Formative years

Sometimes childhood is referred to as our “formative years”. We learn our first language and a whole lot of other firsts. We absorb attitudes and biases, along with skills and experiences, that strongly influence what we will become as adults. Even our taste in food is shaped.

What were Jesus’s formative years like? We are given exactly one incident from Jesus’s childhood, the time he stayed in Jerusalem after Passover when he was twelve. (Luke 2:41-52) It takes all the years of our childhood to shape us. What can one incident tell us? In this case, I think quite a bit. This incident was carefully chosen and carefully written to tell us a lot more than we might first think.

Mary and Joseph didn’t realize Jesus wasn’t with the group going home—for a whole day. This tells us he was granted a lot of independence, something he must have earned by being trustworthy, mature and dependable. Clearly this wasn’t the first time he’d been trusted to be on his own.

When they finally located the missing boy, he was in the Temple, having deep discussions with the top rabbis. Not only does this tell us he was an exceptionally serious-minded youth, it tells us Mary and Joseph had permitted him—encouraged him—to study the scriptures at home. Jesus was astonished they didn’t immediately figure out where he would be. He wasn’t being rebellious or heedless of their feelings. They actually should have known.

After he was found, Luke tells us Jesus went home and was submissive to Mary and Joseph. I don’t think this implies he hadn’t been submissive before, but I think it does imply that he learned from the incident; learned to be more careful, and take into account other people’s concerns.

In fact, Luke goes on to say that “he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Growing taller is just natural, but growing in wisdom isn’t something every young person does automatically. Being sinless didn’t mean he didn’t have to learn. What we’re told here is that he did learn from his experiences, he applied what he learned, and this impressed people. More importantly, he grew in favor with God too. At his baptism 18 years later, God proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The guidance from Mary and Joseph, the guidance from the scriptures, and the use he made of what he learned, all combined to result in this great expression of God’s favor.

There are no accounts of anything else in Jesus’s childhood. However, we can infer some things from what we see in him later. For example: In general, Jews had contempt for the Samaritans, who were from mixed Jewish and non-Jewish ancestors, and worshipped in their own area rather than Jerusalem. Most Jews wouldn’t give a Samaritan the time of day. Yet Jesus was happy to have a serious religious conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. This surprised her and disgusted Jesus’s disciples. The Samaritan town invited Jesus to stay, and he did for two days. (See the whole account in John 4.) Something in his formative years developed in Jesus an attitude toward the Samaritans that was very different from most of those around him.

Jesus would later heal a Roman officer’s servant, in spite of the general hatred and loathing of most Jews toward the Roman occupiers. And he would heal a Canaanite woman’s daughter, another ethnic group hated by most Jews. Jesus simply did not share the biases of those around him. What formed such different attitudes in him?

Very likely you can think of additional things we can learn from the incident of the young Jesus in the Temple, and additional insights into his childhood based on how he behaved later. This would make a good topic for discussion in your study group.

Meanwhile, what can we gain for ourselves? As parents, grandparents or Sunday School teachers, we need to be mindful that we’re big contributors to the formative years of the children in our lives. It’s up to us to ensure the scriptures are an important part of their upbringing. And crucially, it’s up to us to guide them to reject the biases of the world—which will always be at odds with the attitudes God was pleased to see in His Son.

Love, Paul