The Gospel is silent about the life of Jesus from
infancy to the time He began His ministry, except here. Here we are given a
little peek into His life at twelve years of age. This incident tells us how
the Lord’s wisdom and ministry developed in His youth. All these took place during
the Passover feast, which was celebrated for eight days. This was one of the three
feasts that every male Jew was expected to return to Jerusalem to participate. So
Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
After the feast, while
traveling back to Nazareth with other members of the family, Mary and Joseph realized
that Jesus was not with them in the journey back. By then they had already been
traveling for one day. They then made their way back to Jerusalem to look for Him.
They searched everywhere and was only able to locate Him after three days of
weary searching among the crowds of pilgrims in Jerusalem. He was found in the temple, sitting among the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions. At His age Jesus already had an amazing
depth of knowledge and wisdom. The religious teachers were listening to Him and
were astonished at the depth of His understanding and the amazing answers He
gave.
The purpose of Luke in
this brief look at Jesus as a young boy is to show that He grew naturally. He
grew like His peers. It was not a case where He could preach to the shepherds
the minute He was born. His capacity to speak developed as He grew. Nonetheless,
we see that His understanding was astonishing for His age. He was different
from all the other young pilgrims that came to Jerusalem. Here was the Son of
God growing to maturity. When queried by His mother who asked Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way?
Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.”
He responded to His mother with two searching questions, ‘Why is
it that you were looking for me?” Did
you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” At that tender age, He already knew the great task he was to
perform. His entire life was centered upon the will of his Father and He was
set on fulfilling it. Jesus referred to the Temple as His “Father’s house,” and
in so doing, He had implied that God is His Father. This is His point: God is
my Father and He and I have a unique relationship, a relationship that no other
human has ever had.
Mary and Joseph were both puzzled. How do we know?
Verse 50 tells us so. They did not understand what Jesus had just told them.
They did not know the full implication of what He had just said. However, we
are told that the Lord showed His obedience and went back with them to Nazareth
and continued to subject Himself to them. He acknowledged His earthly parents’
God-given rights over Him. Verse 52 shows us the result of His filial obedience.
He grew in wisdom and stature, and “in favor with God and men”. What a picture
of perfect development! He had favor with God and men. In other words, His relationship
grew vertically as well as horizontally.
In this simple account of
Christ at twelve, we are given a secret to spiritual growth. An obedient and
submissive inner attitude is the key to experience proper spiritual growth. It
will be one that help us not only to find favor with God but also with men.
This spirit of obedience and submissiveness comes when we recognize who we are
in Christ. Once we are aware that God is our Father, it makes us want to obey Him.
Besides, this knowledge will empower us to submit ourselves to Him to serve others
for His glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment