For twelve years after his birth, a Jewish boy’s father would instruct him in the torah. This was before he entered into official participation in the religious life of the synagogue.
At the end of the twelfth year, the boy goes through a ceremony by which he formally takes on the “yoke” of the law and becomes a bar mitzvah or “son of the commandment.”
For all Jewish boys and also the 12-year-old Jesus, this included a visit to the Jerusalem temple with his parents.
Jesus appears here not as a learning little boy, but as a teacher who amazes the rabbis and religious teachers at the temple with his divine knowledge. “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47)
Then he stays behind when his parents head back to Nazareth and they think he’s lost but he explains, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49).
Jesus loves organized religion. Jesus loves worship. Jesus loves the church and its people, as imperfect as we are.
When you believe in Jesus, you love those things too.
Even when you’re 12.
PRAYER: Jesus, how can you love organized religion and church so much, when it’s so imperfect? You are full of grace to us. Can you fill me even more, to love the church like you do? To be gracious? Then I’ll help so that others love the church too. Amen.
EVANGELISM ACTION: Share this thought with a friend who says they like Jesus but not church: Jesus loves organized religion. Jesus loves worship. Jesus loves the church and its people, as imperfect as we are. When you believe in Jesus, you love those things too.
