Luke 2:41-50
Didn’t You Know I Had To Be My Father’s House?
Every year Jesus’s parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When Jesus was 12 years old, they went up to the festival. After it was over, they started on their journey home. They all traveled together as a community of people with family and friends. The parents assumed Jesus was in their company traveling with others, as was probably the habit. After a day of traveling, they began to look for Jesus and did not find him. So they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
After 3 days, they found Jesus in the temple courts sitting with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
When Mary and Joseph found Jesus, they were astonished, and I’m sure, thoroughly upset. Mary asked Jesus, “Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Jesus responded by asking, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house?” They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.
A couple things jump out at me in this passage:
1. It was just natural for Jesus to be in his father’s house. How natural is it for us? How natural is it for us to be in the presence of the Lord praying and reading Scriptures? How natural is it for us to get up in the morning and attend Church with other believers? Is it natural or is it a battle? Is it natural, or do excuses come easily? What is so important that it even becomes a competition? To me, something is missing or lacking if we allow other commitments to outweigh our time with the Lord and other believers. Think about that!
2. Mary and Joseph, along with the teachers in the temple courts, marveled at Jesus’s faith walk. Whose Faith walk causes you to marvel or inspires you?
3. Would somebody look at your commitment to the Lord and say you inspire them? Or not?
