Luke 2:46-52

Luke 2:46-52

And after three days became, they found Him in the temple while sitting in the midst of the teachers and while listening to them and while asking questions of them.  And all the ones who heard him were astounded upon His understanding and answers.  And after seeing Him, they were overwhelmingly amazed and His mother said to Him, “Why did you do this to us?  Behold! Your father and I were searching for you while being greatly troubled.”  And He said to them, “For what reason were you searching for me?  Had you not known that it is necessary to find me in the place of my Father?”  And they did not understand this saying that He said to them.  And He went down with them and He came into Nazareth and He was being submitted to them.  And His mother was storing all of these things in her heart.  And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature and grace from God and man.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

As we talk about identity, I think that it is important to see this passage as a passage that is primarily about identity.  Mary and Joseph come to Jesus and say, “Your father and I …”  Jesus then turns the table on them and says, “my Father’s place.”  Jesus is not trying to embarrass Joseph.  Neither is Jesus trying to be disrespectful.  However, Jesus is showing His identity.  Mary and Joseph may be raising Jesus.  Mary may have even had a part in bringing Him into the world.  But Jesus is definitely a child of God.

Whose child are you?  From whom does your identity come?  How do you live this out?

Second Thought:

Mary and Joseph fail to understand.  Here is another theme that we will get in the Gospels.  People didn’t understand Jesus as well as we do.  You see, we have the advantage of hindsight.  We get to read the stories in the light of the resurrection.  We know the end of the story.  We have the benefit of thousands of years of teaching to help the story make sense.  But the people who lived in the days of Jesus didn’t have any of this.  They had to figure out what was being said in the moment and they often missed the point.  We are so blessed to live after the resurrection.  We don’t have to struggle to make sense of Jesus.  He already does make sense in light of the resurrection.

Do you ever struggle to understand Jesus?  How does knowing God’s plan of salvation help?  Why can we still struggle to understand God even with all that we know?

Third Thought:

The last words that we hear in this passage are words about the submission of Jesus.  These words are incredibly important.  Without these words, this passage would be a passage about overthrowing authority in our life.  Without a word about Jesus’ submission, this passage would be about Jesus only identifying the Father as an authority.  However, that’s not Jesus’ point.  He goes home and submits to Mary and Joseph.  God has placed Mary and Joseph as legitimate authorities in Jesus’ life.  We are to respect all authority in our life that comes through godly means.

How do you respond to authority?  Is it ever easy for you to reject authority?  When is it easy for you to submit to authority?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 3:1-6