“Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49
A festival journey, three days of searching, a boy in His Father’s house, and eighteen quiet years of growing. Walk the map, look closer, and grow alongside Him.
Every year Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover, a feast remembering how God freed Israel from Egypt. When Jesus was twelve, He went with them. After the feast His parents started home with a large group of relatives and friends, thinking Jesus was somewhere in the group. After a full day of travel they realized He was missing.
They searched for three days and found Him in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking them questions, and everyone was astonished at His understanding. When Mary told Him how worried they had been, He answered, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Then He went home with them, obeyed them and kept growing.
Who’s who
Jesus: twelve years old, already devoted to His Father’s work
Mary and Joseph: who searched for Him with sorrow
The doctors: teachers of the law in the temple
Where and when
Jerusalem and its temple at Passover time, then home again in Nazareth.
Watch for the Savior
His question to Mary shows He already knew who His Father was, and then He humbly went home and obeyed His parents.
Eight stops, from the Passover road to the workshop in Nazareth. Scroll, or tap a number on the map.
Part 2 of 7
The story, plainly
Four scenes: the road, the search, the temple and home. Look for the Savior in each one.
Read it plainly
The words that trip people up
Tap any dotted word for its meaning. The scripture stays exactly as written.1
Luke 1:43 “when they had Meaning: finished the days of the feast., as they returned, the child Jesus Meaning: stayed behind.”
Luke 1:44 “they sought him among their Meaning: relatives. and Meaning: friends and people they knew.”
Luke 1:46 “sitting in the midst of the Meaning: teachers of the law, not physicians.”
Luke 1:48 “thy father and I have sought thee Meaning: in anguish, deeply worried. (See Part 5.)”
Luke 1:49 “Meaning: didn’t you know. that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Luke 1:51 “was Meaning: obedient to them.”
Luke 1:52 “Jesus Meaning: grew, moved forward. (See Part 5.) in wisdom and Meaning: height and age; growing up in body., and in Meaning: grace, goodwill. with God and man”
Part 3 of 7
Look closer
This is a true account, not a parable. Some cards are details in the text; others share insights from prophets and Church resources, and each card says which.
0 of 9 turned
All nine. A feast, a crowded road, three days, His Father’s house, His questions, a mother’s heart, a workshop and a young tree growing from grace to grace. Luke 2:41–52
Part 4 of 7
Where are you on the road?
Mary and Joseph searched, found Him, and watched Him grow. Which part of the road feels most like you right now?
A next step for you
Your choice is saved only on this device.
Try it
Growing like Jesus
Luke sums up about eighteen years in one sentence: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Tap the things you’ll try this week and watch each part grow.
“We, too, should be moving from grace to grace.” President Ezra Taft Benson
Part 5 of 7
Their world, their words
A little background helps us see the feast, the journey and the temple courts. Outside sources are labeled.
Apostle · Talmage
Twelve years old
Elder Talmage: “At twelve years of age a Jewish boy was recognized as a member of his home community.” He was “appointed to higher studies in school and home.”7
At twelve, Jesus was taking His place among the people of God.
Apostle · Talmage
Traveling in companies
For the feast, “the people came from distant provinces in large companies.”7 So Mary and Joseph went on, “supposing him to have been in the company.”1
A boy could be missing for a day before anyone noticed.
Apostle · Talmage
Learning in the temple
“The rabbis of that time were accustomed to give instruction there.” But “never before had such a student been found.”7
What was unusual was not where He sat but who He was.
Scripture
The quiet years
Of the next eighteen years, Elder Talmage wrote, “the scriptures are silent save for one rich sentence of greatest import.”7 Modern revelation adds that He “continued from grace to grace.”3
Most of His growing up happened quietly, at home in Nazareth.
Word study · Greek
prokoptō προκόπτω · “increased” (Luke 2:52)
Bible Hub: “to cut forward (a way), advance.” Thayer’s lexicon says it once meant “to lengthen out by hammering (as a smith forges metals).”11Outside · lexicon
Growth like a path cut forward a step at a time. The Lord taught that Jesus “received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace.”3
Word study · Greek
odynaō ὀδυνάω · “sorrowing” (Luke 2:48)
Bible Hub: “to cause or suffer pain.” Thayer’s lexicon lists Luke 2:48 under “to torment or distress oneself.”12Outside · lexicon
Mary’s word is a strong one. Losing sight of Him hurt, and they did not stop looking until they found Him.1
What the text does not say
Luke doesn’t record what Jesus said to the teachers, only that they “were astonished at his understanding and answers.”1 We aren’t told whether He had been to the feast before: “whether the Boy had ever before been present on such an occasion we are not told.”7 Luke doesn’t say whether the “three days” include the day’s journey. And scripture gives no stories from the years in Nazareth, only that He grew.1
Part 6 of 7
Look to Him
His first words in scripture are about His Father. Everything He did after that was His Father’s business.
His first recorded words are about His Father: “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Even at twelve, He knew whose Son He was and why He had come.
“When still a boy He had all the intelligence necessary to enable Him to rule and govern the kingdom of the Jews, and could reason with the wisest and most profound doctors of law and divinity.”
The Prophet Joseph Smith, quoted in Scripture Helps8
“He garnered knowledge by study, and gained wisdom by prayer, thought, and effort.”
“We, too, should be moving from grace to grace in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. … May we all follow our leader, Jesus Christ.”
President Ezra Taft Benson, quoted in the New Testament Student Manual9
“Nevertheless, please pay close attention to what Jesus did! It is an example for what we must do if we are really to fulfill our duty to God.”
Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr., of the Seventy, “Our Duty to God,” 20019
Another Testament
Sent by His Father
The risen Lord taught the Nephites: “I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.” 3 Nephi 27:13
Another Testament
A tabernacle of clay
King Benjamin foresaw that “the Lord Omnipotent … shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay.” Mosiah 3:5
Part 7 of 7
Seek Him today
His question to Mary
“How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49
Jesus knew who He was and what He had come to do.1 You are a child of the same Heavenly Father, and He has work for you too. What is one piece of your Father’s business you can do this week?
Try it today
Each thing you do is a step from grace to grace. It saves on this device, one day at a time.
0 of 6 today
This week:0 of 7 days
Six steps of growing. Come again tomorrow.
A quiet moment
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
Read Luke 2:52 slowly. Jesus grew one day at a time. Ask Heavenly Father which part of you He wants to help grow next, and listen. Luke 2:52
A verse to hold
Talk about it
Why do you think Jesus stayed behind in the temple?
How do you think Mary and Joseph felt during those three days? How did they feel when they found Him?
The teachers were “astonished at his understanding.” What would you like to understand better?
Jesus went home and “was subject unto them.” What does honoring your parents look like at your house?
Open
For adults and deeper study
Go deeper
Longer readings, harder questions, and where to study next. Each one says what it is before you click.
Apostle
Elder Talmage, Jesus the Christ, chapter 9, “The Boy of Nazareth”
Explains what turning twelve meant, how families traveled to the Passover, why the temple courts were full of teachers, and the meaning of “my Father’s business.”7
Gathers prophetic teaching on Luke 2:46–52: President Faust on the temple in the Savior’s life, Elder Samuelson on being “subject unto them,” and President Benson on growing “from grace to grace.”9
President Thomas S. Monson, “Teach the Children” (1997)
Begins with the Boy Jesus in the temple, “We marvel at the mature wisdom of the boy,” and gives parents four ways to help children grow: teach prayer, inspire faith, live truth and honor God.10
Everything on this page as a 11-page letter-size PDF: the map, scenes, cards, activity, word studies, tracker, Go deeper and sources. For home, class or a quiet Sunday.
The Boy Jesus in the Temple is part of the Scripture Story Sketch Notes for the New Testament, set alongside Come, Follow Me for January 4–10, 2027 (Matthew 2; Luke 2).
Independent study notes from Weak Things, not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. This is a true account, not a parable; the insights in “Look closer” are labeled by source.
