孩童耶稣

十二岁的耶稣把他的父母吓坏了，这也难怪。他们还以为把神托付给他们照顾的这个神子弄丢了！

三天后，他们在圣殿里找到了耶稣。祂和教师们坐在一起：聆听、学习，讨论互动。所有人都感到很希奇。

他们当然会感到希奇了。耶稣本为神。祂比那些教师所知道的都要多。祂无所不知。我们可能会这么想，但事情实际并不是这样。这里所说的是，对于一个12岁的孩子来说，耶稣的表现让人希奇。

还有，当耶稣的父母在圣殿找到祂时，马利亚责备祂：“为什么向我们这样行呢？” 但耶稣并不以为然：“你们应该知道我在圣殿里”。

十二岁的耶稣面临一个问题。祂还没有弄清楚如何把祂对天父的义务和对地上父母的义务结合起来。这并没有什么错误，也不是什么罪过。知道如何平衡这些相互冲突的责任，这是一个普通十二岁的孩子——即便是十二岁的耶稣，都不具备的智慧。

没关系，耶稣不会永远停留在十二岁。随着祂年龄的增长，祂的智慧也会增长。

十二岁并不容易。我们知道的太多，理解的太少。我们迫不及待地想要快快长大。耶稣，关于成长的事你全明了，请帮助我们在你里面不断成长。

41每年到逾越节，他父母就上耶路撒冷去。42当他十二岁的时候，他们按着节期的规矩上去。43守满了节期，他们回去，孩童耶稣仍旧在耶路撒冷，他的父母并不知道，44以为他在同行的人中间。走了一天的路程，就在亲族和熟识的人中找他，45既找不着，就回耶路撒冷去找他。46过了三天，就遇见他在殿里，坐在教师中间，一面听一面问。47凡听见他的，都稀奇他的聪明和他的应对。48他父母看见就很稀奇。他母亲对他说：“我儿，为什么向我们这样行呢？看哪，你父亲和我伤心来找你！”49耶稣说：“为什么找我呢？岂不知我应当以我父的事为念吗？”50他所说的这话，他们不明白。51他就同他们下去，回到拿撒勒，并且顺从他们。他母亲把这一切的事都存在心里。52耶稣的智慧和身量，并神和人喜爱他的心，都一齐增长。

The Boy Jesus

"Jesus grew in wisdom." - Luke 2:52

英语音频 English Audio

Twelve-year-old Jesus scares the wits out of his parents. And no wonder. They think they've lost him—the holy child that God entrusted to them!

After three days, they find Jesus at the temple. He's sitting there with the teachers: listening and learning, asking questions and giving answers. And everyone is amazed.

Of course they're amazed. Jesus is God. He knows more than any of those teachers. He knows everything. That's what we might think. But that really won't do. What's going on here is that Jesus is amazing for a twelve-year-old.

Something else is going on too. When Jesus' parents find him at the temple, Mary scolds him: "How could you do this to us?" But Jesus doesn't get it: "You should have known I would be at the temple."

Twelve-year-old Jesus has a problem. He hasn't figured out how to put together his sense of obligation to his heavenly Father with his obligations to his earthly father and mother. There's nothing wrong with that, nothing sinful about it. It's simply beyond the wisdom of a twelve-year-old—even the twelve-year-old Jesus—to know how to balance those competing obligations.

That's okay. Jesus won't be twelve forever. And as he grows up, he will grow in wisdom.

Prayer

It's not easy being twelve. We know so much and understand so little. And we can't wait to grow up. Jesus, you know all about growing up. Help us to grow up in you. Amen.