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46
Humble Hero
rites of the Passover service. Day by day, He saw their meaning more
clearly. Every act seemed involved with His own life. New impulses
were awakening within Him. Silent and absorbed, He seemed to
be studying out a great problem. The mystery of His mission was
opening to the Savior.
Completely focused on contemplating these scenes, Jesus lin-
gered in the temple courts when the Passover services ended. When
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the worshipers left Jerusalem, He was left behind.
In this visit, Jesus’ parents wanted to bring Him into contact
with the great teachers in Israel. They hoped He might be impressed
by the learning of the rabbis and would pay more attention to their
requirements. But in the temple, Jesus had been taught by God.
What He had received, He began at once to share.
An apartment connected with the temple had been made into a
sacred school. Here the Child Jesus came, seating Himself at the feet
of the learned rabbis. As One seeking for wisdom, He questioned
these teachers regarding the prophecies and about events then taking
place that pointed to the coming of the Messiah.
His questions suggested deep truths that had been hidden for
a long time but were vital to salvation. While showing how the
wisdom of the wise men was narrow and superficial, every question
placed truth in a new light. The rabbis spoke of the wonderful
exaltation that the Messiah’s coming would bring to the Jews, but
Jesus presented the prophecy of Isaiah and asked the meaning of
those Scriptures that point to the suffering and death of the Lamb of
God. See
Isaiah 53
.
The doctors turned on Him with questions and were amazed at
His answers. With the humility of a child, He gave the words of
Scripture a depth of meaning that the wise men had not imagined.
The lines of truth He pointed out, had they been followed, would
have worked a reformation in the religion of the day; and when Jesus
began His ministry, many would have been prepared to receive Him.
In this thoughtful Galilean Boy, the rabbis recognized great
promise. They wanted to have charge of His education. A mind so
original, they thought, must be brought under their molding.
The words of Jesus moved their hearts as they had never before
been moved by words from human lips. God was seeking to give
light to those leaders. If Jesus had seemed to be trying to teach