What happened when Jesus’ parents found Him?

Jesus’ lesson in the temple came to a rather abrupt halt when Joseph and Mary finally found their Son. Their anxiety and exasperation are certainly easy to understand from any parent’s point of view: “When they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously’” (Luke 2:48).

This was probably not the first time—and it certainly would not be the last—that Jesus’ innocent motives would be misunderstood and misconstrued. Nor should His reply to Joseph and Mary be read as an insolent retort. Jesus was truly amazed that they hadn’t known exactly where to look for Him. “He said to them, ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’” (Luke 2:49). Mary, of course, was referring to Joseph when she said “your father.” Jesus, however, was calling God “My Father.” (Plainly Jesus already had a clear sense of who He was and where His true accountability lay.) But at the moment, Jesus’ parents were so overwhelmed with relief to have found Him, so amazed to find Him at the feet of these prominent rabbis, and so fatigued from the whole ordeal that “they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them” (Luke 2:50).

Luke ended this singular glimpse at Jesus’ childhood with this wrap-up:

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:51–52)

That is the end of Luke 2, and it is a perfect summary of Jesus’ boyhood.