Jesus Comes of Age

Court of the Women in Jerusalem

At the age of twelve Jesus went with his family to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. The author depicts a scene when Jesus and Mary were together in the Court of the Women. Jesus was attempting to understand the practice of burnt offerings as against the psalmist’s admonition in Palm 51, “For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased, the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not spurn.”

While Jesus was pondering reconciling these two realities Mary knelt at his side and prayed –

 “Father in heaven, I have brought him safe into thy house who is Thy pledge to the world. Behold, he is grown to manhood, but in seeing and hearing he is not like to other men. For his young heart is bruised by our sinful lives and his spirit troubled by the injustice he has met so soon in his way. Even now, standing at my side, he burns with the sacred indignation that raged in Thy Prophets. With contempt he views the flesh and fat they kindle on Thy altar, and like Isaiah he demands that the heart alone be offered before Thee.

“I know not to what paths he shall be led, nor what road Thou hast paved for him. But I do see him, like a launched arrow, speeding toward the target Thou dids't set, and my heart trembles between joy and fear. Father, I fear for him, for I see the walls of fire in his path. He is too young, Father in heaven; the thread of his life is too frail. For a little while yet, let him see the flowers, not the thorns. Leave him to me for a little while longer. And teach me what to do, Father in heaven, for I am in awe of the power of his spirit and feel too weak to be his mother.     Mary, by Sholem Asch, pp. 256-257