The great feast of the Jews was on, and Joseph, Mary and their son, and many of their kin, went to Jerusalem. The child was ten years old.
2 And Jesus watched the butchers kill the lambs and birds and burn them on the altar in the name of God.
3 His tender heart was shocked at this display of cruelty; he asked the serving priest, What is the purpose of this slaughter of the beasts and birds? Why do you burn their flesh before the Lord?
4 The priest replied, This is our sacrifice for sin. God has commanded us to do these things, and said that in these sacrifices all our sins are blotted out.
5 And Jesus said, Will you be kind enough to tell when God proclaimed that sins are blotted out by sacrifice of any kind?
6 Did not David say that God requires not a sacrifice for sin? that it is sin itself to bring before his face burnt offerings, as offerings for sin? Did not Isaiah say the same?
7 The priest replied, My child, you are beside yourself. Do you know more about the laws of God than all the priests of Israel? This is no place for boys to show their wit.
8 But Jesus heeded not his taunts; he went to Hillel, chief of the Sanhedrim, and he said to him,
9 Rabboni, I would like to talk with you; I am disturbed about this service of the pascal feast. I thought the temple was the house of God where love and kindness dwell.
10 Do you not hear the bleating of those lambs, the pleading of those doves that men are killing over there? Do you not smell that awful stench that comes from burning flesh?