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Fifth Joyful Mystery ~ Finding of Jesus in the Temple
Mary and
Joseph [having lost Jesus for three days] went up to the temple to lay their
sorrows again before the Lord. They went in by the eastern gate. Now, close to
this gate there was a spacious room, a sort of Academy, in which the
interpreters of the law sat, and answered questions, and resolved doubts, and
moderated in disputations. By the opening into this Academy Joseph and Mary had
to pass. It was not a likely place for them to enter. But the Mother’s ear has
caught a sound, in which it was impossible that she should be mistaken. It is
the voice of Jesus. They enter. The doctors are looking on Him with a mixture
of awe and pleasure. There has never been such a doctor in that Academy
before. Joseph and Mary also wondered.
She had never heard quite that tone of voice before. She had never seen that
light in His eye before. Her soul worshipped in His presence.
But she came
forward, and said to Him, “Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father
and I have sought Thee, sorrowing.”
Jesus could
see that, without her saying it. He could see the ravages which grief had made
in her countenance. He could hear it in her voice weak and trembling. He could
see it in the feebleness which was letting the flush of joy almost overpower
her. But He had no need so to see and hear it. He had never been away from her.
He had been lying in her heart the whole while. He had been meting out to her
just those supplies both of physical strength and of heavenly grace, which were
needed to enable her to endure. His Own heart had been crucified with hers. But
the mystery was not over. He said to them, “How is it that you sought Me? Did
you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” He has taken out
Simeon’s sword, and thrust in His Own. Why had Mary sought Him? Oh, think of
Bethlehem, the wilderness, Egypt, and Nazareth! Why had she sought Him? Poor
Mother! Could she have done otherwise than seek Him? How could she have lived
without Him? There were a thousand reasons why she should have sought Him.
If He is
going to part with her now at that very eastern gate of the temple, which was a
type of herself, nevertheless she will love Him as before, and not only as
before, but a thousand times more. That look, that tone, when He was among the
doctors— they have gone deep into her soul. To her, they were absolute
revelations of God. Is the darkness gone? Far from it! For the moment He has
thickened it by His words, “They understood not the word that He had spoken
unto them.” But He is not going to leave her. He has been about His heavenly
Father’s business in Jerusalem. Now, the same business takes Him back to
Nazareth. And He, so much more lovely; and she, so much more holy; and Joseph,
nearer to God than ever, and more like the shadow of the Eternal Father since
the late eclipse, went back upon their way to Nazareth, where, for eighteen
unbroken years— with the annual visits to Jerusalem— Mary shall enjoy His
sanctifying presence; and by His toil in the shop it shall appear that His
heavenly Father's and His earthly father's business were but one.
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