone. I believe that is all I have to say, have a nice day and see you later.
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