Question Box: What did Jesus do before beginning his ministry?

Q: What do we know about the life of Jesus between the time he was found in the temple at the age of 12 and the beginning of his public ministry?

A: Isn’t that a wonderful thing to ponder? I have also often wondered about this “hidden life” of Jesus with his parents in Naz­ar­eth. Unfor­tunately, the Gospels don’t offer us much on this. For that matter, we don’t have much between Jesus’ birth and the incident in the temple at age 12, other than the flight into Egypt, and that is only mentioned in Matthew’s Gospel.

What can we guess? Obviously, by the time he was 12 he was already able to match wits with his elders in the temple: “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers” (Lk 2:46-47). This tells us that he had some learning even by then. He would have been instructed in reading, writing and in the law and the prophets.

Some may argue that because Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore fully God, that he came with infused knowledge, even in his humanity. I suppose that could be, but personally I don’t buy it. Why? It doesn’t square with his modus operandi in the Incarnation. What is more truly human than our need to learn and grow? Without denying in any way his full divinity, I don’t think Jesus took any shortcuts in his human education.

In the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World from the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, we read: “By his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every man [and woman]. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart” (para. 22).

Following Jesus’ presentation in the temple 40 days after his birth, we read: “When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Lk 2:39-40).

We can safely assume that after the age of 12, as before, Jesus continued to learn and grow. Luke’s Gospel simply recounts that after this episode he “went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart,” as mothers do.

Isn’t it amazing to think of Jesus not just as a tiny baby in swaddling clothes or as a full grown adult, but as a toddler, a young child, a teenager, and a young adult? Even his response to his parents in the temple smacks a little of a surly tween: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49).

Other than that, it is a fair assumption that he would have learned the craft of his foster father, St. Joseph, who was a carpenter. In Matthew’s Gospel we read about the people’s astonishment at Jesus in his home synagogue: “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 54-55).

And how about living at home until he was 30? Like today, this was probably not the norm. Then again, it makes sense given that he did not marry. Perhaps the best we can say is that in these hidden years, Jesus took full advantage of the “school of Nazareth.”

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)