8/28/2023 0 Comments Jesus growing up clipartWhen the children were all tired, they took Jesus back to Mary, saying, “Thank you for letting Jesus play with us. In the market place they played lovely games, running races, or ‘catch.’ “Oh, yes,” cried all the children, and away they ran, taking Jesus by the hand. “Yes”, said Mary, “if you will take care of Him.” ![]() Sometimes little friends came to the door and said: “Please can Jesus come to play in the market place with us?” Then he fetched some water from the big jar to mix the flour into dough, and gathered some sticks and dry grass to make a fire for baking the bread. When Mary ground the corn into flour between two large flat stones, Jesus brought her the corn in His little basket. Then he helped Mary get their breakfast of flat bread-cakes and olives and figs, or ran by her side when she went to the well in the village street to fill her big water-jar. ![]() When they got up early in the morning, Mary opened the door wide to let in the bright sunshine, while Jesus helped Joseph to roll up their mat beds, and put them away on the shelf. Jesus grew bigger and stronger every day, and soon wanted to help Mother in the little house. When Jesus was old enough to walk, He loved to go into Joseph’s workshop and play with the curly shavings, or build with the little blocks of wood which fell from Joseph’s saw. Sometimes he made a chest in which to keep clothes, sometimes a wooden bin for storing corn, or a plough for the farmer to use in his fields. In his workshop Joseph was very busy all day, sawing long planks of wood, planing them smooth, and nailing them together to make all sorts of things for the people of the village and the farms around Nazareth. ![]() It was a little different from most of the houses in the village, because Joseph had a workshop next to the house, where he worked as a carpenter. The site is marked today by the Church of the Holy Family, a church built by the Crusaders in the 12 th century.After Mary and Joseph had been to the Temple Church they went back to their own village of Nazareth, where they lived in a little square white house. The spot where Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus was missing on the journey home is believed to be the town of Al-Bireh near Ramallah, a full day’s journey north of Jerusalem. Jesus had travelled with Mary and the other children on previous occasions, but as he is fast approaching manhood, Mary probably assumes that he is travelling with Joseph and the other men.Įventually, Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the courtyards of the Temple in Jerusalem, and are astonished when he says to them “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) Jewish parents would have been surprised to hear that a lively teenager was so keen to spend time discussing his heavenly Father’s words with the teachers in the Temple. The women and children (who travel more slowly) set off before the men, and when the men catch up with them later in the day, Jesus’s absence is noticed. 2:44-52 When it’s time to leave after the festival, Mary and Joseph travel a whole day before realising that Jesus isn’t with their relatives and friends from Nazareth. It’s quite normal for a Jewish boy like Jesus to be invited to read the scriptures in public on his thirteenth birthday, but the rabbis are amazed and fascinated by the maturity of Jesus’s questions and his understanding of the Jewish law.Ĭolonnaded porticoes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Luke 2:46) It’s quite possible that Jesus celebrates his thirteenth birthday during the Passover festival (see the feature on Beit Sahur earlier in this section for a discussion on the date of Jesus's birthday). Just before his thirteenth birthday, in c.7AD, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, as usual, with his family for the Passover festival, and soon becomes totally engrossed in discussing the Jewish scriptures with the teachers in the Temple courts. They are usually invited to read publicly from the Jewish scriptures, having been taught Hebrew as a child at their local synagogue. They become responsible for their own actions, and play a full role in Jewish religious ceremonies. 2:42-43 As in Jesus’s day, Jewish boys are traditionally considered to become adults at the age of thirteen – when they become a ‘Bar Mitzvah’ (a son to whom the commandments apply). They live too far away to visit Jerusalem three times a year, but always manage to get there for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the ‘Passover Festival’) (see Exodus 23:14-17) and Jesus no doubt goes with them. Every year, his parents follow the Jewish custom of going up to Jerusalem for a religious festival. 2:40-41 As a child, Jesus grows in wisdom and in stature, close to God and popular with all those he meets.
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