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By TOM KASTNER

Special to the News & Record

Before his ministry, the only documented events in the life of Jesus, according to the Gospels, are his birth and his appearance in the Temple during Passover when he was 12 years old.

Herod died in 4 B.C. Jesus was born while Herod was alive. Therefore, the latest year for the birth of Jesus is 4 B.C.

This Passover could well have been the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ appearance in the Temple when he was 12. That event transformed him from child to man in Jewish culture and tradition and in the history of the Christian Church.

Why haven’t I heard or read anything in the public forum, or, for that matter, in the Christian forum, about such a monumental anniversary of this event?

Even if 6 B.C. is taken as the year of his birth, as some Biblical scholars suggest, I do not recall any discussion of the 2,000th anniversary of this event in 2007.

Whatever the year of his birth, we are at least close enough to the 2,000th anniversary of His appearance in the temple to note this seminal event in the life of the Christian Lord and Savior and to begin a new exploration of his life and teachings.
When he appeared in the temple that Passover and conversed with the elders, the course of his life was ordained. From the temple, at age 12, he walked, through the ensuing 18 years, unerringly to the cross, always knowing his destiny and destination. Yet he persisted in his desire to open the minds and hearts of his fellow human beings.

As J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in the Lord of the Rings,

“The road goes ever on and on,

“Down from the door where it began.

“Now far ahead the Road has gone,

“And I must follow if I can . . .”

When Jesus stepped into the temple that day he stepped out of the door of his childhood and onto the road to the cross and the Christian faith.

This Passover could well be the 2,000th anniversary of the start of the most incredible and significant journey ever undertaken by a human being. Each day, for the next 18years, will be a day that he “[I]ncreased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52.

The least we can do to note that watershed in human knowledge and wisdom is to symbolically walk with Him, for the next 18 years, on his journey through his life and teachings to the cross.

Tom Kastner lives in Greensboro.