Yesterday we spoke of Jesus in the temple as a youth during the Passover and I asked if there was anything else to be learned here. Let us look to that first line of scripture and see.

Luke 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. 

Psalm 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Jesus was not born with a dead spirit, His Father, being God the Father, begat a living spirit. We who were the begotten of Adam have inherited the dead and dusty spirit wherein Adam died spiritually in the garden. Not so with Jesus.

There was in Jesus the ability to be filled with wisdom and grace with the Father that was not available to us as dead spirits. His spirit did not need quickening, ours does. At the time of this telling Jesus might have turned 13, became a man after the flesh, Jewish tradition, and as such was willing to be a man and “go about my Father’s business.” He could have done so in the power of His on strengthen.

Where would that have left us?

Matthew 3:11 (John the Baptist) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

While Jesus did not need His Spirit quickened, His baptism demonstrated to us how we can be quickened in the spirit. He did it for our sake, not His own. All the wisdom and grace that Jesus had since His birth, we can have after being born again. (John 3:3)

Luke 2:40-51

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Do you see it? Jesus was twelve when they went to Jerusalem for the Passover and might have become a man, Bar Mitzvah’d, before His parents left to return home.

Another telling sign here is that they did not find him for three days.

What else can we glean from these scriptures?