Luke 2:41-52
"Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company... When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers... When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?' But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them... And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
This passage describes the example of obedience demonstrated by Jesus. When He entered the temple to discuss about the Scripture with the rabbi, His parents walked away but then realized He wasn't near them, so they quickly returned and found out that He was talking about the Kingdom of God with the rabbi inside the temple. When Maria spoke to Jesus, she was speaking as a mother to a son; however, when Jesus talked back, His role had changed to the Son of God who was talking to His mother. Jesus reminded His mother that His actual role was Son of God, so the matters of God were His priority. He didn't just ignore His mother though, but rather He went back to Nazareth obediently. Why did Jesus have to obey? Because the time had not come and God still had Jesus placed under the authority of His earthly parents, as in that role Jesus must obey.
God often put us in different positions; children need to obey the parents, servants need to obey the master, husband and wife need to obey each other, for the husband needs to love his wife and wife needs to obey husband. God wants us to learn to obey, not to do it because we had no choice, but to do it for God and willingly obey whoever has authority over us. It's not because the one with authority is necessarily worthy of the obedience, but simply obeying for the Lord until the Lord releases us from the role of obedience. When children become independent, they are released from the authority of the parents; when servants become free, they are released from the position of servitude. When God releases us, we will see the grace of God completely revealed among us. Therefore, we need to learn to obey in the positions that God placed us in, and the result of the obedience is that we will grow "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." This is such a marvelous testimony!
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