Today’s passage is Luke 2:39-52.
During Passover when he was twelve, Jesus stayed in Jerusalem in the temple talking to the teachers and amazing them instead of going home with his parents. They looked for three days before they found him. He said they should’ve known he was in his father’s house. He returned and was obedient to his parents, growing in wisdom.
Why does Jesus stay behind at Passover and not some other festival?
What did he say that amazed the teachers?
I’m rarely amazed at what any of my high school students say or have said.
I’ve been listening to them for over 30 years and haven’t heard much wisdom, insight or things I didn’t already know.
I have been amazed, however, at many of my students’ writing.
The expression of their thought, their choice of words, the rhythm#8212;all amazing, all way above my level.
I still wish I could write as well as the top students I’ve taught.
Elementary school students, on the other hand, do amaze me.
I think that’s why I write children’s stories, trying to staying in touch with their understanding of life.
What amazes me is that with few facts at their disposal and extremely limited knowledge of electricity, magnetism, gravity, chemistry, how things live, and how forces shape the earth, they repeatedly grasp how everything is connected.
They ask brilliant questions like, “Where does language come from?” and “Where is up?”
Their minds are wide open, and they naturally explore the wonder of what God has made.
At least many of them do except for those sad kids with crazy parents who want them to know only facts to be regurgitated like a little machine.
Was that what Jesus did to the teachers in the temple, amaze them with questions and show them connections they had missed?
What amazed me in today’s passage was that Jesus went home with his parents and was “obedient to them” (51).
And then he “grew in wisdom and stature” (52).
This reminded me of Pastor Kim’s sermon in Sunday about being a church worker.
To be a worker, we have to be obedient to the word, she said.
If we obey, she said, and rely on God alone, then God provides for us and helps us bear fruit.
In today’s passage, Jesus is obedient to his parents, which must have been hard for him after amazing the teachers in the temple.
But in his obedience, he grew in wisdom and stature.
He found “favor with God” (53), he bore fruit.
Because I was not particularly obedient to my parents, I didn’t grow in wisdom.
I grew wayward instead, seeking my own arrogant way.
My mother actually slapped my face when I was sixteen because of it.
She certainly didn’t treasure that in her heart (51).
I didn’t amaze my teachers either, not working hard and not being particularly obedient.
Because I wasn’t obedient in the small things, I was never entrusted with anything big.
Disobedience, not obedience, has been my constant companion.
Even now I have to fight myself into obedience, especially to my daily QT.
My disobedience amazes me, not the obedience to God’s word that I wish.
Application: to seek obedience to the small things in my life that are God’s word.
Lord, give me an obedient heart and a servant’s mind. Let me not rage at what I cannot control, but look only in my garden where my mission lays
