City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

⁴⁸ And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”⁴⁹ And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰ And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. ⁵¹ And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

⁵² And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Luke 2:48-52 ESV

Reflection

Yesterday, we learned that when Jesus was twelve, he chose to remain in Jerusalem after the week’s long Passover feast. His parents expected that he’d be with their company; there was nothing to indicate he wouldn’t be. They also expected he would be in all the places they’d searched before finding him in the temple.

When they found him at the temple, his parents were astonished (and I bet relieved). Jesus is fine, in fact more than fine, after being apart from his family for three days.

Notice that the temple is the last place they looked. They didn’t expect that he would be there.

Mary understandably wanted to know why he’d given them such a fright and Jesus’ response directly addressed his parents’ expectations with the reality of his identity:

⁴⁹ And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

What Jesus did and how He responded weren’t a sign of disrespect (ref v. 51), He was making a point: He was aware of his identity as God’s Son – the Messiah (Anointed One) and Savior of the world; and He expected Mary and Joseph to be awake to this reality.

Application

When we say “yes” to following Jesus, we all come with our expectations of who He is. We are prone to make Jesus in our image, however Jesus defies our attempts to remake him or as God said to Moses: He is “I AM who I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

The longer we walk with Jesus, we come to learn that He is more wonderful than anything we could have expected. At times this is a glorious relief, while at other times we find it to be a place to die to ourselves. Either way, the most appropriate response is to surrender to the glorious reality of who Jesus is: Lord, God, Creator, King, and Savior of all.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You so much that You are always who You are. Thank You that when I expected retribution for my sins, You offered me the reality of grace and forgiveness, by Your sacrifice for me. You are worthy of everything I am. Amen.