With consummate artistry the contralto sang the moving spiritual, "Lit'l Boy, How Ole Are You?" This refrain receives the repeated response, "Sir, I'm only twelve years old." The dialogue refers of course to the experience of the child Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem. There, after a three-day search, the Bible tells us, his parents found him "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." And the account continues, "And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." Luke 2:46, 47;
As I listened to the spiritual for the first time I thought, "Why, that was Jesus' university experience!" Then I recalled a statement by Robert Maynard Hutchins: "A university is not a collection of buildings, nor a collection of books, nor even a collection of students. It is a community of scholars." University of Chicago Magazine, Vol. LXIX, No. 4, 1977; Jesus was indeed participating, though briefly, in a community of scholars. He listened to the learned men, questioned them, and responded to their queries.
Is there significance in the fact that the only gospel record of Christ Jesus' boyhood is this intellectual experience? Was this encounter a small but an essential step in the preparation for his later ministry? For his teaching and healing in the synagogues, for his future contacts with rulers and lawyers? When rebuked by his parents for his absence, the twelve-year-old Jesus replied, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Luke 2:49;
