Thank you for the kind comments about this blog series as well as the new design.
Today’s question is a common one:
Why Is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus never mentioned past the story of Jesus at the age of 12? Why isn’t Mary mentioned after the resurrection?
To be perfectly honest, we can only guess as to the reason why Joseph isn’t mentioned after Jesus turned 12 years of age. The same is true with Mary’s sudden disappearance from the pages of Scripture.
Most theologians generally agree that Joseph likely passed away soon after the events mentioned in Luke 2:41–50. According to the passage, Jesus was twelve when those events occurred. That means Joseph was clearly part of Jesus’ childhood. Joseph was a carpenter, and he most likely passed on much of his passion for carpentry to his son during those early years.
We forget that Joseph was older that Mary. Perhaps much older. It was certainly common in that culture for older men to marry young woman (read: girls). And so, Joseph may have easily passed away of old age around the time of Jesus’ teen years. However, we really are just guessing. The Bible gives no clear indication of what happened to Joseph, and as a result, we can only speculate.
The same is true of Mary. We do know that she was around throughout Jesus’ life. After his death and resurrection, we still see Mary in the story for a short period of time. But then, all mention of her stops.
There could be a number of reasons for this:
- Mary may have passed away. We know that the death of Jesus happened around his 33rd year. That would likely put Mary in her early 50’s. That’s a good life for someone of her culture. Mary may have simply passed away soon after the death and resurrection of her son.
- Mary completed her role. Another possible reason why we have no mention of Mary after the resurrection is that her part of the “story” was complete. After all, her calling was to give birth to the Messiah. She protected him in his youth, raised him as God had directed her, and followed him into his ministry years. After his resurrection, she may have turned her focus to her other children — the siblings of Jesus. For all we know, Mary may have lived many years after Jesus’ resurrection. The fact that she isn’t mentioned really doesn’t give us any hints.
What can we know when it comes to Joseph and Mary? We can know that they lived out their purpose. They fulfilled the roles that God asked them to play. That’s a great lesson for each of us. We have no idea how significant our role will be in telling the “story of God”, but whatever it is, we can choose to live our role well.
