Did Jesus ever get in trouble as a kid?

The short answer

The only time the Gospels show Jesus upsetting anyone as a child is when he stayed behind in Jerusalem at twelve. His parents were scared and upset. Beyond that one story, the Gospels are quiet about his boyhood.

What the record says

In Luke’s Temple story, his mother says, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you.” (Luke 2:48) Most parents would call that being in trouble.

Right after, Luke says he went home with them, and “He was subject to them” (Luke 2:51). In plain words, he obeyed his parents.

Christians believe Jesus never sinned. The letter to the Hebrews says he “has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) Even so, the Temple story shows his parents upset with him at least once. The Gospels do not give us other stories from those years.

How Son of Man tells it

Son of Man is a novel. It imagines the years the Gospels skip. In chapter three, “The Ridge”, the novel imagines Yeshua at nine, drifting during a lesson and drawing his teacher’s face in charcoal on the stone floor. When the teacher asks why, Yeshua says:

“Because your face is interesting. The left side is different from the right.”

Many in his village read the law as forbidding pictures, and that evening the elders come to Joseph’s workshop. He tells them he does not believe he did wrong. He also says he will do whatever his father decides. Joseph rules no more drawings, and Yeshua keeps that promise.